Podcasts about Valence

The best technology does not always win.Sass Peress has spent nearly four decades learning why. Since entering solar in 1988, he has built companies, introduced new technologies, sold hundreds of thousands of solar products, backed ideas that worked, backed at least one that did not, and learned firsthand what separates an exciting invention from something customers will actually buy.One of his most useful distinctions is between “bleeders” and “leaders.” Being first can mean paying for every lesson the rest of the market gets to learn from you. The companies that survive know how to stay tenacious without becoming stubborn, change direction when the evidence demands it, and stop falling in love with their own technology.Sass and Nico dig into the early entrepreneurial experiences that shaped him, why “claims are packaging,” what selling 250,000 solar chargers taught him about finding the right customer, and why great salespeople sell outcomes rather than features or pain.They also explore supercapacitors, the changing power needs of AI data centers, and why evaluating any energy technology requires asking a deceptively simple question: under what conditions does this actually work?Ultimately, Sass keeps returning to an even simpler standard for entrepreneurs:Say what you know to be true.If you build, sell, finance, or evaluate emerging energy technology, this conversation is full of lessons earned the expensive way.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 - team@suncast.me 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/suncastSubscribe 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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus(00:00) Outsized Growth in a Defensive Solar Market(01:54) The No Shortcuts Strategy and Response Speed(04:58) Building Content for a Forever Company(06:56) Using Content and AI for Internal Operations(12:57) Quality Execution and Answering Real Customer Questions(14:39) Speed to Response and Post-Install Engagement(17:09) Structuring High-Value Customer Referral Programs(21:46) Community Partnerships and Content Recycling(25:52) Strategic Policy Adaptation and Safe-Harboring Supply(31:42) Bringing Meta Ad Strategy In-House(36:56) Multi-Channel Syndication and Executive Thought Leadership(39:30) AI Integration Versus Original Human Creativity(49:04) The Actionable Customer Story Assignment

While many solar companies are fighting to stay afloat, Exact Solar is flying.After growing 23% and then 50% in the previous two years, the Pennsylvania installer says it's up another 73% so far this year. That kind of growth in this market raises an obvious question: what are they doing differently?Aaron Nichols joins Nico once more to unpack the answer, and it isn't just one clever marketing tactic.Exact has built a growth flywheel around learning. Completed projects become proof the sales team can use. Customer questions become content. Pleased customers become referral sources. Advertising results inform the next campaign. And years of accumulated experience are increasingly becoming searchable institutional knowledge that helps the team respond faster and sell smarter.Aaron breaks down exactly how Exact brought more of its advertising in-house, built systems to stay in front of past customers, turned community partnerships into new opportunities, and used AI to make what the company already knows dramatically easier to find. He also explains how that same bias toward learning and adaptation helped Exact respond when the policy landscape changed directions right beneath them.The bigger lesson goes well beyond solar marketing: the better Exact gets at learning from what works, the easier it becomes to keep growing.Expect to learn:

America needs more power. Data centers are accelerating demand, utilities are planning billions of dollars in new infrastructure, and households will ultimately help pay for much of it.But what if we invested some of that money in the households themselves?Ari Matusiak, co-founder and CEO of Rewiring America, makes the case that homes can become a meaningful part of America's energy infrastructure—and that households should be compensated for the value they provide to the grid.In this wide-ranging conversation, Ari and Nico explore the rise of Homegrown Energy, why the old equilibrium between utilities and customers is breaking down, how hyperscalers could help fund household energy upgrades, and where regulators and utilities are already testing what's possible.They also get into the harder question underneath all of it: who gets to participate in the value created as we build out the grid?For Ari, the opportunity is bigger than electrification. If households can provide real value to the grid, the question becomes whether we continue treating them primarily as customers, or start investing in them as part of the solution.That could create a very different deal: more capacity for a power-hungry economy, more flexibility for the grid, and tangible value flowing back to the households helping make it possible.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 - team@suncast.me 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/suncastSubscribe 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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus(00:00) The Fastest Path to Power(00:12) Meet Ari Matusiak, Rewiring America's Founder(03:17) The Thread Behind a Career of Big Problems(09:42) Winning an Affordable Housing Bond in Rhode Island(22:47) Rewiring America and the 42% Emissions Insight(27:06) Reframing Households as Energy Infrastructure(29:57) Why the Grid's Political Economy Just Shifted(41:13) Energy Value vs. Community Benefit Payouts(42:30) Building the Missing Middle Market(48:47) The Slow Start of Homegrown Energy(55:31) Data Centers, Grid Distortion, and Homeowners(1:00:25) Illinois as the First Domino(1:05:23) Answering the Subsidy Critique(1:15:13) Dignity, Shared Winning, and What's Hardest

En Latinoamérica, la oportunidad no siempre está donde se anuncia más capacidad, sino donde existe una combinación real de demanda, capital comprometido y capacidad de ejecución.Nico Johnson conversa con Juan Manuel Carbajosa, Director de Ventas para Latinoamérica de Shoals Technologies, y Mario Gomez, Presidente de TCI GECOMP. Juntos aportan dos perspectivas complementarias para entender el mercado: la de un responsable global de desarrollo de negocio que habla con decenas de operadores y la de un operador regional con décadas de experiencia construyendo proyectos en varios países.A partir de esa experiencia combinada, la conversación aborda algunas de las decisiones que hoy más importan para desarrolladores, IPPs, EPCs e inversionistas:

Should workforce transformation belong to HR? Bettina Dietsche, Group Chief People and Culture Officer at Allianz, doesn't think so. Bettina leads the people agenda for around 156,000 employees at Allianz. She came to HR after 25 years in IT and digital transformation, picking up the people function while serving as COO of Allianz Commercial during a company turnaround. That background shapes her view that HR's job is to challenge and push transformation onto the business agenda - not to own it.In this episode, David and Bettina discuss: Why she believes HR should challenge and nudge workforce transformation, while ownership sits with the businessHow 25 years leading IT and digital transformation, including a COO turnaround, shaped her approach to the CPO roleWhy she runs regular sessions with more than 60 CEOs across Allianz, and what that partnership actually looks like in practiceHer test for a healthy culture - what people do when no one's watching - and why she calls culture "the hardest currency"How Allianz builds daily AI habits into leadership, from "AI gem sessions" to asking each morning what AI can help with firstWhy she sees AI creating as many new early-career roles as it displaces, and how Allianz is reshaping graduate hiring around that This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before.As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale.Learn more at valence.co/insight222 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Good companies don't automatically get noticed. And doing good work isn't enough to ensure that customers, investors, journalists, communities, or increasingly AI systems understand why your company matters.Melissa Baldwin has spent more than 20 years exclusively in energy and climate communications. As Senior Vice President at Tigercomm and host of the Scaling Clean podcast, she's had a front-row seat to what helps companies earn attention and trust, and what causes otherwise strong companies to remain largely invisible.Melissa and Nico dig into why communications is routinely underfunded, why executive silence is itself a strategic choice, and what the best companies do differently to become useful sources of information for their markets. Melissa shares examples from Zillow and Redfin, explains why proprietary data can create authority far beyond traditional promotional content, and makes the case for giving CEOs a much larger role in telling the company story.Then they turn to a rapidly changing question: what happens when discovery moves from Google search results to AI-generated answers? Melissa explains how longer, more specific prompts are changing search behavior, why mentions and credible third-party sources increasingly matter, and how companies can begin auditing whether they even show up when an AI system is asked who matters in their category. The conversation also explores why community engagement should be treated as project risk management and why developers need to begin earning local trust long before they need an approval.Expect to learn:

durée : 00:15:01 - Le journal de 18h00 - Coup d'envoi des universités d'été. Les formations politiques font leur rentrée. A gauche, la France insoumise se réunit près de Valence dans une atmosphère déjà très optimiste. - équipe : La Rédaction de France Culture, Jean-François Braun, Caroline Bennetot Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

Solar construction has always depended on experienced crews adapting to whatever the jobsite throws at them. But what happens when the industry needs to build more projects than its best crews can possibly cover?Cody Houser has spent much of his career on the other side of that problem. Before becoming Director of EPC and Constructability at FTC Solar, he spent eight years running his own construction company, driving piles, building trackers, managing crews as large as 250 people, and experimenting with automated pile driving years before today's wave of solar robotics.His argument for automation starts with something more fundamental than replacing labor: predictability.Robotics can give EPCs a more reliable baseline for daily production. But Cody also explains why the opportunity starts upstream, with trackers and construction workflows designed to make installation simpler and more repeatable, whether the work is performed by humans today or increasingly automated tomorrow. FTC says its Pioneer tracker is already producing 15% faster mechanical installation by human crews, an example Cody uses to show how constructability can translate directly into EPC economics.This conversation explores the shrinking pool of experienced field labor, safety, constructability, AI, and what Cody believes the increasingly autonomous solar jobsite could look like over the next decade.The bigger question isn't what robots can do. It's what happens when we design solar construction around greater consistency from the start.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 - team@suncast.me 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/suncastSubscribe 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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Dr. Ralph Adolphs, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology at Caltech and a leading expert on the science of human emotions. We discuss how emotions shape our attention and decision-making, whether emotions are truly “stored” in the body, and whether facial expressions are truly reliable signals of emotion. We also cover tools for improving emotional regulation, including cognitive reappraisal and deliberate cold exposure. This episode provides a modern scientific explanation of how emotions are created and regulated in the brain and body, their many impacts on other aspects of brain function, and practical tools for improving emotional wellbeing and processing. Get tickets to Huberman Lab live events: https://www.hubermanlab.com/events Pre-order Andrew's book Protocols: https://protocolsbook.com Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Rorra: https://rorra.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Ralph Adolphs (00:02:54) Emotions; Qualities of Emotions: Priority, Valence (00:10:00) Qualities of Emotions: Scalability, Persistence (00:15:25) Sponsors: Helix Sleep & Rorra (00:18:17) Do Animals Have Emotions?, Conscious Experience (00:22:58) Monitoring & Regulating Emotions; Emotional Granularity (00:31:22) Emotional Regulation, Tools: Situational Avoidance, Ice Baths (00:37:11) Ultramarathons, Perseverance, Adversity; Awe (00:45:04) Sponsor: AG1 (00:46:17) Perception of Emotions, Amygdala & Fear, Facial Expressions (00:51:59) Interpreting Others' Emotions, Prediction (00:57:52) Emotions as Adaptations to the Environment, Types of Fear (01:00:13) Feeling Emotions in the Body, Pain, Insula (01:08:05) Brain & Body Connection; Marketing & Emotion (01:12:34) Sponsor: Function (01:14:11) Art, Music & Emotion (01:17:43) Interpreting Facial Expressions, Developing Emotions, Flexibility vs Reflexes (01:25:11) Emotional Intelligence, Context-Dependent Social Intelligence; Autism (01:33:31) Sponsor: LMNT (01:34:51) Autism & Social Dynamics, Eye Contact (01:42:01) Change Your Personality?, Body Movement & Thought, Social Interaction (01:47:18) Emotion Regulation, Tool: Training Mental Stillness (01:53:46) Task Switching, Tool: Meditation, Breathing Techniques (02:02:07) Illness, Diagnosis & Emotions, Gratitude & Awe (02:06:52) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Australia has spent years ahead of many markets on the distributed solar adoption curve. Now it is giving the rest of us an early look at what happens when millions of those systems move from installation into decades of ownership, maintenance, repair, replacement, and eventually recycling.Daniel Lazarus, co-founder and CEO of Industrias Services Group, has built his company around that second act. After years in solar construction, he saw an enormous need for maintenance but also discovered why relatively few companies have figured out how to deliver it profitably at scale.In this conversation, Daniel shares what his team is finding on aging solar assets, from missing documentation and preventable design problems to a 400-kilowatt commercial system that had fallen to essentially zero production. But the larger story is about the business being built around those problems.Daniel explains how Industrias developed a national service network, why process and data matter more than another piece of software, how EPCs and other partners use Industrias behind the scenes, and why maintenance relationships can eventually create opportunities for system replacement and new construction.For solar founders, EPCs, asset owners, and operators, Australia may offer an early preview of the service economy that follows widespread deployment, and what it actually takes to build for it.Expect to Learn:

