Watt It Takes: How Sunnova's John Berger Convinced Oil & Gas Investors to Believe in Solar

<p>This week on&nbsp;<em>Watt It Takes</em>: How a Texas entrepreneur with fossil fuel roots came to see solar and storage as the future of energy.&nbsp;</p><p>We feature a conversation with John Berger, the CEO of the residential solar-and-storage firm&nbsp;Sunnova, about his mission to convince traditional energy investors to put their money into solar.&nbsp;Sunnova&nbsp;has pulled in tens of millions of dollars from investors who once thought solar was laughable.</p><p>"I'm proud of getting a bunch of oil and gas money. I worked hard to get that money. And I want a lot more of it. The reason is that there's been a lot of success — whether you love it or not&nbsp;— there's been a lot of financial success in oil and gas and there's a lot of really talented companies that have built big companies. And we need them to start putting their money in this space," says Berger.</p><p>Today,&nbsp;Sunnova&nbsp;is the fourth-biggest third-party solar provider in America, according to Wood Mackenzie's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/research/subscription/u-s-distributed-solar-service" target="_blank"><em>U.S. Distributed Solar Service</em></a>.</p><p>Berger’s path is different than a lot of others in residential solar, who’ve mostly come tech, finance, or the environmental world. In this edition of&nbsp;<em>Watt It Takes</em>, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Berger about his time at Enron, his belief in battery storage, his focus on resiliency in Puerto Rico, and his leadership strategy.</p><p><em>Watt It Takes</em>&nbsp;is a collaboration between Powerhouse and&nbsp;Greentech&nbsp;Media. The series is recorded in front of a live audience at Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California.&nbsp;<a href="http://powerhouse.fund/events/" target="_blank">Buy tickets</a>&nbsp;for upcoming events.</p><p>The Energy Gang<em>&nbsp;is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas.&nbsp;Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing r