America needs more power. Data centers are accelerating demand, utilities are planning billions of dollars in new infrastructure, and households will ultimately help pay for much of it.

But what if we invested some of that money in the households themselves?

Ari Matusiak, co-founder and CEO of Rewiring America, makes the case that homes can become a meaningful part of America’s energy infrastructure—and that households should be compensated for the value they provide to the grid.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Ari and Nico explore the rise of Homegrown Energy, why the old equilibrium between utilities and customers is breaking down, how hyperscalers could help fund household energy upgrades, and where regulators and utilities are already testing what’s possible.

They also get into the harder question underneath all of it: who gets to participate in the value created as we build out the grid?

For Ari, the opportunity is bigger than electrification. If households can provide real value to the grid, the question becomes whether we continue treating them primarily as customers, or start investing in them as part of the solution.

That could create a very different deal: more capacity for a power-hungry economy, more flexibility for the grid, and tangible value flowing back to the households helping make it possible.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

(00:00) The Fastest Path to Power

(00:12) Meet Ari Matusiak, Rewiring America's Founder

(03:17) The Thread Behind a Career of Big Problems

(09:42) Winning an Affordable Housing Bond in Rhode Island

(22:47) Rewiring America and the 42% Emissions Insight

(27:06) Reframing Households as Energy Infrastructure

(29:57) Why the Grid's Political Economy Just Shifted

(41:13) Energy Value vs. Community Benefit Payouts

(42:30) Building the Missing Middle Market

(48:47) The Slow Start of Homegrown Energy

(55:31) Data Centers, Grid Distortion, and Homeowners

(1:00:25) Illinois as the First Domino

(1:05:23) Answering the Subsidy Critique

(1:15:13) Dignity, Shared Winning, and What's Hardest

En Latinoamérica, la oportunidad no siempre está donde se anuncia más capacidad, sino donde existe una combinación real de demanda, capital comprometido y capacidad de ejecución.

Nico Johnson conversa con Juan Manuel Carbajosa, Director de Ventas para Latinoamérica de Shoals Technologies, y Mario Gomez, Presidente de TCI GECOMP. Juntos aportan dos perspectivas complementarias para entender el mercado: la de un responsable global de desarrollo de negocio que habla con decenas de operadores y la de un operador regional con décadas de experiencia construyendo proyectos en varios países.

A partir de esa experiencia combinada, la conversación aborda algunas de las decisiones que hoy más importan para desarrolladores, IPPs, EPCs e inversionistas:

🔹 Cómo distinguir un pipeline atractivo de capital verdaderamente comprometido

🔹 Por qué las baterías están reabriendo oportunidades que el curtailment había limitado

🔹 Por qué México vuelve a concentrar tanta atención, pero exige cautela

🔹 Cómo la industrialización, la estandarización y menos trabajo en campo pueden reducir riesgo y acelerar la ejecución

Si estás evaluando dónde enfocar recursos y capacidad de ejecución en Latinoamérica, esta conversación aporta una perspectiva basada en experiencia directa en la región.

**Este episodio fue grabado originalmente en español. También publicaremos una versión traducida en inglés.**

Marcas De Tiempo:

(00:00) Apertura: El Estado del Solar y el Almacenamiento en LatAm

(00:33) De Vuelta a SunCast en Español

(02:08) Construyendo Solar Donde Todavía No Existía Manual

(09:41) Por Qué Chile, Brasil y México Juegan con Reglas Distintas

(12:59) Subastas, Capital Privado y la Trampa de los Permisos

(16:05) Elegir Mercados: La Estrategia de Crecimiento Orgánico de TCI

(18:39) El Horizonte de 18 Meses para Asignar Capital

(20:54) Hacia Dónde Está Fluyendo Realmente el Capital Ahora

(24:55) De Desarrolladores de Solar a Desarrolladores de Baterías

(28:23) Dentro del Nuevo Reglamento de Socio Local en México

(34:07) Demostrar Credibilidad: Proveedor vs. EPC en un Mercado Nuevo

(36:47) Logística, Compras y el Riesgo del BOS que Nadie Ve

(41:52) Separar la Señal del Ruido: Fuentes Confiables en el Solar de LatAm

(51:54) Consejos Para la Próxima Generación de Desarrolladores en LatAm

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Good companies don't automatically get noticed. And doing good work isn't enough to ensure that customers, investors, journalists, communities, or increasingly AI systems understand why your company matters.

Melissa Baldwin has spent more than 20 years exclusively in energy and climate communications. As Senior Vice President at Tigercomm and host of the Scaling Clean podcast, she's had a front-row seat to what helps companies earn attention and trust, and what causes otherwise strong companies to remain largely invisible.

