Sean White‘s Solar and Energy Storage Podcast

Hermann Scheer (RIP) was a German politician who is responsible for making grid-connected solar profitable in about the year 2000 as he brought the German policy for reimbursing people for solar energy, so that they would make a profit. This brought about years where over half of the World’s installed PV was in Germany. This created the modern solar industry and kick-started modern PV manufacturing. If it were not for Hermann Scheer, we would probably be 10 years behind where we are now with PV prices and installed capacity. Eicke Weber was a friend of Hermann Scheer and Eicke was also the director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems for 10 years, which is the European equivalent of NREL. Eicke brought Intersolar to San Francisco, he was on UC Berkely Faculty and has done a million other things, while remaining a really nice person. I am proud to call Eicke a friend.   Topics Covered:   Hermann Sheer’s Legacy www.ilsr.org/hermann-scheers-feed-tariff-legacy-75-worlds-solar-pv/ Bill Brooks www.brooksolar.com Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en Madam Mi Fusion National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) www.NREL.gov Governor Jerry Brown California Solar Initiative (CSI) SNEC World’s Largest Renewable Energy Conference www.pv.snec.org.cn Nancy and George Lightman Hans-Josef www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Josef_Fell Swanson’s Law Feed in Tariff (FIT) Sultan Al Jaber Irena www.IRENA.org International Solar Energy Society (ISES) www.ises.org PV manufacturing in China Deng Xiaoping IRA John Kerry Deng Xiaoping CO2 PV Technology and Market Developments Global Shifts in Energy Policy Clean Tech Business Club www.cleantechbusiness.club   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.heatspring.com/sean

Where do we start, in this podcast we covered many things and Jeff Spies is very active and connected in the solar industry.   Here is a short list of what Jeff does and has done:   Owner of Planet Plansets www.planetplansets.com NABCEP Board of Directors www.nabcep.org/about-us/board-of-directors CALSSA Board of Directors www.calssa.org Solar Roots, the Pioneers of PV Documentary, Executive Producer www.solar-roots.com The Solar Panel Podcast www.linkedin.com/company/the-solar-panel-podcast   Here are some of the many topics we covered: Solar PV origin in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties in Northern California Marijuana wars with guns in Northern California: solar using weed growers vs. the Feds Hippie Definition Rednecks and Hippies Hipnecks AEE Solar David Katz is a genius DC Power Solar Depot Real Goods  Solar Living Institute Ironridge Quickmount Stuart Wentworth Claudia Hansen Wentworth Johnny Weiss Go Green Solar Home Power Magazine Humboldt Country Nika Show Oregon Solar Energy Industry Boogy rough cut version Plastics Blue grass Solar Pioneer Party Bell Labs BriceLand, CA Brian Tittlebaum Solar PV Magic Nobel Prize Solar Pioneers group in Facebook John Burdner Brian Teitelbaum Davey Rittner Jason Vetterli Wendy Dankof Gov. Jerry Brown Bob McKee Joseph Marino Keisha Johnny Hill Sam Vanderhoof Ron Kennedy John Schaefer Arthur Rudin Ezra Auerbach Richard Perez Bob O. Schultz Kathleen Schultz Mark Moroz Charlie Gay Albert Einstein Edmund Becquerel Adams and Day Charles Fritz   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.heatspring.com/sean

