{"id":16795,"date":"2026-05-06T15:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opensolar.com\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=16795"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:51:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:51:55","slug":"s02e2-why-2026-could-change-solar-forever-batteries-ai-electrification","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/www.opensolar.com\/de\/podcast\/s02e2-why-2026-could-change-solar-forever-batteries-ai-electrification\/","title":{"rendered":"S02E2: Why 2026 Could Change Solar Forever: Batteries, AI &#038; Electrification"},"content":{"rendered":"<section id=\"hero-block_6b5b354cbce7d6460af5770982cc93e6\" class=\"hero  light-mode background-none\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"content-block-hero\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"intro-text default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"motion-hero-headline blue-gradient light-mode\"style=\"margin-bottom: 0 !important;\"><p>S02E2: Why 2026 Will Change Solar Forever: Batteries, AI &#038; Electrification<\/p>\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\n<section id=\"one-column-block_a0ef5ad76f12279aa5b04865a2b43da2\" class=\"one-column bs-h-regular bs-tp-none bs-sp-regular bs-bp-regular light-mode  background-none\" style=\" padding-top: 0;\">\n\t<div class=\"block-style-default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"center-column no-top-padding\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text-space left\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text light-mode\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the second episode of Season 2 of <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0oxM37B9uZ3bpGAb6joV7m\">The OpenSolar Podcast<\/a>, Derek McKercher, founder of Perth Solar Warehouse, and Jimi Gatland, OpenSolar\u2019s Director of Pro Experience &#8211; Australia, discuss the installer shortage gripping Australia, where home electrification is heading next, and how AI could fundamentally change how solar businesses operate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"video light-mode\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/andVEfR8IcE?si=cBjkGel7rFzJgsl7\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text-space left\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text light-mode\"><p>Also available to stream on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-opensolar-podcast\/id1821123904\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0oxM37B9uZ3bpGAb6joV7m?si=dfe95663c8614b3a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Australia\u2019s biggest constraint is no longer demand<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Australia\u2019s rooftop solar market is still growing rapidly, but the pressure point has shifted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe bottleneck now is installation capacity,\u201d Derek explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As batteries, EV chargers, and electrification upgrades become more common, demand for qualified installers is rising faster than the industry can comfortably absorb.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Derek, rushing training is a false economy. Perth Solar Warehouse has been running internal training programs for months in preparation, with new staff moving through solar accreditation, battery certification, and operational onboarding before entering the field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Done properly, that process can take anywhere from three to six months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The businesses investing in workforce development now, Derek argues, are the ones positioning themselves for long-term growth, particularly as Australia\u2019s battery market enters its next expansion phase following the federal government\u2019s confirmed five-year battery rebate extension.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b>The fully electrified home is getting closer<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek\u2019s vision of the fully electrified home feels less like a distant dream and more like a logical progression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar generates energy. Batteries store and manage it. EV chargers, hot water systems, and eventually air conditioning become additional controllable loads connected into the same ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than replacing one technology with another, the transition happens incrementally \u2014 one appliance, upgrade, or energy decision at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most amusing and exciting gaps for Derek is air conditioning integration. Every manufacturer has it on their roadmap, consumer demand is obvious, and yet nobody has cracked it yet. Whoever gets there first could unlock a significant advantage in the market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as home energy systems become more interconnected, the technical complexity for installers increases as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek\u2019s advice cuts against the industry instinct to carry everything: go deep on three or four technologies you know well enough to troubleshoot with confidence, and build customer relationships around that expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b>AI is about getting back to being human<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek\u2019s view of AI is less about replacing people and more about removing administrative friction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Too much of the modern solar workday, he argues, is still spent manually processing information, chasing updates, and moving data between disconnected systems \u2014 work that software should handle invisibly in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That shift toward agentic workflows is already starting to appear across the industry. Derek points to new tooling integrations, including monday.com\u2019s MCP compatibility, as early signs of how operational workflows may soon become significantly more automated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c2026 is the year of the agent,\u201d Derek says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If that happens, the role of humans inside solar businesses will likely shift away from administration and back toward the things software still struggles to replicate well: trust, relationships, and customer communication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek\u2019s advice? The groundwork you lay now will separate you from the field.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b>One piece of advice: go see it for yourself<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the conversation wrapped up, Derek offered one final piece of advice for anyone trying to understand where energy is heading: go and see it firsthand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Places like Shanghai, where electrification already operates at enormous scale, stop the future feeling abstract and make the direction of travel much harder to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And for Australia\u2019s solar sector to fully capture that opportunity, collaboration across the industry will matter just as much as technology itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s solar industry is entering a new phase shaped by installer shortages, home electrification, and AI-driven automation. In this episode of The OpenSolar Podcast, Derek McKercher and Jimi Gatland explore why batteries, integrated energy systems, and agentic workflows could fundamentally reshape how solar businesses operate over the next few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16796,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16795","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why 2026 Will Change Solar Forever: Batteries, AI &amp; Electrification | S02E2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how installer shortages, batteries, AI and home electrification are reshaping Australia\u2019s solar industry and why 2026 could be a major turning point.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.opensolar.com\/de\/podcast\/s02e2-why-2026-could-change-solar-forever-batteries-ai-electrification\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"S02E2: Why 2026 Could Change Solar Forever: Batteries, AI &amp; 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