The Stories

In preparation for launching Season 2 of Probably True Solar Stories, we've combined all three parts of "The Solar Heist, or How I Got Into the Solar Business" into a single 53-minute episode. Two neighbors meet unexpectedly at an Oakland, California coffee shop that specializes in dark, rich coffee. Mazz owns a trucking business by day and is a thief at night. Charlie is a solar project developer by day and a guy with an international solar problem that can only be solved by Mazz. After a somew...

In the next episode of Probably True Solar Stories , we continue the story of two neighbors who are part of the solar industry. Charlie is a large-scale utility solar developer while Mazz is a medium-scale thief who successfully "liberated" Charlie's solar panel shipment from a U.S. customs warehouse in Part 1 and Part 2 . Now, in Part 3, it's a year later. Mazz has invested in a home solar company and trying to go legit. Meanwhile, Charlie's big solar project is almost complete... but there's ...

Gather around the fireplace, solar friends. Pull up a seat at the bar. On the next, Probably True Solar Stories, we're going to tell the first-ever solar fable. It's a fairytale. A hero's journey sort of thing. With a Texas accent. (Forgive me in advance.) This story may be a familiar one to people inside and outside the solar industry. It's about a young, ambitious solar installer who seeks her fortune to be the most successful solar installer in all the land. And like many fables, our ambiti...

In this episode of Probably True Solar Stories, a feisty senior citizen is determined to haggle with a solar salesman to buy the solar system of her dreams. But her haggling plans fall through when an honest salesperson refuses to sell an installation at any price. Can they find the solar win-win? True Solar Takeaways Not every home is a good fit for solar. The home may have too many trees or other obstacles that block the sun--and solar production. The home may need a new roof. The home's wirin...

There's a new superhero in town. His name is Solar Man, and he's here to help the world, but not in the way you might think. To defeat his arch-nemesis, Solar Man reluctantly decides to join the Ultra League of Super Defenders, a band of superheroes that are beyond the law. But will Solar Man be able to show his Super Solar strengths and pass the audition? True Solar Takeaways The U.S. solar industry installs the equivalent of a residential solar installation every 60 seconds . All solar proj...

Note: For this episode, we're temporarily changing the name of Probably True Solar Stories to Probably POOH Solar Stories in honor of our main character, Winnie-the-Pooh. Once upon a time, not long ago, after public domain laws freed Winnie-the-Pooh from A.A. Milne's copyright ... there lived a bear who wanted to go solar but didn't understand the process or the technology. After some discussion with Solar Fred, the narrator, and Pooh's friends Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit, Winnie-the-Pooh decides th...

This Probably True Solar Story is the first haunted solar house story ever told ... So... we're making pop-culture history! I think... If you find another one, let me know. As for the story, it's about a family that's moved into an updated solar home that seems to be haunted by a ghost with an unfulfilled environmental mission. But will that mission help the family ... or hurt them? This episode is fairly tame in the scary story department. There are a couple of bad words. So... listen to it fir...

Solar homes come with minimal maintenance, especially when the solar has just been installed. But when a new solar owner sees that a pigeon is unrelentingly shit-bombing her brand-new solar array, she calls in a pro to do the dirty work. But then she discovers that her pigeon also has a problem, and there are very few things that can be done to fix the situation. Indeed, it's a probably true solar panel pigeon poo-poo problem that's probably more problematic than precisely pronouncing this prepo...

How will solar sales be different in the year 2040? Today’s solar sales experience is fairly familiar: You call for a solar quote. Or maybe someone comes to your door to set an appointment. Then you give some basic info about your electric bill, and the salesperson uses software to quickly generate a quote. And then you think about it, maybe compare it to other quotes. It’s a little painful and fairly easy, but could it be even easier in the future? And if it could be easier, at what cost to you...

In real life, you never hear about the perfect heist. That’s because when a real-life heist is perfect, there are no witnesses, the criminals disappear, and the case goes cold. Boring. Now, in a fictional heist story, something always goes wrong. It has to. It’s a story telling rule. So why should that change for a solar heist story? When we last left Mazz Botticelli in Part 1, he’d made a deal with his neighbor, Charlie Boston, to liberate some illegally imported solar panels from a U.S. Custom...

In this first episode of Probably True Solar Stories , two neighbors meet unexpectedly at an Oakland, California coffee shop that specializes in dark, rich coffee. Mazz owns a trucking business by day and is a thief at night. Charlie is a solar project builder by day and a guy with an international solar problem that can only be solved by Mazz. Will they come to a deal? Or will their neighborly relationship become... awkward? All Probably True Solar Stories are fiction. If this episode sounds fa...

Once upon a time, there was a solar installer. Think that sounds funny? Well, why not a solar installer? Probably True Solar Stories is a podcast about the secret solar stories and the secret solar people that you never hear about. Why don’t you hear about them? Because they're not real. They’re fiction. Why fiction? Because it’s always more fun to make shit up. Also, because solar energy is increasingly part of daily life, but we never hear about solar's real heroes, villains, legends, pets, pe...