Utilities used to plan around relatively predictable demand. That assumption is disappearing.In this opening keynote from Intersolar & Energy Storage North America Midwest, Nico Johnson sits down with 3 utility executives; Bria Shea of Xcel Energy, Andy Plenge of ComEd, and Brice Sheriff of Ameren Illinois to examine what happens when electricity demand can arrive faster than the infrastructure needed to serve it—and distributed energy resources increasingly change how power moves across the grid.The conversation explores the difficult balance between reliability, affordability, and investment; what rising electricity costs actually reflect; the practical constraints to deploying more DERs; and how utilities are rethinking planning for a system with far more uncertainty than the one they inherited.Three utilities operating in different markets arrive at a similar reality: planning the next grid will require more flexibility, better coordination, and new ways of thinking about both customers and the resources connected to the system.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 - team@suncast.me 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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Le FC Barcelone est-il l'immense favori pour réaliser le three-peat dans cette Liga 2026/2027 ? Avec un mercato animé, le Barça de Lamine Yamal semble favori à sa propre succession et donc remporter un troisième sacre national consécutif. Le Real Madrid de José Mourinho peut-il retrouver le chemin de la victoire avec un mercato également très animé et un Kylian Mbappé, grandissime favori au titre de meilleure buteur du championnat espagnol. L'Atlético de Madrid voudra récupérer son trône : la 3e place, abandonné à Villarreal la saison passée. Croyez-vous l'Atlético Madrid titiller le Barça ou le Real Madrid pour le Top 2 ? Qui du Real Betis, la Real Sociedad, Valence, l'Athletic Club ou autre est capable de créer la surprise dans cette nouvelle saison de Liga ?Ce podcast est hébergé par Podcastics, la plateforme pour créer et diffuser votre podcast facilement.

durée : 00:25:05 - Corinne Martin et Pierre-Henri Aupècle du refuge Saint-Roch de Valence nous éclairent sur les démarches et les réalités de l'adoption. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

Pepper Construction has survived the Great Depression, World War II, multiple recessions, and a global pandemic. As the family business approaches its 100th anniversary, its next challenge is not simply surviving another disruption. It is pursuing new opportunities without losing the culture, discipline, and sense of responsibility that carried it this far.Jake Pepper is part of the fourth generation preparing to lead Pepper into that next chapter. His path into the family business was anything but automatic. He resisted joining, studied building science, traded natural gas options, and earned an MBA before returning with a deeper understanding of both the company and the complicated dynamics of a multigenerational enterprise.Jake went on to build Pepper Energy from an initial construction-only solar project while helping the broader company expand into batteries, powered land, and hyperscale data centers. He and Nico explore how new businesses earn trust inside an established company, why each generation may get only one consequential risk, and how leaders protect the core while adapting to markets that can change almost overnight.Expect to Learn:

After building and selling multiple companies, Marc Lopata has learned that the decisions that shape a business are rarely the ones people celebrate. They're the small decisions, made consistently over time, that ultimately determine whether a company lasts.In this conversation, Marc shares the operating philosophy he's developed through decades of building companies, leading teams, and mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs. From hiring the engineering intern who eventually bought his company to thinking about exit strategies before starting a business, resisting the lure of venture capital, and building teams that don't depend on the founder to succeed, Marc's stories come from solar—but the lessons apply to anyone responsible for leading people, managing risk, and building something meant to last.Expect to learn:⚡ What separates companies that endure from those that don't⚡ Why Marc interviewed 45 candidates before hiring the intern who eventually bought his company⚡ How to think about partners, succession, and exit planning long before you need them⚡ Why Marc considers chasing venture capital one of his biggest business mistakes⚡ How decades of building solar and storage projects shaped his approach to technology, risk, and leadershipWhether you're building your first company or leading an established team, Marc offers practical wisdom earned through experience, mistakes, and decades of disciplined execution.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 - team@suncast.me 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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

