Energy Capital Podcast

Doug Lewin
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Energy Capital Podcast

The Energy Capital podcast focuses on Texas energy and power grid issues, featuring interviews with energy professionals, academics, policymakers, and advocates. www.douglewin.com

  1. Shape Load Perfectly, Inject Energy Optimally with Sonnen's Blake Richetta

    6 天前

    Shape Load Perfectly, Inject Energy Optimally with Sonnen's Blake Richetta

    We’re on the verge of one of the biggest energy shifts in decades: the increasing use of demand side resources. They’re often referred to as Virtual Power Plants, or VPPs. Add together thousands of rooftop solar installations and home batteries and you reach levels of power equal to medium sized power plants. They add power capacity, can provide key grid support in ancillary services, and give consumers uninterrupted power during outages of any kind. Unfortunately, the budget bill passed yesterday by the Senate would make this much harder. (We talked about the bill and its implications but we recorded on June 23 before we knew how bad it would actually be.) VPPs are already working in Texas, and started to gain momentum. This week on the Energy Capital podcast, I spoke with Blake Richetta, CEO of Sonnen USA, and one of the most forward-thinking leaders in the clean energy world. We broke down what’s happening in Texas, why the rest of the country isn’t paying attention, and what’s at stake if we get this wrong. The Big Idea: Solar Alone Isn’t Enough. Batteries Make It Work. Blake lays it out clearly: The economics of rooftop solar by itself don’t work very well. You need a battery to make the math work. At midday, solar power is often so abundant it’s not worth much on wholesale markets. But during the evening — when people are getting home, turning on ACs, cooking, watching TV and the sun is setting — prices rise. A battery allows you to store cheap solar and sell it when it matters most. As Blake put it, that allows you to shape load perfectly and inject energy optimally. It’s not only a savings strategy; it’s also a boon to grid reliability. And if thousands of homes do this together? You’ve got a power plant, one that’s already connected, decentralized and closest to load, and can scale to solve some really difficult locational problems on the grid. What’s a VPP, and Why Are Texas Homeowners Getting One for No Upfront Cost? This isn’t theoretical. This is live in Texas. Sonnen and their Texas partner, SOLRITE, have already deployed over 3,000 residential batteries into a fully operational Virtual Power Plant. Here’s what makes it different: * A zero-upfront-cost offer for homeowners * 40 kWh, 9.6kW battery storage system: bigger than what most homes get * A locked-in energy rate (~12¢/kWh with a small escalator), generally lower than market prices * The ability to participate in grid services without even noticing Texans get resilience and savings. The grid gets flexibility and stability. The model works. Key Takeaways * Batteries unlock the real value of solar: economically and operationally. * Texans want energy independence and resilience to extreme weather events, and this model delivers it. * Competitive markets enable this kind of innovation in Texas in a way other states can’t match. * The grid gets stronger when consumers get stronger. * The President and Congress are poised to significantly slow down what Texans are doing. What Comes Next Sonnen and SOLRITE are betting big on a Texas-led VPP revolution. But there’s still work to do: * Unlocking distribution-level grid value (like locational value and deferred infrastructure costs) * Expanding ADER pilot (aggregated distributed resource) programs * Supporting U.S.-based battery manufacturing to reduce foreign dependency * Ensuring that federal policy doesn’t kill the momentum just as it starts to scale. Texans remember what it feels like when the power goes out. VPPs offer a smarter, cleaner, more resilient future, without needing to sacrifice freedom or reliability. We finally have the technology.We finally have the market model.Now we need the political will to help Texans strengthen themselves and strengthen the grid, too. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction03:00 – How Sonnen helped develop Virtual Power Plants and paired solar w/ storage06:00 – Using Texas’ competitive market to make VPPs available for $0 upfront cost12:00 – Consumers’ cost to get a VPP through a retailer and a “VPA”17:00 – How VPP economics work for Sonnen and its partners (hint: it’s the batteries)19:30 – The market is sending signals for “firming” right now22:00 – The resiliency benefits of solar & storage, advantages over generators26:00 – Grid following vs. grid forming batteries for backup power32:00 – ADER pilot in Texas, grid services from VPPs33:30 – Fundamental goal: shape load perfectly and inject energy optimally37:00 – The potential to monetize the distribution value of VPPs and ADERs41:00 – How Distribution System Planning using DERs could lower costs45:00 – Tapping into locational and temporal value of distributed energy51:00 – Why some utilities make the leap to VPPs and tap the value of DERs55:00 – How vertically integrated utilities in Texas could benefit from VPPs57:30 – Implications of federal budget bill on residential DERs (as of June 23)1:02:00 – How market value can, in time, replace tax credits1:03:30 – sonnen’s manufacturing in America to realize the tax credit adder sonnen’s manufacturing in America to realize the tax credit adder1:05:00 – Final thoughts on being a “disruptor” in the market Resources * Sonnen USA (home battery & VPP solutions) * SOLRITE Texas Virtual Power Plant * SOLRITE + sonnen VPA launch (January 2025) * Utility Dive: Texas grid-optimizing VPP details * Abundance + SOLRITE + sonnen VPP collaboration * 25D Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit (IRS) * SEIA: 25D Solar Tax Credit explainer * Senate’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” tax credit updates * Reuters: U.S. Senate adjusting rooftop solar line in budget bill * AP News: Senate GOP solar & wind incentive cuts * Reuters: Rooftop solar firms warn House bill would set back sector * We’re Not Relying on the Texas Grid This Summer. Michael Hardy, Texas Monthly. Transcript Doug Lewin (00:07.928) Virtual power plants have massive potential to make the grid more reliable and resilient and lower costs for consumers. But all that hangs in the balance. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. I'm your host, Doug Lue, and my guest this week is Sonen CEO, Blake Richetta. Sonnen is a German manufacturer doing a large business in the United States, particularly in Utah, California, Texas. Doug Lewin (00:36.114) among their leading states. We recorded this on the 23rd. So just about a week ago and just at the very point that the Senate language was starting to come out, we were actually recording in the morning, so that language wasn't out yet. We were not able, obviously, to talk about the very latest of what is going in the Senate as this podcast is dropping. That said, it is highly relevant. Doug Lewin (01:04.299) because we did talk about the threat to the tax credits that help people get solar in storage at their homes. So when the next hurricane or ice storm or whatever it is hits or just a general power outage, which happened all the time, 95 % of them are on the distribution grid. And it's just because the wind blows really hard. A storm comes through, lightning hits a transformer, whatever it might be that knocks the grid out. People want to have solar and storage at their home. Doug Lewin (01:32.91) It's good for them to have that resilience. It's also good for the grid when those distributed assets can participate to support the grid. This is something Blake and I got into in great detail. I learned a ton, as you'll hear. A lot of times, asked questions about things I didn't understand. Learned a lot from Blake and really excited about the promise for virtual power plants, distributed energy resources, particularly in the Texas construct. But before we get into this, I think it's really important to say, given the moment that this Doug Lewin (02:02.488) podcast is gonna be dropping. All of that is in serious, serious doubt. And if you are somebody that was hoping to have solar and storage in your home or hoping that distributed solar and storage could make the grid stronger, all of that is very much in peril. I will be covering that at the newsletter and further on the podcast.gluon.com. But for now, enjoy this great conversation with Blake Riketa, CEO of Sonin US. Thank you. Doug Lewin (02:32.814) I'm Clay Kraketta. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Blake Richetta (02:35.746) Thank you, Doug. It's such a pleasure to be here. Doug Lewin (02:38.786) Great to have you. We've been obviously trying to get this together for a while. Really excited about the things you guys are doing at Sonnen, particularly in the Texas market, but let's just start at a high level. What is Sonnen for folks that don't know? Brief with this answer if you can, because I want to get into all kinds of different policy things, but it's important that people know what Sonnen is. So let's start there. Blake Richetta (02:57.39) Sure. Sonnen is a pretty special company. I joined Sonnen in 2016 when I left Tesla because of the incredible advancements that Sonnen had made in the European market and specifically in the German market, which is still really a world leading position in the virtual power plant based energy system. And we looked towards Sonnen even at Tesla with inspiration of how do they do what they do? How they achieve so much as such a Blake Richetta (03:26.892) at that point, small company that was really fast moving sort of startup. This was back in 2016. Sonnen started in 2008 with the innovation process of the first battery, 2010 launched the first product to the German market. And a very short summarized answer is that Sonnen, which in the German language is the Sonnen, which is the plural of sun, sort of like suns. There's no real English translation. Sunny battery, I don't know, was inspired by this idea that Blake Richetta (03:56.854) solar needed to have a greater purpose and that the intermittency of solar was a dead end for the German energy system, which was already being seen

