Boots on the Ground with Yann Brandt and Abby Hopper

Washington says the structure of a permitting deal is done, and the White House put 300 stalled wind and solar projects on the table to get there. Whether any of it happens depends on how lame the [lame] duck turns out to be — the House is gone until November, and a majority that may be about to lose a chamber has to decide whether to spend its last weeks on permitting reform at all. Yann and Abby work the odds, Martin Heinrich's proposed ITC for transmission lines as a marker for next Congress, and the $1.9 billion released for reconductoring. The number underneath it all: the US is building about 400 miles of high-voltage transmission a year, down from nearly 4,000 in 2013.

Then Oracle sends a force majeure notice on Project Jupiter, a 2.48 GW AI campus in New Mexico, because the power isn't there. The stock fell 4% and dragged Nvidia down with it. The chips are ready; the air permit and the gas pipeline are not. Yann's take: our industry is badly undervaluing itself, because the first percentage of GDP has to be energy. Plus a harder question — should data centers just be built smaller? Abby flags the New Mexico governor's race, where permit deadlines land between election day and inauguration.

Also in this episode.

Nobody calls it Climate Week anymore. Abby reports from New York, where the phrase was "speed to power" and the real conversation was about institutions never designed to move fast. Her pet project: AI-run interconnection studies.

Who's working the halls while Congress is gone: the DOE bulk power emergency order, FCC conditional approvals on foreign-made inverters, and Section 232 with a December 4 deadline. Staff do their best work when members are away, and these surprises are knowable.

Xi Jinping came to Washington and AI regulation never came up. Why decoupling your supply chain from China stays the most important strategic move through year end.

King tide season in Fort Lauderdale: streets closed by water with no rain, and how you explain that to a ten-year-old.

Wins and fails: a bipartisan fusion bill with a $10 billion price tag; domestic inverters, with Power Electronics opening a 40 GW factory in Houston and Heron Power landing a pilot order from RWE; and Yann's case against drone delivery.

Predictions: oversight hearings into circular dealings between chipmakers and their customers if the House flips, and Yann on energy efficiency making a comeback under a new name, load flexibility.

Solar Sisters has a book club, fourth Monday of every month, with authors joining: solar-sisters.org

Find the hosts on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yannbrandt and linkedin.com/in/abigailhopper

This show is supported by CleanTech Industry Resources. CIR is the world's only fully integrated Development-as-a-Service model for energy projects, uniting every silo from siting through financing and program management — 334 GW diligenced across 17,000+ projects. Let them know you heard about them on Boots on the Ground: cleantechir.com

Send us your questions about solar, storage, policy or business: solarwakeup.com/boots

Get the daily brief. Join the leaders who start their morning with the SolarWakeup Daily Brief: solarwakeup.com/join

Boots on the Ground is produced by SolarWakeup and sponsored by CIR. Like and subscribe on YouTube, follow us on your podcast app, and leave a review.

The biggest utility transaction our sector has ever seen is now a political negotiation, and the first half of this episode is about who has leverage. NextEra's acquisition of Dominion has shareholder approval. What it doesn't have is Virginia. Governor Spanberger entered the proceeding directly — a first for a Virginia governor in a deal like this — with three conditions: no rate increases, data centers pay their own way, long-term value for the Commonwealth. NextEra and Dominion answered with bill relief, 1,000 Virginia jobs, accelerated clean energy, shareholder-funded co-headquarters in Richmond, and an annual global energy summit. Abby ran mergers as a regulator at the Maryland PSC, and her read is that this settles before any hearing.

Yann's numbers on why this closes where HECO didn't: both utilities sit at 88–89% residential, and the average 1,000 kWh bill is $137 at FPL versus $140.90 at Dominion. Florida gets no sweetener, because Florida doesn't have to approve anything. And the question nobody has answered: not one clean energy group has intervened in the biggest deal in the sector's history. Abby lays out what she'd extract — gigawatt commitments with "will," not "may."

Also in this episode. Diesel is the whole election: Yann called it last week, now it's every headline. Cost of living tops both parties' polling, the DCCC is targeting ~40 seats, and an independent in Nebraska is running on one word.

