Scaling Clean

Scaling Clean is the podcast for renewable energy leaders, investors, and advisors. Think of this as a cross between NPR's "How I Built This" and The New York Times' "Corner Office." Host Melissa Baldwin interviews CEOs, founders, and executives across solar, wind, storage, EVs, and more. Guests share founder journeys and insights on fundraising, M&A, retention, marketing, and hard-earned lessons on building resilient, profitable companies in the clean economy. Produced by Clare Quirin and powered by Tigercomm, the leading U.S. cleantech communications firm.

Scaling Clean is a business podcast hosted by Tigercomm, with 61 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Tigercomm hosts Scaling Clean, a business show with 61 episodes published.

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  Scaling Clean

  Episode 61: Hervé Billiet, CEO of Sunvoy, on Why Solar Installers Are Sitting on a Gold Mine of Customer Relationships

  Aug 3, 202636 min

  Times may be tough for residential installers, but my latest Scaling Clean guest says those installers are sitting on a gold mine. Hervé Billiet, CEO of Sunvoy notes that installers can earn the most valuable asset: consumer trust, and maintaining that relationship post-install is an under-tapped opportunity. Here are three takeaways from our conversation: Installers should think beyond the first sale. Residential solar has evolved from selling panels to selling batteries, EV chargers, maintenance, etc. The installers who stay connected with customers are in the best position to grow alongside them. AI is only as valuable as the data behind it. Hervé believes the opportunity isn't adding AI for the sake of it, but rather organizing years of installer data, customer interactions, production data, and service history so AI can help businesses operate more efficiently. Installers can prove they deliver as promised with real fleet data. That can build trust before a sale happens. Sunvoy compares projected system performance with actual production across an installer's entire fleet, allowing companies to show prospective customers that their systems perform as promised.

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  Scaling Clean

  Episode 60: Yann Brandt on Why Solar Needs Bigger Ideas, Better Advocacy, and More People Willing to Take Risks

  Jul 8, 202636 min

  One comment from my latest Scaling Clean guest, Yann Brandt, really stuck with me. He said that as a CEO, by the time an idea reached his desk, it had been filtered, softened, and stripped of what made it interesting. That's why he wants more people (especially younger professionals) to speak up, ask questions, and not be afraid to bring new ideas to the table. After nearly two decades across the solar industry and 14 years publishing SolarWakeup, Yann has offered many thought-provoking ideas to our industry. Here are three takeaways from our conversation: 🔹 The solar industry can't afford to be passive in politics. Solar may have bipartisan support among voters, but policy still determines how quickly the industry can grow. Yann argues that companies need to view political engagement as a core business function. 🔹 The best leaders want to hear fresh ideas. His advice to younger professionals is to never assume your voice doesn't matter. Thoughtful ideas only make an impact if you share them. 🔹 Consistent writing and reading build better thinking. Fourteen years of publishing SolarWakeup sharpened Yann's perspective on the solar industry by forcing him to read deeply, form opinions, and challenge his own assumptions. Yann also argued that the ITC isn't just an incentive for the industry, but a tool to keep electricity affordable. Lowering the cost of building solar projects helps deliver lower-cost power at a time when consumers need it most.

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  Scaling Clean

  Episode 59: Marco Krapels of Enphase on EVs, VPPs, and Unlocking America's Hidden Energy Capacity

  Jun 8, 202634 min

  Imagine your EV sitting in the driveway overnight - not just charging, but powering your home, supporting the grid, and earning money while you sleep. That's not a distant vision. It's what Marco Krapels, Chief Marketing Officer at Enphase Energy, says is coming soon. Marco is my latest guest on Scaling Clean. He's spent decades shaping the clean energy industry, from early EV charging infrastructure to some of the sector's hardest-fought policy battles. Now he's focused on turning millions of homes into grid assets. Here are three takeaways from our conversation: 🔹 Your EV may soon become an energy asset. Marco believes bidirectional EV charging could change the role of EVs. Instead of consuming electricity, EVs could store energy, power homes during outages, and provide flexible capacity to the grid when demand spikes. As a Mach-E owner myself, I found this fascinating. 🔹 Utilities and distributed energy don't have to be opponents. The solar industry spent years fighting utilities over net metering. Marco believes the next era is about partnership. As utilities face growing demand from electrification and AI-driven data centers, distributed energy resources can help solve capacity constraints faster than traditional generation. 🔹 We have a deployment problem. The U.S. already has untapped energy potential. 10 million homes with 10 kW of solar and 10 kWh of storage could unlock roughly 100 GW of dispatchable capacity. As electricity demand surges from AI, data centers, and electrification, the challenge may be less about building new generation and more about deploying the solutions we already have.

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  Scaling Clean

  Episode 58: Daniel Dus, CEO of Cleantech Industry Resources, on Reinventing Clean Energy Project Delivery

  May 11, 202639 min

  Most clean energy companies fit into a category: developer, EPC, IPP. My latest Scaling Clean guest, Daniel Dus, has spent his career working across all of them. Daniel is the CEO of Cleantech Industry Resources and co-founder of one of our industry’s famous social gatherings: Solar Fight Night. CIR is an on-demand operating system for clean energy project delivery, providing service to developers wherever they need it: everything from diligence to asset management. We talk about why Daniel believes the future of the industry depends as much on community and storytelling as it does on technology. Here are three takeaways from our conversation: 🔹 The traditional development model is under pressure. Daniel argues that many developers built for a different market environment. Today, variable project pipelines, tighter margins and permitting delays are forcing companies to rethink how they staff and execute projects. 🔹 AI is becoming an accelerant, not a replacement. CIR uses AI and software tools to advance nearly every workflow. But Daniel emphasized keeping the “human in the loop” still matters, especially when billions of dollars and critical infrastructure are involved. 🔹 Clean energy needs better storytelling. One of the strongest themes in our conversation was communication. Daniel believes the industry is losing ground to misinformation, despite having a fundamentally better story to tell around affordability, reliability, and energy independence. His latest initiative, cleantechfactcheck.org, is designed to help the industry respond faster and more effectively with a robust database of myth busters, videos, job boards and more. We also talked about: ⚡ Why procurement inefficiency is costing the industry millions ⚡ What developers get wrong about operational scaling ⚡ Why community and relationships still matter in an AI-driven industry ⚡ How Solar Fight Night became one of clean energy’s biggest networking events

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  Scaling Clean

  Episode 57: Emilie Flanagan, CEO of Carson Power, on Finding Signal in the Noise

  Apr 9, 202637 min

  A reminder for our developer friends: The loudest voice in the community isn’t the only voice in the community. It’s easy to mistake social media comments, public hearings, or a handful of vocal opponents as the full picture. But that’s not reality. My latest Scaling Clean guest, Emilie Flanagan, CEO of Carson Power, shared a perspective that cuts through that noise, especially for developers navigating local permitting. Here are three big takeaways from our conversation: 🔹 “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast” - a motto borrowed from the Navy SEALs. In the early days of starting a company, it’s common to want to rush into things. But in high-stakes environments, Emilie reminds us it’s more important to slow down and do things properly. 🔹 The real community sentiment comes from direct conversations. Sitting down with landowners, neighbors, and local officials, often long before permitting, reveals a much more nuanced (and often more supportive) reality. 🔹 Leadership is about helping teams “see the signal.” Emilie described her role less as a decision-maker and more as someone who helps her team step back, filter noise, and focus on what actually matters moving forward, especially in a fast-moving industry.

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