John Berger, CEO of Houston-based Sunnova, explains the importance of energy independence and solar's role in achieving it. Courtesy of Sunnova

Following extreme temperatures and increasing grid instability this summer, CEO and Chairman of the board of residential solar power service company Sunnova Energy Corp., John Berger, is encouraging individuals to take charge of their energy needs.

Berger founded the Houston-grown company back in 2012, before solar energy was seen as a hip, clean power source. Now, Sunnova (NYSE: NOVA) is a leader in residential solar installations.

In a discussion with EnergyCapital Berger broke down misconceptions about solar power, predicted the rise of the home as a power station, and highlighted the importance of energy independence.

EnergyCapital: In the wake of a record breaking heat wave, how do you anticipate renewables being incorporated into the market as demand response soars?

John Berger: It's a rethinking of the entire system. What goes with that is let's rethink our regulatory structure. In this regard, I'm not talking about renewable energy versus fossil fuel. I'm talking about enabling and empowering the consumer and enabling and empowering the individual, whether that's a homeowner, a business owner, or apartment dweller. We don't do that in this country. We don't do it, outside, maybe Houston, Dallas, and a couple of other small markets. That's inhibiting the transition greatly. The monopolies want higher prices, because the more money they spend, the more money they make. They are not embracing change. They are not embracing technologies. They're not embracing demand response. Because that limits their revenue. So, we should recognize that that's the system. We shouldn't expect a different outcome when we've given us some incentive structure that: spend more money, don't change and don't adopt new technologies.

We need to change the entire energy system because technologies like solar, storage, software, and hardware exist and need to be adopted. We need to have the right regulatory system to allow consumers to adopt them. We need to have the right price, so that consumers can adopt these technologies at a pace that's far quicker than what we're seeing now so that they can ultimately address climate change.

As soon as we unleash the individual and empower the individual — powering energy independence is our tagline — we will solve the ultimate risk to humanity that is climate change a lot faster.

EC: Though solar is rising in popularity, are there any misconceptions about solar power in relation to residential installations that have persisted?

JB: I think the bigger one, whether it’s on a home or in a field, is that somehow since solar is intermittent, it's not reliable. It is intermittent to some degree, but — if you've ever run a utility system — coal is unreliable, gas fired power is unreliable, nuclear is even unreliable. We saw that in the winter storm Uri down in Texas. The gas wellheads froze off because they weren't prepared for the freeze. Were the wind turbines prepared for the freeze? No, they weren't either. The one source that performed better was solar. But you don't see that in a lot of the commentary because it didn't fit the political agenda that some have.

The question is, can you put enough of both on the system or on the home so that you can carry through whether it's a winter storm day or a heatwave in the summer? The misconception that solar will always be intermittent is the constant problem that we face. What are you going to do when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine? My response: have you ever heard of a battery? We’ve got to get over that hurdle. Frankly, it's just an excuse and at best an uneducated excuse. We need to get over that and move on, and then figure out how we can best adopt the technologies of solar and storage that are plummeting in price, through empowering the individual.

EC: Sunnova is expanding into virtual power plants, can you discuss what that means and how they might impact grid stability?

JB: Virtual power plants, or grid services, or aggregation services — we call them energy services periods. There's a lot of different names for the same thing. It's basically taking solar storage software demand technologies and incorporating them into a centralized part of what we consider the grid — even though there's not a grid in the United States. The grid, as the common person understands it to be, is actually a haphazard collection of wires and centralized generation that was just put together over the last 130 years. There was not a master plan. You cannot physically move power from Houston to New York, for instance. You haven't ever been able to do that. We're trying to have that fill in of the small solar, the storage, the software, the demand side. We're saying each home, through this Sunnova adaptive platform with our sentient software connecting all these folks together, is likely to have some excess power that they can put onto a utility system or a regional system, so that the neighbor next to him can have that excess power if that neighbor needs it. It's a part of being a part of the Sunnova Club, that we can offer that value to you. That value may be that you get that extra power that you have to pay for where the value is the price in the wholesale market, or it could be that you get paid for that extra value that you happen to produce, through our adaptive platform. So it's a way of connecting homes together so that we optimize the solar and batteries that are on the other side of the meter or on the homes on the businesses. That's a way that you can squeeze more out of that investment that you made or that solar service that you have with us.

EC: As the cost of equipment for renewable energy systems, like EV charging stations and solar roof installations, decreases, is it possible to see a transformation of the home into a power station?

JB: I would go even further and say the home is the gas station now. That's what's already happened. It's fascinating if you really step back and think about it — the electric vehicle is becoming more popular, not necessarily because it addresses climate change, but because it's cool. And because it's enabled by software, AI, and a lot of the other things that make our experience in that car different. I think a lot of people now see and understand that. The other side of that is well, why can't that happen to your house as well? Like there's a lot of automation that should be happening in the house. There's a lot of software and hardware that's going in the house with the entertainment systems and all this other stuff.

You should reimagine how your house is powered and how it uses power. There's a lot of other things that you should be able to do in your house and it's more advanced than just flipping the light switches on and off and turning air conditioners on whether you're there or not.

We waste an enormous amount of energy in the United States. It's estimated that we literally burn over twice the amount of energy that we need and so therefore we're wasting over 50 percent of our energy usage. I mean, just think about the carbon release and the financial destruction that causes. We can do a lot better today with the technology. These technologies are available today and increasingly becoming more inexpensive.

EC: You describe Sunnova as “powering energy independence” — what do you mean by that and why is energy independence important?

JB: I think independence in your life just period is important. You want to have the ability to choose what you want to do in life. It's natural, especially Americans, to say, "I can choose anything I want to do. I can choose where I want to eat tonight. I can choose what car I buy." But for some strange reason, you can't choose your power provider in this country.

That's like if AT&T came to you on cellular and said, "We're going to actually triple your bill today. The regulator already signed off on it. We're gonna give you the flip phone back and take away Apple because Apple didn't agree to our terms. And you're going to like it." That's what we get from the electric industry. It's what we always get. That's unacceptable. We need to open things up to choice and Sunnova provides that choice to the consumers.

We increasingly are taking more technologies on, like load management, storage, more software with our sentient software, and we're coming in and saying, "Look, regardless of manufacturer, we're putting that together. Whatever way you want to fund that equipment, that service that you're procuring, that's fine with us you want to do cash fine, we'll do a loan fine." We offer that lease PPA, but that financing isn't enabled. But then we wrap our service together regardless of how you choose to fund it, which is different from anybody else. We say we're going to be there within 24 hours to fix that problem for most of your issues, so that means we're going to keep that power flowing. That's all it means. It's really that simple. When we do that we can come in and say you're going to be a part of the Sunnova adaptive energy platform. Basically, you're going to be able to get more value, a lower bill, if you're able to sell some of that power you don't need on that particular hot day to your neighbor through Sunnova. We’ll handle everything so you don't have to do anything. Or we can give you some additional power that you may not know you need to charge a car up or something like that and the neighbor will provide it through the Sunnova adaptive platform. So it's about how we rethink the entire energy business.

We're putting it in the hands of the individual to make the decision about what they want, you know, going over that point about reliability, if you work from home, you have a high demand for reliability. You have a higher willingness to pay for higher reliability versus somebody that has to go to work every single day of the week. They may not have that same desire, and they probably don't want to have that level of reliability. You should be able to choose. The utility just decides, the monopoly decides who gets served well and who doesn't. There's no consumer coming in that says I have a higher demand. So what do people do? They'll get dirty generators. One of the biggest industry growth periods in the entire economy is backup generators that burn diesel and burn natural gas. Again, we're taking an industrial age system with an archaic, communistic approach with economics and having bureaucrats make the decision, so we're getting suboptimal outcomes all the way to suboptimal fighting climate change. If we just empower the individual they'd say, “Well, why don't we just put more solar panels on and put more batteries and manage the load better when I bought the electric vehicle?” Those are the kinds of solutions that can be crafted individually for each consumer and that's what we do here at Sunnova.