We know how to build power. Every day, the clean energy industry builds more of it.But there's another kind of power that's far more difficult to generate—and arguably even more important.The kind that determines whether an industry continues to grow regardless of who's in office. The kind that shapes public opinion before a project is ever proposed. The kind that makes policymakers think twice before standing in your way.Tom Matzzie has spent his career building both.Before founding CleanChoice Energy, he spent fifteen years building political movements. Today, he's helping build something the clean energy industry has historically lacked: the institutions, relationships, and long-term political capacity that make an industry durable.In this conversation, Tom introduces a phrase I hadn't heard before but haven't stopped thinking about since: mythic power.It's a simple idea with profound implications.What if the real measure of our industry's success isn't how many gigawatts we deploy......but whether we've built enough influence that our progress no longer depends on the outcome of the next election?Whether you're a founder, developer, investor, policymaker, or simply someone who wants to see the energy transition succeed, this conversation will challenge how you think about what it really takes to build an industry that lasts.In this episode:What "mythic power" means - and why Tom believes every mature industry eventually develops it.Why the crypto industry offers an unexpected lesson for clean energy.Why political durability is built long before a crisis arrives.Why institutions may matter as much as innovation in the next chapter of the energy transition.After listening, I'd love to hear your answer to the same question I found myself asking:Can clean energy build mythic power?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 - team@suncast.me 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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Few people have had a front-row seat to the evolution of the modern solar industry quite like Jeff Spies.Over four decades, Jeff has helped shape the industry as an engineer, educator, trainer, and founder of Planet Plan Sets, working alongside installers and EPCs to solve the technical and permitting challenges behind thousands of solar and storage projects. That perspective gives him a unique vantage point on how the industry has changed—and what hasn't.In this conversation, Jeff shares lessons from a lifetime in solar, including:⚡ How the earliest days of residential solar still influence the industry today⚡ Why every solar project presents a different challenge—and why experience still matters⚡ What the rapid growth of battery storage means for installers and system designers⚡ Why permitting, engineering, and interconnection remain some of the industry's biggest hurdles⚡ How decades of industry evolution have shaped Jeff's perspective on where solar goes nextWhether you're designing systems, running an installation business, or simply trying to better understand the forces shaping the solar industry, this conversation offers the perspective of someone who has spent a lifetime helping it grow.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 - team@suncast.me 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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

How do you bring AI into an organisation without losing what's made it work for 150 years? In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Eric Dozier, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Eli Lilly, to explore what it takes for HR to lead AI and workforce transformation at enterprise scale. Join them, as they discuss: Why HR has to transform twice over in the AI era, first as a function, then as an organisation What prompted Lilly's AI journey, and how the friction points that came up shaped the approach going forward How the role of the manager is changing as AI becomes part of everyday work What separates AI capability from simply increased AI usage The principles guiding Lilly's approach to responsible AI, including where it supports leadership judgement and where it shouldn't How employee feedback has reshaped Lilly's AI strategy, and what Eric believes HR leaders should prioritise as they lead their own transformations This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before. As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale. Learn more at valence.co/insight222 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plug-in solar has the potential to change far more than how or where we install solar panels. I believe it could fundamentally change who gets to participate in the energy transition.I recently sat down with Stephan Scherer, Co-Founder and CEO of CraftStrom, who's spent nearly a decade helping pioneer the plug-in solar market—first in Europe, and now here in the United States. Stephan didn't simply watch this category emerge. He helped move it from a niche idea to a product you can buy off-the-shelf in mainstream retail stores like Aldi and Lidl.In this conversation, Stephan shares what his customers taught him as the market evolved, why the U.S. is now wrestling with many of the same questions Europe faced years ago, and what policymakers, utilities, retailers, installers, and manufacturers should be paying attention to as this category begins taking shape here at home.We also explore one of the biggest surprises from CraftStrom's own customer base: the people buying these systems aren't always who the solar industry expected. That raises a much bigger question about who traditional rooftop solar has been leaving behind—and whether plug-in solar could become an entirely new on-ramp to energy independence.Whether you're writing policy, designing energy products, selling residential solar, or simply curious about where customer-owned energy is headed next, this conversation offers a rare opportunity to learn from someone who's helped build this market from the very beginning—and why he believes plug-in solar is about to change everything.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 - team@suncast.me 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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

The most expensive mistakes on a solar project usually aren't made during the install. They're made long before anyone arrives on site.Greg Smith has spent nearly two decades helping installers avoid those mistakes. As one of the solar industry's most respected trainers and educators, and the author of a practical guide to energy storage, he's helped thousands of professionals understand what it takes to build reliable solar and storage systems that perform as intended long after the installation is complete.In this live conversation from the NABCEP conference, Greg and Nico Johnson explore why communication has become the industry's number one service call, how better system design prevents costly callbacks, and why setting realistic homeowner expectations is just as important as selecting the right equipment. Along the way, Greg shares the simple disciplines that separate installers who are constantly troubleshooting from those who build systems that simply work.Expect to learn:

What if the resistance you're seeing from your team isn't opposition at all? David Green is joined by Travis Hahler, who leads global strategy and transformation at Salesforce and is also the founder of Neurological Nomad, where he applies neuroscience and neuropsychology to how leaders manage change. Travis is the author of the new book Rethink Resistance, and his central argument reframes almost everything: resistance isn't personal, it's protective. Why resistance to change should be read as information, not opposition: The six neurological barriers to change, and why leaders need to understand each one How routine and old habits quietly pull people back toward what made them successful before, even when they're not against the future Why cognitive load and pacing determine whether people actually learn through a transformation, or just survive it What employees are really losing in change that's genuinely good for them, and why leaders often miss it How to apply these insights practically to workforce transformation and AI adoption Whether you're leading a transformation right now or preparing for one, this conversation will change how you think about the resistance you're seeing. This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before. As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale. Learn more at valence.co/insight222 Additional resources: Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Holmes has spent decades at the intersection of energy and technology, giving him a front-row seat to one of the biggest shifts our industry has ever faced.As Global Industries CTO at Dell Technologies, he works with utilities, hyperscalers, developers, and data center operators who are all asking the same question: how do we power the rapid growth of AI?But David argues that's only half the story.The bigger opportunity is using AI to make our energy system itself more intelligent. From flexible compute and workload orchestration to long-duration storage, demand response, and the idea of "maximizing every electron," this conversation explores how the relationship between electricity and compute is being fundamentally rewritten.Along the way, David explains why energy has become a board-level conversation inside technology companies, why decades of conventional data center thinking are being challenged, and why the next generation of infrastructure may be defined less by building more generation than by making better use of what we already have.Expect to Learn:

