We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast
Start each day with the Daily Roundup as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference formerly known as SPI.
If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone booth 438.
You can also watch the show stream live at www.suncast.live.
RESOURCES:
Connect with Mohammad Shehadeh on LinkedIn and on Philadelphia Solar website
Connect with Nate Jovanelly on LinkedIn and on Enerflo website
Connect with Josh Porter on LinkedIn and on Solar Coaster website
Connect with Nico Johnson on LinkedIn
Episode TRANSCRIPT:
-
Nico Johnson
Hey there solar warriors. I'm Nico Johnson, and this is SunCast. Each week, I pull back the veil on the life and business insights of cleantech entrepreneurs building the most noble and impactful companies of our time. I hope what you learn from this conversation is a catalyst for your own growth. So thanks for tuning in. And welcome to our tribe. Hey, welcome Solar warrior. This is a rare and special opportunity for a live and this is almost near real time. Live as we've just produced these daily round up episodes within the last 12 hours. The one that you're going to hear was just produced the evening before and I hope that you are getting ready to enjoy the RE+ show, or if it's already time for the show to have come to a conclusion and you're just sort of catching up. I hope that you are enjoying the conversation that we've had here. These daily roundups give you insight into what is happening at the show. What's the sentiment at the show? How are some of the folks that we think are more tapped in to the happenings at the show? How are they seeing the show unfold? What should you be looking forward to if you happen to be listening to this in time to leverage this information for yourself ahead of planning each day as you go as we'll be publishing these before the day fully gets rolling, but at the very least, it's a view for you into the trends and the conversations unfolding and unfurling before us here in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference, formerly SPI hope that you enjoy these and stick around for more if you are here in Anaheim, please come by and see us at the Media Zone. It is booth 438. It is right across from Hyundai OMMCO and Talesun and really easy to find right in the show right in the main part of the show floor. You can of course, watch us stream live from the PowerUp Media Zone at SunCast.live and you can check out the entire agenda for all the work we're doing at the Media Zone at re-plus.com/mediazone. All right, here we go.
Thank goodness. For the last three days Graham Whitley has kept us on track to start and stop the recordings to keep the levels right round of applause to our operations team. I'd like to but as we start here, I would like to give a round of applause to the real life crew, the video crew that made our livestream possible thanks as well to sungrow and Tiago who also supported so that we could bring the live stream to life, it cost three times more than we thought it would when we originally said hey, this would be a good idea. And I really, really appreciate the real life team. You guys are super pro. If anybody needs video work to livestream at your offense, contact Andre servicios. At real life, he did not ask me to give that commercial but it is a hearty endorsement. These guys are super pro you guys are amazing. Thank you also want to give a round of thanks for the SunCast team that behind the scenes has helped to make this whole thing possible. Jenny Smith is our show manager she kept the trains on time. So like just none of this would have really happened if Jenny wasn't so diligent in helping plan and scan schedule and organize. Sophie McNamara was our guest reception and marketing specialist. Thank you, Sophie. She really helped to amplify on the social. If you see anything happening right now in any of my social channels. It is not me I'll just full disclosure say that Sophie has learned to effectively clone herself as Nico and I think then any good company right now any good team that has thought leadership has to figure out how to do that. Right.
Josh Porter
Yeah, I mean, I candidly, I think you're doing a fantastic it's not something that I'm able to do really with like a lot of people but you know, the Yeah, it's I can see that you're growing in a way that's really awesome. So I'm really happy for
Nico Johnson
that. It's amazing the difference in audio. And sound, isn't it? The blade from that from that microphone? Yeah, yeah, we just turned we just muted one of the channels and it's unbelievable the difference in sound that it makes. So we're gonna we're gonna bring that channel back up and just a moment. I just wanted to say also, thanks to Nate Giovanelli for hosting our industry. Paul's, he's gonna come up in a few moments time. So help us finish the round up. And last but not least, once again, thanks to our presenting sponsor Fluance, who really did kick in and help make all of this possible. So the dream of the podcast Lounge, which is now the Media Zone could come to life. I mean, Josh and I sort of noodle on this idea three and a half, four years ago, and it's and it really has come to life and it It's I'm really excited that we've been able to do it. I want to dig into something that's very interesting. And that is local manufacturing. Oh, cool local manufacturing here in the United States. And there's a company that I've recently met that has been working for the last four years to bring local manufacturing to the United States. They've they're actually the largest manufacturer in is it it's Europe and SME, right. Mohamed by Shadi from is the Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Development Officer of Philadelphia solar.
Mohammad Shehadeh
Hi, Nicole. Hi, Josh. My name is Mohammad Shehadeh. I'm the Chief Commercial Officer of Philadelphia solar.
Nico Johnson
Yeah. Well, Josh, I'm probably going to ask you some really geeky questions. Sure. But first of all, I wanted to for those who perhaps are unfamiliar with Philadelphia solar, generally, it's a company from Jordan that has a huge presence in Europe. And because of the nature of our scent of xenophobia here and the domestic markets, we aren't as familiar with the brands that don't have a presence already in this market. Right. So tell us a little bit about Philadelphia solo, and then we'll talk about the work that you've been doing to stand up a physical presence in the United States. Sure.
Mohammad Shehadeh
So Philadelphia solid established in 2007, we established as a PV panel manufacturer, but today we have a little bit different structure, we are more like a holding company that have several revenue streams. One of them is the manufacturing. So we have a 500 megawatt manufacturing line that exported to 52 countries, we have a 300 megawatt mounting system manufacturing line that exported 14 countries, we have our EPC team as a second revenue stream, and we have almost 400 megawatt as an EPC. Team reference total. And we also have our development arm. So we develop projects, some electricity, and we build it on our own. So we have around 158 megawatt projects that is developed in Middle
Nico Johnson
East. Fascinating,
Josh Porter
whoa, there's a lot of different streams in that true
Mohammad Shehadeh
puzzle. Different streams actually helped us survive the ups and downs of the market, and that several types of business carry each on each other and help us to grow the whole, the whole profile.
Josh Porter
Right. And they're organized into separate actual teams of people. Exactly,
Mohammad Shehadeh
exactly. We have around 500 person working in the company.
Nico Johnson
Amazing. So I mentioned in the lead up that you've spent about four years working to get manufacturing here domestically, can you I mean, we're all not we're all but many of us here are entrepreneurs that are listening. Can you talk to me a bit about the struggle, the journey of just trying to stand up manufacturing here in the United States, especially given that the IRA presumably, is meant to help make this easier? So what's been your experience? And how do you expect it now sort of that demarcation line with inflation Reduction Act, it's going to become a fulfilled prophecy.
Mohammad Shehadeh
So I'll start where the whole idea come from. I mean, it was like almost four or five years ago, there was a RE+ or SPI show in Vegas. And when we attend that show, and we saw the domestic market demand, that was huge, and we thought seriously, to start the production and USA and we start our due diligence process. We found some several, let's say obstacles in the regulations. After section 201301, it was obvious that manufacturing in the US might work because it's protected against let's say, anti dumping, right? When we started the process, we started due diligence, we start to interview a lot of videos and the states less down the states, we decide the location, we almost bought the location that we want to start production and then section 201 was cancelled, who really dig deep and in the production process, we'll know that there is seven out of 11 raw materials that's used to produce the PV panel is under customs and the CBP, that's regardless the source of materials. And if you get it from China, you will pay another 25%. More on that on top of that. So without clear protection or subsidy, subsidy, it will not work. And that's why we stopped the plans. We canceled the whole the whole plan and all this at least we freeze it. With the IRA now in place, I think, of course I need to go back to the board and to explain the whole process, but I think that the project might be alive again, and not at the same even size that we decided to start with each one gigawatt it might be either bigger or we can go up or downstream more maybe we'll go to the cells to all that will depends on on the on the financial side. We have to do some studies in the next one month but I think we will come up with a decision very soon because who come first?
Josh Porter
That's really encouraging because you had those other revenue streams and you were able to kind of freeze one at Then when the legislation became like where it needed to be now you could say, Okay, let's turn this back on potentially exactly
Mohammad Shehadeh
the best, the different revenue streams always help us to be really flexible company,
Nico Johnson
you I didn't realize how just how close your booth was to us on the show floor. We had a lot of traffic coming through and going past here. So I know that they were going right. Right by your booth. What were what was the general sentiment of conversations like at your booth now, like after, you know, the full three days is complete? Did it meet your expectations? And what was the what was the common theme of the conversation you were hearing?
Mohammad Shehadeh
So the first thing you mentioned was right, I mean, to work with a company that don't have an existence in the US is not an easy decision for a lot of US companies, especially, let's say, the local distributors or even some developers, and that one of the points that will encourage us to have at least a local office here in the US, but I will prefer to push for the manufacturing. In general, the feedback was great. The demand is there. We are competitive in general. I mean, I can say that because I could read the market reaction. And I think that we can really do a great job in the next two years in the US, I believe, if we do try it, you will find the name. I mean, let's say it will show up more than the market.
Josh Porter
Yeah, I wonder I mean, you know, you're in a position where you're looking at this new legislation, and you're saying we can take another go at domestic manufacturing, you know, and it's like, do you see that there's going to be a ramp up of domestic manufacturing across the country right now? Are you hearing that kind of discussion? On the on the show floor? Are you think it's going to be like really aggressive kind of move? And also, how long does it take to go from point A, through to the point where you're actually delivering product? Given? No, we're so dependent on his legislations?
Mohammad Shehadeh
I believe there will be a huge move. There is a lot of talking many big names. Now he's talking about starting manufacturing in the US. It is easy, but not that easy. I mean, you need to know the tricks, you need to understand the industry very well. Some companies can really do it very fast. I mean, if we want to move fast, we can do it within less than one year. I can say nine month, other companies might need more time, there is a learning curve that that you need to be through with I mean, for new for new comers. It's not easy. I mean, we took 15 years and you're still learning.
Josh Porter
I wonder if you know, and there are different types of manufacturing lines for the different types of PV right. I wonder if it's obvious, given the state of affairs right now, which type of product you're going to develop the manufacturing line for? If it's like premium, you know, multi 20 Step Process type of manufacturing, or if it's another area that may be more for utility scale, or, you know, have you got a sense of where that was,
Mohammad Shehadeh
I believe we can start with residential with a blank panels, which did like niche panels, I think this is the start. We can we can work on the utility scale, if we start to be two gigawatts and above I mean, because the demand is high, you can just book the whole capacity for one client. So we will focus on the small panels first, which was used mostly mainly for the rooftops, maybe some commercial, industrial, but utility scale will be the next step. Interesting. Yeah.
Nico Johnson
It's not easy, scaling anything. So my hat is off to anyone who takes on the endeavor of standing up a manufacturing process. And in particular, moving out of your home country moving out of your home region, into a large market, like the United States, were really thinking about your brand presence. And your partnerships is, is quite a change. It's quite a bit different from the way that you would do it in the Middle East or, or in Europe. But clearly, you've got experience moving from one market to another so we wish you success. Did you Q Did you go ahead and book your booth for Vegas?
Mohammad Shehadeh
Yes, actually, we'll do that. We'll do that today.
Nico Johnson
Yes, I would encourage you go do that. For us.
Mohammad Shehadeh
We'll do it. I miss Vegas.
Nico Johnson
Oh, Muhammad, I'll let you go. And so you can you and your team can go ahead and go lockdown.
Mohammad Shehadeh
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Nico Johnson
Thank you for taking care. All right. Last but certainly not least, we're gonna have a little roundtable here with our buddy Nate Jovanelly, the co host of our industry pulse, he's going to join us and we're just gonna have a little we're gonna talk shop about how the week went. We're gonna dig in a little bit on what how Nate's conversations went and have a little fun. Thanks, Nico.
Nate Jovanelly
Good to see everybody excited to be back up here.
Nico Johnson
It's weird, how uncomfortable you are in the microphones.
Nate Jovanelly
The whole week. The headset was way better. And this is the first time I sitting but it's also the first time I've been on stage with you. It is so how about that capturing this moment? It's the first time that that we've been on stage together. I
Nico Johnson
love it. I wanted to ask. You've been over the last year, you have essentially positioned yourself in the industry as a thought leader. What's cool about that is that you actually thought leaders do have to realize at a certain point that they have thoughts worth communicating. Right one, and two have to have had experience from which to cultivate deep thought. For those who are unfamiliar, can you give like the two minute bio of the sort of the development experience and expertise you have in the solar industry?
Nate Jovanelly
Sure, no, I really appreciate that. And I appreciate that, that you think that I'm positioning myself as a thought leader, so that's great, I must be doing something right. I would say that, you know, the, the short version is that I saw an opportunity with a large energy company to come in with a new TPO product, which would be a lease or a power purchase agreement. And I got my started about nine years ago started doing, you know, with nonprofits and just forging partnerships with some people might think are non traditional, I know I was on your podcast. And isn't that a competitor I get, I still get that all the time. Even in my current position, there isn't that competitor, I don't see anyone as a competitor. Love it. I think no matter what you're doing, there's always an opportunity to work together to continue to grow your business. So it's been a great nine years. And now as you know, I'm with with airflow. And we are streamlining the process from from lead to PTO and having a lot of fun doing it. Yeah,
Nico Johnson
you bought a lot of you've done a lot of projects over the years and brought a lot of people opportunities that they weren't otherwise afforded to get their projects into reality, like bring them into life. So I love that you have such a deep expertise, I thought it was great that you did something that I advocate a lot, which is if you're going to try and start a piece of of media content, try to do something that is tangential, something else that you love. Can you talk for a second about the motivation Mondays that originally were where you and I sort of cultivated this friendship and relationship around creating content? It's like
Nate Jovanelly
all things, you know, first of all, I believe there's opportunity everywhere. Yeah, like I said, and it's just keeping your eyes open. And most people just watch it pass by. And what started as the simplest of concepts, which was really again, somebody said earlier, I was sort of remote working before remote working was cool. And it's working for a company based in Ohio, we had these executive meetings, and I noticed that they could read this whiteboard behind me, I started off just with simple, whimsical quotes, I would say. And that was just to catch their attention, have a good laugh before these meetings started. I'm the only person that's virtual, everyone else has that conference room. It's like a 90 inch television. And from there, it started to get more motivational. And I think it was it was you and some other fellow podcasters. Like, hey, you should turn this into something.
Nico Johnson
Yeah, you can give me the credit.
Nate Jovanelly
Of course. And, you know, so it went from just posting simple things on a whiteboard to make people laugh to try and give some inspiration. And then ultimately, 100% It's for my kids. And it's funny because I started doing just a short clip, and it's like, oh, man, you gotta turn that into video so that I started videoing it. And he was like, Man, you got to get a better camera. And then once I heard myself on your podcast, like, I need a better microphone, that's for sure. So I started to slowly upgrade, you know, and it's been an amazing journey. And I think what most people don't know, again, it, I'm doing it 100% It's for my kids. So it's always topical, I do it every Monday, I've only missed one Monday. And it's when I was in Disney World this year. And I missed it on purpose, because I'm doing this for my kids. So I'm not going to do it in line as I'm waiting to do the Tower of Terror with my kids. But it's kind of counterproductive. But for almost two years. Now, every Monday, I've been putting out a video which then you said you need to make this into a podcast. So it's like a four to five minute quote that talks about something super relevant to my kid's life. And people it really resonates with people and it's wild. And because I don't do it for any purpose. But my kids take the feedback so much better. In this format, even if it's praise, which I find, you know, it's taught me a lot. Because sometimes when you give praise to children, you know, and a broad range of ages, they they don't know how to take it. And no matter what they have the time to digest this. This is what that thought about that question I asked earlier this week or what's going on like couple of weeks ago, you know, somebody came up to me it's very close in my life personally, he's like, oh, did your oldest son did he break up with his girlfriend I heard your your limitless podcast on Monday motivation as of yet so people close to me know what it's about. And I love that but outside of that, it's amazing how many people stop and then there's days as you you know, I'm sure you had in the beginning like is anyone listening to this? Yes, you know, yes. But then there's days like these conferences and there's just been such an amazing the energy here has been something I didn't realize how much I missed but people come up and they stop you I true story yesterday. I was at one of the At parties that were going on and on a rooftop bar, and one of my colleagues is like, I know that person standing over there, do you want me to go find out who he is? And I'll go up to him. And I said, Hey, I think I might know you. And he goes, You're Nate Giovanelli. I said, I do know you. He said, No, you don't I follow you on LinkedIn, I see your posts. I mean, it never ends. And it just takes that one time, like, so it's awesome. You know, obviously, it's awesome and great, you're doing it for your kids, but takes that one person that reaches out to you. And it doesn't have to be in a comment and a direct message and says, Hey, you know, I needed to hear that today. Or, Hey, I sent that to my cousin, she's going through something in this happens more and more.