Melissa and Nico dig into why communications is routinely underfunded, why executive silence is itself a strategic choice, and what the best companies do differently to become useful sources of information for their markets. Melissa shares examples from Zillow and Redfin, explains why proprietary data can create authority far beyond traditional promotional content, and makes the case for giving CEOs a much larger role in telling the company story.

Then they turn to a rapidly changing question: what happens when discovery moves from Google search results to AI-generated answers? Melissa explains how longer, more specific prompts are changing search behavior, why mentions and credible third-party sources increasingly matter, and how companies can begin auditing whether they even show up when an AI system is asked who matters in their category. The conversation also explores why community engagement should be treated as project risk management and why developers need to begin earning local trust long before they need an approval.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why strong companies can remain invisible despite doing great work

🔹 What useful content does differently from promotional content

🔹 How to evaluate whether your company is showing up in AI-generated answers

🔹 Why community engagement belongs in the project-risk conversation

If your company is doing work worth noticing, this conversation is a useful challenge to ask whether you're making it easy enough for the right people to actually find, understand, and trust you.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Solar construction has always depended on experienced crews adapting to whatever the jobsite throws at them. But what happens when the industry needs to build more projects than its best crews can possibly cover?

Cody Houser has spent much of his career on the other side of that problem. Before becoming Director of EPC and Constructability at FTC Solar, he spent eight years running his own construction company, driving piles, building trackers, managing crews as large as 250 people, and experimenting with automated pile driving years before today's wave of solar robotics.

His argument for automation starts with something more fundamental than replacing labor: predictability.

Robotics can give EPCs a more reliable baseline for daily production. But Cody also explains why the opportunity starts upstream, with trackers and construction workflows designed to make installation simpler and more repeatable, whether the work is performed by humans today or increasingly automated tomorrow. FTC says its Pioneer tracker is already producing 15% faster mechanical installation by human crews, an example Cody uses to show how constructability can translate directly into EPC economics.

This conversation explores the shrinking pool of experienced field labor, safety, constructability, AI, and what Cody believes the increasingly autonomous solar jobsite could look like over the next decade.

The bigger question isn't what robots can do. It's what happens when we design solar construction around greater consistency from the start.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Australia has spent years ahead of many markets on the distributed solar adoption curve. Now it is giving the rest of us an early look at what happens when millions of those systems move from installation into decades of ownership, maintenance, repair, replacement, and eventually recycling.

Daniel Lazarus, co-founder and CEO of Industrias Services Group, has built his company around that second act. After years in solar construction, he saw an enormous need for maintenance but also discovered why relatively few companies have figured out how to deliver it profitably at scale.

In this conversation, Daniel shares what his team is finding on aging solar assets, from missing documentation and preventable design problems to a 400-kilowatt commercial system that had fallen to essentially zero production. But the larger story is about the business being built around those problems.

Daniel explains how Industrias developed a national service network, why process and data matter more than another piece of software, how EPCs and other partners use Industrias behind the scenes, and why maintenance relationships can eventually create opportunities for system replacement and new construction.

For solar founders, EPCs, asset owners, and operators, Australia may offer an early preview of the service economy that follows widespread deployment, and what it actually takes to build for it.

Expect to Learn:

🔹 Why almost 25% of solar faults found are safety related

🔹 How missing documentation turns solar into an orphaned asset

🔹 Why maintenance, not installs, is the truly scalable business

🔹 How proprietary data now predicts costly system failures early

If this resonates, let us know so we can bring you more on the service economy (or more from Aussie entrepreneurs!)

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Utilities used to plan around relatively predictable demand. That assumption is disappearing.

In this opening keynote from Intersolar & Energy Storage North America Midwest, Nico Johnson sits down with 3 utility executives; Bria Shea of Xcel Energy, Andy Plenge of ComEd, and Brice Sheriff of Ameren Illinois to examine what happens when electricity demand can arrive faster than the infrastructure needed to serve it—and distributed energy resources increasingly change how power moves across the grid.

The conversation explores the difficult balance between reliability, affordability, and investment; what rising electricity costs actually reflect; the practical constraints to deploying more DERs; and how utilities are rethinking planning for a system with far more uncertainty than the one they inherited.

Three utilities operating in different markets arrive at a similar reality: planning the next grid will require more flexibility, better coordination, and new ways of thinking about both customers and the resources connected to the system.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Pepper Construction has survived the Great Depression, World War II, multiple recessions, and a global pandemic. As the family business approaches its 100th anniversary, its next challenge is not simply surviving another disruption. It is pursuing new opportunities without losing the culture, discipline, and sense of responsibility that carried it this far.

Jake Pepper is part of the fourth generation preparing to lead Pepper into that next chapter. His path into the family business was anything but automatic. He resisted joining, studied building science, traded natural gas options, and earned an MBA before returning with a deeper understanding of both the company and the complicated dynamics of a multigenerational enterprise.

Jake went on to build Pepper Energy from an initial construction-only solar project while helping the broader company expand into batteries, powered land, and hyperscale data centers. He and Nico explore how new businesses earn trust inside an established company, why each generation may get only one consequential risk, and how leaders protect the core while adapting to markets that can change almost overnight.

Expect to Learn:

🔹 What Jake gained by building a career outside the family business before accepting the mantle of responsibility

🔹 How his particular MBA program helped him understand the family dynamics behind the financial statements

🔹 How a call from the carpenters union led to Pepper’s first solar project, a new energy business, and an incredible growth curve

🔹 How Jake evaluates powered land, data-center growth, capital partners, and counterparty credit risk

🔹 Why maintaining culture is harder than growing from $2 billion to $4 billion

This conversation offers a candid look at how one family business is preparing for its next century without losing the culture and values that carried it through the first.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

After building and selling multiple companies, Marc Lopata has learned that the decisions that shape a business are rarely the ones people celebrate. They're the small decisions, made consistently over time, that ultimately determine whether a company lasts.

In this conversation, Marc shares the operating philosophy he's developed through decades of building companies, leading teams, and mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs. From hiring the engineering intern who eventually bought his company to thinking about exit strategies before starting a business, resisting the lure of venture capital, and building teams that don't depend on the founder to succeed, Marc's stories come from solar—but the lessons apply to anyone responsible for leading people, managing risk, and building something meant to last.

Expect to learn:

⚡ What separates companies that endure from those that don't

⚡ Why Marc interviewed 45 candidates before hiring the intern who eventually bought his company

⚡ How to think about partners, succession, and exit planning long before you need them

⚡ Why Marc considers chasing venture capital one of his biggest business mistakes

⚡ How decades of building solar and storage projects shaped his approach to technology, risk, and leadership

Whether you're building your first company or leading an established team, Marc offers practical wisdom earned through experience, mistakes, and decades of disciplined execution.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

We know how to build power. Every day, the clean energy industry builds more of it.

But there's another kind of power that's far more difficult to generate—and arguably even more important.

The kind that determines whether an industry continues to grow regardless of who's in office. The kind that shapes public opinion before a project is ever proposed. The kind that makes policymakers think twice before standing in your way.

Tom Matzzie has spent his career building both.

Before founding CleanChoice Energy, he spent fifteen years building political movements. Today, he's helping build something the clean energy industry has historically lacked: the institutions, relationships, and long-term political capacity that make an industry durable.

In this conversation, Tom introduces a phrase I hadn't heard before but haven't stopped thinking about since: mythic power.

It's a simple idea with profound implications.

What if the real measure of our industry's success isn't how many gigawatts we deploy...

...but whether we've built enough influence that our progress no longer depends on the outcome of the next election?

Whether you're a founder, developer, investor, policymaker, or simply someone who wants to see the energy transition succeed, this conversation will challenge how you think about what it really takes to build an industry that lasts.

• What "mythic power" means - and why Tom believes every mature industry eventually develops it.
• Why the crypto industry offers an unexpected lesson for clean energy.
• Why political durability is built long before a crisis arrives.
• Why institutions may matter as much as innovation in the next chapter of the energy transition.

After listening, I'd love to hear your answer to the same question I found myself asking:

Can clean energy build mythic power?

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Few people have had a front-row seat to the evolution of the modern solar industry quite like Jeff Spies.

Over four decades, Jeff has helped shape the industry as an engineer, educator, trainer, and founder of Planet Plan Sets, working alongside installers and EPCs to solve the technical and permitting challenges behind thousands of solar and storage projects. That perspective gives him a unique vantage point on how the industry has changed—and what hasn't.

In this conversation, Jeff shares lessons from a lifetime in solar, including:

⚡ How the earliest days of residential solar still influence the industry today

⚡ Why every solar project presents a different challenge—and why experience still matters

⚡ What the rapid growth of battery storage means for installers and system designers

⚡ Why permitting, engineering, and interconnection remain some of the industry's biggest hurdles

⚡ How decades of industry evolution have shaped Jeff's perspective on where solar goes next

Whether you're designing systems, running an installation business, or simply trying to better understand the forces shaping the solar industry, this conversation offers the perspective of someone who has spent a lifetime helping it grow.

Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?

Hit us up - [email protected] with your feedback & recommendations.

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 950 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

We'd love if you'd leave us a 5 ⭐ rating & review and it's never been easier: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/suncast

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus