Suncast

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! Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 320 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/sun

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 320 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/323 (Gain access to all the show notes & r

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 310 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/321 (Gain access t

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 310 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/319 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! P

As the title might suggest today, is Giving Tuesday. But what exactly is Giving Tuesday? You can check out more at the show notes down below where we get 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 to (listen to that interview clicking https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/201 (here)). Today, we're going to follow the Giving Tuesday tradition with an interview of my friend Allison Archambault, who runs Earth spark International, focused on electrifying the rural communities in Haiti, and incubating some of the most forward-thinking and innovative grid tech in the microgrid segment today. This short-form conversation will provide insights on what Earth spark is all about. And also to invite you to participate in Giving Tuesday as we do here at SunCast every year. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, boo

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. 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.

What you’re about to hear is a recorded version of an insightful debate we hosted at https://www.mysuncast.com/spi2020 (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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 310 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/317 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources fro

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 310 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/316 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Ni

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 310 other founder s

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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommenda

What you’re about to hear is a recorded keynote of Day 2 of our https://events.mysuncast.com (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. 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. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/313 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a t

I have really enjoyed the conversations that I've been having with Miss Emilie Wangerman, the Vice President of Business Development for Lightsource BP. Emilie has over 8 years of experience in power markets and energy policy, on both the buy-and-sell side of solar, storage, and distributed energy resources (DERs), as well as experience with generation and electric system operations and utility rate design, which is complemented by her background in technology development and process engineering. We go deep into how Emily started at Lightsource how she has grown into an executive in the industry, and the intentional and not so intentional decisions that led her down that path. We also take a look at the way her experience at previous firms like PG&E and GE which have informed some of the decisions that she now gets to execute inside the marketplace. It's a wide-ranging conversation with someone I find particularly very interesting, and I hope you will too. Remember you can always find the resources and lear

We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. This is the final edition of the SunCast Weekly Roundup, presented by LG Solar, where we decided to go LIVE and catch some of the big takeaways from the first-ever Virtual Solar Power International. In today’s episode, my Co-Host Joshua Porter from SolarCoaster and I held interesting conversations Inside the Green Room with cleantech leaders like Erika Myers from Smart Electric Power Alliance, Tara Lynn Gray from Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce, David Schlosberg from Enel X, and AJ Perkins from Instant ON as they share with us their final insights on the sessions from last week, their experience participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow, and what to expect for next year. We had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Julia Pyper, Host and Producer of Political Climate, starring yet again in our newest segment,

Today’s guest is Arch Rao, Founder & CEO of Span.IO, a technology company reinventing the electrical panel to enable the rapid adoption of renewable energy.  He is an engineer and entrepreneur with expertise in research, development and commercialization of energy technologies. We’re going to not only explore how Span is advancing the very technology that supports home energy devices, but also the background of this engineer and entrepreneur, and his expertise in storage systems and their integration to our energy world. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/310 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and

In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Daisy Meyer, Robert Broadwater, Gwen Yamamoto and Lavannya Pulluveetil Barrera, as they share with us their insights on week 6 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Kenneth Locklin, Director at Impax Asset Management, LLC starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, Presented by LG Solar”. Each week, Brian will go 1 on 1 with an industry expert to get hot takes and the latest topics impacting our industry. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/309 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico John

Today’s guest is Andy Foote, a professional LinkedIn consultant. He’s spent the last decade obsessively testing multiple engagement strategies and building a large and supportive network on the largest professional networking website in the World. His podcast, Foote Notes, is an interview show featuring interesting people that he’s discovered on LinkedIn. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/308 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

This week we have a really interesting angle on the way that cleantech companies are lifted from the dust. Today's intrapreneur and entrepreneur is Trish Cozart, Program Manager for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. Now, Trish has been recommended by several people, but a special shoutout to Antenna Group for helping make this interview happen for you. Trish and I really dig into how the National Renewable Energy Lab, through its Innovation Entrepreneurship Center, is helping to spur entrepreneurship, hence supporting what most cleantech activists and advocates are trying to bring in to the world, both from funding as well as enabling a much broader network, far beyond just the dollars that go into the companies that come through the cohort's in her organization within NREL. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mys

In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Emma Nicholson, Jon Wellinghoff, and Dawn Weisz, as they share with us their insights on week 5 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Ian Lochore, Vice President and General Manager of Baker Electric Home Energy starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, Presented by LG Solar”. Each week, Brian will go 1 on 1 with an industry expert to get hot takes and the latest topics impacting our industry. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/306 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Tw

Special shoutout to Nicole Watson from Iconic Earth Foundation back in Episode 277 for the intro to Dr. Phil Watts, today’s entrepreneur. Dr. Watts studied aeronautical engineering at McGill University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences from Caltech, where he lobbied for on-campus recycling and green buildings. Upon graduation, he worked as a research scientist for around a decade, publishing more than 30 scientific papers in some of the top peer-reviewed journals in the world. This pioneering work, carried out with renowned academic colleagues, created the foundations for a brand new field of science and resulted in at least one paper being referenced more than 100 times. Today’s story is about a critical moment in 2002 when his daughter was born, and the newspaper headlines rang alarm bells that would forever change the history for him and his family, as well as how he showed up to the world. Stick around to find more about what has happened ever since. Remember you can

We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. Alongside my friend Glenda Johnson, we're stoked to have been invited back by the SPI team to bring you an exciting new segment - the SunCast Weekly Roundup, presented by LG Solar. This is a recap of week 4, where interesting sessions like “Using Storage to Achieve Long-Term Equity Outcomes “, and “Storage Solutions for Utilities” took place. In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Jessica Lim, Kate Howling, Cameron Freberg, and Marion Hill as they share with us their insights on week 4 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Mike Casey, Founder of Tigercomm starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, Presented by LG Solar”. Each week, Brian will go 1 on 1 with an indu