    1 小時 9 分鐘

  2. 6月27日

    Shortcast: Solar Jobs Are Not "Fentanyl Jobs"

    Anti-energy crusaders have a lot of facts wrong. I’ll break that down in this video. They’re also personally insulting the hard-working men and women in the renewable energy industry, calling solar jobs “fentanyl jobs.” They should apologize to the hard-working Americans helping to make our grid stronger every day. The ERCOT CEO told the Board earlier this week that solar and storage has strengthened our grid. Our risk of an energy emergency went from 16% one year to ago to 0.5% this year “because of the contributions of new resources on the grid.” Those resources are solar & storage. I show all of this in the video, which you can also watch on YouTube. I also covered a couple of the biggest problems haters of renewable energy and storage have: (1) They can’t credibly deny the benefits of renewables and storage, and (2) Where’s the alternative power going to come from if you limit renewables and storage? We have rising demand. If Congress lessens supply, what happens to prices? I wrote recently about how abruptly ending the clean energy tax credits will hurt our efforts to win the AI race and is actually Energy Submission to China. I also wrote about how short-sighted energy policy will raise costs, causing Energy Inflation for consumers of all kinds. The best way to handle the clean energy tax credits is a predictable ramp down of the tax credits — not a cliff. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: * How Texas slashed outage risk by 95% thanks to solar and battery storage * Why gas is not the fastest way to add power even though some people continue to falsely insist it is * How fossil fuel companies are using renewables to cut costs * The simple math of supply, demand, and rising prices without a credible backup plan 📺 Watch on YouTube: Why It Matters: * Demand is up 25% since 2021: rapid growth not seen since the ’60s * Without tax credits, supply tightens, prices go up, and grid reliability suffers * Gas turbines aren’t coming fast enough, nuclear is years away Seriously, over the next 4-5 years, where is the power going to come from if not from wind, solar, and storage? It’s not a rhetorical question and they can’t answer it. They’ve said LNG power plants, but those don’t exist. They’ve said nuclear but that’s 2030’s at best. They’ve said gas plants, but good luck getting a turbine. Final Thought If policymakers want to kill clean energy incentives, they need a plan to replace the power. Because without one, consumers will pay more, grid reliability will suffer, and elected officials will face a backlash. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.douglewin.com/subscribe

    15 分鐘

  3. 6月27日

    Shortcast: "Energy Inflation"

    This is the read-aloud version of my June 26 article, now on YouTube & the Energy Capital Podcast I don’t usually record readings of my articles, but I made an exception for this one. If Congress passes the budget bill as is, it would spike energy costs for families and businesses and cause serious economic harm. So I sat down and read the piece aloud with a few added thoughts and commentary as I went. Watch on YouTubeRead the original article here What you’ll get in the episode: * Why “leveling the playing field” leaves out 100+ year old coal, oil, and gas subsidies (aren’t they mature industries at this point?) * How a $300 increase per household could be heading for your utility bills * What the real consequences of a 60-day cliff would be (I explain it in plain English) * Why this is really about consumers and voters, more than renewables, which will get built anyway, but they’ll cost more… which is probably why so many people oppose ending the clean energy tax credits. This is more than just a policy argument, it’s a warning. And a reminder that what Congress chooses in the next few days and weeks will show up on bills, ballots, and balance sheets. If you want to understand what’s at stake, and how we got here. Give it a listen. Thanks for being part of this. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.douglewin.com/subscribe

    12 分鐘

  4. 6月25日

    The End of Solar & Battery Manufacturing in America?

    The U.S. was finally catching up. After decades of watching solar manufacturing develop overseas, mostly in China, the Inflation Reduction Act gave domestic producers a fighting chance. Texas responded in a big way. New factories broke ground. OCI and its sister company, Mission Solar, prepared to launch a full supply chain operation in San Antonio, including the rare addition of cell manufacturing, one of the most critical (and missing) links in our solar economy. Now? All of it hangs in the balance. I sat down with Sabah Bayatli, President of OCI Energy, for one of the most urgent and clarifying conversations we’ve had on this podcast. If Congress moves forward with budget as it passed the House, it could wipe out hard-won progress in U.S. energy independence and kill manufacturing momentum. This is not only an energy and economic issue, but also a national security issue. We covered: What the IRA Actually Did for Solar Manufacturing Before the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), manufacturers in the U.S. were forced to make short-term bets, never knowing if tax credits would last. That’s a terrible way to plan billion-dollar infrastructure investments. The IRA changed that. By giving developers and manufacturers a 10-year time horizon, it triggered a surge in U.S. supply chain planning. Sabah put it simply: You can’t invest in manufacturing without a longer time horizon. * The 45X tax credit provided per-unit production incentives. * Developers got extra credit for using U.S. made solar panels, creating demand. * Factories started popping up, especially in Texas, where low power prices make large-scale manufacturing viable. Now, that long-term signal is under threat. What’s in the “Big Beautiful Bill” That Could Undo It All Sabah broke it down for us: the current House version of the bill would eliminate developer tax credits by 2028, with an abrupt cliff 60 days after enactment. And while the latest Senate version is slightly better, it’s still a cliff: * Full credit in 2025 * Drops to 60% in 2026 * 20% in 2027 * Zero by 2028 The manufacturing credit technically stays, but if developers lose the adders for domestic content, American manufacturers lose their market. DC’s Math Doesn’t Add Up Everyone agrees: the deficit matters. But what’s often missing in DC is that you can’t shrink your way out of the deficit, you have to grow out of it. Growth means: * Domestic manufacturing jobs * Local tax bases * Energy independence * Lower-cost power I covered that in much greater depth here: Timestamps * 00:00 – Introduction & opening context * 01:45 – What is OCI Energy? * 03:30 – OCI’s origin story in San Antonio * 5:00 – The elephant in the room: the impact of the not-so-beautiful bill * 10:00 – Investment signals leading to solar module and solar cell manufacturing * 13:00 – Manufacturing tax credits (45X) * 15:00 – The need for low cost power to spur economic growth to lower the debt * 20:00 – Lost cost power in ERCOT is attracting manufacturing of all kinds * 23:00 – Supply chain issues across the power sector * 25:30 – The need for moderate, durable policymaking, gradual ramp of incentives * 31:00 – The retention of the manufacturing tax credit won’t necessarily help * 34:00 – Where panels used in America are manufactured (hint: not China) * 38:00 – The need to communicate national security implications * 41:00 – To grow our economy, and reduce our debt, we need a lot more power (see chart discussed in this segment in Resources section below) * 44:45 – How to design Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) provisions well * 52:00 – Texas policy and the recently concluded legislative session * 54:45 – Is there a future for solar and battery manufacturing in America? * 58:30 – What could the Senate do to grow American manufacturing * 1:00:30 – Final thoughts, closing remarks Resources Information about Sabah and OCI * OCI Energy * Mission Solar * The chart Sabah sent me after he read Energy Submission: Discussed in the Episode: ‘City of San Antonio Solar Development Plan. April 2012. H.R. 1, One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Dynamic Estimate). Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Transcript Doug Lewin (00:05.426) The solar manufacturing renaissance in America, and particularly in Texas, is very much at risk as Congress considers a budget bill that would end solar incentives and clean energy manufacturing incentives. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. I'm your host, Doug Lewin. My guest this week was Sabah Bayatli. He's the president of OCI Energy. OCI Energy is both an IP and a project developer throughout the U.S. installing solar and storage, but also a manufacturer through their sister company, Mission Solar. And Sabah told me that that manufacturing plant, which currently produces modules and was getting ready to expand to cell production with 800 Texas jobs, is at risk and will not proceed if the bill in Washington passes in its current form. We talked about that and a whole lot of other things both related to the bill, but also talked about Texas policy, solar in general, what it means for the economy and growth. This was a great discussion and extremely timely. And I thank you for listening and we'll ask one more thing of you: if you can give us a review wherever you listen or particularly leave a five-star review, that is super helpful for our small but fast-growing podcast so that other people can find it. And I greatly appreciate it. You can find all the episodes of the Energy Capital podcast, become a subscriber to the podcast and to the Texas Energy and Power newsletter at douglewin.com. With that, please enjoy the show. Thanks for listening. Sabah, Bayatli, welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Great to have you. Sabah Bayatli (01:41.426) Thank you, Doug. It's wonderful to be here. Doug Lewin (01:43.896) So can we just start with a very brief little background? Folks may not have heard of OCI Energy. Tell us a little bit about OCI and Mission Solar. Sabah Bayatli (01:52.536) Quick background: OCI Energy is a developer and IPP for utility scale solar and battery energy storage systems in the U.S. We have been operating since 2012. We are headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. OCI Energy is a subsidiary of OCI Holding, a South Korean conglomerate based in Seoul. They have multiple businesses worldwide. I would say one of their core businesses is polysilicon manufacturing. For the audience, people who are not familiar with polysilicon, you can think about it as the raw material basically to the solar panel. It sits very, very upstream. In fact, I think they are the second largest polysilicon provider in the world if you take the Chinese manufacturers out of the list. That's a fact about OCI Holdings' operation on the polysilicon business. In the U.S., they have OCI Enterprises. You can think about it as a sub-holding company basically to the U.S. market. Under OCI Enterprises, there are multiple operating companies. One of them is OCI Energy, the developer and IPP for utility-scale solar and battery energy storage. We also have a sister company here in San Antonio as well called Mission Solar Energy. They are a manufacturer for solar panels. They also started business in 2012, 2013. In fact, when they started, they were producing cells in the early days as well. Today, they are producing solar panels. And we can talk more about them in the next few minutes. Doug Lewin (03:20.268) Yeah, it's interesting. A long, long time ago, I was involved in a lot of discussions in San Antonio in that kind of 2009, 10, 11 period when they were looking at how to develop a clean energy economy in San Antonio. I have not super sharp memories of that period, but some, and it's really gratifying and neat to see you guys there as such a big part of San Antonio and of that ecosystem. Sabah Bayatli (03:46.862) It brought us actually to town in 2012. What brought OCI Company to San Antonio and brought all these manufacturing jobs and basically development jobs to San Antonio. Today we are headquartered in San Antonio. We basically service all the U.S. on the development side as well as on the manufacturing side. But if you go to the story, actually the way OCI Energy, the OCI Company actually penetrated the energy market in the U.S., it was through an economic development agreement with the city of San Antonio. Yes, through CPS Energy, the utility. This is our public information. So in 2012, there was an economic development agreement entered into. With that, we had a commitment basically to develop up to 500 megawatts of solar projects. In 2012, it was a huge deal, right? So, and we did develop them, and in exchange, we got offtake agreements basically with CPS. And what we gave was we gave an overhead commitment to the city of San Antonio. So we had to bring manufacturing, we had to assemble the factories here. OCI Energy was assembled at that time. It was called OCI Solar Power. We actually brought inverter manufacturing to San Antonio as well. We brought a big EPC from Minnesota called Northern Central to open a branch in San Antonio too. That was a huge commitment actually by OCI Company to the city. It ended in 2020-22. But to your point, I think you can see the fruit today. The company's still operating in San Antonio. We are creating a lot of jobs basically for San Antonio and Texas, and this is a new technology and this is a new industry. Doug Lewin (05:17.868) Yeah. So I think we need to jump into kind of addressing the elephant in the room here, Sabah, which is right, you guys are a manufacturer in the United States, right there in San Antonio, here in Texas. And that had a first mover from some city initiatives, but over the last couple years at the federal level, congressional bills, particularly the Inflation Reduction Act, but also the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law put in place a lot of incentives for manufacturers. Can you talk a little bit about what i

    1 小時 2 分鐘
  5. Economic Eclipse: Congress Tries to Block the Sun with SEIA's Sean Gallagher & Daniel Giese

    6月19日

    Economic Eclipse: Congress Tries to Block the Sun with SEIA's Sean Gallagher & Daniel Giese

    Texas is adding solar at a faster pace than any other state. Solar and storage are powering Texas’ manufacturing renaissance, creating jobs, and lowering customers’ bills; even the state’s oil and gas sector is an eager consumer of solar power. And renewables are also pumping tens of billions of dollars into local — mostly rural — economies in the form of landowner payments and tax payments. We’re on track to add another 8-10 gigawatts in 2025, after adding about that much in 2024. In this week’s episode, I sat down with Sean Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Policy at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and Daniel Giese, SEIA’s Director of State Affairs for Texas. We unpack the forces behind this record-breaking growth and what could help keep it going — as well as what could stop it in its tracks. The federal budget bill would cripple the boom. Texas is seeing historic levels of investment, in large part because of the 10-year certainty provided by the IRA. These tax credits are bringing down capital costs, reducing risk, enabling longer-term project planning, and driving investments in solar manufacturing. As Sean points out, this policy clarity has helped drive a wave of new solar and battery projects. And Texas is leading the pack, thanks to our land availability, pro-development bent, and robust demand growth. But the same projects that are thriving today could be lost tomorrow if federal tax policy changes too abruptly. Policy risk is rising. And it’s already hurting deployment. Federal tariffs. Delays in domestic manufacturing. A growing push in some counties to ban solar outright. It’s all adding up. SEIA recently reported that more than 5 GW of solar capacity in Texas was delayed or canceled just this spring due to trade policy and market uncertainty. Add in the threat of repealing or rolling back the IRA, and the fragility of this moment becomes clear. Developers aren’t panicking, but they are cautious. And that’s enough to slow the pace of deployment at exactly the wrong time. Storage is the backbone of reliability and we’re just getting started. Storage is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s essential. It’s one of the main reasons ERCOT’s summer grid outlook improved from a 12% chance of outages in 2023 to less than 1% this year. Daniel and Sean both emphasized how solar + storage is becoming the new standard and how distributed storage, especially, can help strengthen resilience while reducing strain on transmission. If Texas wants to keep growing solar and maintain reliability, batteries aren’t optional. They’re the glue that binds the new grid together. Final thoughts The clean energy transition is already underway, but the friction between policy and politics on the one hand and markets and technology on the other, is starting to slow it down. Texas has the fundamentals to lead the next chapter of America’s energy story: land, load, labor, and sun. But the national and state-level decisions we make in the next two years about policy, infrastructure, and transparency will determine whether we keep that lead or fall behind. This conversation with SEIA was timely given all the activity in Austin and Washington DC. Timestamps and relevent links are below. This was a free episode but your contributions support this podcast and the newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you! If you’re not yet a subscriber, please become one today and please recommend the pod to friends, family, and colleagues. The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Timestamps * 00:00 – Introduction * 02:00 – Breaking down the recent Texas legislative session * 03:30 – Rural benefits of renewables, why some legislators vote against their districts * 07:00 – How Texas rates nationally on solar & storage * 8:30 – Solar’s meteoric rise in Texas * 11:00 – Good bills that passed in the recent legislative session * 13:30 – How industry supported bills addressing recycling, consumer protection * 15:45 – The federal budget bill and its potential impact on manufacturing * 18:00 – Data center and AI companies’ support for renewable energy * 20:00 – Without solar & storage, the economy will slow * 23:00 – Winning the competition w/ China for electricity supply chain dominance * 27:30 – The three incentives that support domestic manufacturing * 29:30 – The impacts of the budget bill on Texas * 34:00 – Grid operators and regulators say we need continued solar development * 37:00 – Where will tax credits go from here * 39:00 – Problems with the budget bill: abrupt end of tax credits instead of ramp and Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) * 44:00 – Prospects for residential solar / distributed generation in Texas * 46:00 – Initiatives SEIA will be engaged with at the PUC * 48:00 – Support for solar power and SEIA’s call to action & how to get involved Resources Get Involved: Solar Powers America SEIA Resources * Solar and Storage Industry Statement on Proposed U.S. Senate Finance Committee Reconciliation Text * Hundreds of American Solar Workers and Advocates Rally on Capitol Hill With a Message to Congress: “Don’t Kill Our Jobs” * REPORT: U.S. Adds 8.6 GW of New Solar Module Manufacturing Capacity, One of its Strongest Quarters of Growth in U.S. History * Solar Market Insight Report Q2 2025 Other Podcasts, Articles, Websites Mentioned * Pakistan’s Solar Boom. Volts. * Energy Submission. Texas Energy & Power Newsletter * Impact of Limiting Solar and Wind Development in the ERCOT Market. Aurora Energy Research * CPS boss says taking away renewable tax breaks will just shift the costs. San Antonio Express News. * Gridstatus.io Transcript Doug Lewin (00:05.816) Solar was under attack in the Texas legislative session that recently ended. Now it's under attack in Congress. Why is this happening for resource that has delivered so much benefit? We dive into that in this episode of the Energy Capital Podcast. I'm your host, Doug Lewin, and this week I was joined by not one but two guests, Sean Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Policy for the Solar Energy Industries Association, and Daniel Giese, Texas State Director for SIA. A quick note, we recorded this pod last Doug Lewin (00:35.436) week before the Senate version of the reconciliation bill, the budget bill was released. So we got into what happened in the House bill. We talked a whole lot about what happened during the Texas legislative session. We talked about the meteoric rise of solar and what that has meant for the state of Texas. We got into all kinds of things, but not the Senate version of the bill. We will put in the show notes. You will be able to find there, a statement on the Senate bill, but we will not discuss it in this episode. Doug Lewin (01:04.728) This was a great episode. Really enjoyed talking with Sean and Daniel. think you're going to learn a lot from this. As always, please become a subscriber to the Energy Capital podcast and the Texas Energy and Power newsletter at douglouen.com. Please leave a five star review wherever you listen and please enjoy the show. Thanks for listening. Doug Lewin (01:27.608) Sean Gallagher and Daniel Giese. Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. Daniel Giese (01:31.256) Thank you Doug. Good to be here. Sean Gallagher (01:32.76) here. Sean Gallagher (01:33.175) Thanks for having us. Doug Lewin (01:34.872) You guys are doing great work at SIA on behalf of the solar industry. And obviously it is a fascinating time, too fascinating in my view, what's going on in the solar industry. Let us start with Texas. We are definitely going to jump to talking about federal and what's going on in Washington, DC, but it's energy capital podcast and I cover Texas. So Daniel, we'll probably start with you and maybe just kind of introduce yourself very briefly, but talk to us. You're obviously, Doug Lewin (02:04.62) leading things in Texas. Why in a state where solar is delivering so much value in the state are we still seeing these legislative attacks? I get asked this all the time and I feel like I'm really struggling to explain it. So maybe you could help me, Daniel. Daniel Giese (02:19.032) Sure. Daniel Giese (02:19.352) Yeah. So we had a, you know, session just ended this month. And, know, like you said, there's obviously going to be challenges in a legislative session. There's no limit on, you know, what types of bills, how many bills legislators can file. You know, this year we saw over 8,000 filed. At end of the day, only about 1,200 of those actually passed, but you have to keep them all serious. And so there was probably over 200 bills that, you know, I was personally tracking people in the industry tracking that dealt with, touched on our issue. Daniel Giese (02:47.252) Unfortunately, a lot of those were negative, but we made it out okay. It was actually a pretty good session for clean energy, for energy in general. Nothing bad happened to us. Other like past legislative sessions, there's been some more challenging legislation passed. This time around though, think cooler heads prevailed and legislators just looked at, they just did simple mathematics that you cannot meet the demand that this state is seeing. That's through population growth of people, growth of businesses moving in, the types of businesses moving in that are using incredible amounts of energy. Daniel Giese (03:17.038) They're going to need energy when they get here. They can't sit around and wait. So the simple supply and demand won out at the end of the day. And legislators, the cooler head prevailed and they just saw that the only way to meet the demand that's coming is through clean energy growth, energy growth in general, and all of the above. Doug Lewin (03:32.226) think that's right. And I just continue to wonder because, you know, a

    54 分鐘
  6. The Senate Should Not Surrender

    6月13日

    The Senate Should Not Surrender

    On Wednesday, I published Energy Submission, a piece on how the U.S. is at risk of abandoning the battle for 21st economic supremacy as China accelerates its energy dominance. I recorded this podcast episode to go a little deeper into the consequences of the House-passed reconciliation bill and what we risk losing if we dismantle the tools driving the energy future. It’s available on YouTube with full charts and visuals Energy isn’t just one issue among many, it’s a foundational issue. In what the IEA has dubbed the Age of Electricity, if we don’t have enough of it, we enter the economic race to power the future with one arm tied behind our backs. That’s what makes the House-passed budget reconciliation bill so dangerous: it guts the clean energy incentives that are powering our present and could power our future. It dismantles the Inflation Reduction Act’s momentum just as the world is moving into a new industrial era, one that will be defined by who has enough affordable electricity to fuel growth. Let’s zoom out. Globally, energy investment is booming. In 2024, $3 trillion was invested in energy. Two-thirds of that ($2 trillion) is going into clean power: wind, solar, nuclear, storage, and efficiency. Only $1 trillion is going into coal, oil, and gas. China, in particular, is accelerating at breakneck speed, building 277 gigawatts of solar in 2024 alone. To put that into perspective, that’s more clean energy in one year than the entire installed capacity of Texas’s grid (~180GW). Meanwhile, the U.S. is considering a bill that would eviscerate the progress we’ve made. It would slash the tax credits that have driven private investment into renewables, energy storage, and domestic manufacturing, just as that investment is beginning to deliver. More than 270 clean energy factories have been announced since the IRA passed. If this bill becomes law, many of them will be canceled outright. This isn’t theoretical. Projects are already being canceled in Texas due to market uncertainty. This bill pours cold water on an area where the U.S. has been gaining ground in manufacturing, jobs, and grid reliability. And it’s happening just as we’re entering a new age of electricity demand. AI data centers, robotics, industrial electrification, and electric vehicles are pushing power use higher than it’s been in decades. Even Elon Musk is warning that we could see electricity shortfalls by next year. You cannot meet 21st-century energy demand with 20th-century thinking. And yet, that's exactly what some policymakers are trying to do by doubling down on fossil fuel exports, suggesting "LNG power plants" (which aren’t a thing) are going to power our grids, and pretending we can drill our way to abundance while dismantling the tools that are actually scaling our grid. In fact, LNG export facilities consume massive amounts of power, up to 700 megawatts each. If you want to power exports and data centers, and still have enough for people to use in their homes, you need a vastly more flexible, modern grid. That means a diversified portfolio: wind, solar, storage, gas, geothermal, advanced nuclear, and demand-side solutions. It means better transmission planning, smarter markets, and policies that attract investment rather than repel it. This isn’t just about clean energy anymore. Clean energy is now simply energy. It’s about competitiveness, reliability, affordability and national security. While we debate whether clean energy tax credits are “too generous,” China is becoming the world’s first electrostate, a nation that doesn’t just consume energy, but manufactures and exports the infrastructure to produce it. China isn’t waiting for the market to figure it out. They’re building fast, and they’re controlling and locking up global supply chains along the way. The U.S. still has the innovation advantage. We lead in software, in AI, in energy entrepreneurship. But without enough power to run it all, that advantage becomes a bottleneck. As David Friedberg put it recently, energy abundance is necessary for every other kind of abundance. Without it, AI, biotech, and automation all stagnate. This reconciliation bill would deepen that bottleneck and cut off any hope of growing our way out of our deficit. We cannot cut our way to energy dominance. We have to build. If you care about growth, if you care about leadership, if you care about national security, you should care about energy policy. And if you care about energy policy, this bill should concern you. We need the Senate to fix what the House broke. The tools are there. The economics are clear. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Timestamps * 00:00 – Introduction * 01:30 – China’s energy dominance by the numbers * 03:00 – What is an Electrostate? China's strategy to be the first * 04:30 – Some Republicans’ preference to surrender clean energy dominance to China * 06:00 – Doug Burgum on the All-In Podcast * 09:00 – Debunking the “LNG Power Plant” Myth * 14:00 – All-In Podcast: If the Senate fix the House bill, we’re in trouble * 16:25 – All In Podcast: The gating factor for abundance * 18:26 – What's Next: Senate’s role and the urgency and importance of this moment Resources & References Podcast Episodes Referenced * All-In Podcast with Doug Burgum (May 3, 2024) * All-In Podcast (May 10, 2024) Graphs & Articles Referenced: * How Xi sparked China’s electricity revolution - Financial Times * China’s head start on clean energy is shaping the debate on the Republicans’ megabill - Politico U.S. & China Energy Stats * China adds 277 GW of solar in 2024 – BloombergNEF * U.S. Electricity Annual Capacity Data – EIA LNG & Grid Power * Freeport LNG Facility Overview * Experts React: DOE LNG Study Highlights and Implications - CSIS * DOE Report on US LNG Exports: Implausible Scenarios and Flawed Assumptions Energy Demand, AI, and Growth * Elon Musk on AI & Power Grid Strain – WSJ * AI Energy Demand Projections – IEA * Robots are infiltrating the growth statistics - Brookings Legislation & Policy * U.S. House Reconciliation Bill Text aka “The Big Beautiful Bill” * The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2024 * Inflation Reduction Act Clean Energy Provisions – CEA * Energy Dominance Executive Order – Trump Archive Grid Reliability & Energy Mix * ERCOT Grid & Market Conditions Dashboard * Winter Storm Uri, Elliott, & 2025 Arctic Grid Outages – FERC/NERC Joint Report Financial Implications & Deficit * CBO Interest Rate Scenarios on U.S. Debt * David Friedberg on Energy as the Key to Growth – Twitter This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.douglewin.com/subscribe