Battery recycling is about to become one of the most important pieces of the clean energy transition. But before we can build a true circular economy, there's a problem hiding in plain sight.Today's recycling process often starts by shredding batteries with different chemistries into the same stream, creating inconsistent feedstock that's harder to refine, harder to value, and harder to return to the supply chain.Sheeba Dawood, CEO and co-founder of Minerva Lithium, believes the missing step comes before the shredder. Her team has developed battery chemical fingerprinting technology that identifies battery chemistry before processing, creating more consistent feedstock, improving traceability, and unlocking more value from recycled materials.Along the way, we also explore Sheeba's journey from nanoscience researcher to entrepreneur, why she was carrying business cards as a PhD student, and what motivated her to turn laboratory research into a commercial technology.Expect to learn:

Is your HR function organised the way employees actually experience it, or just the way it's always been done? In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Tony Truong, VP of People Strategy, Operations, Technology and Analytics at Chime, to unpack why most HR functions are still organised in silos, by specialty, while employees experience work as a series of moments: getting hired, being onboarded, going for a promotion. Tony has spent the last two years closing that gap, rebuilding Chime's people function from the ground up as the company has scaled into a public company. In this episode, David and Tony discuss: Why the real limitation holding HR back is fragmentation, not ambition What it's taken to rebuild a people function from the ground up at a newly public company How AI has reshaped recruiting at Chime, cutting a process that used to take days down to hours Tony's three-stage framework for thinking about AI's role in the business: assistance, automation, and orchestration What it actually looks like to move people analytics from the periphery of HR to the centre of how a business makes decisions This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before. As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale. Learn more at valence.co/insight222 Additional resources: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2026 Report Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Essayer 1 mois offert chez NOLIO avec le code EXTRATERRIEN : https://www.nolio.io/account/signup/?utm=extraterrien2h09'21 au marathon, 23 selections en equipe de France et une carriere qui touche a sa fin dans quelques mois : Yohan Durand livre ici l'interview la plus franche de sa carriere. Marathonien du Bergerac Athletique Club, 11e performeur francais de tous les temps sur la distance, il est aujourd'hui consultant pour RMC Running et cofondateur de l'academie My Running Club. Dans cet episode, il raconte l'entrainement a la kenyane qui a change sa vision de la course a pied, le jour ou il a craque en pleine preparation d'un marathon, son operation du tendon d'Achille, et la question qu'il se pose a six mois de la retraite : doit-il tenter une methode d'entrainement qu'il n'a jamais essayee pour sa derniere grande course a Valence. Une plongée sans filtre dans les coulisses du haut niveau, entre plaisir, blessures et lucidité sur la fin d'une carrière._Chapitrage_00:00 - Intro et methode kenyane04:12 - Craquer en pleine preparation07:00 - Chaussures carbone et blessures11:12 - Pourquoi Valence explose15:04 - Tenter le double seuil norvegien21:00 - Data, lactate et sensations25:16 - Performance ou reseaux sociaux31:10 - Nutrition et ravitaillement marathon38:14 - Le vrai metier de lievre45:16 - Tendon d'Achille et 4 questions__⚔️ Notre Programme Rox Evolution : https://bit.ly/roxevolution-podcast

Heather Reams spends her days at the intersection of clean energy and public policy, helping shape conversations with lawmakers about how the U.S. meets rapidly growing electricity demand. As President and CEO of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), she brings an insider's perspective on the political shifts redefining how Washington talks about solar—and why those shifts matter far beyond Capitol Hill.In this conversation, Heather explains why affordability has become the dominant energy issue in Washington, why permitting reform remains one of the biggest barriers to building new infrastructure, and why solar's greatest political advantage today may be something much simpler than subsidies or ideology: it's ready to be built. Along the way, we explore how Republican engagement with solar is evolving, what changed after the debate over federal tax credits, and why the industry's long-term success still depends on educating policymakers and communities alike.Expect to Learn:

One of the most common assumptions in business is that responsibility should be earned only after years of experience.After more than two decades as a Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot and instructor, Jason Knapp came to a different conclusion: capability often follows responsibility, provided organizations are willing to invest in training, honest feedback, and continuous learning.That philosophy shaped his transition into clean energy, where he worked across battery manufacturing, supply chains, and policy advocacy, helping lawmakers better understand the technologies shaping America's energy future. Now, after years of advocating from outside government, Jason is running for Congress because he believes the people writing energy policy should understand the technologies, industries, and communities those decisions affect.This isn't a conversation about politics. It's about leadership, organizational culture, and why expertise belongs in the rooms where important decisions get made.Expect to learn:

A single battery cell can shut down an entire storage plant.It's one of the many operational realities that make battery storage fundamentally different from solar, and one of the reasons software, analytics, and automation are becoming just as important as the batteries themselves.Ty Fenton, Director of Data Analytics at FlexGen, joins Nico Johnson to explore what really happens after a battery project is commissioned. From managing thousands of individual cells to processing enormous volumes of operational data, Ty explains why operating battery storage requires a completely different mindset than operating solar. They also explore how AI data centers are creating new demands for battery storage and why operators are rethinking the role batteries will play in supporting the next generation of digital infrastructure.Expect to learn:

How do you tell the difference between AI that's genuinely transforming HR and AI that's just a slide in a vendor deck? In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Parker Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Valence, the team behind the AI coaching platform Nadia, to discuss what it really takes for HR to prove value in an increasingly crowded AI market. Join them, as they discuss: How to separate genuine AI capability from marketing claims in an increasingly crowded marketWhy AI budgets are increasingly coming from the C-suite rather than HR, and what that means for how HR shows up in these conversationsWhat CHROs should be asking before choosing between an AI-native provider and a legacy platform with bolted-on AI featuresHow the best people analytics teams are proving ROI from AI coaching, beyond adoption metricsWhat it looks like to make performance management continuous rather than a once or twice-a-year processWhy frontline and operational workers need a different approach to AI coaching than knowledge workersValence's recent partnership with Microsoft and what it signals about where AI coaching is heading This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before. As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale. Learn more at valence.co/insight222 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Direction Font-Romeu pour le maître Yodu... Bienvenue dans le journal de bord ! Alors que le Tour de France va passer tout proche de l'endroit où il se trouve, Yohan Durand débriefe le début de son stage en altitude ! Enormément de vélo et très peu de running pour le moment, le temps de s'acclimater et de se mettre en jambe, toujours en écoutant son corps et en faisant attention aux douleurs récurrentes. L'objectif, dérouiller les jambes, monter progressivement en charge et en tempo. En attendant début septembre et le début réel de la préparation pour le marathon de Valence, que tout RMC Running va vous faire vivre à fond ! Sans oublier le 20km de Paris, on lance le concours ! Direction Instagram pour vous inscrire !