Josh Porter
I know exactly what you're talking about. And it's so meaningful. When you do hear that type of feedback. You know, from from our, my perspective, having had a radio show back in Maui. I remember like sitting in the bank line, and then someone from the community, like a grandma or something would say, you know, I remember that show you did yesterday. And it really liked the way he talked about that solar panel. And it was, and it was a really sweet and endearing kind of comment. And I thought, well, you know, you do ask yourself the question of people listening to this, right from time to time, and then you hear that, and it's really, really reassuring. Yeah.
Nate Jovanelly
Yeah, I think the the other thing is that it Nikko pointed out and this is something that a lot of people I'm sure you both can relate to. It's, it's almost like that imposter syndrome. Like why wouldn't people want to listen to me for right? But I can't tell you again, I have multiple examples from this show where someone said, Hey, I heard you on Nico's podcast, or, Hey, I heard you on this thing. Or do you when you did that? And it's from two years ago? Yeah. They said, You said this one thing. And I have a specific example. I'm thinking I'm right now that happened again, it happened to me two days ago, and somebody stopped by the booth, no idea who they are. I know they are now didn't know them at the time. And they said, I listened to one of your podcasts from I think it was from December. And you said that we need to transition from people being sold solar, to people buying solar. And I've never heard somebody say that I thought it was so cool. And just having that instant connection with a stranger is something that it's hard to explain to someone. So it's like, people ask all the time, like, how do you do it? Like you haven't missed a Monday. That's, that's pretty impressive. But when you get this kind of feedback, even if it's once a year, it's all the motivation, you need to keep doing it. And it's just amazing.
Josh Porter
100% I like earlier on you were talking about how sometimes you might have someone on that can be perceived as a competitor? Oh, my goodness, why would you do that? Right. But there's so much to be learned from those types of engage of interactions. You know, there's so many, there's so much there's so much richness that can be discovered in that I remember in the solar days, the other installers that we would touch base with, and he was there's a camaraderie that wants to be formed or something that kind of can't that that this is a great venue for that. Whereas if you're both in the competitive space, it's tough to become friends. Yeah. And
Nate Jovanelly
I mean, I know I think I told this story on on Nico's podcast. But there was a time when I was first getting into renewables. When I was with IGS. Energy, I just solar, and I was calling SunEdison. And people are like, why they're your biggest competitor? Do you think the biggest solar company in the world? What are you doing? Well, I'm asking him Hey, guys, like, what projects aren't you taking and why? And you know, what we took? That's how we got into solar. We were, we were doing the nonprofits that people couldn't underwrite, they were scared. How do we get dead? We're gonna do when the fund, you know, how do you look at them, because they're not credit rated? And we part of it was, we didn't know what we didn't know, right? But hey, we'll take them and we'll figure it out. And we'll create a business. And then when SunEdison went away, I think really what elevated my career was, I got this phone call. And I've told this story multiple times today. And I'll never forget, I was in Disney World with my kids. Again, it seems like we go to Disney all the time. We don't. But the other time I was in Disney with my kids. And I'm sitting there by the pool, and I get this phone call. And somebody had said, hey, you know, do you hear the news? Again, I heard well, they had 80 megawatts of projects with Amazon. And we heard you were doing all all the small stuff they didn't want. We'd like to give you a shout out as like, You're kidding, right? Like, you know, I'm at Disney. Who is this? Right? And sure enough, you know, we executed on those, they ended up being one of our largest clients for power purchase agreements. And that's what really, I think, elevated IGS at the time into the stratosphere and put me on the map sort of people started saying hey, maybe this kid's on the salt and he's talking to his competitors.