    24 分鐘
  7. "It's Easier to Build Here," Texas Energy After the 89th Legislature with Claire Hao

    6月4日

    "It's Easier to Build Here," Texas Energy After the 89th Legislature with Claire Hao

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.douglewin.com The Texas legislative session just wrapped. As always, energy was front and center. And once again, there were sweeping efforts to pass bills that would limit energy development in Texas. 🎧 Listen to the first 25+ minutes for free, and if you’re a paid subscriber and want to listen in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, just connect your private Substack feed. H…

    28 分鐘
  8. Solutions Over Theatrics with Texas House Energy Resources Chairman Drew Darby

    5月22日

    Solutions Over Theatrics with Texas House Energy Resources Chairman Drew Darby

    With just ten days left in the legislative session, a lot of attention is (rightfully) focused on bad bills. But some lawmakers are pushing forward thoughtful, future-focused energy policy and Chairman Drew Darby is at the forefront. For this episode, I sat down with Chairman Darby, a West Texas Republican and Chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, to talk about what an energy-secure Texas really looks like and how we get there. We covered a wide range of topics: from his 50-year career in oil and gas law, including getting started during the oil crisis of the 1970s, to the centrality of energy not just to his district but for the whole state, to what it’ll take to build a grid that keeps up with the state’s growth. Chairman Darby makes a strong case for all-of-the-above energy policy. Solar, wind, and batteries? Absolutely. Oil and gas? Also yes. Nuclear, geothermal, demand flexibility, transmission upgrades? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. As Darby, a former UT football player under legendary Coach Darrell Royal, put it: if you want to win, you need a full team, not just one kind of player on the field. We talked about: * Why solar + storage projects are already transforming his district, including one project near his hometown that charges and discharges batteries up to six times a day * How renewable projects support school districts, landowners, and local governments in rural Texas * The dangers of the many anti-energy development bills this session * How House Bill 3069 would help fix the transmission approval process and reduce costly congestion across the ERCOT grid * Why House Bill 3970 and Senate Bill 6 offer complementary approaches to large flexible loads and why Texas needs a clear path forward now * How abundant energy, including small modular nuclear reactors, can help solve our water challenges * And what it means to be a pragmatic conservative working across geographies and many other divides to put solutions above ideology We also discussed the danger of overregulation and the need for regulatory certainty: Do we really believe in market forces or don’t we?” If you care about grid reliability, economic development, or the future of rural Texas, this conversation is worth your time. Chairman Darby brings experience, insight, and a level-headed approach that’s too often missing from the energy debate. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and consider becoming a paid subscriber to get access to full archives, Grid Roundups, paid-only podcast episodes, and more. Timestamps 0:00 Intro 3:00 Chairman Darby’s background, West Texas roots 6:00 The boom-bust of the oil industry during his career 8:00 The fracking revolution making the Permian the center of the oil-producing world 10:00 The rise of renewables in Texas, particularly in West Texas, and 12:00 Using the best of each resource, integrating diverse resources and getting the most out of each 14:00 Creating a good investment environment for Texas 15:30 Texas’ water problems and how abundant energy can help solve them 18:00 Treating “produced water” and the symbiotic relationship with oil and renewables 23:00 Examples of renewable and storage projects in Chairman Darby’s district, benefits to landowners 27:00 Fixing Texas’ transmission planning and construction to avoid reliability problems 30:00 Reducing congestion charges, currently $2 billion annually, “generic transmission constraints” 31:30 Geothermal in Texas using techniques from the oil and gas industry 34:45 Large load flexibility and blending SB 6 and HB 3970 together 38:00 Saying “yes, if” to large loads, reducing energy peaks, filling in energy valleys 41:00 Do we believe in markets or not? 43:00 Finding common ground and solutions 47:30 Pragmatism over ideology Resources Energy Capital Podcast Episodes * Texas' Load Growth Challenges – And Opportunities, with Arushi Sharma Frank * How Load Flexibility Could Unlock Energy Abundance with Tyler Norris * Geothermal’s Moment with Jamie Beard * Drilling for Geothermal Power and Storage with Cindy Taff * New Nuclear in Texas, with Doug Robison and Dr. Rusty Towell * Rural Texans Speak Against Senate Bill 819 The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter Grid Round Ups * Large Loads at the Lege – Grid Roundup #40 * Peak Performance – Grid Roundup #58 * ERCOT CEO: “We Need All Resources” – Grid Roundup #56 Related Technologies * Texas Geothermal Energy Alliance * Texas Nuclear Alliance * ERCOT Transmission Planning Reports * ERCOT Load Forecast Dashboard * DOE Office of Geothermal Technologies Reports and Analysis * Aurora Energy Research – Renewables Restriction Study * Aurora Energy Research – Demand Flexibility Study Legislation Mentioned * House Bill 3069 (Transmission Planning) * House Bill 3970 (Large Load Interconnection) * Senate Bill 6 (Large Load Reliability) * Senate Bill 2627 (Texas Energy Fund) * House Bill 3240 (Geothermal Policy Council) * Senate Bill 1656 (Permitting Reform) Transcript Doug Lewin (00:05.484) Welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast. I'm your host, Doug Lewin. Humans have a very common problem, often called negativity bias. We tend to focus on the negative things. It's the negative things that drive headlines. But there's a lot of good things happening at the legislature too. And while I spend a lot of time also shooting videos or writing articles about the negative things, I wanted to take a minute to talk about, and we will in this conversation talk about some of the negative to be sure, but also some of the positive things happening and some of the leadership that is happening in the legislature on the positive side of energy. Because while there are a few that are trying to tear down, there are some members that are trying to build up. So here today to share his energy vision for Texas is Chairman Drew Darby of San Angelo. Chairman Darby was first elected in 2006. He is one of the most respected members in the Capitol, not just on energy, but across a wide range of issues. He represents San Angelo. His district includes the Permian Basin, has both a lot of oil and gas production and a lot of renewable energy. It's one of the windiest and sunniest areas in the whole country. For projects already installed in his district, there are billions of dollars of investment going to local schools, hospital districts, landowners, all throughout his district. This session, he is chair of House Energy Resources, a member of the House Committee on State Affairs. He's vice chair of the Climate and Energy Caucus, and he's chairman of the Energy Council, which spans a dozen states and a few Canadian provinces. It's a nonpartisan organization that facilitates dialogue among legislative policymakers on critical energy issues affecting their states. And that piece right there, Mr. Chairman, that dialogue is something I think you have really brought to the Texas legislature and has kind of defined your 20 years. So first of all, thank you for being on the show and welcome. Chairman Darby (02:05.41) Well, Doug, thank you for those very kind comments. Sometimes we hear a lot of negativity and I liked your intro. There is a lot of negativity, certainly around this building this time when we meet every other year for 140 days. We cram a seventh or eighth largest state economy into trying to figure out what we need to do in 140 days. And it gets hectic at times, but certainly there's a fair amount of negativity that swirls around the building from time to time. Doug Lewin (02:37.39) And of course we are recording on May 22nd, so we're like 11 or 12 days from the end of the session. So I really appreciate you taking time in this particularly hectic moment, but there are people all around, like you said, eighth largest economy in the world. There's people not just around Texas, but around the country and the world wondering what's going on. So I really appreciate you taking time to share what's going on here. But before we jump into the legislative session and what's going on in the moment, let's start at a little bit of a higher level. You were born and raised in San Angelo, a real sort of energy hub and energy center. You've worked on energy issues throughout your career, not just in the legislature, but before that. Tell us a little about yourself, your energy background, and what energy means to your district. Chairman Darby (03:20.738) Of course, energy is important to everybody's district wherever you live. I've been fortunate. I was born and reared in San Angelo and West Texas. It was a small, smaller community back then. After, we had an air force base, Goodfellow Air Force Base. And my father was stationed there during the war and met my mother and they married and I came along shortly thereafter. And so I enjoyed an upbringing of sports and outdoors, enjoying hunting, fishing, all the things young men tend to do. And I was fortunate to have been blessed with a little bit of athletic ability and I was able to come to the University of Texas on a football scholarship. Doug Lewin (04:05.0) I did not know that. Chairman Darby (04:10.06) My freshman year was 1965. Amazing. I've had some good coaches. Emery Ballard was my high school coach. Spike Dykes was my linebacker coach. Doug Lewin (04:20.0) Legend. He went to Tech then, right? Chairman Darby (04:23.0) Thanks. Spike went on to Tech. Yeah. But he was a linebacker coach there for San Angelo Central. All right. All right. Back in the early '60s. And then I went on to Austin where Darrell Royal was coach. Doug Lewin (04:38.094) We're going to have to do a separate podcast of just Darrell Royal stories. That'll be the follow-up. Chairman Darby (04:42.414) That'll be fine. That'll be fine. But I had some knee injuries that kind of limited my playing ability, but I went on to stay at the University of Texas. After I got my degree in finance, I was able to get into the University of Texas Law School and was able to co

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簡介

The Energy Capital podcast focuses on Texas energy and power grid issues, featuring interviews with energy professionals, academics, policymakers, and advocates. www.douglewin.com

資訊

  • 創作者
    Doug Lewin
  • 活躍年代
    2024年 - 2025年
  • 集數
    62
  • 年齡分級
    兒少適宜
  • 版權
    © Doug Lewin
  • 節目網站
    Energy Capital Podcast

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