Suncast

Today we look back at some of the best moments from our 2022 podcasts. It was a year full of learning and notable contributions from rocket scientists, industry icons, and some of our favorite content partnerships.If these nuggets inspire you, I hope you'll queue up the full episodes featuring:Sergio Blanco, renewable project finance director at Partner Engineering & Science, Inc., an engineering, environmental and energy consulting and design firm; Michael Burz, CEO, president and co-founder of Enzinc, a green energy startup developing a battery based on zinc; Jeff Cramer, CEO, president and co-founder of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA); David Kenny, CEO and co-founder of Omnidian, which provides comprehensive protection plans for commercial, industrial and residential solar energy investments; and Mary Powell, CEO and a board member at Sunrun, the nation's leading residential solar, storage, and energy services company. They are among our most download

Marquis Matthews understands the challenges of dramatic career transitions. He shares his experiences in today's excellent podcast. In 2014, the U.S. Navy veteran and diver refocused from the sea to the sun. After years in the offshore oil and gas industry, he pivoted to solar. Marquis indulged an entrepreneurial itch in 2017, then reinvented himself three years later to work as an employee for Energy Support Services.Annapolis, Maryland-based Energy Support Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Energy Equity, handles operations and maintenance (O&M)  and asset management for commercial and industrial (C&I) projects across the U.S. Founded in 2014,  ESS currently has more than 170 megawatts under contract for 30 entities in 15 states.Marquis credits his experience in the military and fossil fuel production for igniting his interest in renewables — and ultimately leveraging his aquanaut skills to address the energy crisis. It's an exciting journey for a man who had childh

Each quarter, Tigercomm & SunCast Media convene the brightest stars in cleantech podcasting to discuss what they have been observing vis-a-vis their podcast and industry research. This is the 7th such gathering, and it proved an eventful hour of insights, differing opinions and more than a few laughs. Join hosts Mike Casey & Nico Johnson, along with a lineup of all-star podcasters from across the cleantech spectrum for the Year-end Holiday Special!Our expert panel of cleantech podcasters shared thoughts on what to expect in the clean energy industry in 2023, and what they've been learning from their own guest interviews and research. Whether you're a professional in the field or just passionate about sustainability, this is our quarterly recap that we know you won’t want to miss (even though, technically, you did miss it!).From obstacles constraining the potential of the Inflation Reduction Act, to how investments should be directed to meet pollution reduction targets, and even how to count

Hugh McDermott is the senior vice president for business development and sales for ESS Inc., a provider of long-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I), utility, microgrid, and off-grid applications. In today's podcast, he explains the critical issue of energy storage, which he warns could impede our quest for a clean, green future."We can build and have all kinds of generating technologies that can be carbon-free, but we can't go through the night without energy storage," he said.He suggests LDES — defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a system that can store energy for more than 10 hours —is the lynchpin for solving intermittency issues with renewable energy production. ESS, founded in 2011, aims to accelerate global decarbonization by providing safe, sustainable LDES that can power clean, renewable energy anytime and anywhere it's needed. LDES supports reliable and resilient electric grids even when the sun goes down and the wind grows st

What percentage increase in productivity would you say would need to be achieved by all the individuals in a building in order to pay for ALL The energy used by that building? 5%? 20%? Would you believe it if I told you only 1%? Yes, a mere 1% increase in productivity.Curious about the math?Well, today you’ll learn how Daylighting can actually bring just as much ROI to your business as the other way we capture the sun! And we also outline his 3-30-300 rule that supports this claim over on the blog.Active solar power is about energy generation. But, passive solar leads to reduced consumption. And both can co-exist in commercial and industrial (C&I) properties. Today's podcast explores why we should take seriously the opportunity to incorporate both in classrooms, offices, retail and warehousing applicationsGrant Grable, the Vice President of Operations and Business Development for Sunoptics, and a true daylighting OG, helps us navigate the conversation.Sunoptics is the leader in p

Josh Porter and Nico Johnson, both veterans of the solar industry and long-time podcasters, discuss the evolution of the medium and its popularity. They both started their own podcasts at a time when podcasting was still in its infancy, and emphasize how the medium fosters genuinely authentic conversations and storytelling. In this live discussion, Josh & NIco talk about their experiences with starting and growing their own businesses (on the back of podcasts). One of the elements they both experience via their show is the importance of understanding the nuance of the interview process and how a podcast episode can really help companies & founders “find” and tell their story in unique ways.Of course, one of their favorite topics is helping folks realize the use of podcasts as a marketing tool to refine and distribute sales messages.  Having both been in sales and business development, they emphasized the importance of identifying common questions and challenges that customers face and

Mohammed Abdalla, the founder and CEO of Good Faith Energy, is no stranger to adversity. His father died when he was nine, leaving his mother to rear five children. Mohammed, the middle child, used the childhood challenges to cultivate the grit, determination and fire that now serve him well as an entrepreneur. After a disappointing early career experience in oil and gas — he said he was fired for breaking the rules and possibly asking the wrong questions — he traveled the world searching for his next path. With his belongings in two backpacks, he wandered throughout South America, Europe, Africa and Asia for a year.One day, on a train in Germany, he saw countless rooftops covered in solar panels. The promise of the sun drew him to renewables and, in 2014, the launch of Texas-based Good Faith Energy.The company, one of Texas's fastest-growing residential solar installers, is the leading national installer for the SPAN smart electrical panel and the Tesla Solar Roof, a fully integrated solar an

I’m no fan of the hype train and misdirection foisted upon us by much of the traditional fossil fuel industry. So, when I met Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC), I was happy to “entertain” a phone call to hear why he believes renewable propane can be dubbed a clean and sustainable energy source. Truthfully, I had zero intention of ever having him on the show. But after a delightful 30 minute jousting match over zoom, I was convinced that there was more to his narrative than meets the eye, and that it’d make a fun and entertaining (at the very least) episode for the SunCast faithful. And, I actually learned quite alot!As Tucker explains, renewable propane — sometimes called biopropane, bioLPG, eco-propane and rLPG — is a drop-in replacement for traditional propane produced from petroleum refining. Rather than oil or natural gas, the sources of renewable propane include biomass, biogas, municipal solid waste and even corn or sugarcane. In today

It’s a holiday weekend, so I’ll keep the reading short for you.Every so often, I try to convene my close friends who are working in the trenches doing the guerilla and grass roots marketing helping our industry grow. Two-such folks are Tor “Solar Fred” Valenza, and Lauren “Windy Glick” Glickman, and I’ve truly come to admire and respect them both. I ask them a ton of questions in this conversation all about how they help their clients navigate the world of new media, social, podcasts, etc, and get more than a handful of tactical and immediately useful answers. As you head into 2023, I suggest you play this episode more-than-once, and take notes. It’ll come in handy.Here are a few of the main themes we discussed:The importance of having a personal brand in your digital marketing - 3:21How do you build a Twitter following on social?  >(including who on your team should have (and use) Twitter,  - 5:39How Lauren uses Twitter as a thought leader to connect with interesting people - 11:39How

Many folks have heard the term microgrid in the energy transition context, and today's podcast will give you critical insights about their use and potential. Our guest is Adrienne Pierce, CEO of New Sun Road, a Richmond, California-based for-profit public benefit company (PBC).  It’s really coincidental that this particular episode publishes the same week that >70K Northern CA residents are without power due to a 6.4 Earthquake! You’ll hear solutions that Adrienne and Co are working on that could help make these kinds of mass outages significantly less impactful (if they happen at all) to the daily lives of many in that PG&E territory.Adrienne aims to make a global impact for productive purposes. Her company is developing data-driven Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that could accelerate renewable energy deployment and access for remote communities.A Fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Adrienne has gained extensive experience through multiple rol