EC: As a long-time Houstonian, how do you envision Houston’s role in leading the energy transition?

JB: I think Houston has a key role. Houston is the most diverse city in the United States. It is that diversity that's given a lot of strength to Sunnova over the years. Our quality of life is really high. All that means this is a fantastic place to build and create the new global energy industry. We understand oil and gas very well. The bigger oil and gas firms in the world are headquartered here and that's fantastic. They’ll be a part of the solution, I would hope. But if you look at innovation and transformation in industry, there's about a 100 percent hit ratio that the incumbents actually don't lead the change, and in many cases don't make it through the change. And so what we have to do is recognize that new leaders, new companies like Sunnova need to be formed and grown up here. Take advantage of the great quality of life, the low cost structure, the diversity of its people and its communities, and really lead the world and transform the energy industry.

I'm absolutely convinced that the Texan way of doing things, the Houston way of doing things, is a key part of that and demonstrating leadership. We certainly will do our part to help lead Houston forward to be the lead dog if you will, on the transformation of the global energy business.

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This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Houston nonprofit launches new energy education platform

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The Energy Education Foundation, a Houston-based nonprofit, will roll out a new app-based education platform just in time for back-to-school season.

Starting this fall, EEF will offer its new EnergyXP platform to students in middle schools and through community and education events across the country. The STEM-focused platform aims to boost exposure to oil and gas concepts and career paths, according to a release from the non-profit.

EnergyXP represents a fully redesigned, interactive version of the foundation's former Mobile Energy Learning Units, which now feature upgraded technology, enhanced curricula and app integration.

“EnergyXP marks the most recent development in our educational initiatives. We aim to inspire students nationwide to explore real-world energy concepts and careers,” Kristen Barley, executive director of the Energy Education Foundation, said in the release. “Our collaborative approach involves strong partnerships with educators, industry experts and local organizations to ensure that our programs are responsive to community needs. By prioritizing equitable access to quality STEM education, we can help build a more inclusive, future-ready energy workforce.”

The new platform offers 16 hands-on and digital STEM activities that introduce a variety of energy concepts through real-world applications while "showcasing the relevance of energy in everyday life," according to the release.

EEF will host two virtual sneak peeks of the platform on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8. Register here.

Enbridge's new Texas solar project to power Meta data centers

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Construction is underway on a new 600-megawatt solar project in Texas that will supply renewable energy to Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook, Instagram and other tech platforms.

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., whose gas transmission and midstream operations are based in Houston, announced that Meta has agreed to purchase 100 percent of the power generated by its new $900 million solar project known as Clear Fork.

The clean energy developed at Clear Fork will be used to support Meta’s data center operations, according to a news release from Enbridge. Meta has had net-zero emissions across its operational portfolio since 2020, according to its 2024 environmental report. The company matches 100 percent of its data center usage with renewable energy.

"We are thrilled to partner with Enbridge to bring new renewable energy to Texas and help support our operations with 100% clean energy, " Urvi Parekh, Head of Global Energy at Meta, said in a news release.

The Clear Fork project is expected to be operational by the summer of 2027. It will join Enbridge’s first solar power project in Texas, Orange Grove, which was activated earlier this year, as well as the company’s Sequoia solar project, which is scheduled to go online in early 2026.

"Clear Fork demonstrates the growing demand for renewable power across North America from blue-chip companies who are involved in technology and data center operations," Matthew Akman, executive vice president of corporate strategy and president of power at Enbridge, said in the news release. "Enbridge continues to advance its world-class renewables development portfolio using our financial strength, supply chain reach and construction expertise under a low-risk commercial model that delivers strong competitive returns."

Energy experts: Executive order enhances federal permitting for AI data centers

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In an effort to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) aimed at expediting the federal permitting process for data centers, particularly those supporting AI inference, training, simulation, or synthetic data generation.

Following the White House’s issuance of a broader AI Action Plan, the EO seeks to streamline regulatory burdens and utilize federal resources to encourage the development of data centers supporting AI, as well as the physical components and energy infrastructure needed to construct and provide power to these data centers.

Qualifying Projects

The EO directs several federal agencies to take actions to incentivize the development of “Qualifying Projects,” which the EO defines as “Data Centers” and “Covered Component Projects.” The EO defines “Data Center Projects” as facilities that require over 100 megawatts (MW) of new load dedicated to AI inference, training, simulation, or synthetic data generation. The EO defines Covered Component Projects as materials, products, and infrastructure that are required to build Data Center Projects or upon which Data Center Projects depend, including energy infrastructure projects like transmission lines and substations, dispatchable base load energy sources like natural gas, geothermal, and nuclear used principally to power Data Center Projects, and semiconductors and related equipment. For eligibility as a Qualifying Project, the project sponsor must commit at least $500 million in capital expenditures. Data Center Projects and Covered Component Projects may also meet the definition of Qualifying Project if they protect national security or are otherwise designated as Qualifying Projects by the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Commerce, or Secretary of Energy.

Streamlining Permitting of Qualifying Projects

The EO outlines the following strategies aimed at improving the efficiency of environmental reviews and permitting for Qualifying Projects:

  • NEPA Applicability: The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in coordination with relevant agencies, is directed to utilize existing and new categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to cover actions related to Qualifying Projects, which “normally do not have a significant effect on the human environment.” The EO states that where federal financial assistance represents less than 50 percent of total project costs of a Qualifying Project, the Project shall be presumed not to be a “major Federal action” requiring NEPA review.
  • FAST-41: The Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) is empowered to designate a Qualifying Project as a “transparency project” under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41) and expedite its transition from a transparency project to a “covered project” under FAST-41. FPISC is directed to consider all available options to designate a Qualifying Project as a FAST-41 covered project, even where the Qualifying Project may not be eligible.
  • EPA Permitting: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is directed to modify applicable regulations under several environmental protection statutes impacting the development of Qualifying Projects on federal and non-federal lands. EPA is also directed to develop guidance to expedite environmental reviews for identification and reuse of Brownfield and Superfund Sites suitable for Qualifying Projects. Importantly, state environmental permitting agencies are not subject to the EO.
  • Corps Permitting: The US Army Corps of Engineers is directed to review the nationwide permits issued under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 to determine whether an activity-specific nationwide permit is needed to facilitate the efficient permitting of activities related to Qualifying Projects.
  • Interior Permitting: The US Department of the Interior is directed to consult with the US Department of Commerce regarding the streamlining of Endangered Species Act consultations for Qualifying Projects, and to work with the US Department of Energy to identify federal lands that may be available for use by Qualifying Projects and offer appropriate authorizations to project sponsors.

Federal Incentives for Qualifying Projects

The EO also directs the US Secretary of Commerce to “launch an initiative to provide financial support for Qualifying Projects,” which may include loans, grants, tax incentives, and offtake agreements. The EO further directs all “relevant agencies” to identify and submit to the White House Office of Office of Science and Technology Policy any relevant existing financial support that can be used to assist Qualifying Projects, consistent with the protection of national security.

The EO reinforces the Trump administration’s focus on AI and creates new opportunities for both AI data center developers and energy infrastructure companies providing power or project components to these data centers. Proactive engagement with relevant agencies will be crucial for capitalizing on the opportunities created by this EO and the broader AI Action Plan. By leveraging these financial and environmental incentives, project developers may be able to shorten permitting timelines, reduce costs, and take advantage of federal financial support.

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Jason B. Hutt, Taylor M. Stuart and Anouk Nouet are lawyers at Bracewell. Hutt is chair of the firm’s environment, lands and resources department. Stuart counsels energy, infrastructure, and industrial clients on matters involving environmental and natural resources law and policy. Nouet advises clients on litigation, enforcement and project development matters with a focus on complex environmental and natural resources law and policy.