Jigar Shah—solar investor, co-founder of Generate Capital Inc. and co-host of The Energy Gang podcast—joins Monica Trauzzi in this episode of “Off the Menu.” At Centrolina in the CityCenterDC neighborhood, Jigar and Monica discuss how a greater focus on the climate has brought more people and solutions to the table.
Even though sometimes the data doesn't support it, I continue to be crazy optimistic [about climate change] because I think there's actually a lot of solutions to be deployed.
Urged by the warnings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, more clean energy advocates are supporting all carbon-free electricity sources, like solar and nuclear energy. Jigar and Monica talk about how politics has shaped clean energy discussions, the challenges ahead for solar power and how to drive investment in nuclear energy.
I don’t want [solar power] to run everything. I think diversity of electricity solutions is a great idea.
Monica also caught up with Centrolina’s award-winning chef, Amy Brandwein, on how her experience as a woman in the D.C. restaurant industry shapes how she manages her hot spots.
Get an inside view of the energy issues of the moment with “Off the Menu” at locations across D.C.’s nationally recognized food scene.
Transcript
Monica Trauzzi
I love Centrolina. Have you ever been here?
Jigar Shah
I have. I like this whole area. I remember when it was an empty parking lot.
Monica Trauzzi
You have been an advocate for solar for a very long time. You started Sun Edison in 2003. What do you think the biggest challenges are for solar?
Jigar Shah
Well, the funniest thing is that we were so overlooked for so long, that now everyone's making arguments around, "But you can't run 100 percent of everything." And I was like, "I was just trying to get to 1 percent and now you're putting on my shoulders wanting everything," right? I don't know, I don't want to run everything. I think a diversity of electricity solutions is a great idea. I just thought that being at 0.0001 percent was not a great place for solar. We needed to be at something a little bit bigger than that. When you think about what happened in 2011 through 2016, something on the order of 50 to 75 percent of all new electricity capacity was solar and wind, right?
And so that means all the lawyers were making money on solar and wind and all the accountants were making money on solar and wind and Wall Street was focused on solar and wind, and so even though we only put in 1 percent of our electricity capacity, or hopefully 5 percent of this capacity every year, so it's a minuscule portion of what's already operating. That's what everyone's talking about, because that's the new steel on the ground.
Monica Trauzzi
So we know the [United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] has told us that we have very limited amount of time to figure out what we're doing about climate change. We hear the presidential candidates talking about it. Do you think that we're focused on it enough?
Jigar Shah
Well, we finally are now. My sense is that we did a lot of work. The nuclear industry, the energy industry, et cetera, all of us together in 2007 getting ready for that presidential campaign. We just didn't have the people behind us then. It looks like the Sunrise Movement, those guys have done a great job. Greta Thunberg was in D.C. this last week and so I think she's done a great job and so we're now at a point where we're forwarding solutions to problems, and frankly a lot of them involve government. The other thing that makes me most hopeful is agriculture. There seems to finally be some recognition that farmers are part of the solution and that there is a latent sequester of carbon in the soil, and do things that they're frankly really good at, even though sometimes the data doesn't support it, I continue to be crazy optimistic because it's just, I think there's actually a lot of solutions to be deployed and I do think it's going to be one of the largest wealth creation opportunities of our time.
Monica Trauzzi
I recently heard you on a podcast say that Goldman Sachs has a fund for solar. They have a fund for wind. They don't have a fund for nuclear and that nobody wants to invest in nuclear. What's the conversation that needs to happen with the Goldman Sachs of the world about investing in advanced technology?
Jigar Shah
Well, so the first plant that uses any of that kind of technology is sort of 2025, maybe. Right? And so I don't know that I have enough information to answer the question until 2025 and I see how that goes. But I think the [U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission] is a problem, clearly. It takes forever to get something fully approved. So even if you wanted to do something, let's call it over the next 10 years, because I don't know how most people think like 50 years out, 10 years is hard enough for me.
Monica Trauzzi
Right.
Jigar Shah
You probably have to do it on military bases, right? Because that's who can get sort of like waivers from the NRC. Right?
Monica Trauzzi
Is there something that all the carbon free energy technologies like wind and solar and nuclear, need to be doing better to work together, to get to a clean energy future?
Jigar Shah
I think it's important to realize how we got here. On the one hand, the electric utility industry owned most of the nuclear plants and we're not necessarily the friend of the environmental community who passed most of the real portfolio standards in 2003, '04 and '05, right? So nuclear and clean energy weren't really friends for a long time, because their advocates weren't friends.
Monica Trauzzi
Right.
Jigar Shah
And the 2015 tax extenders bill, well I don't if it was tax extenders, but we sort of opened up oil exports, the clean energy industry broke from its environmental forefathers and supported that bill to get the long-term extension of the [investment tax credit] and [production tax credit]. And we've never looked back. So I think a lot of the old nuclear folks think that we're still a bunch of enviros, when we were never really environmentals. They were just the ones who passed the bills for us. And now they don't do that anymore. We pass our own bills now.
Monica Trauzzi
Well, this was fun.
Jigar Shah
Yeah, it was great.
Monica Trauzzi
Thanks for joining me for lunch today. This was great. Thank you.
Jigar Shah
My pleasure.