Data centers get a roadmap. New NYT/Siena numbers: net 61% oppose AI data center construction, top reason environment and water at 32%. Yann's argument — run data center community engagement through solar and storage teams, because the relationships that get a solar farm approved now carry billions in value.

Generac's $8B AWS deal: the stock popped 35% and Amazon took warrants for roughly 3% of the company. Why warrants are underused and what dilution really costs.

Forgent's 3.3x book-to-bill vs. Fluence's guidance cut: one beat and raised, the other revised mid-quarter and went from $25 to $7.

Good or bad: is polling broken, prediction markets, a climate week in every city, the Fed raising rates. Wins and fails: the AI Energy Management Alliance and AI as flexible load, Arch Manning and Holly Rowe, and the erosion of DC norms.

Predictions: Xi Jinping in Washington, and Yann on the American farmer — squeezed by diesel, fertilizer and rates — deciding November.

Solar Sisters returns to Puerto Rico for International Women's Day 2027 — apply or sponsor at solar-sisters.org

Connect with the hosts: Yann Brandt at linkedin.com/in/yannbrandt and Abby Hopper at linkedin.com/in/abigailhopper

Thank you to CleanTech Industry Resources for supporting this episode. CIR is the world's only fully integrated Development-as-a-Service model for energy projects, uniting every silo from siting through financing and program management — 334 GW diligenced across 17,000+ projects. Tell them Boots sent you: cleantechir.com

Send us your questions: solarwakeup.com/boots

Get the daily brief. Join the leaders who start their morning with SolarWakeup's intelligence briefing: solarwakeup.com/join

Boots on the Ground is produced by SolarWakeup and sponsored by CleanTech Industry Resources. Like and subscribe on YouTube, and follow the show on your favorite podcast platform.

Yann Brandt and Abby Hopper are in the same room for the first time — same table, same mics, real microphone flags — working through the three storylines defining the fall: a record quarter for solar, an AI industry suddenly asking to be regulated, and a nuclear renaissance with lots of headlines and few answers.

Solar posted 11.4 GW of new generation in Q2 alongside 20 GWh of storage, and everyone knows why: the ITC deadline pulled projects forward. The more interesting number is 75 GW of U.S. module assembly with another 15 GW under construction. Does America become a module exporter, at what price, and who are the domestic winners and losers? Plus a prediction: over the next two quarters, analysts will ask every public solar CEO whether higher costs have hit their backlog, and the honest answers won't be pretty for projects with PPAs already signed.

Then the politics that don't add up: 71% of Q2 installations happened in states that voted for Trump, and most module factories sit in deep-red districts. So why does solar arrive in Washington polling 98% blue?

On AI: Amodei, Altman, and Musk have all spoken up, and Abby admits to going down the terror hole over the weekend. The energy tie-in is direct — AI is roughly 3% of GDP and climbing, energy was 7% before AI existed, and how much solar gets built depends on how much data center growth gets permitted.

Also in this episode:

• Good or bad: conference season, the nuclear renaissance (Duane Arnold's $2B loan guarantee, the Crane restart at Three Mile Island, SMRs on barges to power ports), and vehicle-to-grid.
• Heat and affordability: the hottest summer on record, and why California hasn't called a flex alert since 2022 (storage). Plus brutal heating oil projections heading into contested Senate races in Maine and New Hampshire.
• Wins and fails: the court ruling against the must-run order for the J.H. Campbell coal plant; a 32-year-old retired Air Force prosecutor knocking on 15,000 doors in Florida House District 100; the House leaving town until November 9th; and diesel as the headline cost behind every EPC and battery delivery.
• Predictions: EY's $100M bonus pool for human skills, and why battery cells still don't get the flash-test-and-bin treatment solar modules have had for years.

