332 - Abigail Hopper - President and CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) | Part 2

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Thanks so much for lending me your ears and the only non-renewable resource you possess, that’s your time. If you’re new here, We hope you’ll get a ton of value from this episode, and thanks for giving us a chance to earn your attention. 

This is Part Two of the episode we began earlier in the week with SEIA’s President Abby Hopper. We have a lot of ground left to cover, and we get into some GREAT insights from Abby in this one. But if you missed Part 1, I’d recommend you start there, then come to this one for the rest of the story.

Abby really gets into the details on this episode about how we all can help hold President-elect Biden to account for the awesome opportunity before him to leave a lasting clean energy legacy.

You can always check out the more than 330 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com, and sign up to be notified in your inbox too if that’s easier for you!

Resources

Connect with Abby on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Solar Industry Outlines a Policy Agenda for the Biden Administration, 117th Congress

Department of Energy Announces Equity in Energy Ambassadors and Champions

331 - Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) | Part 1

Welcome back and Happy New Year, Solar Warrior!

If you’re in the solar or energy storage industry, then today’s guest will be no stranger to you. I hope I do justice to making this useful and interesting, as she’s shared most of her thoughts and plans with us in a variety of forums.

Abigail Ross Hopper became the first female President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in January 2017 just as the Obama-era solar boom was being handed off to the Trump administration. Abby has been dubbed the most important woman in solar by the media, and it’s true she carries an immensely important role.

Before joining SEIA, Abby was the Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, where she led the agency that oversaw the leasing and development of all offshore energy, from oil and natural gas to offshore wind.

She served formerly as the Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), serving as acting beginning in 2012, and then as Director starting in June 2013. She also served concurrently as Energy Advisor to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley since 2010. In those roles, she had significant engagement with the state’s electric distribution utilities on matters ranging from resiliency and reliability of the grid to multiple mergers of the state’s utilities.

Abby previously spent over two years as Deputy General Counsel with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Before embarking on a career in public service, Abby spent nine years in private practice.

If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to the show, as that will ensure you won’t miss out on our twice-weekly content just like this. Of course, you can always check out the more than 330 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com.

I’m super excited to announce that On January 20th we’re going to be hosting a not-to-miss event for the Clean Energy industry. Clean Energy for Biden (CE4B) is excited to invite you to the Clean Energy for America Inaugural Ball, a virtual celebration of our achievements in the 2020 election. This celebration is in gratitude for all of your hard work in electing President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris to fight for a clean energy future. Join us for this exciting first-ever event that will bring together industry leaders, clean-energy advocates, and exciting guests for an evening of celebration. Click HERE for more information.

Resources

Connect with Abby on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Solar Industry Outlines a Policy Agenda for the Biden Administration, 117th Congress

Department of Energy Announces Equity in Energy Ambassadors and Champions

Books mentioned

Love Warrior: A Memoire - Glennon Doyle

Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin Donuts

330 - San Antonio triples down on solar and storage: An Insiders guide to CPS Energy's 900MW RFP

Happy New Year, Solar Warrior!

Can you believe it? 2020 is finally over. But before wrapping up this year, we have a final episode that’s potentially one of the best we’ve produced this year.

In early December, I had a chance to sit down with CPS Energy executives to discuss their latest RFP, and I was amazed by the depth of answers they provided. Not only we discussed how the RFP is shaped, but also the underlying philosophy and methodology supporting the landmark power call for the Lonestar state!

As many of you are well aware, having listened to the interview with Paula Gold-Williams (the CEO of CPS Energy) some weeks ago, the largest public power utility in the United States CPS is on a journey of decarbonizing their generation assets. And, as such has been foreshadowing a quite sizable RFP.

On December 1, CPS along with the City of San Antonio announced the largest municipally-owned fully integrated electric and gas utility in the US is launching their RFP under what's known as the FlexPOWER Bundle initiative for a whopping 900MW of solar, 50MW of energy storage, and 500MW of firming capacity as part of the vision for CPS’ Flexible Path.

