Interchange Recharged

Ah, the pivot.Did you know that Nokia started out as a paper mill in Finland? Or that Nintendo once made instant rice? Many of the world's leading companies start out in radically different markets.Cleantech is the same. Sales cycles are often slow, technologies don't work as planned, and customer needs are constantly evolving. In the tumultuous world of energy, companies pivot all the time.On this week's episode of The Interchange, we celebrate the pivot.We'll look back throughout history and choose the most successful and unsuccessful pivots of all time. What do they tell us about how to succeed in this market?This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:Forbes: 14 Famous Business PivotsWall Street Journal: How a Florida Utility Became the Global King of Green PowerLA Times: How SunEdison Went From Wall Street Star to BankruptcyVestas: The History of Vestas Wind TurbinesGTM: Hard Lessons From the Algae Biofuel BubbleSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The politics of energy independence are both deeply bipartisan and deeply partisan.Every president since Richard Nixon has declared a goal of eliminating America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy. But each President approaches independence from a very different political lens. Jimmy Carter was the first to make renewable energy a centerpiece. Ronald Reagan dismantled that strategy and instead focused on lifting price controls on oil and gas.Later, George W. Bush focused on domestic oil production, but also put in place some foundational policies to support domestic renewables. Barack Obama, of course, put renewables front and center.Today, we have Donald Trump, who has made coal-powered "energy dominance" the centerpiece of his energy policy. What does that mean exactly?And after nearly 50 years of talk about energy independence, how are we doing?Joining us this week is Sarah Ladislaw, a senior vice president and director of energy and national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She'll help us America's energy import-export balance in a historic, geopolitical context.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:Foreign Policy: A Short History of Energy IndependenceSarah Ladislaw testimony: Geopolitics of U.S. Oil and Gas CompetitivenessWall Street Journal: Is the U.S. On Track for Energy Independence?Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week's Interchange podcast, we saddle up to some adult beverages in a back room at GTM's grid edge conference to discuss the biggest topics in the industry.First, to artificial intelligence and machine learning: What do we exactly mean by "distributed intelligence?" We'll examine some clear use cases.Then to utility innovation: How do power incumbents grapple with the technologies that could break open their business models? We'll give a candid take how they're doing.Finally to GE, Siemens and other industrial giants: Have power generation leaders — even those heavily invested in clean energy — completely underestimated renewables?Stephen and Shayle are joined by David Groarke, the managing director at Indigo Advisory Group.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Have a question for us? Record some audio on your phone or computer and send it to podcasts@greentechmedia.com.Recommended reading/watching from the Grid Edge Innovation Summit:What You Missed at the Grid Edge Summit: Blockchain, Data Cleansing and Distributed IntelligenceDistributed Energy Poised for ‘Explosive Growth’ on the US GridWhat Will It Take to Build the Market for Virtual Power Plants?A Reckoning for Power Giants: Siemens May Sell Its Gas Turbine BusinessSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coal has taken center stage publicly within the Trump Administration. But solar is the real innovation star behind the scenes. This week, we're talking with Charlie Gay, the director of DOE's solar technologies office, about all the activity happening in the agency.We'll discuss the solar power plants of the future: advances in power electronics; the normalization of energy storage; new ways to value and distribute solar electrons; and integration with the internet of things. We'll also discuss the winning politics of PV in Washington.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Have a question for us? Record some audio on your phone or computer and send it to podcasts@greentechmedia.com.Recommended reading and watching:GTM: DOE Announces $105 Million in New Funding for Solar R&DGTM: To Become Truly Mainstream, Solar Will Need to Cost 25 Cents per Watt by 2050YouTube: A Brief History of Photovoltaics With Charlie GaySubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Would electricity work during a zombie apocalypse?Does Elon Musk own Amazon or Uber?Are electric vehicles better for the environment?These are questions that people are asking Google — and we're going to answer them.This week on the Interchange, what our collective search history tells us about our perception of Elon Musk, electric vehicles and zombies.Plus, we'll have the results of last week's Deep Decarbonization Draft. (Listen to that episode, if you haven't already.)This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading on electric vehicle emissions:Manhattan Institute report on electric vehicle pollutionUnion of Concerned Scientists report on the cleanliness of electric carsDepartment of Energy calculator for comparing electric vehicle emissionsSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Like fantasy sports? Listen to our deep decarbonization draft. In this episode, Shayle and Stephen choose their rosters of nine technologies to decarbonize the global economy. The goal: find the best resource mix to keep global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. After they battle it out, listeners decide who has the best team of technologies. Vote in our Twitter poll.Here are the rules:The draft has nine rounds. The “team” resulting from each person’s picks will need to stand on its own. Each pick must be a unique technology. For example, “energy efficiency” is not a pick, but “LED lighting” is.Technologies with major subsets must be picked separately. For example, rooftop solar and centralized solar are two different picks.The existing technology mix will stand. (We don’t need to pick “transmission & distribution" in order to have electricity.)The time horizon will be through 2050.The winner will be chosen by listeners. Once you've listened to the episode, access our GTM poll or our Twitter poll. We'll tally the results for a future episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on The Interchange, a listener tries to convince his office building owner to install solar: "he's open to the idea, but we're struggling with the question of who pays," says Daniel from Menlo Park, California.This conundrum gets to the heart of C&I solar's complexity. We'll address the landlord-tenant split that plagues commercial solar — and the broad range of financing and policy solutions.Later in the show, we'll talk with two of our senior solar analysts at GTM Research, Michelle Davis and Allison Mond. Both residential installers and commercial developers have customer acquisition problems — only they’re the exact opposite problems.Residential installers now have more attractive loan options for ownership, but it’s getting harder to find the next tier of customers who want PV on their roofs; meanwhile, commercial solar developers are seeing more demand for third-party ownership, but projects are still bespoke and complicated.Davis and Mond unpack the latest financing and customer acquisition trends in residential and commercial PV.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:GTM Research: Commercial Solar Consumer Finance TrendsGTM Research: U.S. Residential Solar Finance Update: H1 2018DOE Better Buildings (PDF): Promoting Solar PV on Leased Buildings Guide Kacie Peters: But What If I Sell My Building? Transferability in Commercial SolarSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The solar industry is talking about battery storage almost as much as solar these days.On this week's Interchange, we're addressing the shift toward storage in residential solar. Sunrun, a top installer, is at the forefront of the trend. In California, the company is adding storage to 20 percent of rooftop PV systems — and it believes other states will soon catch up. Sunrun now thinks of itself as a grid services provider. We'll talk with Sunrun Chief Policy Officer Anne Hoskins about how this broadened focus influences the way it interacts with utilities, regulators and customers. Shayle and Stephen will also talk about how batteries are changing the way consumers shop around for solar.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:Sunrun white paper: A B​etter System Created by the People, for the PeopleGTM: Sunrun Keeps Growing, While Prepping for a Whole New Grid Services BusinessSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Europe was once the world's biggest solar spender, until the region's PV market fell into a structural decline after subsidies were pulled back. Now Europe is on the upswing once again — this time, with far less government spending. As European countries embrace competitive auctions, the Old World of solar is getting new attention. The region is expected to install 10-17 gigawatts a year through 2022, bringing cumulative installs from 111 gigawatts to 182 gigawatts, according to GTM Research. A good portion of that capacity won't see any direct government support.Competitive auctions will make solar growth much more sustainable. But will it be enough to make up for the tens of gigawatts of coal and nuke plants closing around the region?Tom Heggarty, a senior global solar analyst with GTM Research, joins us on The Interchange to grapple with that question. We'll put the new trends into a historical and macro-economic context.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:GTM Research: Europe Solar PV Market Outlook 2018GTM: Here Are Solar’s Next Gigawatt-Scale MarketsGTM: Germany's Course Correction on Solar GrowthSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Shell, the world’s sixth biggest oil and gas company, just published a future "sky" scenario that's getting a lot of attention. That potential future: By 2050, renewables could overtake oil, gas and coal as the primary energy source; by that date, it could be “impossible” to purchase a new internal combustion car; and by 2070, there could be 10,000 carbon capture plants operating globally.Shell's energy transition report is receiving mixed reaction. Many energy experts are hailing Shell for putting together such an ambitious document. A lot of environmentalists are cynical, since oil and gas still play a prominent role in the company's future vision.In this week's episode, we're going to walk through the different scenarios outlined by Shell. We'll also discuss what Shell's business might look like beyond 2050, as the company acquires more electricity retailers, EV charging assets and renewable energy developers.This podcast is supported by Wunder Capital, the easiest way to invest in large-scale solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can help finance renewable energy projects while earning up to 7.5 percent annually. Get started here to diversify your portfolio and support American solar projects.This podcast is brought to you by Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions. Learn more about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.Recommended reading:Shell: The Energy Transition reportShell: The New Energies businessWashington Post: Shell Just Outlined a Radical Scenario for What It Would Take to Halt Climate ChangeSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.