Connect with the hosts:

• Yann Brandt — https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannbrandt/
• Abby Hopper — https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailhopper/

This episode is brought to you by CleanTech Industry Resources, the world's only fully integrated Development-as-a-Service model for energy projects — siting, diligence, interconnection, financing, engineering, legal, and program management, with 334 GW diligenced across more than 17,000 projects: https://www.cleantechir.com

Send us your questions about solar, storage, policy, or business: https://www.solarwakeup.com/boots

Get the daily brief. Join leaders in the solar energy market who start their morning with SolarWakeup's intelligence briefing: https://www.solarwakeup.com/join

Boots on the Ground is produced by SolarWakeup and sponsored by CleanTech Industry Resources. Like and subscribe on YouTube, and follow the show on your favorite podcast platform.

Yann Brandt and Abby Hopper are back with a Labor Day episode packed with big numbers and bigger questions. This week: the $4.4 billion Flex acquisition of EPC Power and what it says about the data center-fueled M&A and IPO wave sweeping solar and storage. SB Energy's IPO filing revealed a staggering $460 billion backlog, UIG was acquired by Vertiv for $1.4 billion plus earnout, and Hecate Energy is pushing forward with its SPAC.

Yann and Abby dig into why regulatory strategy — from the FCC's new inverter rule to the bulk power executive order — has become a core lever for company valuations, not just a compliance afterthought, and what it means that companies are now actively lobbying to shape the rules that determine who wins and loses.

From there, the conversation turns to the friction points slowing the industry down. Yann and Abby unpack the growing local opposition to data centers and solar projects, the difference between organic land-use concerns and organized misinformation campaigns, and Florida's Live Local Act, which strips cities of the power to block certain developments. They also make the case that the industry needs to stop avoiding an honest, unified conversation about the future of the ITC before Washington has it without them.

Energy storage gets its own deep dive: Yann argues the sector could skip the 15 years of trade drama that defined solar, thanks to the auto industry's head start on battery manufacturing and its built-in demand for cells. The episode wraps with wins and fails — Dominion's rate-case miscalculation, CISA's cybersecurity budget cuts, an all-time F1 upset in Monza, and a viral duct-taped airline passenger — plus predictions for where the capital markets go from here.

Links:

• Watch and subscribe: solarwakeup.com/boots
• Also on YouTube: SolarWakeup YouTube channel
• Follow Yann and Abby on LinkedIn — tag them to help share the episode
• Sponsored by CleanTech Industry Resources (CIR): cleantechir.com
• Interested in sponsoring Boots on the Ground? Reach out to Yann or Abby on LinkedIn

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Solar and storage just got hit with a one-two-three punch — an FCC inverter rule, a Section 232 tariff proclamation, and a national emergency executive order on bulk power cybersecurity, all inside five weeks. Yann Brandt and Abby Hopper break down what each order actually does, why the rollout has been a mess for procurement teams, and what it means for domestic manufacturing, pricing, and risk.

Then they zoom out to the money question of the year: data centers. Between Anthropic's multi-billion-dollar compute deal, exploding utility rate cases in Maine, Michigan, Georgia, and North Carolina, and a midterm election where six Senate races are true toss-ups, Yann and Abby map out exactly how the balance of power in Washington could reshape the ITC, 45X, and permitting reform — and why solar's "purple" politics make it so hard to pass anything as a standalone bill.

Plus: predictions for energy storage's next big market, the week's biggest wins and fails, and Abby's new tattoo.

[00:01] Cold Open & Catch-Up — Abby debuts a new wrist tattoo, Yann celebrates his youngest son's 10th birthday, and the two set up the whiplash five weeks the industry just had.

[02:37] Sponsor Break: Cleantech Industry Resources (CIR)

[03:54] The Big Three: FCC Rule, Section 232 & the Bulk Power EO — A rundown of the July 28th FCC inverter rule, the Section 232 proclamation, and the August 26th national emergency executive order on grid cybersecurity.

[07:02] What Should Procurement Teams Actually Do? — Reading the intent behind the rules, the Sun Grow inverter carve-out, and why durability (or lack of it) is the real problem for business planning.

[16:27] Section 232, 45X, and the Case for Domestic Manufacturing — EBOS, FEOC rules, the ITC extension, and why Yann thinks the US total-cost-of-solar conversation needs to include national security.

