The Energy Show

Starting January 1, 2027, California's new balcony solar law, SB 868.

On this week's The Energy Show, host Barry Cinnamon welcomes Kevin Chou, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bright Saver, the nonprofit helping bring plug-in solar to communities across the United States.

Inspired by the explosive growth of balcony solar in Germany and Europe, Bright Saver is working to make DIY solar affordable, simple, and accessible to everyday Americans.

And the numbers are surprisingly compelling.

Episode Highlights:

• California's SB 868: What the new balcony solar law means for renters
• Why plug-in solar could challenge traditional utility business models
• The $400 solar system that could save approximately $365 annually
• California's 1,200-watt limit and important UL safety requirements
• How Bright Saver helped advance plug-in solar legislation across 10 states
• The future of plug-in solar combined with battery storage
• Why Barry believes balcony solar could introduce a new generation to clean energy

#BalconySolar #PlugInSolar #SB868 #CaliforniaSolar #BrightSaver #KevinChou #BarryCinnamon #TheEnergyShow #CinnamonEnergySystems #SolarEnergy #PGandE #DIYsolar #SolarPanels #SolarForRenters #CaliforniaEnergy #SolarSavings #RenewableEnergy #UtilityRates #HomeElectrification #CleanEnergy #SolarLegislation #SolarPower #EnergyIndependence #SolarBatteryStorage #ElectricBills

This week on The Energy Show, Barry sits down with Anoushka Tamhane, an MIT Climate Systems Engineering student who's researching battery storage and exploring an ingenious approach to geothermal heating and cooling. The technology is brilliant. The politics? Not so much.

While students at MIT are developing the next generation of energy solutions, research funding cuts and changing policies are making their work more difficult.

Barry and Anoushka discuss what happens when technological progress runs headfirst into political reality.

Plus, Barry shares a few stories about working on experimental solar homes at MIT in 1978.

Episode Highlights:

• Why California homeowners are investing in battery storage while other states lag behind
• How electricity rates and net metering policies influence solar and battery economics
• Why backup power and blackout protection are driving battery adoption
• Virtual power plants and getting paid to support the electric grid
• Networked geothermal and sharing heating and cooling across entire neighborhoods
• Turning waste heat from data centers, grocery stores and wastewater into usable energy
• Massachusetts' geothermal pilot projects and the potential for lower installation costs
• How outdated utility regulations and government policies slow clean energy innovation
• The impact of federal research funding cuts on MIT and the next generation of energy engineers
• Barry's early solar and geothermal research at MIT—and how far the technology has come
• Why smarter energy technology needs smarter policies to succeed

#TheEnergyShow #BarryCinnamon #MIT #CleanEnergy #SolarEnergy #EnergyPolicy #BatteryStorage #GeothermalEnergy #RenewableEnergy #EnergyInnovation #VirtualPowerPlants #ElectricityRates #ClimateTechnology #EnergyTransition #AnoushkaTamhane

This week on The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon sits down with Tom Werner, who led SunPower from 2003 to 2020 and helped build it into one of the world's largest solar companies.

Tom has ridden the solar coaster through booms, busts, policy changes and technology revolutions. And his assessment of 2026?
It's actually worse than he expected.

In some U.S. markets, Tom says residential solar is down 25–50% or more, as the industry deals with the loss of the residential tax credit, changing net-metering economics and a difficult transition to new financing models.

But zoom out, and the picture gets much more interesting.

Episode Highlights:
• How badly the market has fallen since the tax credit disappeared
• Why falling battery prices could change the equation
• Why exploding electricity demand could revive distributed solar
• How AI and data centers are creating enormous new grid loads
• Why Virtual Power Plants could finally become a major opportunity
• Why Tom, once skeptical of solar financing now says installers have to embrace it
• How homes are slowly becoming their own miniature utilities

This week on The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon sits down with longtime solar industry leader Tom McCalmont, CEO of Paired Power and president of McCalmont Engineering, to talk about one of the biggest challenges facing electrification: how do we add massive new electrical loads when there simply isn’t enough grid capacity?

Tom's answer is surprisingly straightforward: stop thinking of the grid as the only source of power.

By combining existing grid capacity with solar, battery storage, and intelligent energy management, Paired Power says it can install roughly six times as much EV charging capacity as the available grid connection could otherwise support.

Episode Highlights:

• How solar can dramatically expand available charging capacity
• Why falling battery prices are changing the economics again
• Why most EV drivers don't actually need ultra-fast charging
• The coming shift toward Vehicle-to-Grid and Vehicle-to-Home
• Why Tom still sees powerful tailwinds for solar and storage
• What two 25-year solar veterans think happens after the latest ride on the “solar coaster”

Solar Is Installed. Now Who Keeps It Running?

There are millions of solar panels, batteries, EV chargers and other energy systems installed on homes and businesses around the world.

There's just one little problem:

Someone has to keep all that stuff working.

This week on The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon sits down with John Berger, founder and CEO of Otovo Energy, to talk about what may be one of the biggest—and most overlooked—opportunities in clean energy: service and maintenance.

Episode Highlights
• Why solar installation and solar service are completely different businesses
• Who maintains solar and batteries when the original installer disappears
• Why recurring service could become a major clean-energy business
• How AI is transforming customer service, scheduling and dispatch
• Why AI could dramatically reduce the cost of running energy-service companies
• What homeowners should demand before choosing a solar installer
• How Virtual Power Plants depend on reliable, well-maintained batteries
• Why rising electricity rates continue to improve solar economics
• How AI data centers are putting enormous new pressure on the electric grid
• Why distributed solar and batteries could become part of the solution

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is John's experience deploying AI throughout Otovo. The company is using AI not simply as a chatbot, but across customer care, scheduling, dispatch, sales and technician support. John argues that the technology is moving so quickly that "the humans have to catch up."