SunCast

For nearly a decade, Abby Hopper served as President and CEO of SEIA, the Solar Energy Industries Association, representing the U.S. solar industry through one of its most transformative periods.

From trade wars and policy battles to the rise of domestic manufacturing and record industry growth, Abby had a front-row seat as solar moved from the margins of the energy system to the center of it.

In this conversation, Abby refl...

Every year, there is a new “crisis” in solar.

And yet… the industry keeps growing.

With leadership transition underway at the Solar Energy Industries Association, Darren Van’t Hof steps in as Interim President and CEO at a pivotal moment. Policy uncertainty. Permitting bottlenecks. Election year noise. And a projected $25 billion flowing into storage in 2026 alone.

So where do we really stand?

In this candid conversation recor...

Most energy projects look solid on paper. Fewer stay on track in the field.

Brandon Moss sees the difference every day.

Energy demand is rising. Load growth is real. Timelines are tightening.

So what actually keeps large energy projects on track?

In this conversation, Brandon Moss, CEO of Shoals, shares what he sees from the center of utility-scale deployment. Shoals touches a significant portion of U.S. solar projects, giving...

Listen to the full 2.5 hour episode here: https://suncast.media/episodes/900

Most companies don’t fail because of strategy.

They fail because standards slip.

In this 13-minute vignette, T.J. Rodgers breaks down the management system he’s used across more than 25 acquisitions to build and scale billion-dollar companies — and why discipline, not charisma, determines whether a business survives.

Inside:

• Why 19 out of 20 decision...

Battery storage is scaling fast.

But scaling portfolios exposes weaknesses most owners never see coming.

As projects move from single sites to gigawatt-hour fleets, many IPPs discover something uncomfortable: they have dashboards - but not decision-grade visibility.

In this Episode, Lennart Hinrichs, EVP and General Manager of the Americas at TWAICE, explains what actually changes once batteries begin operating at scale.

We di...

“This is not an offensive play. It’s a defensive play. It’s a must win.”

That’s how Sheldon Kimber describes AI for companies like Google.

If your business depends on organizing and serving information, AI isn’t optional. It’s existential.

And if AI is existential, power becomes strategic.

In this conversation — recorded before Google’s acquisition of Intersect Power — Sheldon lays out the durable thesis that led here:

The U.S....

T.J. Rodgers has built — and rebuilt — billion-dollar companies across semiconductors, energy, storage, and manufacturing.

In this 2.5-hour Episode 900 deep dive, he walks through the operating principles behind that track record — in detail.

This isn’t a surface-level conversation. It’s a masterclass in how durable companies are actually constructed.

We unpack:

🔹 The mental models he uses to evaluate technologies and markets

...

Conference season is back, and if you are heading to Intersolar and Energy Storage North America 2026, this episode is your unfair advantage.

Nico Johnson sits down with the people who know the show better than anyone. Event Director Beckie Kier, Solar Games mastermind Shannon Twombly, and Conference Chair Gene Hunt. Together, they break down how to get the most value from your time in San Diego, whether this is your first ...

Modern founders spend years building toward a hopeful exit or liquidity event. Almost no one talks about what comes after the acquisition.

In this episode, Nico Johnson sits down with Andy Klump, founder of Clean Energy Associates (CEA), for a thoughtful conversation about leadership after transition. After fifteen years growing CEA and completing a multi-year earn-out, Andy is in a rare season of pause — stepping back from...

Want to grow a billion-dollar business? You need better systems, not just better ideas.

Adam James has had a front-row view as Energy Impact Partners has scaled from a $500M fund into a multi-billion-dollar force as a clean energy VC. But, as he shares, the secret to success isn’t capital or flashy pitch decks. It’s an obsession with infrastructure, team building, and doing the messy work of aligning people and process.

In t...

The solar industry scaled faster than almost anyone expected. But in the rush to deploy, one part of the system never fully got built.

In this episode, Nico Johnson sits down with Suvi Sharma, founder of Solaria and now co-founder and CEO of SolarCycle, to talk about what happens after solar works. Suvi explains why end-of-life planning, repowering, and material recovery are no longer edge cases - they’re becoming core infr...

What goes through Alex Honnold’s mind when he’s thousands of feet off the ground without a rope?

After his first-ever Taipei 101 Live Broadcast ascent of one of the world’s tallest buildings, we thought it’d be useful to revisit what we learned from Alex about mental fortitude and his singular admonition to “do the thing”. Curious how Alex channels discomfort into growth? This episode explores the surprisingly grounded ment...

Clean energy should be easy to finance.

The money exists.

The technology works.

The demand is real.

And yet, projects stall. Deals drag. Capital gets stuck.

And with the IRA crumbling under our feet, everyone is right to ask “how will these projects actually get funded?!”

So what’s actually broken?

In this episode of SunCast, I sit down with Alfred Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Crux, to unpack how clean-energy finance actually w...

Data centers aren’t the problem.

They’re the stress test.

As AI-driven demand surges, the grid is being pushed in ways it was never designed for. But instead of asking how to slow data centers down, today’s conversation asks a better question: Is the grid fit enough to handle what’s coming next?

In this Tactical Tuesday episode, recorded live with the Smart Electric Power Alliance, we explore grid fitness — a new way of think...

What does a modern energy company actually look like?

In this episode, Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, joins Nico Johnson to explore a question that sits at the center of Octopus’s strategy:

Is it a utility with great technology—or a technology company operating inside energy?

Nick’s career spans California energy policy, years running East Bay Community Energy, and now scaling Octopus in the U.S. He brings an o...

Big things come in small packages. Could something smaller than a deck of cards be instrumental in our ability to meet the needs of the energy transition?

In the ever-evolving landscape of power electronics, one material has been steadily gaining prominence due to its exceptional properties and transformative potential: Silicon Carbide (SiC). This remarkable semiconductor has revolutionized various industries, from automoti...

The power grid isn’t just growing (at unprecedented rates!)

It’s becoming more complex, more distributed, and harder to manage.

In this episode, Marc Spieler, who leads NVIDIA’s global Energy business, explains how AI and accelerated computing already support grid operations, solar and storage forecasting, and infrastructure planning across the energy sector.

Nico and Marc explore why electrification and data center growth ar...

The energy grid is facing a challenge unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Think about this: one Virginia co-op has over 20 GW of demand in its queue. That’s more than the energy demand of New York City. As electrification and data center expansion accelerate, public power and electric co-ops are on the front lines of solving this surge.

Electric cooperatives and public utilities are facing a wave of electrification, data cent...

2025 was a year of hardship for many, yet it was also a crucible for entrepreneurs, developing grit, resilience and perspective. We were able to capture some phenomenal conversations on the SunCast Podcast, and wanted to highlight a few that stand out for their vision and which also got among the most downloads of the year. In 2025, the clean energy industry was finally thinking like Amazon, building like Ford, and investi...