It's designed to replace aging generation capacity, and introduce new technologies for firming capacity, and around the clock energy reliability for San Antonio. Today we're going to dig into how an RFP like this comes together how a forward-thinking utility in today's energy economy puts together the innovative structure not only to request these resources but to manage them what the leadership requirements are, to dig further into the mechanics of this RFP and the overarching goals.

We've got Dr. Cris Eugster, the COO of CPS Energy, as well as Krista Davis, Director of Energy Supply and Market Operations Strategy. The team that is putting this RFP out into the world is managed by in part or in whole these two individuals. And we're excited to have them here on SunCast.

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Dr. Cris on LinkedIn

Connect with Krista on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of CPS Energy on Twitter and their website

Read the official RFP announcement by clicking here!

329 - What is a Solar Marketeer? with Trina Solar's Ryan Simpson, Head of US Marketing

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

I am honored to have you joining me yet again for another foray into the world of clean and solar-powered energy. Merry Christmas, and happy almost new year to all of you who are listening during the holiday season.

Ryan Simpson is the head of marketing for Trina solar North America. He and I have been fellow sales and marketing colleagues and solar warriors in the hardware side of the PV industry now for going on two decades. I love hearing how he parlayed his experience working for McDonald's into a marketing role like Kyocera, for example, he's one of the funniest and savviest marketers I know in the industry. So I'm honored to finally get to share some of these stories. Ryan brings old school tactics for new school tech.

With his decade-plus of experience in solar, Ryan has been instrumental in launching new and innovative products, developing and opening new markets and channels, introducing new marketing platforms and creating technical documents to help companies achieve success. Today, Ryan drives the support levels of Trina’s product management and marketing efforts that develop additional market share for Trina in North America.

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn.

Check out the work of Trina Solar on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Mentioned books

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

Postmodern Management Theory

328 - Deploying 2GW of Renewable Energy in Mexico, Vive Energia's Founder Benigno Villareal

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Merry Christmas to you. If you're tuning in today, it is Christmas Eve. Yes, we are still publishing because it's Thursday. I hope that you'll get a ton of value from today's story. We can keep this short and sweet because Benigno Villareal and his story speak for themselves. Many of you have likely never heard of Vive Energía unless you're doing business in Mexico. Over there, Benny and his partners have developed a massive portfolio and track record reputation across wind and solar. And I've long wanted to know how it all came together. Today, you get to listen in on that very discussion.

Benny Villarreal heads “Vive Energia”, a Renewable Energy Company. He is credited for leading the teams responsible for the development, financing and ultimately the construction and commissioning of nearly 1 GigaWatt of Mexico´s currently installed Renewable Energy Generation capacity. For the last fifteen years, Dr. Villarreal has been intensely cooperating with the Mexican Government and diverse NGOs to obtain the basic legal framework to better develop the renewable energy market in Mexico.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Benny on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Vive Energia on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Books mentioned

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies

327 - Project development Software for Solar? How to build it as a non-technical Founder, with Phillip Bruner, CEO at ENIAN

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

I'm honored that you're joining us for another fantastic foray into the world of solar energy. And I'm even more honored that you're tuning in this week. Merry Christmas to all of you listening.

Some of you will identify with today's guests and the problems that he solves. If you've spent any time developing large or small solar projects, you know it can be an endless string of whack-a-mole in terms of organizing, checking off tasks, data rooms, diligence, checklists, Dropbox, Excel, Asana, Salesforce, the tools are disorganized, and the tasks disjointed. It's always baffled me why after 15 plus years, seems like we’re lacking a better way to organize and manage solar projects.

Today’s guest, Philip Bruner, was frustrated as well. After Philip had struggled with the data disorganization of developing his own projects, he went on the search to find and then to create a tool that would solve it. And ENIAN was born. His journey to build software as a non-technical co-founder is one that I found insightful and entertaining. I hope you'll stick around and learn as well from his approach and maybe even his mistakes.

Phillip co-founded his first start-up in 2009 called SCENE – a social enterprise that accelerates renewable energy and ICT access for communities worldwide. Then in 2012 he was recruited by a commercial law firm to develop and execute >100 MWp of C&I solar PV, wind and small-hydro across the UK and India. At the same time he founded and led the Green Investment Forum, a private dinner club of c-level professionals overseeing a combined >$200bn in green assets.

His thought leadership has been featured in MIT Sloan Review, the FT and Johns Hopkins University Series on Sustainable Entrepreneurship as well as for the IIED and Oxford Research Group. He is also an EPSRC-funded PhD(c) in Geography at the University of Edinburgh.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Phillip on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of ENIAN on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

25 Awesome Things Scotland Gave the World

Scottish inventions and discoveries

Books mentioned

Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com

The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West

States and Markets - Susan Strange

322 - The story behind crowdfunding $1M on StartEngine, with Arnold Leitner

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

I'm going to flashback to a previous episode and break down something that we discussed in that episode a little further in detail.

You might have missed our excellent interview with Solar+ Storage entrepreneur and solar pioneer Arnold Leitner. Well in that episode, which I highly recommend you revisit clicking here, we glossed over a fun fact that his company YouSolar, Inc. is among the only 13% of companies that have launched a regulated crowdfunding campaign on a website called StartEngine and raised more than a million dollars, which helped to keep you solar alive during the pandemic, no less.

Today we’re chatting again with Arnold to dig a bit deeper into exactly what this entailed and better understand how and what they accomplished. So if you'd like to hear how to get 500 customers and a million dollars in equity in 90 days through crowdfunding, using a verified platform and a tested strategy, well, you're in the right place.

And also, if you're interested in your own crowdfunding campaign, well, you are in luck, because I've partnered with StartEngine to offer you $1,000 towards your campaign marketing. You can shoot me an email via nico@mysuncast.com with StartEngine in the subject line, and the details of your company and the campaign that you're interested in. And I'll make that intro, you'll be on your way to $1,000 towards your crowdfunding marketing campaign.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Arnold on LinkedIn

Check out the work of YouSolar Inc. at their website, and follow them on Twitter

How does an afterburner work?

326 - War Stories: TJ Kanczuzewski on How To Build a Lasting Solar Company

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Happy Holidays to those of you who are catching up on your backlog of SunCast.

As we head into the end of the year, it's often filled with a lot of stories a lot of time traditionally spent around the table around the cocktail, happy hours with our friends reminiscing and telling tall tales. I thought it'd be fun, as we have so many stories on the solar coaster to tell some tall tales, some true tales, and as such wanted to bring back an old friend.

Perhaps you were one of those who's been with us from the beginning, then you'll recognize today's guest, Mr. TJ Kanczuzewski of Inovateus Solar, we're gonna dive into some of his war stories, battle-tested from the front lines.

TJ has been with Inovateus since 2007. Driven by the Inovateus pledge to “Build A Brilliant Tomorrow,” he has been instrumental in developing a world-class solar team that has successfully deployed solar energy projects and products internationally. Currently, he is focused on expanding the companies efforts in the Mamoni Valley Preserve by inviting other investors and companies to join in the opportunity to come and learn from Mother Nature in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with TJ on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Inovateus Solar on their website.

Check out the efforts of the Mamoní Valley Preserve on their website.

325 - The 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources with Gregg Dixon, CEO of Voltus, Inc.

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips, and advice for building your solar business or career.

For those of you who are up on recent episodes, perhaps you’ll recognize today’s guest, Gregg Dixon of Voltus, Inc., recently featured in episode 316. Gregg gave us a fantastic insight into the world of Demand Response, and the way that through his company Voltus, Inc. and his deep experience with a company called EnerNOC, he has learned how the grid is necessarily evolving and integrating new Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

There’s so much to unpack around DER that we didn’t have time to cover it entirely back in episode 316. Gregg and I go into what he referred to as The 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources. What are the 4 new ways that energy in DER format is being traded like an energy product that, in many ways, marks the end of an era, the changing of times for the electricity markets as we know it?

We go into each individual one of these essential elements of Distributed Energy Resources:

• Energy Efficiency

• Demand Response

• Distributed Generation

• Energy Storage

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Gregg on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Voltus, Inc. on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

What is Hess Corporation?