Last year, solar and storage accounted for more than 80% of all new power generation capacity added in the United States.So why does our industry still behave like the underdog?In this special collaboration between SunCast and Energy Empire, Nico Johnson and Jigar Shah sit down with Dan Shugar, one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in solar, to explore a question that reaches far beyond technology, manufacturing, or policy.Perhaps our biggest challenge isn't building projects......it's learning how to lead?Dan has spent four decades helping shape the modern solar industry. In this candid conversation, he explains why solar has already won on economics, why domestic manufacturing became a strategic imperative long before it became political, and why the industry's greatest opportunity now is changing how it communicates with policymakers, communities, and the public.The conversation also explores the leadership principles that have kept Dan's core team together across multiple companies, how semiconductor thinking helped him see around corners before the rest of the market, and why culture remains one of the most durable competitive advantages in business.Jigar adds another important dimension, arguing that clean energy's biggest challenge is no longer proving the economics.It's winning the narrative.Together, they make the case that the next decade won't be defined by better technology.It will be defined by better leadership.Expect to learn:

For decades, the energy industry has treated its biggest challenge as building more power.Sean Kelly thinks that's the wrong question.As CEO and co-founder of Amperon, Sean spends his days helping utilities, traders, generators, and some of the world's largest electricity users anticipate what's coming next. And what he's learned is surprisingly simple: the grid's biggest challenge isn't producing enough electricity. It's knowing when, where, and how demand, weather, and renewable generation will collide.That shift is changing everything.In this Tactical Tuesday conversation, Sean explains why Amperon is moving beyond traditional deterministic forecasting toward probabilistic forecasting, giving customers a range of possible outcomes instead of a single answer. More importantly, he makes the case that the future of the grid won't be won by building for all 8,760 hours of the year. It will be won by managing the handful of hours that matter most.Expect to learn:

What would your organisation look like if it worked more like an octopus — distributed, adaptive, and capable of sensing and reacting without waiting for instructions from the centre? In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Phil Lebrun and Jana Werner, Executives in Residence at Amazon Web Services and authors of The Octopus Organization, to explore why so many transformations fail to stick — and what a more adaptive, human approach to change actually looks like. Join them as they discuss:What the octopus organisation metaphor is, and why it offers a different model to the traditional, hierarchical "Tin Man" organisation The three themes — clarity, ownership, and curiosity — that separate organisations that adapt well from those that don't Why transformation can no longer be treated as a one-time event HR's evolving role in driving and supporting transformation How to measure whether change is actually working, beyond vanity metrics Real examples of leaders and organisations putting these ideas into practice This episode is sponsored by Valence. Nadia, Valence's AI coaching platform, connects talent strategy to the work employees are actually doing — offering coaching from the frontline to the boardroom, and surfacing organisational insights that weren't visible before. As the most widely deployed coach in the Fortune 500, Nadia is already helping global leaders like Nestlé, Delta, CVS, and Kraft Heinz transform talent at scale. Learn more at valence.co/insight222Resources:The Octopus Organization by Phil Lebrun and Jana Werner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Uncle Vinny sits down with the extremely talented artist and individual, ‪@valenceheartlock1146‬ Great conversation about moving to Mexico, Amazing art show experiences, the PHX art scene, and much more Follow / valenceheartlock to keep up with new work and events Timestamps: 0:00 - welcome Valence 3:00 - adjusting to a smaller creative community in Mexico 5:00 - adjusting to being on your own 6:00 - enjoying the journey 6:40 - artist origins 10:00 - getting interesting reactions from early works 11:30 - starting to realize potential 14:00 - sticking with the craft; organic audience 16:00 - enjoying the process 18:00 - real life events weighing more 21:00 - importance of community 23:30 - moving and being out on your own 28:00 - studying new town in Mexico 30:30 - meeting with the Mayor and getting buy-in for art show 33:00 - opening night 35:30 - getting recognition from Father & community 37:20 - realities of Mexican life 39:00 - real life rawness 43:00 - doing it for the love of the game 48:00 - pushing yourself and being inspired 50:00 - do what you want to do 53:00 - interactive installations 54:40 - where does the name come from? 58:00 - mermaid visual 1:01:00 - shout-out valence Click the Below Links to Keep Up With New Versatile Vigilante content: Instagram: https://instagram.com/VersatileVigilante/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/versatilevigilante Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/podcast/6rbWSYZP9asHUv431qHZfK/overview Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/versatile-vigilante/id1384221180?mt=2 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/VersatileVigilante

