EMP S2E17: Sunnova's CEO John Berger discusses his company's microgrid business strategy and the need to level the playing field with monopolies to smooth the transition to a clean-energy economy

Sunnova CEO and founder John Berger details his company's microgrid business strategy and calls for policy makers to level the playing field between competitive providers and monopoly utilities, both in front of and behind the meter. Monopoly regulation is a "socialistic and communistic business model," he says, noting that "the current system is broken financially and doesn't serve consumers."

Berger says Sunnova's extensive solar-plus-storage installations in Puerto Rico faired well despite the destruction of Hurricane Fiona, and allowed the company's customers to enjoy electricity and live life normally despite the island's widespread power outages. "A lot of the fears that people have about solar panels flying off and everything else are just completely, completely unfounded," he says.

The 10-year extension of the investment tax credit for solar energy in the Inflation Reduction Act will provide investment certainty and lower capital costs for developers, Berger says. "Regardless of what the Federal Reserve does and interest rates do, that means that our cost of capital as an industry is going to go down. And the reason for that is investors love certainty." 

However, Sunnova's CEO  is critical of the Biden administration's policy emphasis on large transmission projects in the multibillion-dollar infrastructure bill, rather than promoting distributed generation and other customer-based solutions. "Individual choice is always better for society, and always leads to a faster outcome and a more efficient outcome. Cheaper, basically. And so coming in again, on a Soviet-style method and saying, well, I'm going to spend all this money, trillions of dollars, and put power lines everywhere and condemn property and all that other stuff. No, it's not the right approach at all."

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