Enel to Buy EnerNOC for $250M, in Bid for Demand Response and Energy Software Market Share

Spotlight on a Voltan video series

324 - What Is The Congressional Climate Crisis Action Plan? With Fatima Ahmad

Welcome back, Solar Warriors!

Happy Friday! I love the Friday crowd, you’re such committed infinite learners!

And your curiosity will be rewarded today. If you didn’t meet today’s guest during our SunCast Weekly Roundup, Live at SPI video series, then you’re in luck because Fatima Ahmad is one of the most knowledgeable folks I know on how Congress gets informed on the climate crisis and how they can take action.

Did you even know that there’s a House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis? Neither did I. And what’s more, they’ve compiled a VERY comprehensive document to help guide legislators and it’s a 547 page treasure trove of information! But you don’t have to go dig through it all yourself, no no, that’s why Fatima is here today.

We’re going to give you the insider’s notes on the report: “SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS: The Congressional Action Plan for a CleanEnergy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America”. So don’t go anywhere!

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Read the Report. SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS: The Congressional Action Plan for a CleanEnergy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America

Summary of the Report

Plummeting Solar, Wind, and Battery Costs Can Accelerate our Clean Electricity Future

Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, Consumer, Employment, and Environmental Benefits of Electricity Transmission Expansion in the Eastern U.S. (Oct. 2020)

House Select Committee On The Climate Crisis: One-Page Summaries

323 - Why did Live Nation choose this little-known battery storage company as their partner?

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Today’s entrepreneur is in rare company. I can’t recall that I’ve ever interviewed an entrepreneur who’s lost a Billion dollar contract. That story alone is worth tuning in today. But you’ll also learn how James Wagoner, and his Storage startup Joule Case, became the live events power provider for Live Nation, how he’s future-proofing consumer power needs thanks to a few failed startups and the tribulations of Covid.

As Joule Case’s CEO, James builds teams, manages resources, and aligns to the long term vision. As a licensed professional engineer with years of developing technical projects and products, he comes from a technical background and understands the importance of people for any large technical project, product, or organization.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Get your hands in one of Joule Case’s Portable Power Stations and enjoy our 5% discount with the coupon “suncast” (All lower case!)

Resources

Connect with James Wagoner on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Joule Case on Twitter and their website

Books mentioned

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries and Jack Trout

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

321 - How to digitize solar customer acquisition, with Austin Rosenbaum from Demand IQ

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Today's entrepreneur is going to show us how to use artificial intelligence to streamline customer acquisition.

Austin Rosenbaum is the Denver-based Founder of Demand IQ, an A.I. based technology platform that promises to turbocharge your solar marketing and sales efforts. I've really enjoyed getting to know Austin since I met him on a conference panel this past summer, and it's just so clear to me that this young entrepreneur is on point on the digital trends that matter to small and medium-sized solar businesses.

If you have wondered how the trend towards A.I. and the sales process is going to make a difference in solar sales, this episode is for you. By the way, this episode could be worth five hundred dollars to you, so if you stick around to the very end.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Austin on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Demand IQ on LinkedIn, and their website

Three Digital Trends Reshaping Residential Solar

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

320 - Giving Tuesday Special - EarthSpark International is Electrifying Everything - GIVE Today

GIVINGTUESDAY IS A GLOBAL GENEROSITY MOVEMENT UNLEASHING THE POWER OF PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS TO TRANSFORM THEIR COMMUNITIES AND THE WORLD.

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

As the title might suggest, today is #GivingTuesday.

What exactly is Giving Tuesday? You can check out more down below where we give more insight into Giving Tuesday.

We first introduced Giving Tuesday, to our audience here on SunCast a year ago with Kristina Skierka, which is still a worthwhile interview to give a listen (here).

Today, we're going to follow the tradition with an interview of Allison Archambault, President of Earthspark International, a non-profit focused on electrifying rural communities in Haiti and incubating some of the most forward-thinking and innovative grid tech for microgrids.

This brief conversation will provide insights on what Earth spark is all about. Please participate in Giving Tuesday as we do here at SunCast every year. Also also check out Allison’s longer episode, also published today, where I get into the usual details and backstory of Earthspark and Allison’s career.