This is my first interview with a real US Military General and I am honored that he took the time to meet with me. I am not worthy!   John Kem is in the civilian sector now and is the President of American Battery Factory! In this podcast we discuss their huge Gigafactory, which they are building in Arizona and which will go online towards the end of 2025 making made in the USA lithium iron phosphate (LFP) lithium-ion batteries. They are working on prismatic battery cells, which are as big as 1kWh each! In the podcast we talk about the manufacturing processes and how the battery materials are put together in a factory that can produce 4GWh per year of battery cells.   Topics covered:   American Battery Factory Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP)IRA = Inflation Reduction Act Army Corps of Engineers Civil WorksMining Battery cell production and safety Investment and manufacturing scale of American Battery Factory The process and challenges of battery cell manufacturing Battery factory American Lithium Mining Cobalt in the Congo Gigafactory Abundance and toxicity of Lithium, Iron and Phosphorous Big Battery Cell Folding Cells Prismatic Battery Cell 314 Ah cells x 3.2V = 1kWh/cell Half of a shoebox size cell Bigger is better Pouch and cylindrical battery cell comparison Prismatic folding speed increased Longer cycle life Fiji Water bottle shape comparison Chemical Mixing Anode and Cathode layers Thin coating Isotropic graphite = consistent shape Narrow film LFP is the cathode LFP mix in vats Absorption capacity for ions to flow Buy pre-mixed LFP Separator between anode and cathode Foils Cans - Aluminum Food can people making battery can for prismatic battery (cell casing) Stationary Energy Storage Systems Smart grid Underground mining operations Drag racing and LFP Range anxiety Home to GWh ESS Tax credit survival vs. competitive manufacturing Made in America with Chinese parts Smartest people in the world come to America Energy storage is required for net zero Investing and buying American Battery Factory Privately held now Series A and Series B funding defined Accredited investors and venture capital   Check out the American Battery Factory website: www.americanbatteryfactory.com   For good luck, give this podcast 5️s   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.heatspring.com/sean

Joe McCabe has been in the solar industry since before there was a solar industry. In this podcast we talk about many things.    Here is a list of topics:   ASES Fellow American Solar Energy Society www.ASES.org International Solar Energy Society www.ISES.org MREA = Midwest Renewable Energy Association SMUD = Sacramento Municipal Utility District PVUSA Davis California PV Policy SAM software PV Reliability Workshop Nerdfest Golden Colorado SANDIA Community Solar Gardens Bifacial Solar< Vertical Bifacial produces more than tilted south no matter what the direction Higher latitude better for vertical bifacial Vertical bifacial requires smaller wires because of lower Isc Clipping Hanging vertical bifacial to swing in the wind. North facing PV for used PV PV module size increasing PV efficiency not important; LCOE (levelized cost of electricity) is important.  Monofacial Agrivoltaics Agrisoltaics Dual use of land Mark Fitzgerald Jane Wiseman IREC = Interstate Renewable Energy Council NABCEP Entry Level Praise Ward Bower! George Kelly NREL NABCEP Exam Committees Photovoltaic effect Conduction band Photoelectric effect Becquerel Einstein Quantum mechanics Thermodynamics Nuclear engineering Schrödinger’s equation Straw bale construction SERF = Solar Energy Research Facility SERI = Solar Energy Research Institute Neutron Scatter Cadmium rods Neutron magazine Smart Inverter Working Group Dan Shugar Howard Wenger PG&E PV for $9/watt in 90s Richard Swanson and Swanson’s curve Colorado Public Utilities Commission CALISO California Independent System Operator BIPV California Energy Commission (CEC) Community Solar Garden Solar Shares Stupid grid vs. smart grid Grid following and grid forming inverters Reactive power Rule 21 Smart Inverter Working Group Smart Inverter Classes Hermann Scherr Frieberg Germany  Smarter E in Munich (formerly Intersolar) Intersolar in San Diego and Long Beach RE+ conferences Making education fun University of Arizona Reactor How PV works Photons Grid Forming and Grid Following Inverters Donating a kidney to Bill Brooks Freiburg Germany NABCEP Certification Energy Ideas Renewable Energy Steward Giant Bifacial module  Joe Mccabe recommends Bill Brooks on LinkedIn  Blue light inside a reactor Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) Carl Weinberg Paul Fenn Community Choice Aggregation = CCA  Eicke Weber RE+ Texas Sean Sings ABC 123 at NABCEP Conference   Homework Assignment read: Leverage Points, Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows   Joe McCabe LinkedIn Page   Joe’s email: energyideas@gmail.com   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at  www.heatspring.com/sean

In this podcast, we learn how UL issues first certification to UL 9741 (and UL 1741 SA) for an AI-Driven Vehicle-to-Grid Compliant EV Charger to Fermata Energy.   https://www.ul.com/news/ul-solutions-issues-first-certification-ul-9741-and-ul-1741-sa-ai-driven-vehicle-grid   Alex Cattelan has been working on EVs for 2 decades and has experience engineering many famous electric and hybrid vehicles, including the Chevy Volt for GM. She also has extensive experience working for Polaris, Johnson Controls and many others.   At the end we decide to go to Burning Man together on a bidirectional electric bus and she is going to teach me how to do wheelies on an electric motorcycle. Nothing can compete with the torque of electric motors, much more than those old fashioned explosion driven motors.   Here are some of the topics we cover: UL 9741 EVPE (Electric Vehicle Power Export Equipment) John Deere EVs AI for EVPE Software engineering Drive trains Electric vehicles   Nissan Leaf Chevy Volt Lithium-ion batteries Hybrid EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Mechanical Drivetrain CO2 UL 9741 & UL 1741 VPP (Virtual Power Plant) Cost Savings Public utility commission (PUC) Stationary Storage Nissan Leaf Nissan Kicks Bidirectional charging Commercial fleets Bus fleet Johnson Controls Pop a Wheelie Ford F-150 Cyber Truck Tesla Developing Software AI Driven Data Science Residential bidirectional chargers   Check out Alex on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexandra-cattelan-59abbb11   Email: alex.catelan@fermataenegy.com   Check out the Fermata website: https://fermataenergy.com   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.HeatSpring.com/Sean

One week before recording this podcast, Garret Little passed his NABCEP PVIP exam, scoring impressively after nine years since his first attempt. In this episode, we discuss his exam experience, memory techniques, and the differences between the Ecotech and HeatSpring prep classes. Garret shares insights on what’s essential for passing exams and highlights the NABCEP courses available. Garret also brings his international experience, having installed PV systems in Nepal and Colombia. Topics Covered: Exam prep and strategies NABCEP certifications (PVIP, ESIP, PVA, and more) Online vs. in-person testing Memory techniques and learning methods Insights from Garret’s exam journey Garret expresses his gratitude to Sean for the impactful HeatSpring courses that helped boost his confidence and knowledge: This course really covered everything I experienced on the exam and in all honesty, to me it seemed it presented quite a bit more information and material than the NABCEP covered, at least from my experience . For example, I don't think I had one string sizing question, conduit fill, or even conductor sizing with derates (if my memory serves me right). It was not nearly as much calculations as I had anticipated, aside from interconnection calcs, which were all fairly similar. With that being said, I feel tremendously more knowledgeable than I was even just a few months ago prior to taking this course and I am so thankful for that. Thank you again so much for working with Heatspring on these courses to provide such  thorough, entertaining, and educational content. It feels so incredibly good to not only have passed the exam, but to feel that much more educated. To prepare for any NABCEP exam, check out Sean's online classes at HeatSpring.com/SEAN and explore more at SolarSEAN.com.

I came across a really cool YouTube video, rivaling Mr. Beast, but for solar, which was a purple bearded solarboi going off on Rapid Shutdown UL 3741 PV arrays, I immediately contacted him and a week later, here we are recording this podcast. This guy is entertaining and we are lucky to have him in the industry. This industry needs to be fun!!   derek the solarboi has 3 NABCEP Certifications   PVIP (PV Installation Professional) PVCMS (PV Commissioning and Maintenance Specialist) PVSI (PV System Inspector) Altogether that looks like:   derek the solarboi, NABCEP PVIP, PVCMS & PVSI   That is a total of 18 letters after his name, making him super special!   We talk about some controversial subjects, including Rapid Shutdown and I always try to be bifacial and take both sides for educational purposes, but encourage my guests to have strong opinions. If you have a strong opinion, let’s get you on the show!   Here are some of the topics we covered: Other rad solar creators, like Solar Goat (https://linktr.ee/solargoat) and The Solar Slayer (https://thesolarslayer.com/) Rapid shutdown methods UL 3741 PVHCS (PV Hazard Control Systems) Array level rapid shutdown 2019 NEC (serious joke) NABCEP Certifications Social media Water flow in conduit  DC arc faults and ground faults Ironridge (press release and installation addendum can be found here: (https://www.ironridge.com/2024/02/27/flush-mount-systems-listed-to-ul-3741/) Sollega SMA Residential UL 3741 (solarboi’s video Peter Greenberg the String Inverter Activist RE+ Purple   solarboi has decided to remain anonymous for this podcast. This is really cool, my first anonymous guest!   You can see all of solarboi’s links at www.solarboi.com YouTube: www.youtube.com/@derekthesolarboi Mastodon: https://mastodon.energy/@solarboi TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@thesolarboi Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesolarboi   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.HeatSpring.com/Sean

