What Was He Smoking? How a Solar Pioneer’s Big Dreams Came True

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

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

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2014

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, solar’s dominance feels inevitable. But in 1979, when Neville Williams started promoting the industry at the Department of Energy, it felt like a far-off dream. That didn’t stop the early pioneers from thinking big and pushing the government to invest in the early technology – helping solar module costs fall from $55 per watt in the 1970s to 50 cents per watt today. In this podcast, we’ll talk with Neville Williams about his new book, “Sun Power,” that features stories from the last four decades in the solar industry. Williams was the founder of off-grid solar companies SELF and SELCO, and also founded the Maryland solar company Standard Solar. In the second half of the show, we’ll talk about big news in Georgia, Tennessee and Connecticut. We’ll also discuss an example of shareholder activism that turned SunEdison around. This podcast is sponsored by eGauge Systems, a manufacturer of next-generation energy meters for solar generation and building demand, submetering, performance contracts, LEED projects and net zero buildings. The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussion between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This Podcast is brought to you by E-Gage Systems, advanced affordable and reliable energy monitoring.
0:08.0	The E-Gage is a data logger, web server, and energy meter in one device.
0:13.2	With revenue-grade accuracy, E-Gage
0:15.3	can be used to optimize efficiency and for solar monitoring
0:18.7	and sub-metering.
0:20.2	Learn more at e-gage.net.
0:25.0	For the week of July 9th, 2014,
0:30.0	this is the Energy Gang from Green Tech Media.
0:33.0	I'm Stephen Lacey, a senior editor with Green Tech Media in Washington DC. Also with me in Washington is
0:46.0	Catherine Hamilton. She's a partner with 38 North Solutions, a public policy firm here that
0:51.2	works on a lot of different clean energy issues.
0:53.6	Catherine, how's your July shaping up?
0:56.0	Just great, thanks, nice and warm here in DC.
0:59.9	All right, I have to say, I read this piece from you a few minutes before we got on this
1:04.0	podcast and you said that energy storage was the bacon of the electric grid that I
1:10.1	loved that piece what were you talking about there? Just makes everything better.
1:14.6	Wait, so you didn't know that Bacon makes everything better and I understand that you
1:18.2	googled what makes everything better and Bacon came up? It did. I didn't know what was going to come up and
1:23.7	thankfully it was bacon even though I'm a vegetarian I thought it would be a you
1:28.0	know a great symbol. It's a great piece I tweeted it out if you're following my Twitter feed you can see it there.
1:35.0	It's a really interesting piece.
1:37.0	In San Francisco, it is Jigger Shaw.
	...

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