SUPPORT EarthSpark today as your contribution to women’s empowerment and rural electrification on this GivingTuesday!

What is Giving Tuesday?

GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. GivingTuesday was born and incubated at the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact in New York City. GivingTuesday is now an independent nonprofit and a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts, and everyone has something to give.

In an era of global crisis and disconnection, we need new rituals to connect us. As the world’s largest giving movement, we believe we can go further, faster when we unleash generosity together.

More information at https://hq.givingtuesday.org/

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Join me in Supporting Earthspark as your GivingTuesday donation!

Connect with Allison on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of EarthSpark International on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Big News + Building Our Future

Books mentioned

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution - Paul Hawken

319 - How Feminist Electrification is revolutionizing Haiti's grid, with Earthspark International Allison Archambault

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to not just business in the developing world, but also bridging the gap between business development, sales, and nonprofit fundraising and growth. It's an honor to be able to introduce Allison Archambault and the work of EarthSpark International on this Giving Tuesday.

Allison developed not just her career, but the organization that she's been leading now for a decade, providing light, access to opportunities, and what she refers to as feminist electrification, to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Allison is president of EarthSpark International, a non-profit organization incubating businesses that solve energy poverty. EarthSpark has built a town-sized, solar-powered smart grid in rural Haiti and has spun off a smart meter company, SparkMeter, to unlock business models for grid operators worldwide to expand energy access to low-income customers.

Allison has consulted to clean energy companies, governments, and advocacy groups. She previously worked with 3TIER on large-scale renewable energy siting and integration and with GridPoint, an early cleantech company combining distributed energy storage, solar PV, and energy management.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Support Earthspark on this GivingTuesday (or any other day of the year!)

Connect with Allison on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of EarthSpark International on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Big News + Building Our Future

What is Giving Tuesday?

It’s a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good.

Book mentioned

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution - Paul Hawken

318 - Are high-power home solar + battery systems a game-changer? With Arnold Leitner, CEO of YouSolar Inc.

Welcome back, Solar Warriors.

Welcome to a special holiday version of SunCast. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you faithful who listen on the day that episodes are produced.

My dear friend Arnold Leitner, an entrepreneur and pioneer in his own right, founded a company called SkyFuel that, as I was kicking off my career way back in 2005, was already taken on investor dollars and cranking out a really novel product in the concentrating solar photovoltaic industry.

Arnold Leitner is a clean-tech pioneer, Founder & CEO of YouSolar, Inc. an affordable, user-friendly, plug-and-pay solution. The systems feature a proprietary DC bus architecture, sophisticated energy management, and a stunning user interface.

For those of you who've been following along, CSP has been sidetracked lately by the ridiculously fast dropping costs of photovoltaics, and Arnold and I get into how, as a young entrepreneur in his late 20s, early 30s, he had to pivot his career away from the technology he had selected and raise money for towards what the inevitability of the industry was going to be.

We talk about how he also has taken alternative strategies for fundraising. And I have so much respect for this entrepreneur and the way that he has learned to thrive and pivot, raise money and satisfy customers and investors alike in his 20 years in cleantech.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Arnold on LinkedIn

Check out the work of YouSolar Inc. at their website, and follow them on Twitter

How does an afterburner work?

Mentioned books

Let My People Go Sufring: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman - Yvon Chouinard

The Prepper's Medical Handbook - William Forgey

317 - The Great Solar Debate: Can Energy Management Software Alone Replace Batteries?

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips, and advice for building your solar business or career. What you’re about to hear is a recorded version of an insightful debate we hosted at SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020.

Can energy management software alone replace batteries? This was an amazing roundtable discussion sparring back and forth between our good friends, John Powers over at Extensible Energy, Andrew Tanner at Yotta Energy, and also Jonás Villalba from Promise Energy, three practitioners both using, creating, and evangelizing energy management software and storage.

If you’d like to watch the replay of this debate, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel so you don’t miss whenever we publish new podcast episodes, live interviews with cleantech pros, and more.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with John on LinkedIn

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

Connect with Jonas on LinkedIn

316 - Culture-centric tech startup raises $25m for Demand Response, Gregg Dixon of Voltus Inc.

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to distributed energy, and high growth startups. Gregg Dixon has held executive marketing and sales roles in public companies in consulting, energy, petrochemical products, heck, even crayons. But nothing has captured and commanded his attention and focus, like saving customers money on their energy bills.

We're going to dig into how he's helped literally thousands of businesses save money and how he's turning an entire industry on its head with smart tech and deep culture. After a decade of running one of the most successful public companies and demand response, Gregg has just raised 25 million dollars for his own startup called Voltus, Inc.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Gregg on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Voltus, Inc. on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

What is Hess Corporation?

Enel to Buy EnerNOC for $250M, in Bid for Demand Response and Energy Software Market Share

Spotlight on a Voltan video series

Books mentioned

Influence - Robert Cialdini

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future - Gretchen Bakke

Oil 101 - Morgan Downey

The Prize - Daniel Yergin

AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War - Tom McNichol

Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City - Joyce Maynard

315 - How will VR be used in Solar training? 40+ year Solar Pioneer, Mark Mrohs, Part 2

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Mark Mrohs is a true solar pioneer and lifelong dedicated educator for our industry. If you missed Part 1 of this episode, I really encourage you to press pause here, and go back and listen to part 1. I think that it would be helpful to better understand Mark’s background and trajectory.

Today, Mark and I go into a lot on his theory of learning, where he sees the world of virtual reality and whether or not we're ready for it. VR Headsets like Oculus and many other headset makers are changing the way we think about virtual reality.

I hope that you'll have some takeaways from this episode, as I did around the trade gap in many industries and how we are working towards training the next generation, all the hundreds of thousands of people we need, both in the field and in the office, to help make sure that the electricity sector is converted to clean and renewable energy.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn

Check out Mark’s website

Check out the work of Solar Energy International at their website and follow them on Twitter

Oculus Quest 2, Advanced All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset

Mentioned books

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn

The Chalice and The Blade - Riane Eisler

When God Was A Woman - Merlin Stone

314 - How will VR be used in Solar training? 40+ year Solar Pioneer, Mark Mrohs, Part 1

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

We're going to jump into what I expect to be a very exciting and interesting conversation with Mark Mrohs, a true solar pioneer. A couple of things as his accreditations just to set the stage, Mark was Training Director for ARCO Solar Inc, Siemens Solar, AstroPower, SunPower, SunEdison, of course, he's an instructor for Solar Energy International, and he was a Technician at Spectrolab Inc. before that.

He's also had some time now focused on virtual reality with a young company called Interplay Learning down in Austin. Mark has had such a fascinating life and it's all centered around training in the solar photovoltaic industry.

It's been so long coming that I sat down with Mark for a long period of time, just catching up and having fun. We've broken this conversation down into Two Episodes. What got Mark into the industry? A deep dive into how he thinks about education and how the education of our industry is evolving.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Interplay Learning at their website and follow them on Twitter

Check out the work of Solar Energy International at their website and follow them on Twitter

Oculus Quest 2, Advanced All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset

Books mentioned

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn

The Chalice and The Blade - Riane Eisler

When God Was A Woman - Merlin Stone

313 - How Clean Energy Jobs can lead the recovery, with Abby Hopper, Emilie Wangerman, Erika Symmonds, and Audrey Lee

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business or career. What you’re about to hear is a recorded keynote of Day 2 of our SunCast Career Summit.

Clean Energy has led the job-creation efforts for the decade since the last recession. Hear from industry insiders, SEIA’s Abby Hopper, Lightsource BP’s Emilie Wangerman, GRID Alternatives’ Erika Symmonds, and Clean Energy for Biden’s Audrey Lee, Ph.D., on what roles are being hired for and where we might see the greatest momentum coming out of the current crisis.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Video replays are part of the paid SunCast Career Summit Evergreen ticket, and are still available for purchase. Get access to the video replay of this and other sessions from our SunCast Career Summit by clicking here. Use the code TRIBE20 for a 20% discount.

Connect with Abby on LinkedIn

Connect with Emilie on LinkedIn

Connect with Erika on LinkedIn

Connect with Audrey on LinkedIn