Energy Empire

The Costco of Solar — Meet the Man Quietly Cutting the Cost of Clean Energy

Four generations of Daniel Dus's family have worked in American energy. His great-grandfather was a coal-mine engineer who became president of Michigan Tech; his grandfather built power transformers at General Electric. Daniel pivoted into renewables — and now runs Cleantech Industry Resources, the company he founded after running the US arm of one of the world's largest renewable energy firms. Jigar and Jamie talk with Daniel about how he built one of the quietest, most efficient operations in clean energy, why he refuses to charge what the market would pay, what AI is doing to the people who used to do this work, and the boxing-themed fundraiser he runs every year for the industry. Along the way: how a Vermont team plus AI agents can deliver solar work for a tenth of what consulting firms charge. Why cheaper energy means more jobs, not fewer. And the new platform Daniel started to push back on what he refuses to call "misinformation." Links: Learn more about CIR: https://cleantechir.com/products [https://cleantechir.com/products]  Clean Tech Fact Check: https://cleantechfactcheck.org/factcheck [https://cleantechfactcheck.org/factcheck] Submit a question to Ask Jigar: ⁠https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWNMQ2FndFBLRUJNemtWOWdNRUJtNjhSM2x5d3xBQ3Jtc0trWURoWXI1SzczdUxYMFJSaXlfSW44dUFwdUJJYlIyVVpndVU2N1NuTzZsdlpKS3BIbVByS0xvLWFuSjNwOU5FOVpjNE9WR21JZGlYdlVTQUVZbFAxZkZ4eUtjQXRlX1dHLThrc2thYlV6ZVFnYnNTdw&q=https%3A%2F%2Foctopusenergy.com%2Fask-jigar%E2%81%A0&v=wWixIKt9f2w] ⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWNMQ2FndFBLRUJNemtWOWdNRUJtNjhSM2x5d3xBQ3Jtc0trWURoWXI1SzczdUxYMFJSaXlfSW44dUFwdUJJYlIyVVpndVU2N1NuTzZsdlpKS3BIbVByS0xvLWFuSjNwOU5FOVpjNE9WR21JZGlYdlVTQUVZbFAxZkZ4eUtjQXRlX1dHLThrc2thYlV6ZVFnYnNTdw&q=https%3A%2F%2Foctopusenergy.com%2Fask-jigar%E2%81%A0&v=wWixIKt9f2w]S2G Investments: ⁠https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order ] Octopus Energy: ⁠https://octopusenergy.com/faas⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbVhiTWN2NmdMeXhlTnZNdlpaTzFoU0ZZbmh3QXxBQ3Jtc0tuUHpPNF9WLThUU2tGN2Vocjh4ZHA2TkgtTk85WG5zRTlhdGpfX1lxWkZsSy0waDBteENvMkN5eERJd3JJN2tiN3NMSW5aaWl0VzJCWkpLNWM2QXVwbkZWcWwtWjd4SzBlSGpYT2wxTlg1VTRnV0tlWQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Foctopusenergy.com%2Ffaas%E2%81%A0&v=wWixIKt9f2w]

Can a Climate Democrat Win a Trump District? — with Rep. Kathy Castor

Kathy Castor has represented Tampa in Congress for 20 years — four of them chairing the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, the policy engine behind the Inflation Reduction Act. Now Florida's new congressional map has carved her district into five pieces, turning a seat Democrats won by 12 into one Trump carried by 11. Jigar and Jamie talk with the congresswoman about why the Sunshine State gets 75% of its electricity from gas, the Thriving Economy Project — the next climate bill, drafted before Democrats have the votes to pass it, with 1,200 policy proposals already in — and where permitting reform could move with Trump still in the White House. Along the way: the congressman who entered a battery into the committee record, electric bills burned in a garbage can, and why MacDill Air Force Base relocates every time a storm approaches. Plus, Ask Jigar: where one person's effort actually counts, whether AI changes the value of a college degree, the case for 50 climate tech IPOs, and which states pay you for the battery in your EV. Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order] Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

Forget Solar Stocks. The Best Solar Returns Are Overseas.

Brazil: 14% returns. South Africa: 9.8%. United States: 7.1%. That's not a typo. Mike Silvestrini has deployed $476 million in solar projects overseas and at home. The US is his riskiest market. Silvestrini is the co-founder of Energea — a platform that lets anyone invest directly in real solar projects, not solar stocks, for as little as $100. Jigar and Jamie talk with Mike about where the capital is missing, why the returns are where they are, and what it actually means when electricity arrives somewhere it's never been before. Along the way: why Mike has been skeptical about batteries for 20 years and still is. How he first heard of Jigar. 250,000 homes in Colombia with no electricity. And why he had to start quacking more like a duck to attract the right investors — and whether it cost him. Learn more about Energea here: https://www.energea.com?utm_campaign=45660715-Energy%20Empire%20Podcast%202026&utm_source=energyempirepodcast&utm_medium=podcast [https://www.energea.com/?utm_campaign=45660715-Energy%20Empire%20Podcast%202026&utm_source=energyempirepodcast&utm_medium=podcast] Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order] Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

The Utilities Want $1.4 Trillion. The Hyperscalers Want a Gigawatt. Nobody Did the Math.

Electric utilities are on track to spend $1.4 trillion on the power grid by 2030. Hyperscalers keep asking for gigawatt-scale data centers. Nobody is required to show the math. Katherine Blunt covered PG&E's bankruptcy and the Camp Fire for The Wall Street Journal and wrote California Burning, the book PG&E CEO Patti Poppe made mandatory reading for all her employees when she took over. Now, Blunt covers Alphabet, where she is watching the AI buildout collide with the same regulatory machinery that produced PG&E. Jigar and Katherine get into PJM's white paper conceding the market needs to be redesigned, what Google figured out in its Xcel Minnesota deal that other hyperscalers haven't, and what trust looks like when utilities ask for a record-setting decade of spending. Plus: the one thing Katherine would mandate if she could — and it isn't interruptible service. Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar] S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order [https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcast-global-energy-order] Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas [https://octopusenergy.com/faas]

Ask Jigar: Should You Cut the Cord on Your Utility?

Solar on the roof. Battery in the garage. You can run your house yourself now. The question is what that does to the grid we all share. This week on Ask Jigar: what local clean-energy leaders should do now that the feds have pulled back. Whether virtual power plants will hurt utility valuations. Why nuclear supporters should love cheap battery storage. And whether mass defection from the California grid is real — or if NEM 3.0 already changed the math. Four questions. One answer: use the grid we already paid for. Submit your question: octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar [https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar]