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Episodes from SunCast
What Happens When Your Market Disappears? (The Story of Small Wind) | Michael Bergey
What do you do when your entire market disappears?That’s not a thought experiment for Michael Bergey. It’s the story of his career.Long before solar dominated rooftops, distributed wind was solving real problems across rural America — lowering energy costs for customers who didn’t care about climate narratives, only outcomes. Then policy support vanished. Oil prices collapsed. And later, cheap solar took over.Most companies didn’t survive.Bergey Windpower did.In this conversation, Michael walks through what it actually takes to stay in the game w...
Where Solar Contractors Are Losing (and Finding) Margin | ABC Supply
The residential solar playbook did not just change. It got torn up.If you are still operating like yesterday’s incentives, product assumptions, and sales motions will carry you forward, this episode is a reality Margins aren’t disappearing overnight. They’re leaking — in places most contractors don’t even notice.In this live conversation from IESNA 2026, Nico Johnson sits down with Rob Smith and Eric Cieslak of ABC Supply to break down where solar contractors are quietly losing profit — and where the smartest operators are starting to take it back.From jobsite...
100-Hour Batteries, State of Flow, and the Future of Grid Resilience
Long duration energy storage has spent years sitting in the “we’ll need it someday” category. Not anymore. As grid strain grows, data center demand surges, and reliability becomes a boardroom issue, long duration storage is starting to move from interesting concept to urgent solution.Recorded live at Intersolar and Energy Storage North America, this panel brings together Anna Siefken of the LDES Council, Aric Saunders of Noon Energy, Tristan Bannon of CellCube, and Andrew Friedenthal of E-Zinc. With Nico Johnson leading the conversation, the group digs into what is changing in the market and why mo...
The Real Reason Farmers Are Turning to Solar | Rebekah Pierce
Most conversations about agrivoltaics stay at the surface.Rebekah Pierce didn’t set out to become a voice for solar. She was trying to solve a much simpler problem:How do you make a small farm financially viable… without giving it up?What followed was a shift — from seeing solar as a “necessary evil” to recognizing it as a tool that might fundamentally reshape how farms survive.In this conversation, we unpack what’s actually happening on the ground:🔹 What exactly is the business of solar grazing🔹 Where th...
The Real Toll AI Data Centers Are Taking on the Grid (and how to fix it) | with Jon Parrella
AI isn’t just increasing demand for electricity - it’s changing how power behaves.In this Tactical Tuesday, Nico Johnson sits down with Jon Parrella of Terraflow Energy to break down a problem few people are talking about: modern AI data centers don’t draw power like traditional loads. They ramp rapidly, swing unpredictably, and introduce volatility that existing infrastructure wasn’t designed to handle.That shift is putting real strain on generators, batteries, and the grid itself - accelerating wear, increasing complexity, and creating new risks for developers and investors alike.In...
How Energy Narratives Shape Capital -A Former WSJ Reporter’s Perspective | Russell Gold
Russell Gold has spent years explaining the energy transition from the outside. First as one of The Wall Street Journal’s leading energy reporters, and now from inside one of clean energy’s fastest-growing new entrants, T1 Energy.At The Wall Street Journal, his award-winning work covered the fracking boom, Deepwater Horizon, and the investigation into the Camp Fire in California. He also wrote The Boom and Superpower, digging into the people, decisions, and forces shaping modern energy.Now, he’s on the other side of the table.As EVP of Strate...
Why Most C&I Solar Projects Don’t Succeed (It’s Not the Solar) | Aaron Wilson, Solar One
Most C&I solar projects don’t fall short because of the solar itself.They struggle because deals aren’t structured correctly, markets are misunderstood, or developers take on opportunities that were never a fit to begin with.In this episode of SunCast, Nico Johnson sits down with Aaron Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Solar One, to unpack what actually separates projects that get built and deliver long-term value - from the ones that stall, get delayed, or fail to meet expectations.Aaron didn’t come up through traditional solar channels. He sta...
Clean Energy Is Winning on Cost — So Why Is It Losing the Narrative? | Sammy Roth
Clean energy is winning on cost.Solar and storage are cheaper than ever. Deployment is accelerating. The economics are undeniable.So why does it still feel like the industry is losing the broader public narrative?In this live conversation, Nico Johnson sits down with journalist Sammy Roth to explore the gap between technical success and cultural influence. After more than a decade covering energy and climate for the Los Angeles Times, Sammy now writes the independent newsletter Climate-Colored Goggles, where he examines how media, identity, and storytelling shape the energy transition.<...
The Energy Signals the Industry Is Missing | with Darrell Proctor, Julian Spector & Sammy Roth
If you want to understand where the energy industry is heading, pay attention to the journalists tracking it every day.Thankfully, we get to sit down with three of the most plugged-in reporters covering the energy transition: Sammy Roth of Climate-Colored Goggles (formerly w/ LA Times), Julian Spector of Canary Media, and Darrell Proctor of POWER Magazine.What signals are shaping the market right now — from capital flowing into new energy projects to grid bottlenecks, AI-driven electricity demand, and the evolving narrative around fossil fuels and nuclear?These are the conversations ha...
How Real Energy Investors Think About Risk, Capital, and Scale | with Brendan Bell, Aligned Climate Capital
What does serious capital actually look for in the energy transition?In this episode, Nico sits down with Brendan Bell, Co-Founder of Aligned Climate Capital and a former member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, to discuss how experienced investors evaluate energy companies, infrastructure projects, and management teams.Brendan shares a practical look at:• why raising capital has become more selective• the common mistakes founders make when pitching investors• what strong management teams do differently• how infrastructure investors think about risk, scal...
Amy Harder on the New Rules of Power
From Davos to data centers, Axios reporter explains the new rules of power.Amy Harder is one of the most widely read and respected reporters covering the intersection of energy, climate, and policy. As the national energy correspondent for Axios and author of the Harder Line newsletter, she helps industry leaders understand what’s actually happening inside the energy system.In this conversation with Nico Johnson, Amy breaks down the forces reshaping the global energy landscape.Artificial intelligence and data centers are driving electricity demand growth for the first time in de...
Solar Revolution: Abby Hopper's Transformative Decade at SEIA
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 reflects on the challenges she inherited, the progress the industry made, and the work that still lies ahead — from building political influence in...