Green Giants – Episode 47

Yann Brandt (01:57)

Well, you know, ultimately what got me into it is the sort of same fascination for what’s to come, which still drives me in what we’re doing now, right? Which is that we continue to have goals that haven’t been attained yet. They’re much loftier now. You know, I start, first started out selling 25 kilowatt systems to car dealerships, which, you know, wouldn’t be that exciting these days, but we’re also not selling solar at $8 a watt anymore. So, you know, there’s still a lot of work to do, and solar has gotten to a point where it’s just fundamental to our economy, you know, having access to the energy that we need in order to power the economy. Solar just represents such a big part of it. And I think, you know, I don’t know if we’ll ever reach the finish line, but the playing field continues to get bigger and wider and more exciting. So, I’m still six companies in, super enthused about everything that we’re working.

Wes Ashworth (02:49)

Yeah, I love it. And, thinking about where you are today with FTC Solar, it specializes in tracker technology for utility-scale solar projects. For those unfamiliar, can you explain what makes trackers so valuable and how they impact the efficiency of solar farms?

Yann Brandt (03:03)

Yeah, mean, look, solar trackers for the longest time were something that people wanted but couldn’t afford, right? The CapEx didn’t make sense. A lot of it had to do with the efficiency of panels, but ultimately, in the proforma owning a solar farm, it was always fixed tilt. And in some parts of the world, it remains in that vein. But as the size of solar panels and the power density continue to improve and the cost curves of trackers continue to come down. The value proposition of trackers is also improving, right? Not just improving on the type of structure, how much easier and faster it is to install them, also being safer to install, but also the ability to produce fundamentally more energy. In a world where you’re trying to get as many kilowatt hours out of your investment, right? So, like, ultimately, what an investor is looking for is the lowest, you know, cost of electricity over a period of investment period. know, trackers offer a significant advantage on it, especially with high-value panels. At the root of it, trackers are a value-add to a solar farm investment.

And that’s the role we play, know, where FTC is a company that makes hardware. You know, we provide a lot of engineering services leading up to it to, you know, it is a complex part of the system, especially as we’re installing on, you know, not the flattest land anymore. And the role of software is exacerbated. mean, I have an entire software division at FTC to optimize the trackers on a row-to-row basis.

To minimize shading and maximize output. So, all of those things have to come together. Trackers are one of the most important partnerships that investors and asset owners, and hardware vendors have for a long period of time.

Wes Ashworth (04:51)

Yeah, I love it seeing the evolution and thinking about just the industry’s overall market trends. So, you’ve been on this executive side of solar for a long time. And as you’ve seen, you’ve seen the industry evolve wildly over that time period. What’s something about the solar industry today that would have surprised you 10 years ago?

Yann Brandt (05:07)

Just how big it’s gotten.10 years ago, I got into it 18 years ago, we’re in a completely different world. Today, I run a public company. There weren’t too many of those 10 years ago. And I mean, just from a personal standpoint, I was on the asset ownership and development side of the solar industry 10 years ago. So, I’ve been, like you mentioned, on a lot of different parts of the ecosystem. know, but ultimately, it’s a scale, and that surprises me most. But just look at the statistics on just how much of the total energy generation was installed last year in the U.S. How much of that was solar? It’s still insane to realize just how important solar is to the overall evolution of the grid.

And now, for the first time that we have growth demand growing for energy in the US driven by electrification, whether it’s EVs, whether it’s in the homes and, of course, data centers, we have a much more important role to play in the overall economy in the US. It’s the jobs, it’s the manufacturing, so much of that.

But I’ll give you one anecdote, and it’s probably a little bit more than 10 years ago. Solar panel, this is whatever data was, many of us that have been in the solar industry for a long time will remember this, but solar panels had just gotten to under $2 a watt. And I was sitting with a friend in his office, and we were sort of contemplating, well, what can solar panels do in terms of costs based on efficiency, based on scale?

 And we agreed at the time that solar panels would never go below a dollar per watt, that the asymptote of achievable is a dollar a watt. I have clients in Europe and elsewhere in the world that are paying under 10 cents. like, you know, that’s something that nobody would have believed back, you know, decade plus ago.

Wes Ashworth (07:05)

Right. I mean, it is absolutely incredible and pace of it. Right. And then just how quickly that’s evolved. Switching over to just a hot topic right now that everybody’s kind of looking at and thinking about trade policies, tariffs are a major talking point in the industry, as we all know. You’ve noted that the real challenge is the uncertainty they create, and I would tend to agree with that. How should companies be thinking about long-term planning in such an unpredictable policy environment?

Yann Brandt (07:38)

Yeah, I’ll start by saying this. The point where everyone is on the same team, right? Because I’m a vendor, someone is buying from me, there’s always a back and forth, you know, there’s commercial relationships between all of the different parties in the ecosystem where, you know, everyone is trying to create win-win scenarios, but maximize the value that they’re providing and getting paid for.

But where we all come together, whether it’s developer or EPC, module supplier, tracker supplier, or the workforce that’s going to install it, we all want the project to get built. Like that is where ultimately the alignment, the goalposts are for everyone in the ecosystem. And, you know, for me, I think about that point in sort of, you know, everything that’s sort of going on around us.

You know, and people are going to have varying various points on tariff, you know, whether they’re driven by, you know, the duties that we see during the various trade cases. But obviously now we’re in an environment where we’re doing, you know, trade tariffs beyond protectionist on things like 201 or 301 and things of that nature. Much more broad, broad-scale tariffs. And look for people like me that have to run a business and sort of forecast what could happen and scenario plan accordingly. It’s certainly difficult. But the difficulty really lies in, I think, the timeframes. I think most folks that are not political commentators or even political influencers are trying to, in my case, sell, build, and deliver smart trackers.

It’s a lot easier for folks like us to prepare our customers with these are the things that will happen over the next six months, 12 months, et cetera. When the thing, when the timeline shrinks on our ability to influence, it puts some projects at risk, which ultimately could put, you know, the risk to the market in terms of being able to deliver energy. Some of those things, you know, the development of that has happened many years ago.

The variables are influenced by things that are happening now. So that’s a complexity with the tariffs. There are obviously geographically some areas. It just takes time to get manufacturing in place. We have manufacturing in the US, quite a bit of it. Most of the parts and pieces we make in the US, regardless of whether a customer wants to buy domestic content or not, it’s just more efficient for us.

We manufacture in the US for projects outside of the US. Some of our Australia and Asia projects actually use parts that we manufacture out of our Houston facility, so there is that advantage. The reality is that we have a roadmap to 100 % domestic content. There’s really not a market for today. It’s more of a tracker market trying to come to you know, I’m at 80 % the next guy comes in at 90%, the next guy’s 100%. So, everyone’s at 100%, right? We saw that with module warranties. The reality is that it just takes time to get the manufacturing on because manufacturing quality also matters, especially to our customers and to our ability to execute. I think, overall, it’s the uncertainty that causes hesitation in order to drive projects forward. And I think that’s what we always have to be cognizant about.

That’s really an evergreen statement, right? Regulatory policy without an ability for the market to react and appropriately position itself creates difficulties for businesses to continue to be efficient and meet the expectations that they’ve set to investors, whether they’re private or public.

Wes Ashworth (11:23)

Yeah, no, absolutely great perspective there. Switching to just another really hot topic around the IRA or Inflation Reduction Act. It’s been a game changer for renewable energy. I don’t know that anybody can deny that. You pointed out that the debate around it is not always well understood. Can you break down the real reason the IRA is, let’s say, on the table politically and what companies really should be paying attention to?

Yann Brandt (11:46)

Well, I think the most important thing to know, the IRA, and more importantly, I think for our conversation here and the audience, what are we talking about? We’re talking about the tax credits, some of the ancillary adders that were added during the IRA, domestic content, the community properties, the 45X credits for manufacturing. Those obviously have had a huge impact to bringing you know, manufacturing back, right? Our ability to meet the module need for almost the entire market at the module level and soon to be at the cell level is an enormous success story for American manufacturing and reshoring of a lot of that supply chain. You know, and there’s really no political spectrum that you can label where those factories are, right?

There are Americans working in American factories benefiting from the growth of the solar market. And when we think about the tax credit in and of itself, right, the 30 % ITC for residential and commercial, we’ve actually had all three previous presidents or four, you know, going back to George Bush have signed a 30 % tax credit for solar, you know, the solar ITC into a law.

All of them, since Obama, have put tariffs and duties on solar panels. the positive and the negative have been very bipartisan and always been part of a bigger package. The IRA is not much different than that. There’s a lot of things in the IRA. A lot of good things around lowering costs for American consumers, providing… Fundamentally, we want to produce more energy.

You know, as consumers, we want the data centers to be in America, not elsewhere. We are going to have to provide as a country the energy generation. The only place to get energy generation at the scale that we need it for in the next, you know, four to five years is in solar. The ITC goes away, the costs of that energy goes up, and it’s passed along, not just to the data centers, it’s passed along to the entire grid. And so that’s something of note, but the reason we have to think about as a solar industry sort of a little bit selfishly is what are we trying to protect? So, the question is, why is the IRA even on the table? The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 that President Trump passed during his first term was a 10-year policy. Those tax credits are going to expire and need to be extended, right?

That’s politically; that’s the sentiment, and you know the administration hasn’t been shy about saying it. So the endeavor on Capitol Hill is to find ways to pay for four trillion dollars of tax cuts. And so, you see the efforts that are happening in DC, and you know not we’re not going to get political, but ultimately, you know where do we have pots of money that representatives could choose to cut in order to pay for something else. And the IRA represents in its entirety a very large pot of money in grants, in spending, and ultimately in the tax code as well. So, the question is, will the solar tax credit and the ancillary aspects be part of a cut in order to pay for another tax cut.

That’s what the solar industry is fighting against. It’s not an anti, it’s really not an anti-solar effort. It’s a we want tax cuts. What is everything that we don’t quote unquote care about to the tune of 218 representatives in the house that we could get consensus on. So, the question really is not just do we get rid of the tax credit is there 218 votes for removing one year from the term or two years or three years or bringing it to 20%. That’s really what is happening now in DC. You know, at the risk of not making this a comment that lasts a long time, and folks can come back and judge my forecast on it. There’s a lot of between now and then before we know what’s going to happen. The longer it lasts, the safer it is for 2025.
Safer for 2026, know the sort of place and service provision, the getting ahead of it. there’s a lot that will come into play. But ultimately, this is a pot of money for pay for, and so it’s important for the sole industry to remain involved, and it’s not just now, right? It’s, it’s forevermore because every time, like I’ve always been very public about this.

We should never give up the tax credit ever. Like, because it has to be replaced with a different pot of money. And there’s a lot of people that their business is in those tax credits, whether you’re a lawyer, whether you’re an accountant, whether you’re on the banking side, there’s tens of thousands of jobs entirely dependent on the tax credit. And that’s without considering all the jobs that, you know, like mine and people at FTC that are trying to take advantage of the fact that we need to build solar and we want to build it as cheap as possible. So, a lot of work to be done, but also the overhyping of the negativity on like tomorrow, it’s going to change. It’s never tomorrow, but it’s always, I need to be involved right now.

Wes Ashworth (17:04)

Yeah, no great perspective, and I agree. I hate the just the I don’t know just the that emergency type of negativity that comes about, and you know, it’s sometimes just like take a beat, take a breath. Let’s look at it. Let’s consider all the factors that come into play, but really good points there. Switching gears a little bit. I want to talk a bit about FTC Solar and make sure we cover that. So they’ve been, FTC solar major player in driving efficiencies in utility scale solar.

What sets FTC apart in the tracker space specifically? Where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation?

Yann Brandt (17:39)

Yeah, innovation, I think, is a key part of what sets us apart, right? So, FTC Solar has been in the tracker game in a couple of different iterations for going back 10 plus years, even has its roots back to some companies in Sonoma County when trackers really were just starting to come to fruition. But the ultimate basis of FTC was rooted in the 2P tracker, which really doesn’t exist that much anymore, only in certain circumstances, low wind scenarios where land is tight and the environmental conditions can take advantage of a 2P tracker. We’re one of the last tracker companies that still make a 2P, and we were a market leader. It’s what allowed the company to go public and allowed for it to thrive for many years.

But the market changed, and it changed on the basis of solar panels getting much larger. Two in portrait was a different game when the solar panels were half the size of a 1P track. A 1P tracker today is really a 2P tracker from before. So, what sets us apart is that we have a lot of history both in our product knowledge, what we’ve seen in the field, as well as our team.

We are one of the most solar teams in the industry. Putting that all together really allowed us to innovate when we released our one P pioneer tracker last year. And that’s why, you know, I came to FTC asking. I have a history of scaling businesses in the solar and storage markets. You know, coming in and sort of getting the 1P tracker. It’s fair market share working with, you know, potential partners, and you know, the ecosystem wants a competitive tracker market. It’s not all about relationships. It’s not all about what I did for you 10 years ago. it’s really about what are you doing now? And the way that we think about our tracker and setting it apart is we’re obviously during this sort of technology rotation, this happens in hardware all the time.

You fix what has room for improvement in the market. And obviously for solar, a lot of it has to do with labor. You know, and we think about it as easier, faster, and safer. So, we built features that made it easier for people that haven’t installed a tracker in the past to learn how to do it, which means the ability to get new crews, the ability to more easily replace lost members of crews that may have gone to do different sectors or work at a different company. So, fundamentally making it easier. Making it faster is all about the reduction of the need for labor, right? So, it’s super hard to get. There’s obviously been labor inflation. You know, can we get trackers to be installed faster? You know, less specialty tools, in our case, no specialty tools, less parts and pieces, you know, all of those things about making it faster.

And then ultimately about safer, right? Every construction site starts and finishes with safety. It is core to who we are at FTC. We have a lot of people that come from the construction side in and around the business on the engineering side, on the sales side, on the executive side. And so, safety is super important, reducing pinch points. And, you know, then there’s sort of the smart component, right? How do we make a smarter tracker?

We have arguably the best backtracking software in the market. Our ability to adjust trackers on a row-to-row basis is second to none in the business. But also looking ahead, how are we designing our tracker with robotics in mind? There’s a lot of things that go into our slide and glide, just hanging of modules, installation of the cinch pins, installation of the trunnions, and having the ability to have features that allow for that to be easier with robotics. And then the AI component, right? How do we get productivity reporting back to the supervisors on the job site? Those are all things that we think about when looking ahead. But it’s all about making a smart tracker that you can deliver, and that’s easier, faster and safer.

Wes Ashworth (21:50)

Yeah, absolutely. And something you touched on there is just you’ve had experience kind of stepping into companies, leading turnarounds, and you’ve developed a reputation for that. So, I’m curious to just to learn a little bit. What are the key ingredients for successfully reviving a company? And maybe what are some misconceptions people have about the turnaround process?

Yann Brandt (22:17)

Yeah, sometimes it’s turnarounds, and it’s a very broad term, right? So, in FTC’s world, it was really about having the right setup for the business and having a really clear view of where you want to go. And, for FTC, we’ve talked about this publicly to our shareholders. Q3 for us of 2024 was really the inflection point. We’re starting to see more and more business on the one P side and less and less on the two P side. And so, for us, it was really a function of, you know, having the right ingredients to be a successful commercial partner to the solar market, right? It is not just here now but also the accessibility. So, you see a lot of the folks that we’ve brought into the business; they come from the construction side, right? Why does the tracker have two customers inherently?

 One is the customer during the construction process, which is an EPC, and then the customer that owns the asset once it’s built. Right? Not every feature is meant for both parties, but our relationship with both parties has to be crucial. So, you know, a lot of people that have been in the solar industry for a long time, folks that have been in the construction sector, because for us, it’s about generating value to the customer, both customers, the long-term owner and the installing partner that makes them more successful at what they’re doing, right?

So, the EPC doesn’t care about the backtracking software, but the asset owner does. The asset owner, unless they’re seeing cheaper prices from the EPC, doesn’t necessarily always care about easier and faster, but they care about reliability, and they certainly care about safety. So, putting all of those things in place is crucial, but you have to understand that almost every business I’ve been involved in had two ingredients from the start. They had a great product that had product market fit. And they had really good team members, right? There’s restructuring executives that come in, and sort of everyone goes, new things come in. It’s more financial engineering. FTC is different than that, right? FTC was already public. They had taken their time to find a CEO that was commercially focused.

And that’s what we’re doing, right? It’s just focusing our business to slowly but surely regain the trust of our customers, our team members, our shareholders, you know, and make sure that we’re in a position to execute. But it’s a marathon, right? We continue to build the business based on commercial success, which ultimately starts and ends with commercial trust between parties.

Wes Ashworth (24:40)

Yeah, absolutely. Shifting gears a little bit, I want to cover some common misconceptions about solar and talk through those. And some of these you’ve touched on a little bit, but you can expand a bit more. So, one of the biggest misconceptions you hear is that Republicans hate solar. And I love seeing it become less and less of a partisan issue. Policy divides exist. We’re not immune to that. you pointed out there that the reality is much more nuanced. Can you break that down a little bit for us?

Yann Brandt (25:13)

Yeah, I mean, look, at the voter level, and I mean, even more rooted before that, most people, if they had access and, you know, could choose their electricity, they prefer solar energy than non-solar energy. Most homeowners would like to have solar in their houses, but they don’t for a variety of reasons, right? It’s too costly. They don’t like the way it looks. But like the approval rate for I would use solar on my house is very high. And it’s like across the board, right? The different income brackets, different political affiliations, you know, geographically. I mean, look at the biggest solar markets in the U.S. You know, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, right? Residential and utility scale sort of all over the place. California, obviously, was a big leader for a long time. But it’s across the gamut.

Back in the day when we were extending the tax credit, there was always a funny statistic is the highest per capita installation rate of solar was in San Francisco. And it was the majority leader’s district, Nancy Pelosi. The highest total number of megawatts installed, gigawatts actually, in the US was in the Central Valley of California, Kevin McCarthy, who was the minority leader at the time. So, the majority leader and the minority leader both sat at the top of the record books when it came to the most amount of solar and different metrics. And that remains true, you know. The one statistic I like to tell people is, under the Joe Biden term, you know, over the last four years, we talked a lot about solar, right? We never talked about oil and gas.

But we produced more oil at the end of Joe Biden’s term than ever before in the history of the United States, right? The amount of drilling and production was through the roof, and it came from a variety of different things, including the fact that we now export oil and gas, a lot of which, some of that got approved during Obama’s term. We just didn’t talk a lot about it. During President Trump’s first term, we certainly didn’t talk about solar that much, but solar doubled between the beginning, the first full year and the last year. So solar had a big growth. It has the potential to do that again. The uncertainty always plays into it. know, DC needs to hear from people in all the different ways: lobbying, you know, advocating at the local level, advocating at town halls, advocating in DC, you know, advocating through political donations.

You know, all of those things, you know, the solar, that part of it, solar industry doesn’t do too well. The oil and gas industry does that a lot better than we do. But it’s part of the maturation of a sector. And, you know, SEIA does a good job of putting everyone sort of in the right direction, singing from the same song sheet. So, you know, I think there’s always opportunities to improve.

Wes Ashworth (28:05)

Yeah, absolutely. Another big assumption is that all solar panels are made in China. What’s the real story behind the global solar supply chain? How is the US manufacturing evolving? You touched on that a little bit, but feel free to expand.

Yann Brandt (28:31)

Yeah, I look it’s I think it’s been a long time since all the solar panels have come from China. There are factories across Southeast Asia. Some of the biggest solar companies, I mean, some of them have had factories in Europe, for example. But just like I said before, like the US now has enough module assembly to cover our entire demand from last year.

And the cell supply is well on its way as well. If it wasn’t for sort of trade barriers, I think the US would be one of the leaders in silicon manufacturing, with several factories that have sort of gotten started and may have closed or almost got started and then never opened because of those trade barriers. I think it would be in a much better spot. I think, ultimately, the US consumer pays a lot for solar that is in the soft costs that are related to trade and protectionism. Some of it is probably justifiable based on, you know, protection of our IP and things of that nature. But, you know, we do pay about three times as much for solar panels as our European friends do. You know, and that certainly has a cost. We have to drive through that benefit as well. But the IRA and 45X certainly are giving us an upper hand in that discussion going forward. just, think ultimately the industry needs continued certainty and continued demand of the market. Certainly, the demand for the generation is there. We just need to continue to have the ability for developers to bring projects to the finish line.

Wes Ashworth (30:03)

Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Just shifting to key industry perspectives and some of the challenges out there, I know one of your go-to topics is marketing in the solar industry. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see companies making? And what should they be doing to better position themselves?

Yann Brandt (30:18)

Yeah. I mean, it’s an interesting topic that I think about all the time because I actually don’t view myself as the best marketer in the world. but for the past now 12 years or so, I’ve been publishing a newsletter called solar wake up, on a daily basis. Right. And sometimes it’s based on commentary, but it’s always sort of what is the top solar news. And it’s interesting, a lot of people reach out to me and send me their press releases, and I think there’s a lot left to do in terms of building relationships between companies and their audience that they’re trying to target from a marketing standpoint. The outsourcing of marketing to sort of, not my problem, I think happens a lot in the solar arena. I think some companies obviously go really heavy into marketing and then fail on the delivery.

You know, I’ve always been stunned where, you know, the disparity, when people do it really well, they’ve built a relationship. said, you know, they introduced themselves to me or to reporters and they understand what are you working on? Solar Wake Up itself is not a business, but obviously, all of the publications are. How can you be helpful to them and ultimately then get the help back in terms of coverage and understanding of the deeper topic that, you know, the problem that your company might be, you know, might be trying to solve? It’s, you know, hey, we sent out a press release and then send me back the report of how many people picked it up. You know, it doesn’t matter how big or whether your company’s public or private, if you don’t do a thorough job in selling your story, you’re not going to have a high response rate just like anything else that you would try to sell it.

But in my companies, I always want to make sure that we’re providing value to the customer when we’re selling it to them. So, you have to understand what you are trying to achieve? What value are you trying to generate for you? Then you try to find the ingredient of how the company is trying to build value to your potential customer. The same thing is true in marketing. What value can you provide? And ultimately, that will drive, you know, your success factor. The industry needs to do a much better job.

Wes Ashworth (32:26)

Yeah, no, without a doubt. And you do see that. mean, especially the disparities you talked about. It’s pretty evident. So, again, that’s a great perspective. Another thing you’ve said, which I think is really interesting, is that solar isn’t just a technology business. It’s a capital deployment business. Can you explain why that’s such an important distinction and how shifting this mindset could change the way companies operate?

Yann Brandt (32:56)

Yeah, I mean, if you’re running a business in solar and you don’t understand where in the spreadsheet your company is, providing value or trying to draw value out, you’re going to have a really hard time trying to scale that business, right? Whether you’re selling solo to a homeowner, they want to know what the ROI is. If you’re developing a project, you have a project pro forma. Like, I mean, the solar industry used to wear suits at all the trade shows, you know, suit and ties.

We’ve thankfully gotten away from that for the most part. But ultimately, the question I asked myself, which goes back a long time ago, is why does the solar industry wear suits? And it’s we’re a finance sector, right? We’re trying to deploy hundreds of billions of dollars building what is invested. And there’s a really interesting thing for people to think about.

We have to build assets that have a customer already locked in for 20, 25 years. And it’s like building a, you know, developing a piece of real estate where the tenant is decided now for the next 20, 25 years. It’s actually a phenomenal success story for the solar industry, but it puts a lot of pressure on that pro forma, and everyone plays a role in how they help or hurt that pro forma.

It’s also an understanding that the more value you can provide to the pro forma, the more you’re going to be able to charge for the good and service that you’re providing to the solar asset. So yeah, I mean, look, we all wear suits. We all know how many of us work in New York and San Francisco on the capital side. And I don’t see that changing, only getting even bigger with the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being invested in data centers that ultimately are going to be a large part of our customer base going forward.

Wes Ashworth (34:43)

Yep, without a doubt. Something else you’ve been vocal about, which is near and to my heart, something I’m passionate about, is just the lack of mentorship and leadership development in the solar industry. Why do you think companies aren’t doing enough to bring young professionals into key roles? And what’s your advice for industry leaders out there to help foster the next generation?

Yann Brandt (35:06)

Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to fault just the senior folks in the room. I certainly started at a pretty young age, and I was sort of thrust into rooms that I probably had little, you know, job being in, but I had folks that were willing to put me there and, hopefully, I wouldn’t make a fool out of myself. And, but I was given that chance, right? But I also asked for it.

So, you know, the real thing is, especially for younger folks in the industry, is ask to go to a SEIA board meeting, right? And if your company isn’t on the SEIA board, you should ask why they’re not on the SEIA board or the state solar association, whatever, you know, trade group or chamber of commerce. But on the flip side, if you’re going to these meetings, whether it’s a chamber of commerce board that you sit on or the SEIA board or whatever other trade association you belong to, why not bring a more junior person to the room?

The question I always ask them, when I get a moment with a more junior person, maybe just getting started, is, if you were in charge, what would you do? What’s the one thing that you would do right now if you had the power to do that? Because you get great answers sometimes, and oftentimes the answer is like, well, then go do that.

Sort of break the system a little bit. You know, many of us that have been around, we sort of beat up and have, like, we just work within the box. And we need the future leaders of the industry to be comfortable and have the repetitions of being in the room to understand how to network, how to be helpful, how to have tough conversations. But I always thoroughly enjoy seeing younger people being brought to board meetings of various types.

Wes Ashworth (36:54)

Yeah, it’s one of my favorite points ever made on the show. That is so, so good. And I agree. And it’s something we’re going to need, right? We’re going to need that know, evolution of leaders to come up and have those opportunities. And that exposure early on is really important to that. And I love it to your point. It’s like it’s not on either side of like full responsibility, but both to fully own that. And as you’re a young professional, ask those questions. mean, I know you shared that for me personally. That was the same way.

I got ahead further than my peers a lot of times because I was asking those questions like What do need to do? How can I get that opportunity? What do I need to show you to do this? What do need to work on here? So, I have a quote in my office that I think I’ve said before: the world belongs to askers. Sometimes, just asking; just ask that question; ask to go. Maybe the answer is no, but then you’re like, okay, well what do I need to do? What do I need to show you to be able to go next time? So, I love all that as really, really powerful statements there that I’d love to see more and more of.

Shifting gears a little bit, just some closing questions and looking ahead. Where do you see FTC solar in the next five years? How do you envision its role in the broader clean energy transition?

Yann Brandt (37:59)

I mean, look, obviously it’s always a tricky question for a public company, but, you know, for us, it’s about building trust with our customers, selling and delivering smart trackers that help them do their jobs more efficiently. The more value I can provide to them through the technology, hardware, and software, being a good partner during the development process, the scaling will come by itself, right?

So, we will continue to focus on our team delivering that kind of service and scaling to wherever the market allows us to go. We’re already a global business. We have a lot of aspirations to scale across all those different geographies. And yeah, we’re going to take it one day, one week, and one quarter at a time. But ultimately, it’s based on trust.

You know, which for me really that this effort started 18 years ago, right? With the relationships that I’ve built and hopefully cultivated by asking the question of can I come with, right? Can I be in the room? You know, leveraging those relationships between myself and others, but also the reputation, right? The reputation of being accessible, of doing what you say you’re going to do. And that’s what really the culture of FTC is built around. For me, it’s not just an extension of what we’re doing at FTC. It’s an extension of everything I’ve done personally beforehand as we continue to expand this market and the access to solar.

Wes Ashworth (39:10)

Yeah, it’s so good. A couple more questions. So, across everything that we’ve covered today, what’s one major challenge or trend that you think the industry isn’t paying enough attention to but should be?

Yann Brandt (39:38)

I mean, I think too many people view politics and policy as a spectator sport. I sit on the executive committee of SEIA, and not like, mean, it’s financial, right? Not many, not enough people are members at the top tier level at SEIA, right? Personally speaking, not enough executives and individuals understand the value of money in politics, right? I mean, maybe they’re learning about it a little bit, reading the headlines day to day. But you know, the most that SEIA PAC, the political action committee of SEIA, can raise from individual people is $5,000, which is obviously a lot of money. But in order for SEIA and other trade groups that have PACs to be successful, you need a lot of people to get involved in order to get the right dollar amount of involvement. You know, if you’re not and politics as a full-contact sport, you’re on the menu, right? You can use all the analogies and hyperboles that you want, but the metaphor is true, right? Like, if you’re not in the room, you’re on the menu. Certainly, the solar industry is doing the best it can. I will make this point when our has millions of dollars in it. Because the stronger we get, the more we should cohesively understand that if all 200,000 people in solar gave a dollar a day, right? Think about it, right? Like a dollar a day across 200,000 people is feasible. Why not? Right? And certainly, people it all justifies some people make, you know, low dollar amount. Some people make millions a year.

The question is, ultimately, everyone’s capped at $5,000. it’s, you know, just getting involved at the local level. think companies aren’t doing enough with like the local state reps and their local mayors and just building that consensus that solar is really the only way for us to build energy generation fast over the next five years in order to win this AI race. We are in a race, and the fuel for that race is energy.

Wes Ashworth (41:36)

Yeah, well said. Some powerful statements there. Lastly, we’ll close out with this. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to renewable energy professionals who are trying to make a lasting impact in this industry? Probably just shared a bit of it there, but anything else you’d like to add?

Yann Brandt (42:08)

I mean, ultimately, it’s, you can only be as good as the promises that you make and keep in the industry. You know, I appreciate that everyone has a role to play and sort of commercial activity. I’ve told this to almost every one of my sales teams when they go to trade shows. The people you compete with, you will undoubtedly, at some point, partner with or work alongside. The people are not your competitors. There are companies that are competitors, and you should go meet with them too, just to figure out how to potentially collaborate and things of that nature. But too many people take the personal competition too far, right? And this is not a big industry; I assure you of that. Building bridges and finding ways to continue working together.

Because the next time you meet, you’re very likely going to have different business cards. One of you, right? If there’s a group of five, one of you is likely going to have a different business card. You know, and I’m thinking like RE plus to RE plus. So, the friendships and the relationships you build are crucial. When some people take it too far, and it becomes personal, that’s sort of like, I don’t like, I don’t waste time on it.

I wouldn’t recommend others do it either. And I wouldn’t recommend that people sort of put themselves in that position where they’re trying to burn those bridges.

Wes Ashworth (43:28)

Yeah, that’s really good. We were literally talking about that earlier today, just as this is one of the most interconnected industries in the world. It’s just very small. People know each other. You never know if your paths are going to cross or if you end up partnering together or what have you. So that they’re so, so good and such a great way to end it. So that brings us to the end of today’s conversation with Yann Brandt, CEO of FTC Solar.

Yann, thank you for sharing your insights on navigating market volatility, scaling innovation, and what it really takes to lead in today’s solar landscape. Your perspective on product, people, and power of execution was incredibly valuable. To our listeners, as always, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Green Giants, Titans of Renewable Energy. If you found this conversation insightful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. We’ll be back soon with more conversations from the front lines of the clean energy transition. And until next time.