GTM: Take Five Podcast

In this special Solar Summit 2014 preview edition of the Greentech Media Podcast, Scott Clavenna, CEO of Greentech Media, talks with Paul Nahi, CEO of Enphase Energy, about the state of the market for solar inverters, balance of systems, and asset management and O&M in PV solar energy systems.

In this special Solar Summit 2014 preview edition of the Greentech Media Podcast, Scott Clavenna, CEO of Greentech Media, talks with members of the truSolar Working Group about their current work underway to establish uniform credit screening standards for commercial and industrial PV projects to help drive down the cost of capital. The truSolar team will be taking part in our pre-conference seminar at the Solar Summit on The Future of U.S. Distributed Solar Project Finance in a special session titled C&I Project Screening Methodologies: How to Accurately Price Risk to Unlock Financing. On the podcast representing truSolar are: Chase Weir, CEO, Distributed Sun Evelyn Butler, Global Director, Business Development, Energy & Industrial Systems, Underwriters Laboratories Jamie Mandel, Manager Industry and Electricity at The Rocky Mountain Institute

In this special podcast from Greentech Media, we talk with GTM Research Analyst Adam James and Dr. Khaled of Knowledge Industry Co. in Saudi Arabia about the development of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia, and a particular project called Renewable TaQati for RTV, which will be deployed in two phases: a pilot project generating 300 kWh per day, and a second phase consisting of developing a large-scale renewable farm with 30 GWh annual output. Both projects will be sited throughout the King Saud University campus in Riyadh.The pilot phase will utilize a multi-technology approach by deploying photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar photovoltaics (CPV), concentrated solar power (CSP), as well as vertical and horizontal wind turbines to assess what technologies should be scaled for the larger farm. The transition to renewable energy in Saudi Arabia will face many of the challenges seen across global markets. When a nascent market implements policies intended to dramatically shift the electricity portfolio, it requires a workforce capable of implementing and maintaining the new system, an experiential learning curve with new technologies, and the influx of new investment. These challenges are most pronounced in the earliest stages of the renewable transition, which is why the strategies of the first developers to participate in the process are such a useful reference point in understanding the energy economy. The Renewable TaQati for RTV project has the potential to both overcome these challenges and contribute to a valuable learning process for Saudi Arabia as a whole. The unique partnership with King Saud University represents an investment not just in the project, but in developing human capital in the Kingdom and training the next generation of technical experts in the renewable energy field. In addition, the multi-technology renewable energy farm will inform the process of managing a broad technology portfolio— lessons that Saudi Arabia will need to apply on a national scale as their generation mix becomes increasingly diversified.

The term "smart grid" is getting a bit outdated. So is there a more appropriate term that better defines the changes underway in the electricity system? We think so. It's called "Grid Edge." In this podcast, we'll talk with GTM Research Vice President Shayle Kann and Greentech Media CEO Scott Clavenna about the market forces behind the Grid Edge -- and also break down what it means for our coverage.

GTM Research’s latest update on the future of solar module manufacturing costs was released earlier this week, and there has been quite a bit of discussion around its findings on solar module cost declines and their ramifications. In this week's podcast, we attempt to clear the air around some key points of debate and dive into the details on how solar manufacturing costs continue to head down.

America is undergoing a seismic shift in energy. We are now producing more oil than at any time since the early 1990's; we are awash in natural gas, which is pushing coal out of the market; and we have doubled renewable electricity in the last four years. Coupled with dire climate challenges and a shifting geopolitical landscape, there's a lot of change underway in energy. But this era isn't necessarily unique, explains energy expert Michael Levi. In this week's podcast, we'll explain the realities of America's current energy transition.

In this week's show, we'll talk with Dr. Dave Danielson, assistant secretary of the office of energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy. He'll discuss the DOE's cleantech priorities, lessons learned from previous investments, and comment on the new energy secretary, Ernest Moniz.

In this podcast, we take a detailed look at how IT is reshaping the energy efficiency market and making it truly "intelligent." We'll have an in-depth feature story highlighting the technologies and business models that are unlocking vast efficiency potential and turning it into a resource that companies can manage, procure and sell. Go here to learn more about Greentech Media's energy efficiency coverage: http://www.greentechmedia.com/channel/efficiency

Are data centers part of the efficiency solution, or a part of the problem? Well, they're both. These modern steel mills require electricity capacity equivalent to 30 nuclear power plants each year world-wide. And at some facilities, up to 90 percent of energy is wasted due to redundancies and underutilization of equipment. At the same time, however, these facilities have powered an IT industry that has brought extraordinary new efficiencies across our economy. In this podcast, we'll talk to Kathrin Winkler, the Chief Sustainability Officer at EMC Corporation, about the role of IT in efficiency and about how a large IT services firm attacks energy consumption.

When we think about our economy, we often think about it from a supply-side perspective: We need more energy production to create more goods and services and support greater economic growth. Turns out, however, that energy efficiency plays a much bigger role in our economy than energy production. We'll talk to energy economist Skip Laitner about the historic impact of efficiency -- and how it may lay the groundwork for a new economic paradigm based on the "third industrial revolution."

This week we talk with Raghu Belur, Co-Founder, Vice President of Products and Strategic Initiatives at Enphase Energy, about the solar market, the role of microinverter solutions in residential and commercial PV installations, and how the US solar market is evolving in 2013.

In this week's podcast Greentech Media CEO Scott Clavenna talks with Bates Marshall of SMA America about the global solar market of 2012, solar inverter technologies and solutions, and how SMA will address the many opportunities and challenges in the solar market unfolding in 2013.

The Networked Grid 150 is GTM Research's annual report on the smart grid vendor ecosystem. Greentech Media CEO Scott Clavenna talks with Senior Smart Grid Analyst David Roarke of GTM Research, and reviews the findings of the report - the leading vendors, the top ten to watch, key innovators in 2012, trends in 2013, and the challenges of deploying a smart grid in the face of quite vocal resistance from anti-smart meter coalitions.

2012 was a tumultuous year for solar in the U.S. marked by a trade battle with China, bankruptcies in the manufacturing sector, and political attacks. But amidst it all, the industry saw 76 percent growth – putting 3,313 megawatts of solar PV projects online around the U.S. GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association just released the new Solar Market Insight report for 2012. In this week’s show, we’ll talk to GTM Research Vice President Shayle Kann about what’s driving growth and what the U.S. may look like in the years to come.

In a preview of a discussion planned for the Solar Summit 2013, Greentech Media CEO Scott Clavenna talks with Andrew Krulewitz of GTM Research and Nico Johnson of Trina Solar about the outlook for solar power development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil, Mexico and Chile are growing rapidly today, yet obstacles remain to continue this growth and expand it to other neighboring nations - incentives, availability of finance, consistent government support all combine to make this region important yet challenging for global players to address.