Today's Tactical Tuesday gives you an overview of regenerative energy — a transformative new standard of excellence for solar power plant design, construction, and operations that normalizes regenerative agriculture practices on solar farm sites. "If you’ve never heard about the amazing potential of regenerative agriculture and land use practices to naturally sequester a critical mass of CO2 in the soil and forests, you’re not alone. One of the best-kept secrets in the world today is that the solution to global warming and the climate crisis (as well as poverty and deteriorating public health) lies right under our feet, and at the end of our knives and forks."  - Ronnie Cummins, Regeneration International Steering Committee MemberOur guest today, Michael Baute, believes in the power of Regenerative Agriculture to help ensure solar farms care for the arable land and communities where they reside.  Solar occupies the property on which it’s built for upwards of 25 or more years, and Mic

Fellow solar warrior and podcaster, Nate Jovanelly, took over the PowerUp Media Zone studio at RE+ to lead the Industry Pulse segment, with support from Enerflo, at Noon each day during the annual conference in September. The segment highlighted the leaders, trends & opportunities in the industry in 10-minute bits of advice and insight. In this compilation episode, we have pulled together several of the interviews that we believe best capture the essence of the Industry Pulse segment so you can learn and grow as we round out the week. If you missed the show, or any of our past replays of the Live content, you can see them along with ALL of the Industry Pulse segments in their full glory (where Nate interviewed more than a dozen guests throughout the week!) at www.suncast.live where we have listed out EACH and every interview in the exact order & schedule as they appeared during the show.I know you’ll get a ton of value from the conversations today ranging from Hiring best practices (Alex/Ba

Today's conversation is a wide-ranging look at how to provide reliable power using renewables while mitigating intermittency and helping Independent Power Producers (IPPs) deal with the annoying curtailment problem through novel software and hardware solutions. Been wondering when I’d do an episode on Bitcoin mining + Renewables? Buckle up and let’s roll."Curtailment" occurs when a clean energy electric generating system is prevented from exporting to the grid or is temporarily shut down by the grid operator (usually because of a glut of electricity in the market), effectively wasting energy.Many people have talked about this issue, but few have delivered on it like John Belizaire,  CEO of Soluna.Soluna Holdings develops green data centers that convert excess renewable energy into global computing resources. Soluna builds modular, scalable data centers for computing-intensive, batchable applications such as cryptocurrency mining, AI and machine learning. John said Soluna provides a cost-e

Everyone talks about B2B marketing these days, often without a clear understanding of its meaning or importance. So today, we shine a light on business-to-business or B2B marketing to gain a better perspective on the term and, most importantly, strategies for maximizing your B2B renewable energy-focused marketing investments.Our conversation includes top renewable industry marketers Naveed Hasan, director of external affairs and marketing at Sungrow North America; Kathy Heilmann, vice president of marketing at Shoals Technologies Group; Kristan Kirsh, vice president of global marketing at Nextracker; and Tom Weirich, senior marketing manager EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA).These four industry experts share all you need to know about marketing aimed at individual companies and their decision-makers as customers. There are some similarities as well as significant differences between B2B and B2C — that is, business-to-consumer marketing — and we'll hear all about it in this engaging podcast.Tod

Homeowners are on a remarkable journey toward more convenient living through connected technology. Adopting things like smart thermostats, lighting, network cameras, door locks, and garage door openers is moving from an early market dominated by innovators and early adopters to the Early Majority — or mainstream — market.We're finally Crossing the Chasm, and today's guests have some relevant insights to share about the future of smart home technology. Our conversation includes industry experts Hannah Bascom, Ryan Harris, and Chris Rauscher. It was part of the RE+ PowerUp Media Zone, a live production of SunCast Media.Hannah was head of Energy Partnerships at Google, leading the team developing industry and ecosystem partnerships for Nest Renew and other energy-related products and services at the time we recorded the show in September. She's since joined Ryan at SPAN — creator of the SPAN smart electrical panel and SPAN Drive smart EV charger. Ryan is the company's Chief Revenue Officer, and H

Jerry Coleman is a serial entrepreneur with a passion (and quite a track record) for developing and growing companies on a national scale. Over the past 20 years, Jerry has co-founded and cultivated multiple real estate-related ventures throughout the US, including Invitation Homes, the $10Billion real estate juggernaut in partnership with Blackstone. So it was no surprise when he turned his attention to solar in 2014, nor that the resulting enterprise has become a successful & respected national player in the residential solar market. Along with his longtime business partner, Jerry co-founded Elevation Solar, in his home state of Arizona, to package their real estate and finance acumen and deliver homeowners innovative energy solutions while increasing real estate values. Jerry’s law degree and undergraduate in accounting form the connective tissue that has helped him tie real estate and finance together — so he quickly recognized them as keys to scaling a business in the solar

Sylvia Leyva Martinez, a senior analyst in Wood Mackenzie's Power and Renewables team, and Shawn Rumery, senior research Director at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), discuss significant trends in the U.S. solar market in this timely Tactical Tuesday.The quarterly SEIA/Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables U.S. Solar Market Insight is the longest-running solar industry trends report. It has been tracking deployments across all four market segments — residential, commercial, utility-scale, and community solar — since 2010.The U.S. Solar Market Insight Q3 2022, released in September, provides an early look at how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will transform America's energy economy. Forecasts suggest the IRA will help the U.S. solar market grow 40% over baseline projections through 2027, equal to 62 gigawatts (GW) of additional solar capacity.Wood Mackenzie predicts the utility-scale sector will lead the solar industry's growth during the next five years with 162 GW of new capacity.

Solar industry leader and returning guest, Jim Spano, helped develop the solar market in the mid-Atlantic region — and now he's bringing a new innovative product to market. New York City-based Sol-REIT is a unique solar financing platform that aims to give developers a new option and keep more of the project for themselves while also providing much-needed scaleable financing to the middle market.It's the first investment product to bring the novel model of real estate investment trusts (REITs) to the solar energy market. By financing solar in the same way as real estate, Sol-REIT can offer long-term, fixed-rate, lower-cost debt that matches the operational life of assets. Jim, the co-founder and head of originations at Sol-REIT, wants to "break the solar industry free of the binds of niche financing."On today's podcast, Tim Montague, fellow podcaster and also a developer himself, joins the show as a stand-in host and chat w/Jim about his latest venture.The conversation was part of the RE+ Powe

Matt Heider is CEO of Nautilus Labs, which is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create more efficient ocean commerce. While shipping is an adjacent category to our usual renewable focused podcasts, Matt has earned a spot. Before Nautilus, he built sales and account management systems at software startups that have grown to unicorns and worked for IBM on its famous Watson team. Now, he’s trained his attention to advancing the efficiency of ocean commerce (ie, cleaning up the wasteful shipping industry we all rely on!)Forbes recently named him to its Next 1000, a list of ambitious and inspiring leaders redefining what it means to run a business today and create meaningful change.Matt has an inspiring story about the woefully antiquated global shipping industry that he believes can use AI for a more sustainable tomorrow. Shipping is responsible for 3% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and will grow significantly by 2050 if left unchecked. Matt and his team envision delivering a clear

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday on SunCast, where we bring you subject-matter expertise, deep insights, and content from our many live broadcasts and trainings. Today's episode is rebroadcast from the RE+ PowerUp Media Zone, a live production of SunCast Media.The Media Zone featured interviews with industry thought leaders, executives and founders to glean their insights about trends and forecasts. Bruce Stewart, president and CEO of Perch Energy, a clean energy tech services platform and provider of community solar services, leads this discussion on what every community solar developer needs to know about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. He speaks with three solar notables to gain their insights from accounting, banking and legal perspectives:Tony Grappone is a partner in the Andover, Massachusetts, office of Novogradac. He provides accounting, tax and consulting services to developers, syndicators and investors of developments that qualify for federal and state tax incentives.