[26:08] Capital, Risk, and Who Gets Squeezed — Quarterly earnings pressure, de-risking, and why uncertainty tends to help big companies and hurt small ones.

[27:43] Data Centers, Anthropic's Big Compute Deal & the New Cost of Energy — The economics behind a 460MW data center, why "compute doesn't exist without solar," and the politics of data center backlash — including Florida's governor's race.

[39:43] Data Center Politics: Before and After November 3rd — Super PAC ad spending, moratorium politics, and what changes once the election pressure lifts.

[44:02] Six Toss-Up Senate Races & What's at Stake for Solar — Why control of the Senate matters for confirmations, oversight, and the path to extending the ITC and 45X.

[47:45] Scenario Planning: Divided vs. Unified Government — How the solar industry's ask list changes depending on who controls the House and Senate.

[51:17] Solar's Bipartisan Problem — Why solar polls well on both sides of the aisle but almost never passes as a standalone bill — and the "purple room" reality inside the industry itself.

[1:03:05] Wins of the Week — Domestic manufacturers' big month, and a tribute to Tim Cook's exit as Apple CEO.

[1:06:02] Fails of the Week — Abby calls out the Callaway Golf/Good Good ad controversy, and Yann takes the White House to task for the confusing, timeline-free rollout of its executive orders.

This episode is sponsored by Cleantech Industry Resources (CIR). Their team has diligenced 334 gigawatts across more than 17,000 projects globally. Visit cleantechir.com or connect with Daniel on LinkedIn — and let him know Yann and Abby from Boots on the Ground sent you.

DATA CENTER BACKLASH

Texas Gov. Abbott says data centers "dug their own grave" for ignoring local communities; 61% of Americans now oppose a nearby data center, up from 49% in March. https://www.axios.com/2026/08/23/greg-abbott-texas-data-centers-ai-backlash

PA Gov. Shapiro signs order requiring data centers to cover their own power/water costs, use clean energy, and win local approval before building. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/08/18/pennsylvania-gov-josh-shapiro-set-order-new-limits-data-center-development/

MAHA coalition urges Trump not to use AI power demand to justify more coal, pushing solar-plus-storage instead. https://www.axios.com/2026/08/21/ai-data-centers-coal-trump-rfk-maga-warning

POLICY & MANUFACTURING

FCC expands foreign inverter ban to hardwired devices, but adds a safe harbor for manufacturers eligible for Section 45X tax credits. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/21/fcc-updates-foreign-inverter-ban-to-include-wired-devices-adds-45x-safe-harbor/

SEIA: US solar supply chain now fully reshored, module capacity up 37% since 2024; warns 100+ factories and $31B at risk without policy certainty. https://seia.org/news/domestic-solar-manufacturing-booms-during-trump-administration-with-entire-solar-supply-chain-reshored/

DOE redirects $500M clean-steel grant to upgrade Cleveland-Cliffs' coal furnace instead of the original hydrogen-ready plan. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/green-steel/trump-clean-steel-grant-coal

MARKETS

Batteries now displacing gas peakers as the price-setter in wholesale power markets; CAISO batteries provide 53% of grid-balancing services. https://qz.com/batteries-set-electricity-prices-wholesale-markets-081726

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Boots on the Ground — the news you need, straight talk you won't get anywhere else.

Solar and storage industry vets Yann Brandt and Abby Hopper are done just texting each other about it — now they're putting it on mic. Each week, Yann Brandt (former President & CEO of FTC Solar, founder of SolarWakeup) and Abby Hopper (former CEO of SEIA) cut through the noise on the headlines shaping solar, storage, and energy: policy fights in DC, what's really moving in Congress, data centers, the governors' races that'll decide state energy policy, and everything in between.

No fluff, no filler — just two people who've been in the rooms where it happens, telling you what actually matters and why.

First episode drops Tuesday, August 25th. Subscribe now so you don't miss it.

Got a question, topic suggestion, or a tip? Send it our way at [email protected] — we'll cover the best ones on air.

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