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PODCAST

SunCast

Nico Johnson takes you into conversations with those at the forefront of Renewable Energy. SunCast gives an inside look into what is happening in renewable energy. From conversations with the biggest Solar Panel manufacturers in the world to the small startups creating the future of renewable energy, such as carbon capture and battery technology breakthroughs. SunCast is dedicated to providing the knowledge, research, tools and expert guidance you need to understand, grow and be ahead of the

science natural sciences

All Episodes

01:01:18

933: Why Facts Don’t Sell Clean Energy | Jessica Fishman

SunCast ·

2026/05/21

Clean energy has made tremendous progress on technology.Solar is cheaper. Batteries are scaling. Virtual power plants are becoming real grid assets. Electrification is accelerating.But many people still do not understand why these technologies matter to them personally — or whether they are actually worth the cost.So what’s missing?In this conversation, Nico sits down with Jessica Fishman to explore why the next phase of the energy transition may depend less on technical innovation and more

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21:00

932: The Battery Storage Mistakes Installers Must...

SunCast ·

2026/05/19

Battery storage is becoming one of the most complicated sales conversations in residential solar.Installers are now navigating different sizing requirements, shifting homeowner expectations, changing utility rate structures, evolving battery chemistries, and a flood of new products entering the market at wildly different price points.And underneath all of it is a harder question:Who can you actually trust to still be standing behind these systems years from now?Sam Buffington, Business

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22:48

931: Inside New York's $150B Energy Bet — And It's...

SunCast ·

2026/05/15

Electricity demand is rising fast. But New York is asking a different question than most states:What kind of demand is actually worth building for?In this live conversation from IESNA 2026, Nico sits down with Doreen Harris, President of NYSERDA, to explore how one of the largest economies in the country is preparing for 20–25% electricity load growth over the next 15 years. From AI infrastructure and semiconductor manufacturing to distributed solar and storage, New York is making major

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29:52

930: Why AI Data Centers Demand a Responsive Grid |...

SunCast ·

2026/05/12

AI data centers are changing more than electricity demand. They are changing how the grid itself has to operate.Legacy data centers behaved with relatively flat, predictable load profiles. But giga-scale AI campuses introduce rapid swings in demand that can stress substations, destabilize generation assets, and expose the limits of infrastructure designed for a very different era.In today’s episode, Nico Johnson sits down with Jon Parrella, CEO of Terraflow, and Anna Siefken, Director of

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01:10:46

929: How Kraken Is Turning Grid Chaos Into...

SunCast ·

2026/05/07

The grid is getting more crowded.EVs. Heat pumps. Batteries. Rooftop solar. Flexible demand.What used to be a system built around a few thousand centralized assets is rapidly becoming a network of millions of connected devices interacting with the grid in real time.That changes everything.In this episode, Nico sits down with Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility Officer at Kraken, to unpack why the future grid is becoming a software coordination problem, and how Kraken is helping utilities

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25:41

928: Why U.S. Solar Costs 2–3x More Than Australia |...

SunCast ·

2026/05/05

Australia is installing solar and batteries for about $2 a watt.In the U.S., it’s closer to $5.50.So why do we still have this huge gap?Barry Cinnamon went to Australia to find out. What he discovered challenges one of the industry’s favorite explanations. Even if you remove permitting delays and other “soft costs,” the U.S. still doesn’t come close.Today’s Tactical Tuesday breaks down the real drivers behind [residential] solar pricing, from federal manufacturing policy and tariffs to

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01:05:34

927: Everyone Built Modules. He Built Cells. | Alex...

SunCast ·

2026/04/30

Rebuilding solar manufacturing in the U.S. is not just about capital or policy. It is about making the right bets at the right time.It comes down to timing, experience, and the critical decisions.Alex Zhu has spent nearly two decades inside the global solar manufacturing system—from the early rise of Chinese production to failed U.S. factory attempts, and now to building one of the few solar cell manufacturing facilities in America through ES Foundry.In this conversation, Alex explains why

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23:10

926: Are Data Centers Bypassing the Grid? | Michael...

SunCast ·

2026/04/28

Are data centers starting to bypass the grid?A growing share of planned projects are pairing with behind-the-meter generation, and the shift has happened quickly. At the same time, there’s still real debate about how much of this will actually materialize.Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview, tracks what moves through interconnection queues, permitting timelines, and development pipelines. His data highlights how developers are responding to rising demand, tighter timelines, and increasing

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25:50

925: Ahmad Chatila & Jigar Shah on Solar’s Capital...

SunCast ·

2026/04/23

Most people [who have been in the industry awhile] have opinions about SunEdison.This is one of the first times Ahmad Chatila and Jigar Shah have sat down together to compare notes on how it actually played out.Both were inside it.Both made the bets.Both saw things others didn’t.In this conversation, the two leaders who helped build one of solar’s most ambitious companies sit down to examine how it actually worked and why it did not hold.They walk through the operating logic that made

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25:52

924: From Parts to Platform: Building Solar Without...

SunCast ·

2026/04/21

Dean Solon has always been a pattern matcher.Across projects, conversations, and time in the field, he’s constantly picking up on what’s changing — where pressure is building, where systems start to strain, and where the next opportunity is taking shape.But seeing the pattern is only half the story.Joseph Fahrney is the one who has to turn those signals into real products, real partnerships, and real projects — while protecting focus and making sure the right ideas actually get built.Live

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28:32

923: Plug-In Solar Is Moving Fast… But Who Sets the...

SunCast ·

2026/04/18

You can now plug solar panels into a wall outlet in some states.No permits. No installer or electrician even required?Just… plug it in.So who’s responsible when that system starts sending power back into your home, or the grid?Plug-in solar is moving faster than the standards designed to govern it. And right now, the rules are still being written.In this conversation, Nico Johnson sits down with two experts at the center of the process. One is helping shape the National Electrical Code, the

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01:21:20

922: From One Engineer to 1 in 6 Utility-Scale...

SunCast ·

2026/04/16

What does it actually take to earn trust at the highest levels of utility-scale solar?Tyler Nelson has a perspective few in the industry can claim. As founder of Revamp Engineering, his team has been embedded in the design and execution of a massive share of utility-scale solar and storage projects across the U.S. — working alongside the developers and EPCs shaping the grid in real time.But this conversation isn’t about scale for the sake of scale.It’s about how that kind of trust is

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27:24

921: Data Won’t Move Lawmakers—Stories Will | John...

SunCast ·

2026/04/14

Most energy professionals believe the data will win.John Szoka did too.After a career in the military and time in the North Carolina legislature, Szoka followed the facts and became a clean energy advocate. But what he learned next is what matters.Data might change your mind.It doesn’t change most people’s.In this special conversation, **Jigar Shah and I co-host a discussion with Szoka on how decisions actually get made in energy—from state legislatures to local communities—and why

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26:23

920: Say Less. Close More. | Fixing Solar Messaging...

SunCast ·

2026/04/11

If it takes more than one meeting to explain what you do, you have a messaging problem.In this live conversation from Intersolar North America, Nico Johnson sits down with Spenser Meeks of Apex Presentations to unpack why so many clean energy teams struggle to clearly communicate their value—and how that confusion shows up as longer sales cycles, more meetings, and missed opportunities.Spenser, a former engineer turned messaging strategist, breaks down a simple shift: say less, but make it

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01:09:35

919: Why Smart Developers Are Betting on Batteries |...

SunCast ·

2026/04/09

Nico had the chance to sit down in person with today’s guest — and as you’d expect, that face-to-face conversation brings a level of depth, candor, and nuance you don’t always get.Emilie Flanagan, Founder and CEO of Carson Power, has built her career across Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S. — from advising on energy markets at KPMG to working inside a European family office, and eventually leading more than 200 megawatts of community solar development in New York before launching her own

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22:22

918: Is Storage The Catalyst That Finally Unlocks C&I...

SunCast ·

2026/04/07

Every year, the industry says the same thing.“C&I solar is about to take off!”And yet, it never quite scales the way we expect.Could this year finally be the year?In this live panel from Intersolar, Nico Johnson sits down with Joe Ross (CPS America), Rob Smith (ABC Supply), Tim Montague (Clean Power Consulting), and Jim Wood (SEG Solar) to unpack what’s really happening in the commercial and industrial market.The opportunity is real—but it’s uneven, complex, and highly dependent on

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47:46

917: What Happens When Your Market Disappears? (The...

SunCast ·

2026/04/02

What do you do when your entire market disappears?That’s not a thought experiment for Michael Bergey. It’s the story of his career.Long before solar dominated rooftops, distributed wind was solving real problems across rural America — lowering energy costs for customers who didn’t care about climate narratives, only outcomes. Then policy support vanished. Oil prices collapsed. And later, cheap solar took over.Most companies didn’t survive.Bergey Windpower did.In this conversation, Michael

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41:27

916: Where Solar Contractors Are Losing (and Finding)...

SunCast ·

2026/03/31

The residential solar playbook did not just change. It got torn up.If you are still operating like yesterday’s incentives, product assumptions, and sales motions will carry you forward, this episode is a reality Margins aren’t disappearing overnight. They’re leaking — in places most contractors don’t even notice.In this live conversation from IESNA 2026, Nico Johnson sits down with Rob Smith and Eric Cieslak of ABC Supply to break down where solar contractors are quietly losing profit — and

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27:33

915: 100-Hour Batteries, State of Flow, and the...

SunCast ·

2026/03/28

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01:01:36

914: The Real Reason Farmers Are Turning to Solar |...

SunCast ·

2026/03/26

Most conversations about agrivoltaics stay at the surface.Rebekah Pierce didn’t set out to become a voice for solar. She was trying to solve a much simpler problem:How do you make a small farm financially viable… without giving it up?What followed was a shift — from seeing solar as a “necessary evil” to recognizing it as a tool that might fundamentally reshape how farms survive.In this conversation, we unpack what’s actually happening on the ground:🔹 What exactly is the business of solar

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