Nico Johnson
His kids definitely on to something I can tell you that and what did he what he's onto is relationship building. And that's what this this whole conference is all about. It's one of the reasons no doubt that Spencer and Pat and the team at interflow hired you. You are a relationship that Building machine and it's what you do best. And, you know, that's why I said it made a whole lot of sense for you to help us and host the industry pulse. And I want to in the in the essence of the fact that we've got about 1015 minutes left here, and we could both we could all three talk for an hour each just finish on one question to the it's the daily Roundup. But really, this is the final roundup of the show. So I'm curious if there's a macro sort of a meta theme through the mini interviews you did. And you did, and I did that we can try to, in a sense distill down a message that we're taking away for our audience, for our clients, about what the about where our industry is, through the lens of the RE+ conference, in our experience over the last three days, Nate, I prompted you a little bit. And Josh is just getting prompted with this question now. So I'll let you go. First of all, he while he marinates, the 17 minute answer.
Nate Jovanelly
I mean, for me, it's it's obvious. And yeah, I appreciate the heads up. But I think this is easiest question is the biggest softball I've gotten all week and in the theme that I've seen from the industry Paul's is that labor is going to be an issue if we don't start correcting some of the things in the industry that we can continue to do better. Yes. And there's a few ways you can solve that or augment that through tech and automation. That was kind of the theme if for those that listened or go back and listen, they'll notice this theme that came out in the industry, Paulson, I mean, it was purposeful is thought out, especially through everyone I was talking to prior to having them on. And I think it played out exactly how I anticipated and that, hey, we have all these cool tech companies doing great things that can help you, they can help your customer, they can help your business, they can help you be more successful through streamlining processes through efficiencies through automation. And by the way, this industry is going to struggle hiring enough people. So we need to do you know, you leverage that tech to continue to accelerate our growth. And it's obviously it's an explosive growth. So I think that's the theme. But then on the other side of that is, well, okay, we're still going to need people. And why aren't they flocking here? Right? I think people just assume this is the solar industry or renewables. People are just gonna flock here climate tech. Yeah, right. And that's just not the case. And I think that there were so many good points that the speakers brought up that I've personally learned so much about it and just thinking about, it's one thing to attract Tom, but you gotta keep talent. I think Alex had talked about that for a while already. And she said, You know, it's funny, she was the only one that was like me, there's not a labor shortage yet. But her thing was, it's one thing to attract them. But if you're not, if you're not going to cultivate that, if you have that awesome culture to keep them, then really, what are you doing. And I would say also, the other theme I picked up and especially talking to Abby, today, in the end, and some of the speakers we had on yesterday is just we need, we still have a little bit more work to do with diversity and inclusion in the industry. And if we want to attract more people than again, we have to have cultures and in things in place that enable, we have to go out, we have to pound the streets, we got to get people, we got to put their arm around them and say You're coming with me, we're bringing you into this industry, this is a fun industry, it's growing, there's tons of opportunity, we'll train you, you don't need a college degree. And we need to bring them along so that they see what we see. So that's, that's what I hope the people got out of our segments. I know, that's what I got. That's what I felt. That's the energy. And I hope that you know, it just inspires people to go out there and do just that. You're coming with me. Thank you.
Josh Porter
I couldn't agree more. I mean, really, especially that that notion of creating a welcoming industry, for people from other environments to come and be a part of this. I certainly saw some articles talking about movement out of, you know, Silicon Valley, and kind of the current technical scene there and moving into here at that level, but across the entire American kind of society. You know, we want to see that happen. I mean, I tend when you ask the question, just when I thought of the impacts the way that each of the different companies are trying to understand how the IRA is going to impact their business. That's something that was just pretty much ubiquitous, right. So and things that really surprised me, and a lot of it was kind of speculative, like, we kind of think it's gonna go like this. Yeah, but they weren't small pieces. It was like a complete game changing results. Right. You know, like you were looking at load control panels, and we're like, and they're stacking up so many of the incentives, and I go, Wait, hang on, before you get to there. I think it's already free. I mean, that's a really unique way of looking at being at a show and going, Hey, this legislation just passed, and we're not sure but this might actually be free now. I mean, literally, I saw that a handful of times. And then we talked to some other fellas that were you know, they They were like bootstrapping young entrepreneurs creating amazing technology. And then maybe they hadn't really had a chance to read, you know, some of the highlights of that. And I said to them, I think that might be a really special opportunity here for you. Yeah. And I kind of think, for example, one company was a plug and play legit plug and play solar technology. The name is escaping me. Markstrom is the name of it marched. Yeah. So the great guys, and they had a battery, and then these flexible solar modules, and we're like, what is it literally is a plug and play. Like, if you have rent to house, you could put this in it right? And then I started to say, Hey, man, you gotta look at some of these things that are happening with the IRA, I think you're gonna be applicable at this stage. And I'm like, Oh, that's awesome. And unbelieving, allow you to do that, you know. So I saw that across all from every company from the big boys like solar edge and, and phase all the way through to guys like that, that are bootstrapping these awesome innovations. You know, we're in a very dynamic, industry changing time. And they're not small changes to people's businesses that can be really like make it kind of changes. Yeah.