Great conversation with Tyler Hortin! His company does everything from Wh to GWh and focuses on prismatic cells that are almost 1kWh! This makes for less cells and less connections that can go wrong. The technology here is Lithium-Iron Phosphate (LFP) and we will talk about the supply chain and implications of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). They are affiliated with American Battery Factory, so we talk a little bit about manufacturing in the USA towards the end.   Key Words: Lithium Iron Phosphate Prismatic Battery Cell Battery Manufacturing in the USA How he get the Iron LPF Lithium (L) Iron (FE) Phosphorus (P) Great Salt Lake Battery management system (BMS) Marine Battery NMC Alternator DC to DC Charger Shore Power Energy Storage System UL 9540 & 9540A DC Interconnected System Cabinet size American Battery Factory How long does it take to build a battery factory?   Check out Tyler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-hortin-90469945/   Check out his website: https://lionenergy.com   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.HeatSpring.com/Sean

Tor "Solar Fred" Valenza is a regular in the solar industry. Tor has a podcast called Probably True Solar Stories, which takes his expertise as a former Hollywood writer and merges that with the solar industry. Some of his Hollywood work was on popular shows, such as Stargate SG-1, Dharma & Greg, and The Dead Zone. Tor's current day job is he is a chief solar public relations geek at UnThink Solar, a solar PR and communications firm.   In this podcast we talk about how Tor Valenza became Solar Fred and how he made stories about solar.   Topics covered: The history of branding about Solar Fred How his fascination in solar energy began as a kid in NYC Central Park Solar on the White House Sungevity Danny Kennedy Solar Head of State Great way to promote solar Probably True Solar Stories Podcast Murder by Solar Drone President of the US as a solar installer The 6000 Year Story of Solar Energy book by John Perlin Clean nuclear power being used as a disguise for a nuclear weapons program Solar installation war (Green War). Nuclear bros Energy deep state Sean almost killed by carbon monoxide as a kid Solar makes you the most money< Steam turbines for solar PV energy storage with hot rocks www.powermag.com/volcanic-rock-offers-new-take-on-energy-storage Agrivoltaics CSP = Concentrated Solar Power Cadmium Telluride Recycle, Reuse and Reduce Solar feasibility on the north side of the roof Solar wedding at a Tweet Up at SPI Check out Tor on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tor-solar-fred-valenza-3150015 Check out his website: www.unthinksolar.com Here is where to find Tor's Podcast: www.probablytruesolar.com/   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.HeatSpring.com/Sean

In this episode we are triple fortunate to have three of the smartest individuals in a discussion on science and policy from the Federation of American Scientists (fas.org), a nonpartisan think tank connecting scientific research with policy making to address today’s most urgent needs. Transition to renewable energy is urgent! We talk about how we can transition to solar fast, and how science and policy need to work together to get the job done, and how individuals can get involved.   Guests: Erica Goldman, on systems thinking and solar Alice Wu, on tipping points Zoë Brouns, on the workforce needed to meet the moment   Topics discussed: American Climate Corps, which is an IRA program intended to mobilize the green workforce on par with the FDR programs (see Civilian Conservation Corps), modeled similarly to the successful AmeriCorps. DOE (US Department of Energy) Virtual Power Plant Commercial Liftoff Report DOE Commercial Liftoff homepage Clean Energy Talent Workforce report FAS History Manhattan Project Los Alamos Clean Energy and Climate Policy Science, Policy and Policy Entrepreneurship SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS! Congress White House Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) 2021 Follow FAS’s work via their newsletter I am honored to have hosted the podcast with the most intelligent people ever on any podcast in history. Erika, Alice and Zoë's backgrounds are very impressive! Be sure to click on their names above, or find them on LinkedIn to see what I mean. We are talking Einstein-level conversation at times, especially when Alice told us about triplet excitons. This is an exciting conversation!   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean’s classes at www.HeatSpring.com/Sean