This AI:AM highlights cut brings together Cameron Berg, David Duvenaud, Michiel Bakker, Shawn “swyx” Wang, and Bing Xu to examine what we understand about frontier AI systems and what happens as more decisions move into their hands. Berg grounds model-consciousness debates in experiments on architecture, agency, valence, and welfare, while Duvenaud argues that even well-aligned AI could gradually disempower humans through ordinary economic choices. Bakker frames Europe's AI challenge as a sovereignty problem, and swyx turns to practitioner stakes around agents, evals, maintainable code, and who owns the system of record. Xu closes the loop at the infrastructure layer, arguing that self-improving compute and GPU-kernel automation may deepen rather than weaken the CUDA moat. For full show notes, links, and references, read the episode page:https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/ai-am-4-cameron-on-model-consciousness-duvenaud-s-gradual-disempowerment-swyx-s-ai-eng-alpha/ Mercury: Command is Mercury's new conversational interface, giving you natural-language access to your finances and helping you take actions within your existing permissions and approval policies. Visit https://mercury.com to learn more and apply online in minutes. Sponsor: Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (00:38) Special Sponsor (02:26) Model consciousness indicators (10:47) Valence inside models (Part 1) (17:09) Sponsor: Claude (19:01) Valence inside models (Part 2) (19:01) Misalignment and uncertainty (25:16) Gradual disempowerment threat (35:10) Slow zones and successors (47:41) Europe's AI bind (55:13) Frontier code benchmarks (01:01:59) Routing and memory (01:10:42) Agent infrastructure strain (01:16:25) Self improving infrastructure (01:27:56) Routing compute costs (01:35:39) Sovereign AI financing (01:42:24) Judging AI judges (01:47:26) Building AI DNA (01:52:38) Episode Outro (01:55:09) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/ Youtube: https://youtube.com/@CognitiveRevolutionPodcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution-ai-builders-researchers-and/id1669813431 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yHyok3M3BjqzR0VB5MSyk

TRACKLIST : Santi Dominguez - No lights Feddox - Daft The MoveZ - Circle White Off - XoXo Tatz & Chriz - Bad thinking Davide Marsala - 0097 Laydee V & Alinaqsam - Push it (Steve Kelley remix) Rkyv - Up is down (Rob Pearson remix) Pier Mood - Lost in time Tom Charlton - At midnight Javier Labarca - Coper Mich One - Feel the silent beat

Everyone agrees we need more distributed energy. The harder question is: who pays for it?That's the question Molly Bauch has been wrestling with.As North American Connected Energy Lead at Accenture, Molly helped develop a new model that connects one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand with one of the country's biggest energy challenges.The idea is surprisingly simple.Data centers need community support and faster paths to power. Millions of low-income households need access to affordable solar and storage. What if those two needs could solve each other?In this conversation, Molly explains how Accenture, Grid Alternatives, and a growing coalition of partners are creating a playbook that helps data centers invest directly in distributed energy, lowering energy costs for families today while laying the foundation for tomorrow's virtual power plants.If it scales, this isn't just another financing model. It could reshape how we think about paying for grid infrastructure altogether.Expect to learn:

L'Europe comme une fournaise. La vague de chaleur qui sévit en France, en Espagne, au Royaum- Uni est en train de se déplacer vers l'est de l'Europe... La Pologne, la Croatie ou l'Autriche se préparent... C'est pour jeudi. Alors que la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique a disparu des discours publics, place à l'adaptation.   Comment gérer les 40 degrés ? En Espagne, on connait ces extrêmes... Les entreprises, les écoles ont même des horaires d'été. Mais, c'est depuis les terribles inondations de Valence que l'État a créé un congé climatique de quatre jours. Pas encore activé sous la canicule, Diane Cambon. Et en Belgique, où là aussi les températures atteignent des records historiques, des chercheurs de l'université de Louvain ont évalué les effets d'une solution originale : repeindre les toits en blanc ! Et c'est efficace, Jean-Jacques Hery. À écouter aussiÀ la Une: la canicule en Europe de l'Ouest L'après Orban en Hongrie... Le nouveau Premier ministre Peter Magyar cherche à faire tomber « les marionnettes de l'Ancien régime », comme il les appelle. Mais certains, comme le président de la République, s'accrochent. Sa fonction reste essentiellement protocolaire, mais il peut gravement retarder le travail du Parlement. Et alors que le pays attend de pouvoir enfin toucher les aides européennes bloquées, c'est plus qu'une épine dans le pied. Reportage à Budapest de Florence Labruyère.    À lire aussiEn Hongrie, le Parlement inscrit la limitation du mandat de Premier ministre dans la Constitution Des protections menstruelles gratuites en Écosse C'est une révolution en douceur, mais une révolution de société majeure... Depuis 2022, l'Écosse est la première nation dans le monde à offrir des protections hygiéniques gratuites à toutes les femmes. Des distributeurs qu'on trouve partout dans les toilettes des collèges, lycées, universités, piscines, musées… ou les pharmacies. Ce qui devait être, au départ, une mesure de lutte contre la pauvreté, s'est depuis élargie à tout le pays, à toutes les entreprises. Reportage à Aberdeen de Thomas Harms. À lire aussi«Je mets des couches à la place»: face à la précarité menstruelle, certaines femmes sont contraintes au système D La chronique musique de Vincent Théval  Canicule oblige, un groupe au nom très rafraichissant, le groupe danois Iceage 1835. 

What determines whether a battery project performs safely over its lifetime?According to Kathleen McCaffery and Jeff Zwijack, the answer has as much to do with process, preparation, and quality assurance as it does with the battery itself.In this special live SunCast broadcast, Nico Johnson sits down with Kathleen McCaffery, retired Battalion Chief and former Global Fire Liaison for Tesla, and Jeff Zwijack, Associate Director of Energy Storage at Clean Energy Associates, to discuss what hundreds of inspections reveal about battery safety, operational readiness, and risk management across the energy storage industry.Drawing from hundreds of factory inspections and years of real-world fire response experience, Kathleen and Jeff explore the lessons the industry is learning as battery projects grow larger, more complex, and increasingly important to grid reliability.From supplier selection and factory acceptance testing to emergency response planning and long-term asset management, this conversation highlights the systems and processes that help prevent problems before they become operational, financial, or reputational risks.Expect to learn:

