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The Energy Gang

What do the tariff wars mean for low-carbon energy? | Recorded live at Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit

The Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Alternative Energy, Tech News, 958784, Environment, Technology, Renewable Energy, Energy, Business, Sustainability, Wind Energy, Climate Change, Cleantech, News, Solar Energy, Innovation, News Commentary

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“With great uncertainty comes great opportunity”, says Abby Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, in this special episode of the Energy Gang, recorded live at Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit.

Is she right? And what are those opportunities? To find out, host Ed Crooks welcomed Abby and Shyam Srinivasan, CEO and Co-Founder of Zitara Technologies, for a special discussion on the state of the solar and storage industries today.

Uncertainty is the buzzword of the moment: uncertainty over tariffs, over tax credits, over the evolution of AI, and over the economic outlook. The Trump administration’s new tariffs are disrupting supply chains and prompting companies to delay investment decisions. At such a volatile time, it’s easy to be caught out by a sudden change in policy.

Companies have different strategies for coping with all this uncertainty. Some have been stockpiling solar panels; a few have been stockpiling batteries. And all the while, there are some powerful global trends still driving the industry: overproduction in China that is still driving down costs, and the need for new electricity generation of all types to power data centers for AI.

Abby, Ed and Shyam debate the uncertain policies and forecasts that are making companies hesitant to invest, and find some pointers to help navigate through the storm. And they lift their eyes from the day-to-day chaos to consider what are the real opportunities for the longer term once the immediate crisis is over.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The amount of batteries you need to build cars is so dang high.

0:05.0

I feel like it's a little bit like freeze tag, like, oh, wait a minute, what's happening?

0:11.0

Should we keep moving forward with this? Or do we stop and see what happens?

0:17.0

Because if policy remains certain, I think it's absolutely going to happen.

0:22.6

We are in the right industry.

0:24.2

I'm very happy to see and thrilled to be part of the beginning of something huge here.

0:29.9

Well, hello, everybody.

0:31.6

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the special live edition of the Energy Gang,

0:36.9

which we're recording at the Wood Mackenzie Solar and Energy Storage Summit

0:40.9

just outside Denver, Colorado.

0:44.3

I'm at Crooks.

0:45.3

And on the show today, we're going to be talking about what I think has been one of the big themes of this conference,

0:50.8

which is uncertainty.

0:52.7

It's uncertainty over tariffs, of course, which is huge,

0:56.7

uncertainty over the future of tax credits, the PTC and the ITC under the IRA, what's going to

1:01.9

happen there in Congress, uncertainty over technological change, uncertainty over AI, for instance,

1:08.0

and how that's evolving, uncertainty over the economic outlook, what's

1:11.2

happening with the markets and so on.

1:12.5

So to do that, it's my great pleasure to welcome a couple of guests who know a great deal

1:17.8

about this and are managing through it in various ways right now.

1:21.9

It's pleasure to welcome Abby Ross Hopper, who's the chief executive of SEA, the Solar Energy

1:26.4

Industries Association.

...

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