Nico Johnson
I'm glad that we left 45 minutes for the final Roundup, because we're gonna need it last, in 2019, when we did the, the podcast lounge, the roundup for 45 minutes to an hour, and it was fun. And we would go on and on like this, I really enjoy it, which is why my podcast is often 60 plus minutes. So I agree on all fronts. And the labor shortage in our industry is not insignificant. And it's high time that we get off of the talent carousel, where we create our own inflation by giving someone the same technical skill and a higher salary every 18 months to two years. And they go to the next company doing the exact same thing for $2 an hour more. And then they go to the next company 16 months later, for $2. Now more do the exact same thing. And there's no standardized metric around what a tech one versus tech two versus tech two or three on the roof or in the field is doing. And there's this confusion and a non standard way that we're that we're growing. And I heard that from people like Reagan Moen, who runs Oh nm for solve the one of the largest open end providers in the in the United States. But at a macro level, when I think about the biggest takeaways that I had through this week, it really comes back to something that you said that it, it really resonates. We're moving from people being sold to people buying solar and the technology innovation around solar, which includes storage and smart home. And I'll amplify that by the fact that if you go around this trade show floor, and if you listen to any of the conversations here, and I think that the SMA conversation is one that really, really well enunciate it. The message is maturing in this industry that attracts a consumer by doing the one thing that consumers care about, which is diminishing their dis comfort, right? We have to think about the nest, the reason that we had, we had Hannah Baskin from Google Talk from nest, talk about how nest is is is growing. And the reason that nest is probably the all time best selling home Smart Home Appliance out that's not a Lexa is because it takes something so simple, the thermostat. And it allows you to make micro adjustments with automation, right algorithmic change in the life without having to think about it, it's literally set it and forget it. And oh, by the way, you can fix it if you want. If it actually makes your house too hot. It's not tied to demand response is not something scary like that. And but it starts to slowly boil the frog right? And get the consumer used to the idea that things are going to change and start catering to my needs without me needing to be a super tech walk all the way on the left side of the change curve. Right being an innovator or an early adopter. We're moving into the early majority and use to use the Crossing the Chasm parlance. And that message maturity, you can see from companies like SMA, and span and and fluence and sungrow. Were even through the booth experience, you can see that they're not treating the installer the same way. They're not treating it as a hyper technical experience. Rather, they're educating both they're educating the consumer now through the installer. And the gaps that we saw are a lack of real, like real training at scale, and a lack of people to take that training and and become the solar army that we all envision. Right. And I think that the other thing, I'll highlight two more things that stood out to me this week that Josh and I were on a panel with Mike Casey and I'll give him all the credit for this because he points out all the time that we are an industry that lacks political action for all of the beautiful the bounty that is coming to us from the IRA, the petroleum industry. outspends is 2002 One, like, stop and think about that 2002 One, the industry that creates enough FUD to drown us fear, uncertainty and doubt is doing so to the tune of $4 billion, you can literally effectively go get a job as a professional, fear creator in the soul in the petroleum industry. And it's easy to compete against our less than half a million dollars that we raise in the two packs that matter for the industry. So the call to arms is more than just create content. It's more which we love, right. And there are great content creators in this industry that are making beautiful content, but it really will amount to nothing. If we don't pull out our wallets. And go tell Congress, what's important to us, not just because the IRA is in existence, will it matter? We have to keep at it. And we have to do it at scale. And the second thing that stood out to me and this I think was like also illustrative of every single booth beyond like everybody wants to be in the home, which is the tail is wagging the dog. Now solar is storage wins in the IRA storage wins is decoupled ITC is separate. And now you're gonna see every developer that was developing solar is now a storage developer that enables solar because you can let's face it, you can get interconnection with storage a whole lot faster and cheaper, because the smaller footprint and then you continuously build out beyond that storage. So those were the macro themes that I saw. And it's really an exciting time to be in this industry. The show is as vibrant as I've ever seen, Abby said and a couple of hours ago, more than 25,000 attendees, and she expects this could be bigger. In next year in Vegas.
Josh Porter
You got the 25,000 number. Yeah, it was actually there. Yeah, we were all thinking it was
Nico Johnson
1000. And that is the show folks, you heard it they just announced RE+ 2022 is officially over with the crescendo of the daily round up finishing at the same time. I'd like to take a quick moment and again, thank our team thanks to real life team for video streaming. Thanks sungrow And Tiago for sponsoring the livestream, thank Fluence, Sungrow, AES, Aurora, Solare and SMA for being supporting sponsors. And last but certainly certainly not least Leyline Renewable Capital for helping us bring this daily roundup to us since Monday afternoon. Thanks to my co host, Josh Porter, and our standing co host here for our industry. Nate Jovanelly. Thank you for joining us for this show. I'm out.
Thank you once again for tuning in. This has been the daily roundup segment of our show that is broadcast live from the RE+ 22 Show in Anaheim, California, I hope that you will continue to tune in as we are broadcasting live from the show floor if you're here in Anaheim, once again, I'd remind you to come by and check us out at booth 438. It is right in the middle of the show floor. And we are also live streaming to www dot SunCast dot live. And I hope that you will check out the agenda for the show as well you can check that out at re-plus.com/mediazone. It's a lot of alphabet soup of URL. So I hope that the very least if you're at the show, come by and check us out. But take us on the go. If you can't stop by again, that's SunCast dot live I want to thank those who helped make this show possible and particulars presented by fluence and we have some amazing supporting sponsors. Hope that you all enjoyed this daily roundup and that you'll tune in for the success of daily roundups and for the replays that we have coming of all the live and the wonderful conversations we're having with industry leaders about what's happening not just here on the show floor, but in the industry at large. And if you are new to listening, I would encourage you to check out the more than 500 Amazing founder stories and startup advice throughout our clean tech journey. As I've cataloged at all over the last seven years on our podcast called SunCast. You can find out more about SunCast. And the mini mini founders and C suite and front line folks who are helping build the clean tech comm if you go to my suncast.com And subscribe on whatever podcast player you like, you have a lot of folks that subscribe through Apple, iTunes, and Spotify. But I encourage you to check out the podcast my suncast.com and again watch the live stream to hear and see more of the content that we're producing. Right here from Anna, thank you for joining us. You can find more at SunCast dot live for right here on the show floor. See you next time.
Thanks again to this week's sponsor, helping keep the podcast FREE to you!
SUNGROW focuses on integrated energy storage system solutions, including PCS, lithium-ion batteries and energy management system. Pleae visit https://www.mysuncast.com/sungrow
Hey Sunshine! Clouds got you down? SolarAnywhere® is the leading commercial solar data solution for planning, operating and forecasting solar power production. Learn more at mysuncast.com/solaranywhere.
ABOUT THE HOST OF SUNCAST:
Nico Johnson is the creator and host of SunCast, consistently rated a top solar podcast in the clean energy sector. The content of the show is geared towards listeners looking for insights on where the markets are headed, how to position themselves or their companies, and what today's market leaders do to stay ahead of the pack.
Nico is an Investor, Executive Coach, and 16-year veteran of the solar industry, having led development in the US and Latin America for global companies like Trina Solar and Conergy.
You can connect with Nico Johnson on Twitter, LinkedIn or email.
If you’ve been second-guessing your work decisions or maybe trying to reconsider how you "fit" in the renewable energy industry -> grab 20 minutes on Nico's calendar and discuss whether having him as Your personal coach might be the right next step.