Leadership transitions reveal what companies value most.When FTC Solar recently tapped Anthony Carroll as the new CEO, they chose someone who has spent more than two decades helping build some of clean energy's most recognizable companies. From helping scale Power Electronics from a small Spanish manufacturer into a global powerhouse, to leading Powin during a period of extraordinary growth, Anthony has experienced both the excitement and the hard lessons that come with building businesses in rapidly evolving markets.Now, after stepping away from the industry to lead automated manufacturing initiatives outside of energy, he's back with a new mandate: help guide FTC Solar through its next phase of growth.In this conversation, Anthony shares lessons from across his career, why this is the right next opportunity for him, and why he believes execution, trust, and innovation will determine which companies thrive in the years ahead.Expect to learn:

What if the most compelling case for clean energy isn't climate change, economics, or energy independence?What if it's public health?Former EPA Administrator Michael Regan has spent his career connecting pollution, environmental protection, and energy policy to the everyday health of American communities. In this special collaboration between SunCast and Energy Empire, Nico Johnson and Jigar Shah sit down with Regan to explore why he viewed the EPA as a public health agency first, and what today's clean energy leaders can learn from communities demanding a greater voice in decisions that affect their lives.From North Carolina's landmark coal ash settlement to EPA's Journey to Justice initiative, Regan shares how listening to communities reshaped the way he approached enforcement, regulation, and environmental protection. The conversation also tackles one of the industry's most pressing challenges: how to build the infrastructure America needs while maintaining public trust amid rising concerns over affordability, data centers, and rapid load growth.For developers, investors, policymakers, and industry leaders, this episode offers a timely reminder that successful energy transitions depend not only on technology and capital, but on people.Expect to learn:

Rare earths are having a moment. And if you work anywhere near clean energy, batteries, EVs, data centers, defense, or domestic manufacturing, this conversation should be on your radar.And, when it comes to rare earths (aka critical minerals), it seems everyone talks about mining.But according to Mark LaVerghetta, that's not where the real critical minerals challenge lies.Nico got a chance to sit down with Mark, co-founder of ReElement Technologies, in person finally, and learned that the true bottleneck in the clean energy transition is refining. You can dig rare earth elements out of the ground, but they still need to be separated, purified, and transformed into the high-purity materials used in batteries, EVs, defense systems, data centers, and advanced electronics.Today, much of that refining capacity remains concentrated overseas (yes, largely China), creating vulnerabilities that extend far beyond clean energy. As AI accelerates demand for advanced materials and geopolitical tensions reshape global trade, domestic refining has become a matter of economic resilience and national security.Mark explains why ReElement is pursuing an "innovation, not imitation" approach to rare earth processing, using chromatography to create a more flexible and scalable refining platform designed to respond quickly to shifting market needs.Expect to learn:

durée : 00:05:30 - Les Matins de France Culture - par : Catherine Duthu - En Espagne, la fin de l'année scolaire est marquée par une série de grèves chez les enseignants. Le feu couvait depuis longtemps, après des années de manque de moyens pour l'école publique et de baisse du pouvoir d'achat des enseignants : moins 20 % depuis 2010. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

Risk looks different depending on where you're standing.In Episode 936 (Jason Kaminsky & 2026 The Solar Risk Assessment), we explored risk through the lens of data, operations, and asset performance.Today's episode looks at it through the eyes of someone who spent four decades preparing organizations for uncertainty, disruption, and worst-case scenarios.General Robert Neller served as the 37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, leading one of the world's most respected organizations through an era of rapid technological change, evolving threats, and global instability.In this conversation, General Neller joins Nico to discuss how great leaders think about risk before it becomes a crisis, why resilience is more than a buzzword, and what the energy industry can learn from organizations that operate where failure is not an option.Along the way, the conversation explores cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, energy resilience, military innovation, entrepreneurship, and the leadership principles that matter when the stakes are high.Expect to learn:

Solar projects are increasingly being financed and operated as long-life infrastructure assets. That means the industry can no longer rely on assumptions about risk—we need evidence.In this episode, Jason Kaminsky, CEO of kWh Analytics, walks us through what the latest Solar Risk Assessment reveals, and answers a deceptively simple question: Which solar risks actually matter?Drawing on dozens of partners' fleet-scale operational and underwriting data, Jason explains how the industry is moving beyond anecdotes to identify the risks that have a measurable impact on long-term performance, resilience, and project finance.Expect to learn:

A solar moratorium nearly shut down Alabama's emerging solar market before most of the industry even saw it coming.For years, the prevailing assumption has been that clean energy growth would be concentrated in politically progressive states while places like Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi lagged behind.But that's not what Monika Gerhart is seeing (and doing!) on the ground.As Executive Director of the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association (GSREIA), Monika operates at the intersection of policy, infrastructure, resilience, and market development across some of the most politically and operationally complex energy markets in America. And increasingly, she says the future of clean energy growth is being shaped locally — through trust, coalition-building, reliability concerns, and resilience planning.In this conversation, Nico and Monika unpack the fight that nearly derailed Alabama's solar market before most of the industry even noticed, how Hurricane Ida transformed the conversation around distributed energy and microgrids in Louisiana, and why resilience infrastructure is rapidly becoming a life-safety issue across the Gulf Coast.They also explore:why state-level advocacy increasingly determines whether markets survive long enough to maturehow local relationships shape energy policy more than national narrativesthe emerging role of neighborhood-scale resilience planning and community microgridswhy lawmakers are becoming more open to renewables as electricity demand acceleratesand what developers, manufacturers, investors, and operators should understand about building durable markets in politically complicated regionsThis is a conversation about far more than solar policy.It's about how energy markets are actually built — and why some of the industry's most important battles are happening far from the headlines.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 - team@suncast.me 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!SunCast is also sponsored by Nextpower!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 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.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/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

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:

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:

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:

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: