Jigar Shah on Clean Energy’s Next Chapter

Jigar Shah, widely considered a pioneer of the modern clean energy revolution, joins the Age of Adoption podcast to share his remarkable journey from mechanical engineer to industry transformer. As the former Director of the DOE's Loan Programs Office, Shah expanded loan authority from $40 billion to $400 billion, announcing 53 deals totaling $107 billion in committed project investment. His leadership helped boost US clean energy investment from $111 billion in 2020 to $236 billion in 2023. "I think it's deployment, right? And I think innovation actually follows deployment," Shah explains, outlining his deploy-first philosophy that has guided his career from revolutionizing solar financing at SunEdison to his current work at Multiplier.

In this compelling conversation, Shah addresses the intersection of populism and clean energy adoption, arguing that market forces will ultimately prevail over political headwinds. He reveals seeing unprecedented rooftop solar adoption and notes that "the folks who are closing financings are solar, not natural gas plants." Now focused on ensuring clean energy entrepreneurs "get paid" through his advisory firm Multiplier, Shah tackles the critical challenge of retention in the industry. Why does this matter? As Shah puts it: "I want them to stay in our industry because I think it's essential to tackling the climate problem." What obstacles are preventing companies from scaling successful pilots into fleet-wide deployments? How can the clean energy movement maintain momentum despite political uncertainty?