SunCast

Climatetech is entering a different phase.

The era of easy capital, oversized narratives, and growth-at-all-costs expectations is giving way to something more demanding: disciplined execution, durable business models, strong commercialization pathways, and teams that can scale proven solutions in real markets.

In this live conversation, Nico Johnson sits down with longtime investor David Kirkpatrick, Managing Director at SJF Ventures, to unpack what experienced investors are actually paying attention to now and why the companies attracting long-term conviction may not be the ones making the loudest headlines.

David has spent decades investing across renewable energy, efficiency, industrial innovation, resilience, and sustainability. He has watched the industry evolve from early-stage optimism into a global market measured in gigawatts, infrastructure, and real deployment. That long view makes this conversation especially timely for founders, operators, developers, policymakers, and anyone trying to understand how the market is maturing.

This episode is less about chasing the next shiny technology and more about what it takes to build companies that can survive, scale, and create lasting value.

Expect to learn:

🔹 What experienced investors look for before backing a company

🔹 Why capital discipline matters more than ever in today’s market

🔹 How deployment and commercialization are reshaping investment priorities

🔹 Why resilience, efficiency, and proven technologies are gaining momentum

🔹 What founders often misunderstand about raising and scaling capital

If you’re building in the energy transition or trying to understand where sophisticated capital is placing long-term conviction, this conversation is worth your attention.

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

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 on public understanding, trust, and emotional connection.

Jessica shares lessons from nearly two decades working across solar, storage, policy, and communications, including what the industry can learn from the Inflation Reduction Act, why facts alone rarely change minds, and how clean energy companies can better connect their work to the things people already care about: affordability, resilience, independence, and economic opportunity.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why facts alone rarely change minds

🔹 How clean energy can evolve from a “push” industry into a “pull” industry

🔹 What the IRA taught us about public awareness and policy durability

🔹 Why emotional connection often matters more than technical precision

🔹 How stronger public understanding could accelerate energy adoption

If you’ve ever wondered why technically superior solutions still struggle to earn broad public trust, this conversation is worth your time.

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

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 Development Manager at Pylontech, joins Nico Johnson for a deeply practical conversation about what installers should actually be paying attention to as batteries become a core part of the residential energy system.

Sam has worked across modules, distribution, and storage, and he’s even built his own off-grid home by hand. That gives him a rare perspective on how solar-plus-storage systems behave in the real world and where installers most often create long-term problems for themselves.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why rising peak demand is accelerating residential battery adoption

🔹 What installers should look for in a reliable battery partner

🔹 The wiring and system design mistakes that create long-term warranty issues

🔹 How cold-weather performance affects real-world battery operation

🔹 Why VPPs could reshape installer economics and customer payback

This episode is not about battery hype.

It’s about how installers make smarter decisions in a market that is getting more crowded, more technical, and more financially important every year.

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

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 investments while trying to ensure growth also creates long-term economic value.

Doreen explains why durable policy signals matter, why transmission remains central to the next phase of grid buildout, and why "business as usual" already requires massive infrastructure investment.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why New York is planning differently for large loads like AI and manufacturing

🔹 How policy durability helps attract long-term capital

🔹 Why storage is becoming a major bright spot for reliability and affordability

🔹 How distributed solar is already reducing peak demand and consumer costs

If you want to understand where energy markets, infrastructure, and economic development are headed next, press play.

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

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 Policy & Markets at the Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES), to explore what this shift means for storage, grid reliability, and the future of energy system design.

Together, they unpack why batteries may need to evolve from simple energy storage assets into active infrastructure that stabilizes and buffers the grid itself.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why giga-scale AI creates a fundamentally different kind of electrical load

🔹 How storage can act as the “shock absorber” between data centers and the grid

🔹 Why responsiveness may become more important than raw generation capacity

🔹 Where lithium-ion architectures face constraints at giga-scale

🔹 How hybrid systems, co-location, and responsive loads could reshape grid planning

If you work in clean energy, storage, infrastructure, utilities, or project development, this conversation offers an important glimpse into how AI may reshape the future grid.

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

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 orchestrate distributed energy at massive scale.

But this conversation goes far beyond software.

Devrim shares the entrepreneurial journey that led him from software engineering and consulting to ultra-distance running, real estate, reinsurance, and eventually Upside Energy, the company that evolved into Kraken through its acquisition by Octopus Energy.

Expect to learn:

🔹Why visibility into the low-voltage grid is one of electrification’s biggest hidden challenges

🔹How utilities are turning EVs and batteries into flexible grid assets

🔹Why consumer participation is defining feature of our future energy system

🔹What entrepreneurs can learn from Upside Energy’s evolution into Kraken

This is a conversation about systems thinking, entrepreneurship, culture, and the increasingly important role software will play in the clean energy transition.

Listen now to hear how Kraken is helping turn grid complexity into clean energy opportunity.

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 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 financing structures and regulatory friction. Then we take it a step further, exploring a new hypothesis Barry has been modeling: using data center demand to help fund rooftop solar and storage.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why U.S. solar costs 2–3x more than Australia

🔹 What’s actually driving the cost gap beyond “soft costs”

🔹 How policy and financing shape the price customers pay

🔹 Why data centers could become unlikely allies for rooftop solar and storage

This is a practical, provocative look at the policies and business models that could make solar cheaper, faster, and more useful to the grid.

Tune in to hear Barry Cinnamon’s roadmap for making distributed energy actually affordable.

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

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 he focused on solar cells instead of modules. Module assembly scaled quickly after the IRA. Cell manufacturing remained limited, even though it sits at the center of the supply chain. But that gap is precisely where Alex recognized his greatest strength.

Experience.

But the ensuing decisions (bets) he made carry real risk.

He is betting that the U.S. cannot sustain a domestic solar industry without cell production. He is also building on proven PERC technology, even as the global market moves toward TOPCon. And he is relying on speed, execution, and hard-won experience to make that strategy work.

We also get into how his past shaped these decisions, what has changed since earlier U.S. factory failures, how the IRA shifted the economics, and what it actually takes to build a factory, from permitting and infrastructure to workforce and community impact.

Expect to learn:

🔹 Why solar cells—not modules—are the real constraint in U.S. manufacturing

🔹 How Alex’s past factory experience shaped his strategy today

🔹 Why ES Foundry chose PERC, and how he thinks about the shift to TOPCon

🔹 What family office investors understood about this opportunity

🔹 What it really takes to build—and sustain—a solar factory in the U.S.

This is a bet on how the industry gets rebuilt. Listen and decide if you agree.

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

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 grid constraints.

In this conversation, Michael shares what he’s seeing in the data, where demand is growing fastest, and how different generation strategies are being considered to meet it.

If you’re trying to understand how data center growth is shaping project decisions, this episode offers a grounded look at what’s emerging.

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

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 SunEdison so competitive. Using semiconductor-style cost modeling to see price declines before the market. Making audacious bets on equipment inputs. Structuring deals that looked aggressive at the time but consistently won.

Ahmad explains how lessons from silicon manufacturing shaped that thinking and created a real edge.

But they also get clear on what ultimately determined the outcome.

The strategy worked.

The cost curve was real.

The execution was there.

What broke was the financial architecture behind it.

A capital structure that depended on continuous demand.

A global footprint that introduced currency and market friction.

And a model that moved faster than investors were willing to follow.

In this live conversation, Ahmad Chatila joins Jigar Shah and Nico Johnson for a candid look at the decisions, convictions, and missteps that helped shape one of the most consequential chapters in clean energy history.

This is not a sanitized founder story. It is a rare, honest reflection on what worked, what failed, and why the hardest problem in clean energy may still be capital formation, not technology.

You will hear how Ahmad anticipated solar cost declines years ahead of the market, why he determined that owning the PPA mattered more than owning construction, and how TerraForm Global became the critical fault line in SunEdison’s collapse.

The conversation also reaches far beyond the past, into the future of India, currency risk, and the global financing models that still need to be built if clean energy is going to scale where it is needed most.

It’s one of the most fascinating conversations Nico has had the opportunity to co-lead (and eaves-drop on!)

Solar may be cheap, but capital still decides what gets built.

If you’re trying to scale projects, raise money, or understand where deals actually break, this is worth your time.

Press play and decide what you would have done differently.

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