The Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
Subscribe
Weekly discussions about the latest trends in energy, cleantech, renewables, and the environment from Wood Mackenzie.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
9 hours ago
The Energy Gang at the London Hydrogen Conference – Part 2
Host Ed Crooks brings you the second of two special episodes recorded live from Wood Mackenzie’s Hydrogen Conference.
In the rapidly changing energy landscape, hydrogen has become a hot topic. For some, it represents a beacon of potential for meeting global net-zero ambitions. For others, it is a costly and ineffective blind alley. As the clean energy transition advances, hydrogen has seen a surge in interest and investment around the world. This episode delves into different facets of the hydrogen revolution, examining its transformative potential from various perspectives.
The episode starts off with Will Lochhead, Deputy Director and Head of Hydrogen Production and Storage Business Models at the UK government’s Department For Energy Security and Net Zero. The UK government has firmly set its sight on reducing uncertainties and mitigating risks associated with the hydrogen economy, to open up new opportunities for potential market participants. The British government has set an ambition of reaching up to 10 gigawatts of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. Will Lochhead discusses a key tool for achieving that goal: the Low Carbon Hydrogen Agreement, the contract designed to underpin hydrogen production business models.
One promising use for low-carbon hydrogen, that could play an important role in the energy transition, is for making low-carbon ammonia. Today, ammonia is predominantly used in the production of fertilizers. In the future, we might see a more wider use of low-carbon ammonia, expanding into power generation and industrial processes.
A leading producer of ammonia, OCI Global, is pioneering sustainable ammonia production, viewing it as a viable solution in the decarbonisation journey. With projects around the world, OCI sees the potential for low-carbon ammonia as a versatile product: a fuel for sectors including power and shipping, and potentially as a vector for transporting hydrogen around the world. Akshay Bhardwaj, head of commercial business development for global ammonia at OCI Global, joins us to discuss the potential transformation of the industry.
Low-carbon ammonia could also play a role in cutting emissions from agriculture. Laura Cross, Director of Market Intelligence at the International Fertiliser Association, shares insights on the key issues in the industry, including the cost implications. The industry faces some significant challenge in building a substantial market for low-carbon fertilisers.
Lastly we hear from David Burns, Vice President of Clean Energy at Linde, on how hydrogen and carbon capture fit together. He argues that as we strive for a net-zero future, long-term decisions must strike a balance between today's capabilities and future technology developments. “Blue” hydrogen, while not entirely emissions-free, is cost-effective, easily scalable, and plays a key role in most current large-scale low-carbon projects.
By contrast, “green” hydrogen, while producing minimal emissions, faces significant challenges in terms of cost, scalability, and technological readiness. Betting only on green hydrogen and ignoring the potential of blue could mean missing out on substantial opportunities to cut emissions in the shorter term. So what’s the answer?
Follow the conversation on X, the platform we know as Twitter – we’re @theenergygang. And subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
1 day ago
The Energy Gang at the London Hydrogen Conference – Part one
Host Ed Crooks brings you the first of two special episodes recorded live from Wood Mackenzie’s Hydrogen Conference
Industry leaders and energy analysts gathered recently for the second annual hydrogen conference hosted by Wood Mackenzie, where they dissected the potential of hydrogen in the energy mix. Join host Ed Crooks in the first of two special episodes from the conference, with part two coming out tomorrow.
The conference presented an opportunistic forum to discuss how hydrogen, with all its potential and challenges, can shape the course of a decarbonized energy industry. Hydrogen, once considered the energy of the future, has finally claimed its position in the present reality of decarbonized energy systems. Fuelling the global discourse on climate change, the conversation has shifted to the pivotal role that hydrogen and renewable energy solutions can play in the clean energy transition.
Andy Lane, the Vice President of Hydrogen and Carbon capture in the UK for BP, spoke on a panel and emphasized the influence of China on the future of the renewable energy industry. Lane argued that China's ability to generate solar power and produce electrolyzers at a cheaper rate than most countries could instigate healthy competition that benefits everyone. He also highlighted that the renewable energy industry should not approach the global supply chain with a defensive mindset but rather learn to work effectively within it.
However, Lane raised concerns about the potential threat this presents to European businesses, despite the overall positive impact on global warming reduction.
What about those in the US? What impact is the IRA having? Rick Beuttel from Bloom Energy and Mona Bagat of KBR Consulting talk about the government incentives, the US’ place in the low-carbon hydrogen race as well as the costs when it comes to Green and Blue Hydrogen production.
This conference also provided an insight into technology leaders navigating the challenges of a rapidly evolving energy market. Ines Kraft from the German electrolyzer company, Sunfire, explained how they recently installed the world's first multi-megawatt high-temperature electrolyzer for green hydrogen production.
The ongoing transformation of the energy industry - and the shift towards hydrogen as an essential part of that change - presents both challenges and opportunities for energy companies around the globe. The rising prominence of hydrogen will require concerted efforts to surmount obstacles related to costs, regulations, and infrastructure.
Finally, we wrap up part 1 from the conference with Andre Pina from EDP Renewables discussing opportunities for an international market in hydrogen and its derivatives traded around the world.
Don’t forget part 2 from the conference is out tomorrow, subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
5 days ago
The Energy Gang Live from NYU: An Expert Analysis on the Energy Transition Landscape
What’s Next for US Energy Policy?
As part of Climate Week in New York, The Energy Gang recorded a special edition in partnership with New York University: an expert panel discussing the future direction of US climate policy and its implications for the energy transition.
Amy Myers Jaffe, a regular contributor to The Energy Gang and director of the Energy, Climate, Justice, and Sustainability Lab at NYU, hosted the event, leading a conversation about the key steps that governments, regulators and companies need to take to pave the way to a low-carbon future.
Joining her for the discussion were Ana Unruh Cohen, the senior Director for NEPA Clean Energy and Infrastructure at the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Elizabeth Gore, the senior vice president of political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund; and Rob Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, LLC.
The vital need to strengthen the US power grid was one of the key topics. As Rob Gramlich explains, it is about more than just funding: regulation and policy support are critical, too. The new rule on transmission planning and cost allocation proposed by FERC – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – is seen as an essential component of an energy policy suited for the new world of low-carbon power supply.
The need for efficient and transparent permitting of new infrastructure projects was also highlighted in the discussion. Building a low-carbon energy system requires massive investment in infrastructure such as power lines and wind farms. The harder it is to get those projects built, the slower the transition to low-carbon energy will be. The panel discuss some of the key issues involved in securing approvals for projects, including the Permitting Action Plan of 2021, the updates to regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and infrastructure buildouts' community benefits.
Towards the end of the discussion, the panel shifts its focus towards hydrogen. Is it truly the next frontier for climate solutions, or is it a mere distraction? The US already produces about 10 million metric tons of hydrogen annually, with high carbon emissions, for industrial use. But there is mixed opinion about the potential for much more extensive use of low-carbon hydrogen as a way to cut emissions in sectors where it is not currently used, such as steel-making and power generation. As research and development continues, hydrogen looks set to remain a contentious topic in climate and energy debates in the future.
Follow the conversation on X – we’re @theenergygang. And subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Sep 8, 2023
The US Government Is Rolling The Dice On Direct Air Capture
Direct air capture and carbon sequestration – is it viable, and scalable?
The U.S. Department of Energy announced in late August that it would be investing $1.2 billion in two direct air capture or DAC facilities. Direct air capture technology, which uses either chemical media (such as a liquid solvent or solid sorbents) or physical processes involving filters to remove C02 directly from the atmosphere. Carbon capture technologies - that capture CO2 at emissions point sources, like power plants or steel making - is also an area the DOE will be supporting for demonstration projects.
Some environmentalists have sharply criticized the Biden administration for providing financial support for DAC and CCS technologies, arguing not only is the technology expensive and unproven, but that it serves as a false flag mechanism by the oil and gas industry to sanction them to continue emitting greenhouse gases.
So should the government be investing billions in these technologies? Can CCS and DAC play a role in decarbonizing hard to abate sectors? To answer these questions and more, guest host Amy Myers-Jaffe steps in for regular host Ed Crooks to anchor the show this week. Amy is Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab. She’s enlisted two Energy Gang regulars and climate modelling experts to explore the world of carbon capture: Emily Grubert, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, and Robbie Orvis, Senior Director of Modelling and Analysis at the climate thinktank Energy Innovation.
Emily explains the challenges and viability of direct air capture as a technology, while Robbie outlines the modelling that implicates the oil industry in pushing for carbon capture; is it to prolong the lifespan of fossil fuel technologies?
It’s an episode packed with science and analysis, as well as an in-depth look the socio-political implications of initiatives such as DAC and CCS. There’s discussion around NIMBYism, and concern of local communities around the environmental impact of the projects proposed by the DOE.
How currently available incentives are structured raises another issue — they incentivize the capture of maximum CO2 for sequestration but neglect to account for how much greenhouse gas is invested in the capture process. This invites operations that can produce large amounts of CO2 to do so as they can more easily remove it from flue gas streams due to higher concentrations resulting from the use of fossil fuels.
The team wrap up the show by discussing the point that energy sectors we're dealing with – including cement, steel, and various chemical productions – are mostly old, often outdated. So, is it more feasible to create a billion-dollar investment to build CCS plants on the backends of these facilities, or to invest in newer, greener technologies and start afresh? As more sustainable methods become available, the relevance and usefulness of CCS must continually be re-evaluated. It’s all here on this week’s episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Aug 25, 2023
Riding The Solar Coaster of Clean Energy Investment
It’s a little over a year since the US Inflation Reduction Act was passed into law. Solar was one of the main beneficiaries, thanks to an extension and expansion of the tax credits available to the industry. So why has the sector fallen out of favour with investors recently?
August was a difficult month for the markets in general, but companies including First Solar, Sunrun, Sunpower and Sunnova (who have been featured on our sister podcast The Interchange) have had it particularly rough.
To look into what’s going on, host Ed Crooks is joined by two of our regular finance and investment experts: Shanu Mathew, of Lazard Asset Management, and Amy Myers-Jaffe, of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab. Together, look at the residential and utility-scale solar markets and the investment going into them, the US perspective against a global investment backdrop, and the long-term prospects for solar.
Also in this show: what went wrong at Proterra? Proterra was an electric bus and battery company championed by President Biden as an example of how the US could build a manufacturing base in cleantech, but it filed for bankruptcy in early August. What does its failure tell us about the future of electric vehicles? And how do these challenges facing two key sectors, solar and EVs, change our perceptions of the clean energy transition?
Finally, ESG investing is in the spotlight again. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock – one of the world’s biggest asset management firms – said recently that he “doesn’t use the word ESG any more, because it’s been entirely weaponised...by the far left and weaponised by the far right.” Republican politicians in the US have attacked ESG as “a direct threat to the American economy, individual economic freedom, and our way of life.”
Some statistics have suggested that interest in ESG investing has been waning from its high point in 2021. Amy says the capital is still flowing into clean energy, but investors need to “pick the right team, the right technology, the right management.” Shanu argues that the trends still support moves towards increased sustainability and the use of environmental, social and governance factors in investment decisions. ESG may not be a buzz-word any more, at least not in a positive sense. But the ideas that lie behind it can still be useful.
Follow the conversation on X, the platform we know as Twitter – we’re @theenergygang. And subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Aug 11, 2023
Defeating Doomerism: The Search For A New Climate Narrative
On the last Energy Gang we looked at the impact of record temperatures on the energy sector. This week, we discuss another impact of climate change: its effect on human psychology. We discuss how the way we talk about global warming affects how we respond to it.
A recent study in the journal Global Environmental Change argued that scientists and media organizations need to rethink the way they talk about climate change. The study’s authors called on the media to emphasise potential solutions to rising temperatures, rather than focusing solely on the dire consequences. This shift towards solutions-oriented thinking could help prevent a pervasive sense of fatalism: the idea that humans can do nothing useful to mitigate climate change. Doomerism, as it is sometimes known, seems to be creeping more and more into the conversation. Is it an inevitable consequence of the way we talk about climate change?
One point that researchers have found is that using the term “climate emergency” reduced the perceived credibility of news reports, and the likelihood that people would take action, compared to using “climate change.” News about climate impacts leads to increased fear and decreased hope, relative to the impact of news about climate action. Are the media inadvertently encouraging people to believe that our civilization is fated to end in disaster, and we are all going to burn if we live long enough, so we might as well just live for the moment and enjoy the ride any way we can?
To discuss the impact of climate doomerism on our mental health, and more, host Ed Crooks is joined by Dr Melissa Lott, Director of the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Melissa argues that the evidence shows there are in fact workable solutions to climate change, and that “everything we do to try to reduce emissions to any degree, already protects health.” So doomerism is not based on reality.
Also on this episode is Amy Harder, who is the Executive Editor of Cipher, a news outlet supported by Breakthrough Energy, the climate investing and policy organization backed by Bill Gates. She has some new polling data on public attitudes to climate change, published by Pew Research.
Looking for solutions led us to one answer to emissions that has made the news in recent weeks: carbon utilization. Amy’s outlet Cipher recently published a story looking at the debate in the US over tax breaks for carbon capture, and what happens to the carbon dioxide after it is captured. Amy explores with Ed and Melissa what this means for energy and the potential for carbon utilization as a whole.
As always, please subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
You can find the report from Pew Research on US attitudes to climate change here: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/08/09/why-some-americans-do-not-see-urgency-on-climate-change/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jul 28, 2023
Heating Up: What Record Temperatures Mean For Energy
New challenges for our power supplies in a warming world.
Global temperatures have been breaking records this summer. On some estimates, the earth is the hottest that it has been for about 125,000 years. In Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures have consistently reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and people are being hospitalized with severe burns after falling on the ground. The heat is bringing other threats, including the wildfires that have been burning out of control in parts of southern Europe and Canada.
Extreme heat inflates the demand for energy, particularly power for cooling and air conditioning, putting new strains on the power grid. In the US, electricity demand has been shattering records in Texas and Phoenix, and it's on a similar trend in other arts of the world, too. India's power demand, for instance, has been hitting new record highs due to the scorching temperatures and a steadily expanding economy.
To explore the impacts of the extreme weather we’ve been seeing, host Ed Crooks is joined by Energy Gang regulars Dr Melissa Lott of Columbia University’s Centre on Global Energy Policy, and Amy Myers Jaffe, from NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab. The gang discusses the ramifications of a warming world, and the stresses that it creates. To take just one example, to cope with extreme temperatures more people use air-conditioning, which often means increasing the use of fossil fuels, adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In China, coal-fired power output in June was up 14% from the same month in 2022.
The gang discuss the huge global disparities in energy usage around the world. In the US, about 90% of households have air-conditioning, while in the lower-income economies of Asia and Africa, it is 10% or less. Melissa and Amy discuss how the transition to a lower-carbon world will be viable only if it acknowledges the rest of the world’s demand for the comforts enjoyed in rich countries today.
Climate change also causes problems for energy production. In Africa, hydropower plays a large role in electricity generation. As weather patterns shift, regions that rely on particular patterns of rainfall can struggle. Parts of China have been suffering blackouts this summer because of low hydro power generation, while California has been helped by relatively high snow and rainfall over the past winter. Picking up a theme from a previous episode of the show, when Dr Sarah Kapnick of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration was a guest, the gang discuss the need for more advanced climate modelling to understand the factors shaping energy demand and supply.
Finally, there is news of a potentially exciting breakthrough in what could be an important source of dispatchable power with zero emissions: geothermal energy. A company called Fervo Energy, led and staffed by people with backgrounds in both low-carbon energy and oil and gas, has reported a successful test of its first pair of geothermal wells drilled horizontally for more than 3,000 feet, using techniques pioneered in the shale industry. Could this technology eventually be a big piece of the energy transition puzzle? It’s all examined on this week’s show.
Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and follow the discussion on Twitter – we’re @theenergygang.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jul 14, 2023
The Race To Lead The World In Clean Energy
Bidenomics’ is the new buzzword that the US administration is using to brand its industrial strategy. What does it mean for energy in the US, and around the world?
Last week, President Joe Biden spoke in South Carolina about his economic vision: a strategy that he is calling “Bidenomics”, with the energy transition is right at the heart of it. By “turning the climate crisis into an opportunity”, the White House says, the US can create good-paying jobs in clean energy while also bringing down consumers’ energy costs. When the president and his administration talk about their energy policies, the focus is generally on jobs, investment, and the international race to lead in the technologies of the future, not the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Inflation Reduction Act was the legislative core of this plan, with its array of incentives for low-carbon-energy, and for US-produced equipment in particular. As we approach a year since it was passed, there is plenty of evidence that it is contributing to upturn in US manufacturing. Spending on new factories has been tracking at a rate of about $190 billion a year, triple the average rate of the 2010s. But are there dangers in the administration’s drive to create new domestic industries in low-carbon technologies?
To discuss that question and more, host Ed Crooks is joined by regulars Melissa Lott and Amy Myers-Jaffe. Melissa is Director of Research at Columbia University’s Centre on Global Energy Policy, and Amy is Director of the Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab at New York University.
One of the biggest issues in terms of international tensions around renewable energy manufacturing is China, which is currently the dominant producer for products and components such as batteries and solar panels. At the same time as it is trying to wrest global leadership from China in some of those key sectors, the US is also arguing that the two countries need to work together to tackle the threat of climate change. Melissa was in China last week – as was US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – and shares her insights on the implications of two countries’ energy strategies.
One new development is that China is restricting exports of gallium and germanium, which are used in semiconductors, fibre-optic cables, and some electrical equipment. Amy discusses what these restrictions might mean for energy producers. And the gang discuss the question: what does this new trade flare-up teach us about how much countries need to work together to make the progress we need in developing clean energy?
If our world’s greatest challenges, including climate change, can only be solved through co-operation, does competition between countries risk pushing us off course?
Join the discussion on Twitter – we’re @theenergygang, or visit woodmac.com/podcasts for more.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jun 30, 2023
Controversy Over COP28
This year’s climate talks have already drawn widespread criticism. Can they make progress?
COP28, this year’s Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is still five months away, but the discussion around it is already intense. The conference is being held in Dubai, a choice that has drawn criticism because the United Arab Emirates is one of the world’s leading oil-producing countries. Last year’s COP27, held in Egypt, was widely considered a failure. There was a lack of new commitments to cut emissions, and many analysts have concluded that the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees C is now slipping out of reach. Environmental groups have warned that the influence of fossil fuel producers could mean that COP28 marks another year without real progress.
On the other hand, there is an argument that the effort to tackle climate change has to be global, involving every country in the world, even if not every country makes the same contribution. Oil-producing countries, and the countries that use that oil, have to be included in the negotiations. If they are not, the effort to cut global emissions will fail.
Joining host Ed Crooks to explore the issues around COP28 is Emily Grubert, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. They are joined by Joseph Majkut, Director of the Energy, Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
The gang also discuss battery technologies for long duration energy storage. As wind and solar now, there’s a greatly increased need for more solutions to help manage the stability of the grid, and companies are now coming forward with commercially viable long duration batteries to meet that need.
What are the new technologies beyond the lithium ion batteries used in everything from phones to EVs? How can our electricity systems be made more resilient with the help of batteries that can deliver power not just for a few hours, but for several days? As grids across North America are challenged by heatwaves and wildfires, it is an increasingly urgent question.
Follow the show on Twitter – we’re @theenergygang and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jun 16, 2023
What Does The US Debt Ceiling Deal Mean For Clean Energy?
The north-eastern US has taken on a post-apocalyptic appearance recently, blanketed by smoke from wildfires in Canada. Host Ed Crooks and regular guest Melissa Lott, Director of Research at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, are both based in New York and saw first-hand the extent of the fires that have been burning in Quebec. In recent years we have seen huge fires up and down the west coast of North America, in Siberia, in central Greece, to name just a few regions that have been affected. The gang discuss the implications of the fires for human health, for the energy system, and for our understanding of climate change.
The big news from Washington has been that the US has averted a global financial crisis, thanks to Congress and President Joe Biden coming together to make a deal over the ceiling on the country’s national debt. The agreement suspends the debt ceiling to January 2025, meaning the US can avoid defaulting on its debts, at least for a while. The legislation also had some important implications for energy. The generous tax credits for low-carbon energy included in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act had been in danger, as Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to repeal them, but in the final deal they were saved.
One initiative with plenty of support from both Republicans and Democrats did make progress: the legislation included moves to streamline permitting for infrastructure projects, which could help clear a path for low-carbon energy investments. To make sense of it all the Energy Gang enlisted Robbie Orvis, Senior Director for Modelling and Analysis at the Washington-based think-tank Energy Innovation. Is the legislation that’s just been passed going to make a significant difference to the speed at which we can build put low-carbon infrastructure? Robbie’s initial reaction is that it’s a small step on the way, but it’s incremental.
Meanwhile, there is a raft of new regulations coming from the Environmental Protection Agency, intended to cut emissions from light and heavy road vehicles, and from power generation. Together the gang examine the proposed rules. What impact will they have? And are new regulations basically an irrelevance in industries that are changing dramatically anyway?
Plus: the inauguration of the first ever Energy Gang Book Group. We are picking a book to read together, and the gang will discuss it at the end of the summer.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jun 2, 2023
Big Green Is Under Attack - As Clean Energy Scales Up, Criticism Grows
More money will be invested this year in the solar industry than in oil production.
So said Faith Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, last week. Amy Harder, executive editor of Cipher, attended the Cleanpower 2023 event in New Orleans and experienced at first-hand what it means for the Big Green energy industry to be rivalling the scale of Big Oil. The event has been dubbed the ‘Coachella of clean energy’ and as Amy recounts walking the half-mile long hall, full of clean energy businesses looking to capitalise on the booming industry, that comparison certainly seems appropriate.
Amy Myers Jaffe, director of NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, is also on the show this week. She says that what was once seen as a huge divide between the high-carbon and low-carbon energy industries is now being bridged. But she argues there is still an important role for governments in supporting the growth of newer energy technologies that would otherwise find it too difficult to break into markets dominated by old energy incumbents.
After discussing how the emergence of the Big Green industry relates to US permitting reforms that could affect all energy infrastructure projects, the gang turn their attention to the G7. The recent summit in Hiroshima included some important discussions of the climate and energy, with world leaders repeating their commitments to accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuels, but also acknowledging the case for increased gas production to replace Russian supplies.
Finally, whatever happened to alternative protein? Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and some of the other companies in the sector have been cutting jobs. Beyond Meat’s share price, which peaked at about $235 in the summer of 2019, is about $10 this week. Impossible Foods has been talking about an IPO, but now says it is not going to happen this year. It’s clear that if you can cut the emissions from food production, and from beef in particular, the climate benefits could be huge. Should changing diets play a bigger role in climate strategy?
Subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode and follow us on Twitter, we’re @theenergygang
Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit is back,
taking place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 21 and 22. Join
expert solar and storage analysts for discussions with leading grid-scale
utilities, solar and energy storage developers and federal policy makers.
How is the IRA catapulting the development of solar and storage
in North America? How can we continue to build a productive environment for
solar and energy storage as we move forward with the energy transition? What is
required to nurture the development of a thriving localized storage component
supply chain?
Expect two days of panel discussions, presentations and
workshops, as we explore the opportunities for solar and storage in the coming
decades.
If you are interested in sponsoring or attending find out more
on woodmac.com/events/solar-energy-storage-summit
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
May 19, 2023
AI in Energy; Evolution or Revolution?
The excitement around ChatGPT and other large language models has put AI firmly in the spotlight in recent months. Public perception is that we’re entering a new age of AI; it is a brand-new technology that promises to change our lives. In the world of energy, though, AI is not a new concept. GE was developing its AI capabilities more than a decade ago. BP invested in an AI company in 2017 to support oil exploration and production. And so far, although you can see the impact of AI in many parts of the world of energy, it has not exactly transformed the fundamentals of the industry. So when people get excited about AI in energy today, and expecting revolutionary change, are they just buying into some well-orchestrated hype?
Amy Myers-Jaffe is Director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University. She joins Ed and explains the real-world benefits of automation and AI for electricity networks. Automating home energy use and business operations in conjunction with power supplies could have huge implications for energy. The gang is also joined this week by Michael Webber. Michael is the Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources, in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas. He’s also CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a cleantech venture fund.
Together, the team examine whether AI will transform energy and our lives in the same way the internet did. And they assess the question: is AI the tool that will ultimately open the door to a net zero energy system?
Subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode and follow us on Twitter, we’re @theenergygang
Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit is back, taking place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 21 and 22. Join expert solar and storage analysts for discussions with leading grid-scale utilities, solar and energy storage developers and federal policy makers.
How is the IRA catapulting the development of solar and
storage in North America? How can we continue to build a productive environment
for solar and energy storage as we move forward with the energy transition?
What is required to nurture the development of a thriving localized storage
component supply chain?
Expect two days of panel discussions, presentations and
workshops, as we explore the opportunities for solar and storage in the coming
decades.
If you are interested in sponsoring or attending find out
more on woodmac.com/events/solar-energy-storage-summit
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
May 5, 2023
Wind and Whales: How Can We Manage The Conflicts When Energy Investment Affects Local Communities And Eco-systems?
On the Energy Gang this week, Ed Crooks is joined by Dr. Melissa Lott, the Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Duffuor, who is a General Partner at Azolla Ventures, a climate-focused investment firm.
In this week’s episode, the gang start of by discussing the recent outcry over the possible impact of offshore wind development on whales. Although there is no evidence connecting the wind industry’s activities to the rise in whale deaths, people are worried that there could be a link. It’s an example of the broader issue in energy investment: there can often be tensions and conflicts between what we need to do to tackle the threat of climate change and the interests of local communities and eco-systems. The transition to a low-carbon energy system means building a huge amount of stuff, from wind farms to power lines to lithium mines to flood defenses. The industry is under intense scrutiny to show that it can develop the in…
playlist_add
Apr 21, 2023
The Energy Gang Live from NYU’s '2040 Now' Event
It’s a special edition of the Energy Gang this week. New York University’s 2040 Now event is an initiative focused on addressing the challenges posed by climate change, and this week the Energy Gang joined in. As part of the week of exercises, talks, exhibitions and discussions, regular Energy Gang member Amy Myers-Jaffe led a workshop on building energy transition scenarios, looking for ways to deepen our understanding of the present and strengthen our predictions about the future. The Energy Gang was there to record live in the Kimmel Center for University Life at NYU.
Scenario analysis is particularly useful for analyzing the energy transition, because its trajectory is still uncertain, and a large number of variables can influence outcomes. Some of the most important of those variables are qualitative rather than quantitative, making them hard to analyze in a computer simulation such as an energy systems model. Thinking about a wide range of scenarios is a vital tool for tes…
playlist_add
Apr 7, 2023
Is Geothermal Power The Key To Stabilizing The Grid?
Alternative sources of power are moving into the spotlight.
As the share of dispatchable power in our electricity system declines, with coal-fired plants giving way to variable wind and solar, maintaining reliable supplies to keep the lights on becomes more complex. Investment in wind and solar is still vital for making progress towards net zero emissions, but other sources of low-carbon power are also moving into the spotlight. Those can include nuclear and hydrogen generation, as well as wave and tidal power, but there’s another source of renewable energy that’s been attracting a lot of attention recently: geothermal.
Today geothermal accounts for just 0.5% of renewables-based capacity for electricity generation globally, but some think it could play a much bigger role in the future. In the past few years there has been growing interest in geothermal energy, driven by some exciting innovations. Quaise Energy, for example, is developing a millimeter wave drill that they sa…
playlist_add
Mar 24, 2023
Could a Banking Crisis Stop Our Energy Transition Progress?
It has been a turbulent month in the financial sector, which could have big implications for the world of energy. Mobilising capital is vital for achieving international goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of global warming. As the global banking system shudders from the blow of Silicon Valley Bank collapsing, is long-term climate investment being pushed further to the fringes of the agenda?
The latest Assessment Report from the IPCC has delivered what’s been called a “final warning” on limiting global warming to 1 .5 degrees C, saying we are on course for about 3.2 degrees C of warming by the end of the century. The report, which aims to bring together and summarise the state of the world’s scientific knowledge on climate change, warns that flows of investment, especially to developing countries, “fall short of the levels needed for adaptation and to achieve mitigation goals across all sectors and regions.”
As we learn more abou…
playlist_add
Mar 10, 2023
Clearing The Red Tape Around Renewables
Will permitting reforms make it easier to build infrastructure projects?
A group called the REPEAT Project at Princeton University calculated last year that to unlock the full emissions reduction potential of the Inflation Reduction Act, the US needed to increase its total high-voltage transmission capacity by about 2.3% a year. That is more than double the pace achieved over the past decade. In Washington, reforms that could make it easier to build all kinds of energy infrastructure, including the grid connections vitally needed for wind, solar and storage, are back on the agenda. Attempts to build bipartisan support for reform in the last Congress failed, but with Republicans, who have control of the House of Representatives, now launching a plan of their own, a window for bipartisan agreement on permitting reform may be opening. Are these the steps needed that will unlock all the investment in renewable energy projects that the US needs?
Also on the show: the impact on energ…
playlist_add
Feb 24, 2023
Climate Change is Shaping Our Most Important Decisions in the Energy Transition
The energy industry influences climate change, and climate change also influences the energy industry. Understanding the consequences of a warming world is essential for making the right decisions as trillions of dollars are invested in energy production around the world. While we work to mitigate climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, we also need to adapt to the changes that we cannot prevent.
On the Energy Gang today, Ed Crooks and Melissa Lott are joined by Dr Sarah Kapnick from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA collects data from a fleet of satellites, buoys, weather stations and balloons, and uses the information to try to understand our changing world. Its data and modelling on global warming and its impacts is increasingly being used to inform decisions on renewable investment, emergency planning, technology and more. Melissa also works on these issues in her role as Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Colu…
playlist_add
Feb 10, 2023
The IRA 9 Months On: What's Standing in the Way of Progress?
The US Clean Energy Boom: What Might Stop It?
The US Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden last August, has transformed the outlook for low-carbon energy in the US, because of the array of tax credits and other policy support that has been put in place.
Over at Wood Mackenzie we do regular forecasts for the outlook for renewable energy investment in the US and as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, we have raised our forecast of new solar capacity installations in the US over the coming decade by 50%, and our forecast for wind power installations by 84%.
So, things looks really good for low-carbon energy in the US. Arguably better than they have ever looked, in fact. But we can’t just leave it there, with everything seeming right with the world. We need to talk about the barriers that could stop or slow down that boom in low-carbon energy investment.
Robbie Orvis, Senior Director of Modelling and Analysis at Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology…
playlist_add
Jan 27, 2023
The Renaissance of Nuclear Power
What’s led the world to restart the stalled atomic engine?
2022 was a year of important milestones for nuclear power. The most significant piece of climate legislation in US history – the IRA – included tax incentives and investment for the nuclear industry. A $15 per megawatt-hour tax credit for production to keep existing plants competitive, as well as $700 million to build a domestic supply chain for modern reactors, was a statement of intent from a government seeking to increase energy security. There is a resurgence of interest in nuclear power around the world. From the support for nuclear power in recent legislation in the US, to the plans for new reactors in France and the UK, to Japan’s commitment to a new generation of advanced nuclear technology.
Soaring prices for natural gas and concerns about energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have prompted renewed interest in reliable sources of supply. And at the same time, the international pressure…
playlist_add
Jan 13, 2023
What Could 2023 Deliver For Energy?
The Energy Gang is back. We’re only a couple of weeks into the new year but already so much has happened.
A mild winter so far in Europe has sent wholesale gas prices falling, but there’s still a long way to go. Natural gas is expected to trade at 77.11 Euros per MWh by the end of the quarter, down to pre-Ukraine war levels. With prices down 50% since the December peak, what is that going to do for the rest of the world? It’s just one question we have as the gang looks ahead to 2023 and discuss the opportunities or challenges that may await the energy industry.
Melissa Lott, Director of the Centre on Global Energy Policy, is joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe – Director of the Energy, Climate Justice & Sustainability Lab, and research professor at NYU. Together they look forward to the next 12 months: we’re approaching a year of war in Ukraine but how much longer will it continue? What will that do for energy prices and investment this year?
Environmental action in…
playlist_add
Dec 16, 2022
2022 - The Year In Energy
2022 has been a very eventful year in the world of energy. From January to December there has been an ongoing war, a European energy crisis, billions of dollars in funding for clean energy in the US and a Twitter takeover.
It’s the last episode of the year so we’re bringing you a special edition of the Energy Gang. Join host Ed Crooks and recurring Energy Gang guests, Amy Harder of Cipher, and Melissa Lott of Columbia University, as they wrap up the year by highlighting important moments in the energy transition, month-by-month.
As always, check out our Twitter to let us know your thoughts and any future topics you want us to discuss. We’re @TheEnergyGang.
Today's episode of the Energy Gang is brought to you by BlockEnergy autonomous community energy systems.
Renewable, reliable residential energy at scale is not a thing of the future. BlockEnergy is providing resilient energy to communities NOW. Much more than solar-plus-storage, the modular and scalable BlockEnergy re…
playlist_add
Dec 2, 2022
What Does a Split US Congress Mean for the Energy Transition?
The year is quickly coming to a close and there’s a lot going on in the world of energy.
On this episode of the Energy Gang, host Ed Crooks is joined for the first time by Jackie Forrest of the ARC Energy Research Institute and returning guest Robbie Orvis of Energy Innovation. The gang starts off the discussion by answering the question, what does a split US Congress mean for the energy transition. Under the current administration, a lot of progress has been made in the advancement of meeting our clean energy goals with the implementation of The Inflation Reduction Act. Now that the Republicans have taken control of the House what does this mean for US energy policy over the next couple of years? Will it now fall on individual states to implement reform, like California passing their ZEV mandate?
The Inflation Reduction Act includes significant incentives for companies to establish clean energy manufacturing, which has motivated companies in other countries to pressure their gov…
playlist_add
Nov 18, 2022
Can We Call COP27 a Success?
The COP27 climate talks have been held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. It’s a popular tourist destination, but the negotiators discussing ways to limit global warming and to address the harm done by climate change have not been able to relax. The talks have been pretty hard going.
Recurring Energy Gang guests Melissa Lott of Columbia University, and Amy Myers-Jaffe, who has just got a new job at New York University, join host Ed Crooks to discuss the progress that has been made, and where there is still more left to do. Both Melissa and Amy have had colleagues attending the summit, and we hear what they have been working on. The gang discusses the prospect of meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5˚C, the steps taken since COP26 in Glasgow a year ago, and the issue of how to compensate poorer countries for the loss and damage caused by climate change. We discuss how this is where the rubber really hits the road in climate talks: when negotiators tackle th…
playlist_add
Nov 4, 2022
Why Climate Justice is on the Agenda at COP27
With just a few days until world leaders and policy makers meet in Egypt for COP27, two returning Energy Gang members join host Ed Crooks to discuss what is expected from the latest round of international climate talks.
As the UN warns that there is “no credible pathway” in place to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, arguments about climate justice are rising up the agenda for international negotiations. Amy Duffuor of Azolla Ventures, and Shanu Mathew of Lazard Asset Management, kick off the discussion by explaining the idea of climate justice, and then go on to explore what it means for the future of energy. Although it might seem like quite an abstract concept, considerations of climate justice can in fact have direct practical significance for decisions by businesses, investors, governments and NGOs. The gang discusses some of those implications, and looks at how they could shape the effort to tackle climate change in the future.
Next, we shift our focus to the shipping…
playlist_add
Oct 21, 2022
The Current State of Investment in the Energy Transition
The world is facing a great financial strain - what does this mean for the investment in the energy transition?
On this episode of the Energy Gang, host Ed Crooks is joined by Nneka Kibuule from Aligned Climate Capital, and Sam Scroggins from Lazard.
The gang starts the discussion by looking at the state of the economy. There is a surge of inflation being felt around the world. In the US, the current rate of consumer inflation is at 8.2%. As a direct result, 30-year mortgage interest rates are at their highest levels in two decades. In Europe, they brace for a rise in energy costs as winter looms near. We explore what this means for investment in low carbon energy and the cost of renewables.
Back in August, the Biden Administration signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, with tax credits that they hope will help stimulate more investment into wind, solar, storage, hydrogen and nuclear power. The bill is projected to have a huge positive impact over the next ten yea…
playlist_add
Oct 7, 2022
The Energy Gang looks ahead to COP27: are we still heading in the right direction?
On this episode of the Energy Gang, it’s a think-tank showdown. Host and referee for the day Ed Crooks is joined in the ring by Samantha Gross from the Brookings Institution, making her Energy Gang debut, and Joseph Majkut from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, returning to the show after joining us back in June.
We start the discussion off with a deep dive into COP27, the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. In the year since COP26 in Glasgow, a lot has changed. Russia has invaded Ukraine, accelerating the surge in energy prices, and demand for coal has been making a comeback as countries look for alternatives to gas. What is on the agenda for COP27? Have the events of this past year set us back? And does the gang expect this year’s summit to be a success or a failure?
Also on the show: some good news for climate action as the United States Senate ratifies the Kigali Amendment, which aims for the phase-down of hydrof…
playlist_add
Sep 23, 2022
Managing Mid-Transition
We often talk about “the energy transition”. In this episode, we discuss what it means to be in the middle of that transition. Earlier this month, California was able to avoid blackouts as people came together to cut their electricity use. In Europe, leaders struggling to balance the urgent need for oil and gas with their goals for cutting emissions.
In this episode of The Energy Gang, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and new voice to the show, Emily Grubert, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy at Notre Dame.
The gang starts the discussion with California’s recent grid struggles. Electricity demand in the state broke records during a severe heat wave, raising fears that the grid might not be able to cope, but alerts warning customers to cut their power use helped avoid blackouts. Amy gives us a first-hand account of what it was like being in California during this time and receiving Flex Aler…
playlist_add
Sep 9, 2022
Winter is Coming: What Does it Mean for Europe?
In this episode of The Energy Gang, we draw our attention away from the US and the Inflation Reduction Act, and switch focus to the ongoing energy crisis in Europe. Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Harder from Cipher.
The race to stay warm is on as Russia cuts off more gas supplies to Europe. The continent is facing a potentially very bleak winter, but how bleak depends on the weather. If it’s a mild winter, then Europe will probably have enough gas. If it’s a cold winter, then things are going to get rough. There will probably need to be demand for curtailment, rationing and blackouts. Already, leaders are urging people to take action, by having cold showers and switching off the air-conditioning to save money and lighten the load on the grid.
What do these extreme measures tell us about the sacrifices people are being asked to make to serve a humanitarian cause?…
playlist_add
Aug 26, 2022
What Does The IRA Mean For The World?
In this episode of The Energy Gang, we revisit the surprise of the summer: the Great American Climate Bill. Now that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has officially been signed into law, what’s next?
Regular Energy Gang member Dr. Melissa Lott steps in as host this week while Ed Crooks takes a well-earned holiday. Joining Melissa is Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation and Dr. Linus Mofor from the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
A press release from the white house estimates the IRA will result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by about one billion metric tons in 2030.
For many, the bill is a high point of decades of work to pull together a piece of major energy and climate legislation in the US that helps mitigate the impacts of climate change and protect public health. Not just for the hundreds of millions living in the country but for the health of people around the globe.
The gang highlights the impact the IRA will have on air pollution – according to so…
playlist_add
Aug 12, 2022
Exploring The Great American Climate Bill
Congress is passing the largest-ever US climate bill. What does it mean for the world? It was the shock heard around the world this week: Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer’s joint reconciliation bill, The Inflation Reduction Act.
It’s passed the Senate, but the House remains. Will it pass, and what’s in it? On the Energy Gang podcast this week: Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Paula Gant from GTI Energy. GTI Energy is a leading research and training organization focused on developing, scaling, and deploying energy transition solutions. The Inflation Reduction Act is a nearly $700 billion bill, which includes roughly 370 billion dollars in energy and climate spending. Is the bill an indication that the energy transition is finally gaining the momentum it desperately needs, and what new technologies will benefit from it?
Next up the gang’s attention turns to a specific focus of the legislation: the proposed investment…
playlist_add
Jul 29, 2022
The European Energy Crisis: A Failure of Policy?
At a time when much of Europe has been sweltering in record temperatures, it feels like a stark contrast to be worrying about winter.
These are very worrying times for Europeans, because of deep uncertainty over what will happen to the import of Russian gas, which is critical for keeping the lights on and keeping people warm in their homes. Meanwhile, the US appears to have reached a defining moment in the evolution of climate policy.
In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe from the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University, and a new voice on the Energy Gang, Vicky Bailey, founder of Anderson Stratton Enterprises.
Things are heating up on the energy front, which begs the question, does the crisis we are seeing now represent a failure of energy policy in Europe?
We invite our listeners to comment and join the debate. This week Ed and the gang respond to a question about nuclear power and its future in the energy…
playlist_add
Jul 15, 2022
The Supreme Court vs The EPA
There is never a dull moment in the world of energy. Despite the summer holidays in the northern hemisphere, this week was full of announcements and big news stories.
Regular Energy Gang member Melissa Lott steps in as host this week while Ed Crooks takes a well-earned holiday. Joining Melissa is Emily Chasan from Generate Capital and Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation.
The discussion starts with the US Supreme Court’s decision to impose new limits on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The limits send a message about the reluctance to have the EPA make regulatory decisions on carbon emissions.
Next up, the gang focuses on the Russia-Ukraine war and inflation and their impact on the price of renewables. The cost of new-build onshore wind has risen seven percent year-on-year, and solar by 14%.
Shockwaves in energy prices are still reverberating around the globe. High gas prices have led President Biden to propose a suspension of federal gas taxes, but will this work?
Fina…
playlist_add
Jul 8, 2022
The Future Of Cleantech [Special Content]
The clean tech sector is a critical part of making the energy transition possible. With more and more capital flooding from outside investors into cleantech than ever before, the sector is set to become one of the critical keys in aiding and accelerating the energy transition.
Today on the Energy Gang: a very special episode – a fireside chat with Tom Deitrich from Itron, and Tom Rand from Arctern Ventures.
Itron is one of the largest providers of energy water and smart city management solutions in North America. With decades worth of experience, Itron provides sustainable solutions to cities all over the world, aimed at creating safer and more efficient energy and water systems. Perhaps best known for smart-metering, Itron is committed to advancing the ability to save electricity and integrate renewables into the system.
On today’s episode of The Energy Gang, host Ed Crooks is joined by Tom Deitrich, the Chief Executive Officer of Itron, and Tom Rand, the Co-Founder and Managin…
playlist_add
Jul 1, 2022
The Present and Future of California’s Electricity Grid
California is one of the world’s largest economies in its own right, with a population of 40 million generating $3.4 trillion in GDP. It is also a pioneer in the development of clean energy, generating about 23% of its electricity from renewables in 2020, a long way ahead of the US average.
On today’s episode, the Energy Gang welcomes a special guest: Elliot Mainzer, the President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). CAISO is the non-profit responsible for managing the flow of electricity that serves over 80% of California. Regular team member Melissa Lott, from the Center on Global Energy Policy, joins host Ed Crooks to examine the current state of the power grid in California and how it’s faring in the energy transition.
They talk about how the grid can keep up with changing technologies and manage the challenges created by a rising reliance on solar and wind power. And they discuss the significance of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s si…
playlist_add
Jun 17, 2022
The Changing Future of ESG Investing
Today, we’re following the money. Where does investment go in order to build a zero-carbon future? Where does the money get used, and where does it not?
This week Ed is joined by Emily Chasan, Director of Communications at Generate Capital, and Shanu Mathew, Vice-President of Sustainable Investing and Net Zero Research at Lazard Asset Management.
There are now trillions of dollars of capital in the market, aligned with the goal of getting to net zero. But in the past few months we’ve seen a backlash from politicians, regulators and even in the investment industry itself. The idea of climate-focused investing has been under attack in a broader pushback against the concept of ESG investing. The gang examine why this is, how the landscape is changing and how we can solve the issue of short-term pressures competing with long-term climate goals.
Next up, we switch our focus to the billionaire Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, and his bid to takeover legacy gas provider AGL in Au…
playlist_add
Jun 3, 2022
The EU's Plan For Energy Self-Sufficiency
The energy crisis is showing no signs of abating. There’s a shortage of energy, and the world’s efforts to transition to low-carbon energy are met with countless hurdles.
Countries around the world are taking steps to mitigate the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine however. The EU announced a plan to stop using Russian oil, gas and coal – it’s called RepowerEU and would mean more renewable investment, more energy efficiency and a lot more hydrogen to cut demand for natural gas. Europe is heavily dependent on Russian supplies, particularly for natural gas, which creates problems for Europe’s foreign and security policy.
If the EU wants to punish Russia economically, it really needs to hit its energy exports. And that is difficult to do while businesses and consumers in Europe are absolutely reliant on those imports.
Next up it’s a look ahead to COP27 – what needs to be addressed in Egypt in November and what have we achieved since Glasgow last year? At COP2…
playlist_add
May 20, 2022
Energy Policy: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The energy transition is currently supported by three main pillars: science & technology, economics, and policy. In 2022 these three pillars are unaligned, with a lack of cohesion impeding progress. In today’s episode of the Energy Gang, the team explores three current events that highlight and exemplify the current state of the energy transition in the US and beyond.
The gang starts with the future of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. The original bill included a lot of provisions that were hugely important for low-carbon energy in the US. It died in Congress late last year after Senator Joe Manchin declined to support it. The big question now is: can anything be salvaged from that agenda and where do we go from here?
The US government’s investigation into the alleged dumping of imported solar panels has reportedly had a “devastating” impact on planned solar projects. Is now the time to create a domestic economy for solar panels or are we still too reliant on che…
playlist_add
May 6, 2022
California Gets To 100% Renewable Electricity. Almost.
In this week's episode, the gang discuss nuclear power: is it a solution for providing energy security, or could it make the problem worse? Given that many consuming countries need to import most of their uranium, does relying on nuclear power create new sources of fragility? The US imported 86% of its uranium in 2020, from a range of countries, including Russia. What does that mean for hopes that a new generation of reactors could provide affordable and reliable low-carbon power?
Next up, it’s California’s quick peek into the future. The state’s power grid ran last weekend on – very nearly – 100% renewable energy, even if it was for less than 15 minutes. How can California, and everywhere else, get to grids that are 100% carbon-free around the clock, 365 days a year?
And then it’s a topic that is at the top of the agenda right now for everyone working in energy: the current state of the global supply chain. Renewable energy products and components from little solar cel…
playlist_add
Apr 22, 2022
Happy Earth Day: Why a Low Carbon Life is Within Reach
On April 22nd, 2022 the world will be celebrating the 52nd annual “Earth Day”. Does Earth Day serve any useful purpose? How can we utilize the celebration of Earth Day for good? How is Earth day viewed by the world today, and how does this celebration push us closer to a low carbon life? In today's special episode of the Energy Gang, the conversation focuses on solutions and recent positive findings from the IPCC report.
Making up the “Gang” this week is returning guest Emily Chasan, who is the Director of Communications at Generate Capital, the green investment firm. Also, another returning guest, Dr. Destenie Nock, an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Civil and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. As always, our host Ed Crooks, Vice-Chair of the Americas at Wood Mackenzie leads the conversation.
Keeping the positive theme in observance of Earth Day, the gang discusses the recent IPCC report and some positive findings that were report…
playlist_add
Apr 8, 2022
The Energy Crisis
The energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the most serious since the oil shocks of the 1970s. Rising prices for oil, gas and coal are hitting living standards and putting people under financial strain around the world. We are facing some tough decisions about how to relieve hardship and energy poverty, while still cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impact of climate change. In this edition of the Energy Gang, the gang discusses the war in Ukraine and the consequences for the rest of the world. How can we work through the short-term impacts whilst keeping the energy transition on track?
Ed is joined on today's episode by two returning guests. We’re happy to welcome back again Melissa Lott, the Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia. Our other guest has not been on the show for almost a year, and we are very glad she’s back. Amy Duffuor is Co-founder and General Partner at Azolla Ventures and leads our second topic o…
playlist_add
Mar 31, 2022
Managing Large-Scale Solar [Special Content]
Of all the stages of a solar project, the operations and management stage is arguably the most crucial. When you’re thinking about project efficiency and financial returns in solar, you need to have a concise plan for the O&M stage.
Greg Shambo is Vice President of Business Development at Borrego Energy. He says that ‘when you get into the operations stage, this is where you make the money. If you can’t operate profitably from day one, you end up losing money. We call these walking dead sites, because they were doomed to start with.’
For the last forty years, Borrego have established themselves as one of the nation’s most reliable names in the Solar and Energy Storage industry. From their early days as solar pioneers, to today - as leaders on the national energy storage stage – Borrego have delivered timely and secure management to solar projects. In 2014, Borrego launched a stand-alone O&M business for both EPC and non-EPC customers to help optimise and maintain system…
playlist_add
Mar 25, 2022
The IPCC Climate Report Uncovered
The gang is back, and it's been a huge week in energy. For the first time ever, the US government might be requiring major companies to report their climate risks and emissions. This is a really big change. Governments, regulators, and investors have been pushing for quite a few years now for companies to do more to disclose their climate risks. But this would be the first time in US companies would be required to report risks in a standardized way, including greenhouse gas emissions.
On the show this week, Ed is joined by regular Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of the climate policy lab at Tufts University. We're also honoured to welcome first-time guest Andrew Leach. Andrew is an energy and environmental economist who is currently a professor at the University of Alberta. Andrew is a native Canadian who has decades of experience in Canadian climate policy, that's why he leads the discussion on Canada announcing an emissions reduction plan and what that entails. What impact is it going to…
playlist_add
Mar 11, 2022
The Energy Gang - Live (Rebroadcast)
The Energy Gang – Live (Rebroadcast)
The gang are taking a break this week. Instead of a new episode we’re rebroadcasting our special edition live episode where the team discusses the top 5 energy-related stories of 2021.
This episode was originally live-streamed for Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Innovation series at the end of December of 2021.
This week on the show we have Ed Crooks, Emily Chasan from Generate Capital, and Amy Myers-Jaffe from Tufts University. The group discusses how “smart” devices are changing energy retailing, and the role of SPACs in financing clean energy deployment.
The gang looks back on 2021 and ranks the top 5 stories in energy for the year, looking back on the success of investment company Engine No.1, developments in energy storage, green stimulus in Europe, and more.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by EPC Power.
EPC Power manufactures self-developed energy storage smart inverters made in their American factories with gigawatt level capacit…
playlist_add
Feb 25, 2022
Lessons From The Texas Power Crisis
This episode of the Energy Gang was recorded before the Russian attack on Ukraine had begun.
As you’ll hear, we were talking after Russia had recognised the independence of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, but before the full-scale invasion.
We will have a lot to say about the implications for energy of the conflict in Ukraine in our next episode.
But this time, we were talking before the full extent of the crisis had unfolded.
The catastrophic blackouts that plagued Texas last year during the winter storm Eerie, were a result of a logistical domino effect. Many sustainability, energy, and political issues today are never as simple as cause and effect - there is always a network of decisions and actions that lead up to that initial fall of the domino. A more timely example is the current Russia and Ukraine conflict. The Energy Gang is not a show that usually focuses on geopolitics but it would be remiss to ignore the current situation in Ukraine, and the impact the…
playlist_add
Feb 11, 2022
Bridging the Gap Between Finance and Climate Change
In recent years, news headlines are frequently filled with announcements of financial institutions, funds, and corporations making hefty pledges to transform their portfolios to ensure that they stay in line with net-zero targets. Is this new wave of support for the energy transition motivated by making a quick buck or has there really been a change of opinion on the opportunities in which going net-zero really has to offer? How is the changing climate affecting investments? How are investors driving the transition? These are some of the key questions we look to answer in this episode.
The Energy Gang is delighted to be joined by two professionals who have spent the majority of their careers bridging the gap between finance and climate change. Our first guest, Shanu Mathew is the VP of Sustainable Investing and Net-Zero Research at Lazard Asset Management, one of the world's leading investment companies. Returning for another episode is Amy Myers Jaffe, the Managing Director of the…
playlist_add
Jan 28, 2022
Saving Build Back Better
President Bidens Climate agenda has been reformed, and with the Build Back Better Act in a stalemate, should Americans give up hope on expecting anything to come of it?
To discuss this and more, Ed Crooks is joined on the show this week by returning guest Dr. Melissa Lott from Columbia University, and Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation, who makes his Energy Gang debut.
The Build Back Better Act is up first. There’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the climate policies within the climate package. How much of the package will be saved and is there anything in it that’s different from before?
Next, the gang looks at EVs. With the lack of federal climate action, states have now taken it upon themselves to make some policy changes within their own borders. New York, New Jersey, and Oregon all have taken the initiative within the past few months by pushing for cleaner energy and policies that could help with EV demand. Is this the natural evolution of policymaking when the “t…
playlist_add
Jan 14, 2022
Can Aviation Be Made Sustainable?
It’s the first Energy Gang of the year. Ed Crooks is joined by Emily Chasan of Generate Capital and Amy Harder, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and Axios, now at Breakthrough Energy, which is the net-zero initiative founded by Bill Gates - find out more here: Cipher: Overview | LinkedIn - who joins the gang for the first time to kick off 2022 with a bang.
With air travel over the holiday season bouncing back – despite the Omicron variant – what are the best prospects for taking the emissions out of aviation? In the US, in mid-December, more than two million people per day were passing through the TSA’s checkpoints. That is still significantly below pre-pandemic levels, but it is roughly double the numbers in the same period of 2020. Even with the pandemic still raging, people want to fly. That is a real problem for getting to net zero. Aviation emissions are small, accounting for a little under 2% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, but their share is rising. Sustain…
playlist_add
Dec 31, 2021
What the US can Learn from Australia with Renewables [Special Content]
Achieving net zero emissions requires collaboration from a multitude of government organizations and businesses.
For a country the size of Australia, 24% of electricity coming from renewables is a huge accomplishment. But it does not come easy. Australia has two large interconnected energy networks, the National Electricity Market along the East Coast, with demand of 30-35 GW, and the Western Australia Electricity Market, with demand between 2-3 GW. Both networks are receiving a huge update of distributed solar which means the amount of energy generated by renewables is constantly increasing.
Hitachi Energy, a longtime partner of The Energy Gang has played an integral role in helping Australia to achieve this, and on today’s episode, Ed Crooks is joined by two key representatives from Hitachi Energy, to discuss their work in Australia and examine some of the lessons that other countries can learn from Australia’s experience.
Juergen Zimmerman is Business Development and Technolo…
playlist_add
Dec 17, 2021
The Gang Wraps Up 2021
It’s a special edition of the Energy Gang this week, with the last episode of 2021 recorded for Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Innovation series.
Ed is joined by Emily Chasan from Generate Capital and Amy Myers-Jaffe from Tufts University, to look at how smart devices are changing energy retailing, and the role of SPACs in financing clean energy deployment.
The gang wraps up 2021 with their top 5 stories in energy for the year, looking back on the success of investment company Engine No.1, developments in energy storage, green stimulus in Europe and more.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform provides unparalleled control for those looking to secure clean, reliable 24/7 power that scales to meet critical business needs. It eliminates outage and price risk while accelerating us towards a zero carbon future. Visit Bloom Energy to learn how to take charge today.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Hitachi Energy. What does your energy…
playlist_add
Dec 3, 2021
A Breakthrough In The Energy Game
Zero-emission, low-cost electricity, delivered to the grid from natural-gas fuelled technology. A wright-brothers first flight kind of breakthrough in energy?
The gang discuss the possibilities and scalability of NET Powers Technology, a Texas-based energy company who’ve made this exact claim.
Ed is joined as usual by Melissa Lott from Columbia University, and Emily Chasan from Generate Capital.
The other big story of the week was the collapse of British energy provider Bulb, the 6th largest provider in the country and an issue that has impacted some 2 million customers. Could the same thing happen in the US? Within those talks, the pros and cons of carbon capture technology are explored, and if the Biden administration made the right decision to release 50 million barrels of petroleum from the SPR to help ease the heightened holiday energy demand.
The gang leaves you with some holiday-season free electrons, including a cracking joke from Ed, and find out why climate change is af…
playlist_add
Nov 19, 2021
Innovation, Agreements and Earthshots
The COP26 circus has left town. Across 2 weeks of talks in Glasgow, what were the successes, and what were the failures? With current commitments putting the world on track to 2.4°C of warming, the cost of inaction on climate and health will vastly outweigh the costs of acting now, so which countries are snapping into action?
Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Myers-Jaffe, Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab, at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, to give the final verdict.
Also in the show, the gang looks at innovations in technology in carbon capture and storage; President Biden’s infrastructure bill proposes big commitments on CCS, what do these look like? Plus, nuclear and hydrogen technologies, which could play a huge role in the energy transition, go under the microscope.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform p…
playlist_add
Nov 8, 2021
What Does The World Need From COP26?
COP26 is under way in Glasgow. It has been billed as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” on climate change, but what is the real significance of the talks?
Host Ed Crooks is joined by new regular co-host of the Energy Gang Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to discuss the key issues and outcomes of the conference. Also joining for this episode is Emily Chasan, Director of Communications at Generate Capital, and former Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg journalist.
What needs to happen at COP26 for it to be counted as a success? The UN Environment Program noted in its new Emissions Gap 2021 report last week: “As a group, G20 members are not on track to achieve either their original or new 2030 pledges. Ten G20 members are on track to achieve their previous NDCs, while seven are off track.”
In this episode, the gang will explore the pledges made at previous conferences, as well as the new ones,…
playlist_add
Oct 29, 2021
The Energy Gang's Next Chapter
Some news for this podcast: Ed Crooks, VP of the Americas for Wood Mackenzie, will be taking over the show as our new host.
Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey will be moving on.
Wood Mackenzie will be producing the podcast from now on, bringing on a range of new voices to join the gang.
We discuss the transition in the first half of the episode.
Later in the show, Katherine, Stephen and Ed explore the range of expectations for global climate talks in Glasgow.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Oct 21, 2021
Mr. Shah Goes to Washington
The U.S. Department of Energy is crucial for funding, researching, and testing emerging energy tech.
Now, in the Biden era, the agency is orienting itself toward deployment. How difficult is that transition?
Our former co-host Jigar Shah joins Stephen, Katherine, and Ed to discuss his experience running the Energy Department’s loan programs office.
In March, Jigar left his position at Generate Capital (and this podcast) to head into government service and run the loan programs office. Jigar has $40 billion in authority to back a wide range of climate technologies -- and he’s been working on the first round of investments with those dollars.
In the second half of the show: a surprising twist in the global clean-energy transition. How much trouble will energy price inflation cause around the world?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform provides unparalleled control for those looking to secure clean, reliable 24/7 power that scales t…
playlist_add
Oct 14, 2021
No Peak in Sight for Emissions
EIA and IEA are out with projections for emissions and fossil fuel consumption. And they don’t look good.
On our current policy trajectory, there is no peak in sight, according to EIA By 2050, we will likely see a 50% increase in energy consumption. And even though renewables will be the fastest-growing new source of energy, hydrocarbon liquid fuels will meet the majority of demand.
That means emissions could rise through 2050, absent massive changes to policy.
In July, the International Energy Agency issued a similar analysis showing that carbon emissions will hit record levels in the coming years. And that spending packages around the world — even at historic levels — are still not enough.
How do we make sense of this sobering analysis?
Plus, Wood Mackenzie is out with a new analysis of global energy storage trends, showing that storage deployments are set to triple this year. Most of that growth is coming from America and China, which account for 70% of installations…
playlist_add
Oct 13, 2021
Where Green Hydrogen Is Headed [Special Content]
Suddenly everyone is talking about green hydrogen.
From South Africa to the United Arab Emirates. From China to Utah. Governments and developers are eyeing hydrogen as a decarbonization tool.
But the rush is also raising lots of questions: Where will hydrogen be most useful? How do you create a supply chain to support it? And how can we ensure it has climate integrity?
For answers, we turned to two experts who are obsessing over the future of hydrogen: Janice Lin and Stephen Lamm.
Janice Lin is the founder and CEO of Strategen. And she’s president of the green hydrogen coalition.
Stephen Lamm is the director of sustainability at Bloom Energy, a company deploying zero-carbon solutions like green hydrogen.
With so much renewed attention on the resource, we brought Janice and Stephen together for a discussion about where green hydrogen tech, markets, and applications are headed.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform p…
playlist_add
Oct 9, 2021
What Do Transit Systems Look Like After Covid?
Ride sharing has swept transportation systems over the last decade -- bringing convenience, but also congestion, inequities, and political fights.
Now a new category of transportation networking is emerging: TransitTech.
It makes up a class of companies that are using tech to help maximize public transit systems. So what does TransitTech look like post-pandemic?
Tiffany Chu joins Katherine and Stephen this week to discuss the path forward for transit. Tiffany is the co-founder and CEO of Remix, which was recently acquired by Via for $100 million.
We’ll also dig into a new study from Carnegie Mellon University that shows Uber and Lyft are increasing external societal and environmental costs by up to 35% compared to personal car driving.
We’ll wrap up with a discussion about how transportation will play into upcoming legislation on climate and infrastructure.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform provides unparalleled control fo…
playlist_add
Sep 30, 2021
The Hidden Science Behind Decarbonizing Buildings
All around us, hidden inside our buildings, are a series of choices and tradeoffs -- choices with direct impacts on our health, our money, and our energy use.
Our buildings are wasteful and are filled with a lot of “embodied” carbon. As a result, buildings directly and indirectly account for 40 percent of global emissions.
How do we make those choices with better building science?
And how do we use that science to design carbon out of our buildings?
This week, Katherine and Stephen are joined by Christine Williamson, the creator of Building Science Fight Club. She is a building scientist who teaches architects how to think more intelligently about designing residential and commercial buildings to improve comfort and energy performance, while minimizing system failures.
She also has an unconventional take on the green building space — arguing that many of the “feel good” approaches are not necessarily the most functional.
Christy has spent her career inside homes…
playlist_add
Sep 20, 2021
Will Direct-Air Carbon Capture Be Viable?
Carbon capture has long been criticized as too nascent, too expensive, and too distracting. Is that changing?
This month, the Swiss company Climeworks officially launched a direct-air capture plant in Iceland, called Orca.
The company has already signed deals with SwissRe, Bill Gates, Stripe, and Shopify to sell them credits from the plant. But the tech is still pretty expensive and relatively small scale.
Climeworks wants to build megaton-scale plants by the end of the decade. Lots of other plants are in the works. So what does this commercial launch signal for the carbon-capture industry?
Plus, new research shows just how drastically we need to slash fossil fuels to limit dangerous warming.
And, California tries to fix the busted recycling system with a “truth in advertising” law aimed at plastics companies.
The Energy Gang is a Wood Mackenzie podcast.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world, Sun…
playlist_add
Sep 14, 2021
Power After Carbon
The electric grid is a central pillar of a zero-carbon economy. But in an era of unrelenting weather extremes, it’s also one of the most fragile.
This week: what does power after carbon look like?
Katherine and Stephen are joined by Dr. Peter Fox-Penner, author of a new book called, “Power After Carbon.”
Peter is the founder of the Boston University Institute of Sustainable Energy. And he’s a partner and chief strategy officer at the VC firm Energy Impact Partners.
At the turn of the last decade, Peter wrote a book called “Smart Power” that looked at the new pressures that utilities were facing around climate policy, emerging distributed energy, and digitization. We’ll look at what’s changed the most over the last decade.
Plus, we’ll talk about why Entergy’s resistance to distributed energy in Louisiana created vulnerabilities after Hurricane Ida.
The Energy Gang is a Wood Mackenzie podcast.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provide…
playlist_add
Aug 27, 2021
Why This IPCC Climate Report Is Different
The world’s most scrutinized and peer-reviewed document is out: the IPCC report on climate change.
Thousands of scientists have spent decades pouring over every measurement and research report known. The findings are clearer than ever: It is “virtually certain” that the increases in extreme temperatures and droughts are caused by human activity.
The economic and human toll from climate change is here. So how is this report different from previous IPCC reports?
Plus, is the push for hydrogen a real pathway, or a clever way to lock in more emissions? We’ll look at the debate over “blue” hydrogen emissions.
And, how far have the politics of climate really shifted in Washington? Will a change in tone mean a boost in action?
Katherine Hamilton, Ed Crooks, and Stephen Lacey are this week’s co-hosts.
The Energy Gang is a Wood Mackenzie podcast.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world, Sungrow has…
playlist_add
Aug 18, 2021
Form Energy's Iron-Air Battery for Multi-Day Storage
This episode originally aired on The Interchange.
Back in 2016, Mateo Jaramillo left Tesla, where he was leading the stationary energy storage business, and started looking for a new challenge to tackle. He took on long-duration energy storage -- not long duration like 8 hours or 12 hours, but days or weeks or more. In 2017 he came on the show to talk about it.
He formed a company, now Form Energy, that has been toiling on this problem in stealth mode. Apart from saying they were building a "metal air" battery, his team held the technology close to the vest.
That is, until last week.
The company announced a $200M Series D financing led by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, and in the process finally made public the technology, which is an iron air chemistry.
Full disclosure: Shayle led Energy Impact Partners’ investment in Form.
Shayle and Mateo discuss the technology itself and the counterintuitive economics that Mateo believes will make it work. They also…
playlist_add
Aug 10, 2021
As Profits Rise, Oil Majors Face New Pressures
We started the Covid pandemic at negative oil prices. Today, benchmark prices are above $70. And top oil companies are reporting billions of dollars in profits.
And now there is more scrutiny than ever on how they’re going to spend that money.
Activist shareholders are starting to get climate champions on oil major board seats -- most notably, climate tech investor and former wind executive Andy Karsner on Exxon Mobil’s board.
A dutch court is now forcing Shell to reduce the emissions from its products by 45%, after a successful lawsuit from environmental groups. Oil executives now have their lawyers on speed dial.
And big asset managers, like BlackRock, which lend to many of the world’s energy giants, are scrutinizing their climate plans.
So what does it all amount to as oil markets rebound?
Ed Crooks, the vice chair of Americas at Wood Mackenzie, joins us this week to discuss.
Plus, we’ll talk about a new report card on America’s infrastructure. It’s a slight imp…
playlist_add
Aug 10, 2021
A New Inflection Point for Clean Energy [Special Content]
We're at a new phase of the clean energy transition. Extreme heat, drought and floods are increasing in frequency. Public attention on clean energy is stronger than ever. The Biden Administration is putting zero-carbon energy at the core of its policies.
And there's another powerful force: making sure the energy transition is as racially and economically just as possible.
Anton Cohen is a partner at CohnReznick LLP, and national director of the firm’s Renewable Energy Industry Practice. He's been advising companies across a wide range of industries: tech, manufacturing, public tax credits, and energy.
Today, he focuses exclusively on renewables: “All we do is renewables. Live, eat, sleep, breathe renewables.”
The large investors and energy users that Anton advises are feeling the urgency.
“I think it's the corporates who are pushing hard. People know what direction we're heading in. It's just a matter of how quickly we get there with the energy transition,” says Anton.…
playlist_add
Aug 3, 2021
What Emerging Climate Tech Sectors Are Ready for Growth?
After 30 years of R&D and commercial proof, hundreds of billions in institutional dollars are pouring into now-conventional tech like wind, solar and batteries.
But there’s a whole class of technologies that are ready to scale. And investors who are increasingly ready to back them.
As we heard in our previous show, there was a record $17 billion in venture capital going into climate tech in 2020.
With all this money dropping into the space, where can it have the highest impact? What are the areas where we have commercial viability, but still need significant breakthroughs?
Our guest co-host this week is Nneka Uzoh Kibuule, a senior vice president at Aligned Climate Capital. She joins Stephen and Katherine to talk about the sectors where she sees the most promise.
She'll also talk about the launch of GreenTech Noir, an organization that helps black professionals grow their career connections across clean energy, smart cities, transportation, infrastructure, environmental ju…
playlist_add
Jul 20, 2021
A New Era for Climate-Focused Venture Capital
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, venture capital poured into climate technologies at record levels. It was a happy surprise amidst a collapsing economy and years of investment stagnation.
Venture investments in climate tech topped $17 billion in 2020 across more than 1,000 deals. Five years ago, it had fallen to $5.2 billion — a 30 percent decrease from a previous peak in 2011.
Our guest co-host this week is Emily Kirsch, the founder and CEO of Powerhouse. She’s also the host of Watt It Takes, the entrepreneurship series about founders tackling climate change.
Suddenly, it’s cool to be putting your money into the sector again. And there’s something different about today’s rise in enthusiasm. The first wave was all about the “coolness” of cleantech — thin-film solar, electric sports cars, printable batteries. It was also about proving cost curves.
Kara Swisher put it bluntly in the NYT last year: the world’s first trillionaire will be a greentech entrep…
playlist_add
Jul 20, 2021
The M&A Turf Battle Over Wind, Solar and Storage Projects [Special Content]
In March of 2020, Covid shut down economies, closed off supply chains, and sent unemployment to historic levels. No one knew what would come next for energy.
Oil prices went into negative territory. Industrial electricity use plummeted. Residential demand shot up. And there were big pipelines of renewable energy projects waiting to get built.
“I think we were all a little bit nervous about how COVID was going to affect all of the deal flow in the market,” says Britta von Oesen, a managing director at CohnReznick Capital.
Britta is the person at the table brokering tax structures and project sales that move money into renewable energy. So did Covid destroy her ability to get deals done?
“Honestly, it's gone a lot better than I would have expected,” she says.
M&A activity increased. And as 2021 kicked off, the M&A deals only accelerated. Most of the top independent wind and solar developers have been scooped up by utilities, private equity firms, oil majors, or bigger corp…
playlist_add
Jul 8, 2021
Extreme Weather Keeps Maxing Out the Grid
It’s been a very intense year for America’s power grid. Across the country, the electricity system just faced another stress-test as extreme heat taxed power plants and grid operators in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and New York.
Since 2000, outages across the U.S. have increased by 67%. Is the power system ready for tomorrow’s extreme weather -- today?
Stephen and Katherine are joined by Dr. Melissa Lott, a senior research scholar and the director of research at the Center on Global Energy Policy.
Plus, we’ll discuss a secret recording of an Exxon lobbyist bragging about the company’s efforts to delay climate policy. What does it tell us about the oil industry’s grip in Washington?
We’ll finish with a look at a new report from Columbia University: can we use natural gas pipelines to accelerate the low-carbon transition?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world, Sungrow has delivered more than 10 g…
playlist_add
Jun 29, 2021
America's Transmission Challenge (Rebroadcast)
America is a place where if you can dream something — no matter how big or ambitious — you can do it.
Unless you’re trying to string 700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to bring wind power from Oklahoma to Tennessee.
Our guest this week is Russell Gold, author of a new book about the saga that unfolded when wind energy pioneer Michael Skelly tried just that.
The book, Superpower, is all about Skelly’s attempt to build one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects in recent history — and how he faced nearly every obstacle imaginable. What does Skelly’s journey tell us about America’s diminishing ability to do great things?
Russell Gold is a veteran newspaper reporter who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He wrote a book in 2014 on the rise of fracking, called The Boom. He’ll join us to talk about the reasons why Skelly’s transmission plan failed.
This is a rebroadcast of a 2019 episode.…
playlist_add
Jun 21, 2021
A New Podcast: 'The Big Switch'
This week, we are offering the first episode of a new podcast: The Big Switch.
It’s a five-part series about how to clean up the energy system -- told in a clear, understandable and fun way.
The show is hosted by Dr. Melissa Lott, research director at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.
Stephen Lacey is the show's executive editor.
Listen to the first episode of The Big Switch right now -- and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and any other place you get podcasts.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jun 16, 2021
Tracking the Equity Outcome of Decarbonization
We can measure the energy transition in any number of ways. The hundreds of millions of solar panels and wind turbines installed. The gigatons of carbon reduced. Or the number of jobs created.
But how do we measure the equity outcome?
Our guest co-host, Dr. Destenie Nock, is focused on exactly this question. She is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Nock is creating new models for energy-systems planning that factor in positive social objectives, not just cost or reliability metrics.
Any decarbonization strategy is a de facto justice/equity strategy, as frontline communities will see the most benefit. But how do we maximize the benefit? And how do different pathways determine the outcome for low-income citizens and people of color who are disproportionately impacted by pollution? We’ll dig in.
Plus, what is happening with the infrastructure bill? All of a sudden, negotiations are at an impasse. President Biden broke…
playlist_add
Jun 11, 2021
Coal Is Uncompetitive. Why Do We Burn So Much?
America gets 20 percent of its electricity from coal. That’s a 50 percent drop since the peak in 2007. But if coal is becoming so economically uncompetitive, why does it still make up so much of our grid mix?
This week: Coal is no longer king. But it still has a lot of power across the land. How do we banish it for good?
Katherine and Stephen welcome Joe Daniel as a guest co-host this week. Joe is a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Joe joins us to talk about the problem of coal plant “self-scheduling,” which locks in operation of dirty power plants even when the economics don’t make sense.
We’ll also look at how we unburden ourselves from the long-term agreements these coal plants are under? One solution is to buy back debt through securitization — basically like refinancing a mortgage. How will it work?
Finally, we’ll discuss the numbers behind nationalizing the coal industry. Could we buy up the entire sector, shut it down, and then offer…
playlist_add
May 23, 2021
A Wartime Plan for Electrifying America
What if someone told you that we have everything we need to decarbonize most of the economy?
We would just need to start electrifying every new car, furnace, water heater, drier, and cookstove, and industrial process starting right now. And yeah, and put solar on every roof that can handle it.
This week: a wartime plan for winning the climate fight with clean electricity. What’ll it take? How possible is it?
Saul Griffith is our guest co-host. He’s the founder and chief scientist of Rewiring America. He’s also the author of the upcoming book “Electrify,” from MIT Press.
If we are on a wartime footing for decarbonizing the economy, Saul could be considered a 5-star general of the “electrify everything” movement.
He founded or co-founded around a dozen companies and organizations. And he has a PhD from MIT in materials science and information theory.
Saul is now trying to marshal the world around his “a defensible and believable” pathway for decarbonizing Amer…
playlist_add
May 16, 2021
What Are ‘Transformational’ Utilities Doing Right?
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then they transform?
This week: a look at some positive trends guiding the utility sector. What are power providers that are leading the energy transition doing right?
We’re joined by Julia Hamm, the president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance.
We’re talking about SEPA’s 2021 utility transformation profile -- a survey and ranking system of over 130 electric utilities in the US.
There are thousands of power companies. That means different flavors of corporate goals, management styles, and approaches to building clean energy. Julia’s going to help us understand what they are.
Why is utility progress more like “change management” than traditional Silicon Valley-style disruption?
Then: how utilities will benefit from Biden’s big infrastructure push.
Plus, the solar census: what will job growth look like in a post-pandemic world?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Join Auro…
playlist_add
May 7, 2021
Is Offshore Wind *Finally* Coming to America?
The lack of progress on offshore wind in America is one of the most baffling and frustrating stories in energy.
The technology and resource availability are tremendous. Europe has de-risked the technology and proven it can be deployed at scale, and at low cost, with minimal disruption. U.S. states are setting big targets. And at a national-scale, people want it.
And yet, we have not been able to get any meaningful amounts of offshore wind capacity in the water.
That may be about to change. In late March, the Biden team said it plans to accelerate offshore wind development -- with a goal of getting 30 gigawatts of projects finished by 2030, and 110 gigawatts by 2050.
By comparison, we have 30 megawatts in the water now. And Europe currently has 25 gigawatts operational.
So what does the government need to do to finally make this industry a reality?
Energy futurist Ramez Naam is our guest co-host this week.
We’ll also talk about Biden’s first 100 days in office. He marke…
playlist_add
Apr 30, 2021
Banking Is the Pressure Point for Climate
In 2015, then-Secretary of State John Kerry called the Paris climate treaty a “tremendous victory.” In the years since, $3.8 trillion has flowed into fossil fuels globally.
Now Kerry and other White House officials are focusing on banks and insurers that are still offering a lifeline to new fossil fuel projects. Can they slow the flow of cash?
This week: why finance is the main pressure point for climate.
Today, all the major banks are collectively supporting hundreds of billions of dollars worth of renewables projects every year.
But few are giving up on fossil fuels. One environmental campaigner put it this way: “the banks are gorging on doughnuts and then eating an apple afterwards.”
A new analysis from DeSmog finds that 77% of board directors at the top-7 US banks have ties to “climate-conflicted” groups.
Earlier this year, New York University released a study showing that only 7 percent of board members in the top 100 US companies -- which includes many banks -…
playlist_add
Apr 22, 2021
Is America Halfway to a Zero-Carbon Grid?
In 2005, it looked like heat-trapping gases from power plants were only going up.
That year, the EIA put out a projection: CO2 emissions from power plants would steadily rise every year, thanks to the incumbency of coal and gas.
Today, they’re half of what was projected. A new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab calls it “halfway to zero” -- meaning we are already halfway to a zero-carbon grid.
This week: why the path to net-zero may surprise us once again.
Then: America’s climate image on the world stage is in tatters. What will it take for the Biden team to stitch it back together before COP negotiations this fall?
Finally: a ton of specific policy ideas that can help us expand solar to the people who need it most.
BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird joins Katherine and Stephen as our guest co-host this week.
Looking to grow your career in solar tech? Aurora Solar is the leader in solar design and sales software. Aurora is hiring across multiple roles including customer…
playlist_add
Apr 15, 2021
Unlocking Home Electrification With Heat Pumps
Every few seconds, a new residential HVAC system or water heater is installed around America. Most of them are designed to burn oil and gas -- locking in 15-20 more years of carbon pollution.
So how do we electrify 100% of that new equipment rapidly? This week: a wide-ranging conversation about how to unlock the residential market.
Katherine and Stephen are joined by Nate Adams, the co-founder of HVAC 2.0. He’s called “the house whisperer” for a reason. They discuss the benefit of home electrification, the opportunity, and the market constraints.
Later in the show, a new trend in real estate: Redfin released a survey of prospective homebuyers, asking them about how they’d factor climate risk into their decisions. Half of them said that intensifying natural disasters influenced their decision to relocate. What are the consequences for the market?
Resources:
* Grist: The Barriers to Home Electrification
* Workshop: Nate Adams’ Electrify Everything Course
* Redfin…
playlist_add
Apr 8, 2021
Can California Move Fast Without Breaking Things?
California is the proving ground for every major change that President Biden wants to accelerate nationally: 100% carbon-free electricity, fossil fuel phaseouts, climate-resilient grid hardening.
The state wants to make 100% of retail electricity sales carbon-free by 2045. To that, it’ll need to match its best year ever for renewable energy installations -- for 25 years more years in a row. It’ll amount to $4.5 billion in yearly spending.
California is moving fast. Is there such a thing as too fast?
This week, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Sammy Roth joins us to talk about California’s fast, sometimes-messy, and still-evolving energy transition.
Plus, tensions over public lands. It’s going to take a lot of investment, difficult choices, and grit to hit California’s zero-carbon goals. It’s also going to take a lot of land.
That’s putting the Biden team in a dilemma: how to balance a historic build-out of wind and solar farms with protection of public lands?…
playlist_add
Apr 1, 2021
How Do We Decarbonize the Food System?
The systems that support growing, shipping and processing food make up one-third of heat trapping gases.
How can Agtech help us tackle this tangled and underserved sector? We’ll look at investment activity, technological solutions, and policy levers.
Then, we revisit long-duration storage. A net-zero grid will require new ways to store and discharge energy over long periods. How’s it shaping up?
Plus, is carbon pricing back on the table here in the US?
This week, Katherine and Stephen are joined by guest co-host Amy Duffuor, a principal at Prime Impact Fund.
Resources:
* Ag Funder: How to Unleash Agtech in the Fight Against Climate Change
* Greentech Media: California Could Need 55 GW of Long-Duration Storage
* Axios: Oil Industry Endorses a Carbon Price
Looking to grow your career in solar tech? Aurora Solar is the leader in solar design and sales software. Aurora is hiring across multiple roles including customer success, marketing, sales, operations, and more. See…
playlist_add
Mar 25, 2021
America’s Trillion-Dollar Climate Infrastructure Play
This week, the nuts and bolts of climate policy: infrastructure.
With a $2 trillion covid relief package under his belt, Biden looks to harness another $3 trillion on building clean energy, hardening the electric grid, installing electric car chargers, and updating roads and bridges.
We’ll game out what’s needed and what’s possible.
Then: is this the moment for the black climate agenda? And if so, what are the priorities?
Finally, how will pressure campaigns over new fossil fuel infrastructure play out in the next four years? And what lessons have we learned from previous fights over the last decade?
The gang this week: Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey are joined by climate strategist Tamara Toles O’Laughlin.
Resources:
* New York Times: Biden’s Biden’s Recovery Plan Bets Big on Clean Energy
* E&E News: How the Infrastructure Bill Might Tackle Climate Change
* Redfin Study: Redlined Communities Face Greater Flood Risk
* CNN: A New Pipeline Battle Fires Up…
playlist_add
Mar 18, 2021
The Clash Over Gas Bans in Buildings
This week: natural gas bans are the newest flash point in the energy transition. What does it mean for the electrify-everything movement -- and the gas industry’s public relations battle?
Then: how do we build back better for everybody? We’ll look how Biden’s recent stimulus and climate agenda could mend America’s growing wealth and race divide.
Plus: it’s been a year since the start of the pandemic. What transformed, and what didn’t? What did we get right and wrong? We’ll revisit the last 12 months.
Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey are joined by Donnel Baird, the CEO of Blocpower.
Resources:
* Mother Jones investigation on gas industry front groups.
* NPR story on political conflicts over gas bans, and pre-emptive actions in red states
* The Atlantic: Biden’s stimulus is a big deal for public transit
* NYT: How Biden ties economic goals to racial equity
* Politico: Congressional democrats unveil sweeping climate bill
* Podcasters declare campai…
playlist_add
Mar 9, 2021
Climate Tech Is Changing Fast
This week, we present a crossover episode of our sister podcast, The Interchange.
In this episode, host Shayle Kann talks with fellow venture capitalist Abe Yokell about the state of climate tech investing. It’s safe to say that this year has brought some of the biggest changes to the space we’ve ever seen. Shayle and Abe try to separate what’s real from what’s hype.
Thanks to everyone for their kind emails and social media reactions after Jigar's final episode.
The show goes on! We’re currently booking a diverse range of high-profile guests to join us each week. We think you're going to like what we have in store for you.
While you are waiting for new Energy Gang episodes, this is the perfect time to follow the The Interchange where ever you listen to podcasts.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Mar 3, 2021
Jigar's Final Episode
Jigar Shah has been our co-host since 2013. But now he's moving on to new pastures.
Starting this this week, Jigar will be leading the Department of Energy's loan programs office -- running the government's strategy to finance the deployment of up-and-coming clean energy technologies.
In this episode, we reflect on Jigar's career and his role on the show. Plus, we'll learn more about his mission in the Biden Administration.
Read the announcement.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Feb 25, 2021
Watt It Takes: Executive Producer Stephen Lacey
This week, we have a bonus episode of Watt It Takes featuring Stephen Lacey, our founding host and executive producer.
Back in December, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviewed Stephen for a holiday edition of Watt It Takes. They talked in front of an audience about his career in journalism, how the world of podcasting has evolved, and his entrepreneurial journey launching a production company.
And great news! Watt It Takes is now a standalone series. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or anywhere you get your shows. We'll be featuring the top voices in climate tech throughout 2021.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Feb 24, 2021
The Texas Grid Failure
Even for energy veterans, the depth of failures in Texas last week were breathtaking.
As arctic air froze power plants, gas lines, and mechanical instruments, the grid was shut down -- leaving 4 million people without electricity, unknown millions without heat, and three times that many without water.
Texas has been through freezes like this before in 2011, 2014 and 2018. Regulators were warned. So who is to blame for this historic catastrophe?
This week, we’ll talk about what happened in Texas -- reflecting on the responses and projecting the consequences for how we engineer the grid.
Then: did the shale boom fail to create all those promised jobs?
New research shows that the natural gas boom did not bring a massive employment wave to counties in the Marcellus and Utica shales. Wealth yes, but not so many jobs.
* Wall Street Journal: In Frigid Texas, Desperate Families Take Risks to Stay Warm
* Associated Press: Texas governor’s biggest donors: Energy industry…
playlist_add
Feb 12, 2021
How a ‘Climate Emergency’ Could Harness Wartime Powers
This week: climate change is certainly the most urgent issue we face. But should it be formally declared an emergency?
There’s a real conversation over the label in the US -- and it could have a very real impact on what the president can do.
This has been a growing priority for environmental groups. Grist reported that in December, more than 380 of them sent a letter to Joe Biden’s transition team, urging him to issue an executive order mobilizing the National Emergencies Act.
And now, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Senate among others just introduced The National Climate Emergency Act of 2021,
Then: what could be the counter-impact? Changes across the energy economy are set to accelerate. If we don’t do it correctly, are we facing a “Yellow Vest” protest movement like we saw recently in France?
And last: a new study shows that some cities are grossly under-reporting their carbon emissions. Do citi…
playlist_add
Feb 5, 2021
The Dirty Secret Behind Utility Climate Goals
Net-zero pledges are becoming common for utilities. But a huge number of them are failing to decarbonize on any timeframe that truly matters. They’re not phasing out coal, they’re building lots of new gas plants, and they’re not building enough clean energy.
We’ll talk about a damning new analysis of utility climate goals from the Sierra Club that digs into the actual numbers.
Then, the urgency of a national clean energy standard. What are the new political pieces in place to get a nationwide target in place? And can we build it to serve marginalized communities? A new analysis maps out how.
Finally, the bombshell news that General Motors will only sell zero-emissions cars by 2035. How hard is it to turn around a company born and raised in internal combustion? A cautionary tale from Volkswagen offers some answers.
Dr. Leah Stokes, professor at UC Santa Barbara, joins Stephen, Katherine and Jigar this week. Leah is the co-author behind the two reports we are discussing.…
playlist_add
Jan 29, 2021
Reversing Trump's Destruction
It was hard to keep up with the destruction of the Trump era. And it’s already getting hard to keep up with the rebuilding.
This week brought a series of actions on climate change from the White House that are building a framework for the climate economy.
Sam Ricketts, a prominent climate policy advisor, told the Los Angeles Times: “This is the most ambitious climate platform put forward by an American president...It is mobilizing the entirety of the federal government in an unprecedented way. Every agency is now a climate agency.”
We’ll sort through it.
Then, last week we covered distributed energy modeling. Now we get to the practice: how do we rebuild markets to accommodate a ton of small-scale resources? They’re doing it in the UK. We’ve lagged in the US. We’ll compare.
Finally, Elon Musk says he’ll give $100M to carbon-capture tech that shows promise. He can’t run rockets on electricity. Will he get his carbon-neutral jet fuel?
* Greentech Media: Bide…
playlist_add
Jan 22, 2021
Why Local Solar + Storage Is a Pillar of the Net-Zero Grid
This week, we finally left behind a destructive regime that thwarted environmental policy at every turn. We exchanged it for a government putting climate experts and clean-energy doers in its highest ranks in a way that no prior administration has done before.
What comes next?
First up this week: If Biden wants his $2 trillion climate spending plan to make a bigger impact, should he emphasize rooftop solar and small-scale batteries? A leading modeler says a local solar-storage plan could save hundreds of billions of dollars as we build out the net-zero grid.
Then: the board members of major corporations are often ignorant about climate change and what it takes to address it, according to a new report from NYU’s Stern business school. Why is that true – still? What can be done about it?
And last: Should you sign up for your utility’s green power program? Is there a better way to guarantee that your monthly power bill supports the world you envision? We’ll answer a listener q…
playlist_add
Jan 14, 2021
Watt It Takes: BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird
BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird is on a mission to clean up old, inefficient buildings in America’s cities -- and help people who are exposed to the worst pollution.
BlocPower was founded in 2012. It’s raised venture capital from Kapor Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. But that process was not easy for a company with a mostly non-white leadership team. As a black founder, Donnel was turned down 200 times before any venture firms were willing to back his vision.
“It was really difficult for us raising capital. One of our investors when I talked to him two or three years ago and said I was struggling to raise capital, he was like ‘yeah man, just hire some white people and send them into the fundraising meetings and it’ll clear things up,’” explains Donnel.
BlocPower is a Brooklyn, New York startup electrifying and weatherizing buildings in underserved communities -- slashing pollution and saving money. This includes housing units, churches, community centers.
And the missi…
playlist_add
Jan 8, 2021
America's Drastic Shift: What Are Paths for Climate?
In the final moments of 2020, the most important U.S. energy legislation in a decade flew in under the radar, attached to the coronavirus relief and government funding bill.
It’s an astonishing collection of measures. It sets aside $35 Billion in new funding for clean energy R&D, phases out some of the most egregious greenhouse gases, and extends tax credits for wind, solar, nuclear, and carbon capture. What’s the impact?
It would have been a bill big enough to discuss this whole episode. But it’s been eclipsed by the possibility of more ambitious legislation under a Democrat-controlled Congress -- thanks to some big Senate wins in Georgia on Wednesday.
With a window of action open, how much can get done in the next two years? We’ll dig in.
Lastly, one of the biggest business stories from the last year: Tesla. A stratospheric stock price, strong sales growth, and the second richest man in the world. What do Elon Musk’s fortunes foreshadow for EVs?
Recommended reading…
playlist_add
Dec 20, 2020
Year-Ender: Listeners Choose Top Trends of 2020
Goodbye 2020. We’re not sad to see you go.
Even though this year brought a lot of outright bad stuff, it also brought a lot of positive, nuanced storylines in energy.
We’re going to tackle as many of them as possible, using suggestions from our listeners as a guide.
And no, they won’t be pandemic-related. Not explicitly anyway. You can listen to our previous episode for our pandemic picks.
We’ll tackle your suggestions: breakout technologies, political corruption, corporate momentum, energy justice, new financing approaches, and regulatory change.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IOT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid o…
playlist_add
Dec 15, 2020
Introducing: Google’s Quest for 24/7 Clean Energy
We’re featuring an episode of Google’s new podcast about data centers, called Where the Internet Lives.
What would it take to run data centers on clean electricity, everywhere, every hour of the day? In this episode, we look at the evolution of data center energy use in a world confronting the threat of climate change – and explore promising ideas that could fuel a carbon-free future.
Subscribe anywhere you get podcasts. Or find it in these top platforms:
* Apple
* Google Podcasts
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* RSS Feed
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Dec 11, 2020
Revisiting Pandemic Predictions for Energy
As we close out 2020, we are diving into the top stories that defined this frenzied and heavy year.
This week, we’ll start the show with a look back at how Covid re-shaped the energy transition. We’re going to revisit some predictions that did -- and didn’t -- come true. Next episode, we’ll look at a wider range of (non-pandemic) 2020 stories.
Then later in the show, advertising and PR professionals are suddenly being pressured to reveal how much of their income is from fossil fuel clients. Are firms in this industry the next to lose their social license?
And last: what could a Youth Climate Corps accomplish? And how should it be set up? We look to a Depression-era program to rally the passions of America’s climate generation.
Resources:
* New Yorker: When “Creatives” Turn Destructive: Image-Makers and the Climate Crisis
* Yale 360: How a Climate Corps Could Put Youth to Work in Greening America
* “Where the Internet Lives” podcast from Google
The Ener…
playlist_add
Dec 3, 2020
A New President’s Powerful Tool: Climate Risk Disclosure
Climate risk is now the topic du jour in Washington. The Biden transition team identified it as a powerful policy lever in the business world that could help the president-elect’s climate agenda without Congress.
But how? Could it happen at the Securities and Exchange Commission where companies disclose legal and other threats? What about a role for the Federal Reserve? What can Biden himself do?
This week, we’ll look at how federal action may happen -- and what impact it would have on emissions.
Then, from the first days in office, Trump’s team went after environmental protections with the focus of trained assassins. Those efforts are only intensifying in the weeks before Trump leaves the White House. How might Biden stop these “regulatory bombs?”
Last: reactions to Biden’s hires are revealing a split in the climate community. What do they reveal about theories of change in this changing political moment?
* E&E News: Biden to Shine Light on Corporate Climate Risk…
playlist_add
Dec 2, 2020
Watt It Takes: EVgo's Cathy Zoi on Scaling EV Infrastructure
Cathy Zoi has seen it all. She’s studied and worked in oil, gas and clean energy since the Reagan Era. Now as CEO of charging company EVgo, she knows the future of energy is coming fast.
“Rideshare drivers are now starting to drive EVs, those folks need to charge once a day away from home, and they need to do it fast. When COVID hit, delivery drivers for food deliveries needed to charge on our network. Fleet companies like Amazon. So every month that goes by, there is a new opportunity, says Zoi.”
Cathy has a breadth of energy and cleantech experience working in leadership roles at non-profits, startups, venture capital, academia, and government agencies.
Cathy was on the team that developed the original Energy Star rating when she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. She was chief of staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore Administration. And she is co-founder and executive chairman of Odyssey Energy, a software start-up bringin…
playlist_add
Nov 20, 2020
Automakers Knew About Climate Change 50 Years Ago
In the 1960s, scientists who worked for General Motors and Ford discovered that the exhaust from their cars was very likely changing the climate. They made presentations at conferences. They briefed senior executives. And then, they were publicly contradicted and their work was suppressed.
We’ll talk to Maxine Joselow, the journalist who reported the story for E&E News over many months. She talked with more than two dozen former GM and Ford employees, retired auto industry executives, academics, and environmentalists about what the companies knew about climate change five decades ago.
It leaves the reader wondering: what if automakers had taken the problem more seriously a half-century ago?
Then, plenty of conservative states are embracing renewables. But now 100% clean energy mandates are spreading to redder states. The latest is Arizona: a place where elected officials and a giant utility previously worked to stop the march of clean energy. We’ll look at the shift.
And la…
playlist_add
Nov 12, 2020
Day-One Climate Priorities for Biden’s White House
Has 2020 – which seemed irredeemable – just done a 180? We’ll be back in the Paris agreement, Biden’s got a zero-emissions plan, East Asia’s making big moves, and there might even be a vaccine for Covid-19.
President-Elect Joe Biden has already named his environment transition team. And he discussed climate change with four European heads of state this Tuesday.
He also has a “Build Back Better” one-pager that looks a lot like the green recovery plans in Europe we’ve been discussing for months.
We’re going to look at specific things a Biden administration can do in each identified category to get to net-zero emissions.
Then, 2020 is turning into the year of net-zero. Japan and South Korea have now promised to zero out carbon emissions by 2050. That preserves the possibility of keeping warming at or below 1.5º C.
This fall, China also issued its first-ever net-zero date. That means most of East Asia has now committed to eliminating all new carbon emissions by…
playlist_add
Nov 9, 2020
How Customers Will Shape Zero-Carbon Utility Targets [Special Content From Oracle]
This sponsored episode was produced in collaboration with GTM Creative Strategies and the Opower team at Oracle Utilities.
The last two years have brought a surge of plans for zero-carbon energy from some of the biggest power providers in the world. Dozens of U.S. utilities have committed to decarbonizing by 80% or more by 2050.
"Two thirds of U.S. consumers are now served by utilities with carbon or emissions reduction goals," says Scott Neuman, group vice president of Opower, at Oracle Utilities.
National Grid is the latest utility to up the ante. The electricity and gas supplier now wants to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
"In terms of decarbonizing and reducing emissions across society, it can break out into three broad areas, decarbonizing generational power, decarbonizing transport and decarbonizing heat," says Badar Kahn, the presdient of National Grid US.
In this episode, we’ll hear from Badar Kahn and Scott Neuman about how zero-carbon goals may reshape utility operat…
playlist_add
Nov 5, 2020
Can Biden Undo Trump's Damage?
This week: the future of the planet depends on the mail.
The mail-in votes are still being counted, but it’s increasingly likely that Joe Biden will become America’s next president.
As of this recording on Thursday morning, Biden’s path to the presidency looks much better than Trump’s. It could be Thursday night or Friday when we get calls for Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina.
We do not have an official result. But the direction feels clearer -- and we have plenty of local results, too.
Meanwhile, America is officially out of the Paris Climate Accord. What happens next?
In this episode, we’re just going to cover a smattering of stories coming out of the election.
Plus, we’ll answer a bunch of listener questions.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.
Th…
playlist_add
Oct 30, 2020
Climate's Role in the Final Days of the Campaign
We’re just a few days out from the election -- and how could we talk about anything else? Climate is finally beginning to play the kind of role that we have waited so long for.
In this pre-election episode, we’ll recap where things stand: and how energy and climate are playing into late-stage messaging of Biden and Trump.
Plus, what are some of the crucial down-ballot races we’re watching election night?
And last: Five years have passed since the largest terrestrial natural gas disaster in U.S. history. A methane well in the Los Angeles hills broke open and shot a plume of methane into the air for four months.
What’s changed since the Aliso Canyon leak? And how did it accelerate distributed resources in the state?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the worl…
playlist_add
Oct 23, 2020
Watt It Takes: Why Steph Speirs Wants Solar For All
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Solstice CEO Steph Speirs.
Solistice is a community solar company trying to make PV accessible to everyone.
Steph Speirs grew up one of three kids, first generation, in Hawaii. Her mom had immigrated from Korea. She knows what eviction feels like, and what it’s like to skirt homelessness. And she knows how a poor credit score can sink a human being.
She got a scholarship to a private high school, became a National Merit scholar and accrued three masters degrees at Yale, Princeton and MIT.
In this interview, we’ll hear how her time in the Obama administration led to a summer internship with the non-profit impact investor Acumen. She worked on solar lanterns in India. Her time in Yemen, India, and then Pakistan led to an awakening about energy injustice in the United States.
Solstice has now developed demand for 100 MW of community solar and just closed its biggest funding round so far.
To learn more…
playlist_add
Oct 15, 2020
Taking Stock of Job Losses in Clean Energy
In a year when clean energy and clean vehicle jobs were supposed to increase by some 175,000, we are down by half a million jobs.
We will tell you why, and explain the numbers. What will reverse the decline?
Then: Did New Jersey just pass the most sweeping environmental justice law in the country? The new law will mean big changes for industrial sites -- and the neighborhoods that often feel their worst impacts.
And last: What about all that nice, flat water in hydropower reservoirs? Could we float solar panels on it? The Department of Energy says we could. And it would actually produce massive amounts of electricity.
* E2: Clean Energy Sector Enters Final Months of 2020 Down 478,000 Jobs
* Bloomberg: Most U.S. Oil Job Losses in Pandemic Are Lasting
* Fortune: The Oil and Gas Industry Has Lost More Than 100,000 Jobs This Year
* NJ.com: Landmark Law to Protect N.J.'s Poorest Communities From Pollution
* DOE: U.S. Hydropower Potential from Existing Non-powered Dams
T…
playlist_add
Oct 14, 2020
Keep Calm and Close Clean Energy Deals [Special Content]
Manish Hebbar architects billions of dollars worth of equity and debt deals in clean energy.
He’s able to stay methodical and calm in the middle of deals that are very stressful, involving multiple buyers and counter-parties.
“M&A transactions are those types of deals, where it's a fast-paced environment, every minute and every hour matters. It's really about who can stay the course and work through each round of progression.”
That skill goes back to his time as a Lieutenant in the Navy. It’s also influenced by his experience evaluating risk at Citibank during the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
Today, Manish is a managing director at CohnReznick Capital. He’s brokering some of clean energy’s biggest mergers and acquisitions -- like an 800-plus megawatt portfolio of wind projects in the U.S. and Canada in 2019.
In this special episode, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital, we’ll hear how Manish used his experience in the military and financia…
playlist_add
Oct 9, 2020
Exxon Is Losing the Energy Transition
What does it mean when the world’s largest generator of wind and solar outpaces the most iconic oil company in market value? We’re talking about NextEra Energy and ExxonMobil. What does the flip tell us about the energy transition?
Plus, reporters at Bloomberg got their hands on documents that show ExxonMobil plans to pretty significantly ramp up emissions in the coming years. Is this the planet’s most recalcitrant company?
Then, the flattening of hydrocarbon growth will change global political power. But do we really know how yet? We’ll discuss a new piece from Jason Bordoff about the surprising geopolitics of energy.
Lastly, a lot of manufacturing relies on very high heat. Are there ways to reach those temperatures cleanly? We’ll look at some new developments in the steel industry.
Recommended reading:
* Bloomberg: Exxon’s Plan for Surging Carbon Emissions Revealed in Leaked Documents
* Barrons: Green-Oriented NextEra Nears ExxonMobil in Market cap
* Wall Str…
playlist_add
Oct 3, 2020
What's Behind China's Zero-Carbon Aim?
China, the country currently pouring the most carbon into the atmosphere, is making a promise to get to zero emissions – 40 years from now. Is it a breakthrough? Or is it a plan to keep burning coal? Is it both? We’ll hash it out.
Then, the Governor of California wants to stop selling any new cars that run on gasoline – in 15 years. It’s ambitious, can it be done? Is it legal? What will that take?
And last, a flurry of serious commitments from top American brands – Walmart, Google, Apple. Each of them is super challenging for a different reason. But also groundbreaking. We’ll dig in.
Resources:
* The Guardian: China Pledges to Become Carbon Neutral Before 2060
* Bloomberg: China’s Top Climate Scientists Map Out Path to 2060 Goal
* L.A. Times: Newsom Orders 2035 Phaseout of Gas-Powered Vehicles
* Axios: Walmart Aims for Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2040
* GTM: Google Pledges 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy by 2030
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sung…
playlist_add
Sep 25, 2020
How a Changed Supreme Court Could Derail Climate Progress
Does the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean the future of federal climate policy is in jeopardy? What will a changed Supreme Court mean for climate change, and for the all-important endangerment finding? The Gang weighs in.
Then, the great plastic cover-up. How important are plastics to the profits of fossil fuel companies? We dive into an important investigation from NPR and Frontline into how fossil fuel companies hoodwinked the public on plastics recycling.
Then last, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is out with an important and long-awaited policy that opens the door for all types of distributed energy – hot water heaters, batteries, rooftop solar, electric cars – to feed energy into the grid in the aggregate. Are we finally there?
Recommended reading, viewing:
* Scientific American: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leaves a Nuanced Legacy on Env. Issues
* Politico: Ginsburg Left a Long Environmental Legacy
* Axios: The Climate Stakes of the Supreme Cour…
playlist_add
Sep 21, 2020
Watt It Takes: Michael Liebreich
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Michael Liebreich.
You may know Liebreich as the brain behind New Energy Finance, which was sold to Bloomberg in 2009.
But before that company, Leibreich started a ski-based travel startup and invested in a portfolio of companies that lost 90 percent of their value in the dot-com bust.
After that, he was "unemployable." But he used a team of interns to begin compiling data on clean energy investment. in this episode, he tells the story of how that became a 140-employee business that Bloomberg eventually acquired.
This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.
To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to…
playlist_add
Sep 11, 2020
Renewables Beat Fossils on Europe's Grid
In the first half of 2020, renewables beat out fossil fuels on the grid in Europe for the first time. They didn’t only beat out coal -- they beat out all fossil fuels put together. We’ll look at what the milestone means.
Then, 30 major companies have come together in a new joint lobbying organization to flex united power for clean energy. Will it make renewables a bigger political force? And what will they be fighting for?
Then, your view of Texas is probably out-of-date. We look at the dawn of Big Solar in Texas and peek at the ERCOT interconnection queue -- it’s almost all green.
Recommended reading:
* Danish Startup ‘Tomorrow’: Global Real Time Carbon Intensity Map of Electricity
* Climate Home News: Renewables overtake fossil fuels in EU electricity generation
* Forbes: European Renewables Just Crushed Fossil Fuels. Here’s How It Happened
* Johannes vd Bosch: Twitter thread about Renewables in Germany
* E&ENews: AWEA, Clean Energy Companies Join Fo…
playlist_add
Sep 3, 2020
Watt It Takes: Van Jones
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with green jobs pioneer Van Jones.
Jones may be best known for “The Van Jones Show” and “The Redemption Project,” which both air on CNN. He is also the author of three best-selling books, including “The Green Collar Economy.”
But long before the high-profile Green New Deal, Jones was also a powerful voice for bringing clean energy jobs to black and brown communities. He helped spearhead the Green Jobs Act of 2007, the first time the country deliberately trained workers for the future clean economy.
In this episode, Jones reveals a little-told backstory of his childhood and early life, his time at Yale Law School, and the painful time he briefly joined, and then left, the Obama Administration as the green jobs czar.
This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.
To learn more about future speakers and attending a live e…
playlist_add
Aug 26, 2020
Two Months Before the US Election, Climate Stays on Top
We are just over two months away from America’s presidential election. And that means we are days away from one of the most consequential political moments ever for the planet.
Joe Biden put climate and cleantech jobs at the top of his priorities in last week’s nomination speech. His VP pick, Kamala Harris, says she’ll use her background as a prosecutor to hold industries accountable for climate change. And climate donors are pouring millions into their campaign.
Meanwhile, Trump was in Pennsylvania telling oil and gas workers that Biden is going to end their way of life. But a new poll from Resources for the Future shows that climate is a higher priority than ever for voters. We’ll start with a political roundup.
Then, a story about what’s at stake in the election. More details emerge about Trump Administration censorship of clean-energy research. What is the Seams study, and what happened to it?
Finally, we’ll take a bunch of questions from listeners about wave/tida…
playlist_add
Aug 21, 2020
What Caused California’s Blackouts?
Last week, short-term blackouts rolled across an overheated California after the grid operator said there was not enough power to meet demand.
This wasn’t supposed to happen again. Not after the Enron scandal. Not after 19 years of reforms. We have a very different grid now.
Renewables skeptics, including President Trump, are seizing on the incident. What really happened? Where do we place blame? We explain the confluence of grid-management factors.
Then, coal power generation in the United States plunged 30% in just the first half of this year. But what Asia, where 80% of coal gets burned now? What hope is there for a coal decline there? We’ll look at China, Japan and India.
Finally, stunning public health research. What happens when you combine this up-to-date science with the new, low-cost renewable energy? You get a blockbuster picture, that’s what. We’ll examine new research that shows the health benefits alone pay for our energy transition.
Recommended reading:…
playlist_add
Aug 14, 2020
The Economic Case for Electrifying Everything
“Electrify everything” isn’t just a good slogan. It’s the fastest way to decarbonize and create tens of millions of jobs -- and it can be done using off-the-shelf technology.
A respected squad of researchers did the math on a swap-out of every aging boiler, truck and power plant -- and replacing it with equipment that won’t burn fossil fuels ever again. We’ll dig into a new analysis from Rewiring America.
Then, BP has more details around its plan to become the first oil major to transition away from the hydrocarbon-drilling business. What do they amount to? Can the company actually do it this time?
Last, PSEG promised to do right by its customers after failing them during Hurricane Sandy. So why were Long Islanders left sweltering for days after a few high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Isaias? And what does it portend in a future of stronger storms?
Note: we have a “live” show on August 25th. We’re wrapping up this crazy summer with another live c…
playlist_add
Aug 7, 2020
The Era of ‘Super Hybrid’ Renewables?
On this week’s episode of The Energy Gang: big energy companies are putting together bids for multi- renewable power -- and it’s merchant.
Global investment in offshore wind more than quadrupled in the first half of this year. More new wind farms were approved at the height of the pandemic than during all last year.
Some of offshore projects include storage, and even hydrogen. Some of them include floating solar panels. Is this what the future of projects looks like for oil & gas majors?
Then, is green hydrogen here to stay? One Saudi project unveiled last month is at gigawatt scale. Another major utility is getting out of America’s largest coal plant and making investments in solar-generated hydrogen. Bloom Energy is even making electrolyzers. What does this activity tell us?
And last, there’s a reason Henrik Fisker hasn’t gone away, even after the demise of the Fisker Karma. We dive into the new Fisker Ocean SUV and a spate of other electric car announcements an…
playlist_add
Jul 29, 2020
Watt It Takes: Opower's Dan Yates on the Origins of Behavioral Efficiency
Dan Yates and his co-founder Alex Laskey built Opower, an efficiency company that saves more energy every year than the hoover dam can generate. It was based on cutting-edge behavioral science -- but it wasn’t always clear how the science would play out.
“It wasn’t okay with us to just know that there was going to be a result. It had to be a certain level, otherwise it wasn’t economic. And in the first few months, the results came in and they weren’t changing behavior. The floor fell out from under me. I said, ‘oh my god, we have no idea if this is going to work.'”
Opower was founded in 2007 by Dan and Alex, two friends from Harvard. Dan knew software. Alex knew how to sell. And both of them wanted to build a company for environmental good.
Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. If people saw they were doing poorly, they’d make changes. It worked.
Over time, Opower inked deals…
playlist_add
Jul 24, 2020
Biden's Trillion-Dollar Climate Ambitions
Joe Biden just released a plan to address climate change on a trillion-dollar scale. Along with focusing on rapid deployment of renewables, it also devotes resources to environmental justice, sustainable housing, clean transportation, and networking.
What would it mean? And who's informing the ideas? We’ll dig in.
Then Facebook's disinformation problem. We look at why Facebook is rejecting the conclusions of its fact-checkers on some articles about climate change. We’re joined by Emily Atkin, climate journalist and founder of the newsletter Heated, who dug up some of the documents showing who’s making these decisions at Facebook.
Then, U.S. attorneys in Ohio and Illinois have been busy investigating racketeering and bribery by high-ranking public officials who are doing the bidding of utility companies. In Ohio, the speaker of the House is arrested and in Illinois a utility is put on probation. There’s a common thread, and we tease it out.
Recommended reading:
* Bide…
playlist_add
Jul 17, 2020
The Most Complete Climate Policy Plan Ever?
A group of House lawmakers recently released a 547-page report on climate change. Reporters at E&E News call it “arguably the most comprehensive climate policy plan in American politics.”
The report spells out in great detail how to use Congressional policy to decarbonize the economy. It was the result of nearly a year of input from hundreds of experts, 17 hearings, and thousands of meetings.
This week, we’ll discuss why this report is so significant. We’ll also look at a companion infrastructure bill from House Democrats that makes clean energy a centerpiece. Can it become a reality after the election?
Then, drama for pipelines and batteries. We’ll look at a slew of legal decisions for pipelines in just two weeks, and what they mean for the future of fossil fuel infrastructure.
Last, storage, unleashed. A court affirms FERC’s decision to treat energy storage just like any other power source in wholesale markets, opening the door to massive investment.
Resources:…
playlist_add
Jun 26, 2020
Nikola vs Tesla: The Future of Trucking?
A rivalry is emerging between two companies trying to clean up the trucking industry: Nikola Motor versus Tesla Motors.
Tesla thinks battery-electric semi models are superior. Nikola thinks hydrogen is the best choice.
Neither company actually has a semi model on the road. But Elon Musk and Trevor Milton are talking up their visions for the future of heavy-duty trucks, with the hope of getting vehicles to customers in the next couple of years.
This week on The Energy Gang: Which company is best positioned to win? Which technology is superior? And who’s the bigger showman, Musk or Milton?
Then: are we finally entering the era of the electric pick-up truck? Lots of new models are hitting the internet. But when will they hit the roads?
And last, Lyft wants every car in its fleet to be electric -- in 10 years. Most of the cars don’t belong to Lyft, so how are they going to make that happen?
Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton, Jigar Shah and Stephen Lacey discuss.
Resources:
*…
playlist_add
Jun 25, 2020
An Anxious Accountant's Journey to the Top [Special Content]
This is an original, branded podcast from GTM Creative Strategies, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick.
In 2004, Ted Gunther started a new job at a big accounting firm. He led the team overseeing transactions in newly-deregulated electricity markets.
On his first day, he met the "Green Book," a thick, complicated book that sets standards for derivatives, hedging strategies and contracts structures.
“I still remember it vividly. [...] I remember the partner at the time putting that book on my desk and asking me to go ahead and read this and I just looked at it and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that's going to be a lot to read.’
Ted used The Green Book to become an expert in complicated energy markets.
As his career blossomed, he started grappling with another complicated problem: anxiety.
It started to grip Ted during meetings. “The heart's really beating fast. You know you have something to say but you have a hard time just getting it out and saying it.”
But he w…
playlist_add
Jun 19, 2020
A 90% Clean Grid Is Possible Quickly
Most decarbonization proposals play out over 30 years, aiming toward 2050. But a new roadmap from researchers at UC Berkeley and the policy firm Energy Innovation shows the grid can get 90% clean in just 15 years.
No new fossil fuel plants. Lower rates for consumers. 85,000 lives saved. 500,000 additional jobs. Region by region, they lay out exactly how.
Prices have fallen so quickly that our understanding of what’s possible hasn’t kept pace. And now, say researchers, we have the chance to decarbonize much earlier than many thought possible.
This week, we’ll dig into the study and its implications.
Then: pollsters say Americans are “fully bought in” to a clean energy future — and want bigger societal issues addressed with it. But among crucial swing voters, is anyone even thinking about climate? We’ll look at what the latest polling tells us.
Lastly, BP decides its assets are worth $17 billion dollars less than they thought. It’s a massive write down. Is this a t…
playlist_add
Jun 11, 2020
Europe Invests Big in Green Recovery, While US Keeps the Status Quo
We’re back with another live show from quarantine.
Europe is crafting a €750 billion recovery package in response to the economic impact of coronavirus. It will devote more than €200 billion directly to low-carbon infrastructure projects. That could enable hundreds of billions more for renewables, efficiency, clean public transport, and hydrogen.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., our recent stimulus sent billions of dollars to debt-laden oil producers. With potentially one shot left to pass another recovery package, everyone is afraid to utter the word “climate.”
Coronavirus highlights yet another political and economic divide. How badly is America squandering this historic moment?
Plus, we address listener questions about offshore wind, undercovered climate solutions, career advice, and the mysterious ‘MOPR‘ that could override states’ clean energy preferences.
Thanks to all our listeners who tuned in live!
Mentioned on the the show:
* Freestyle Rapper for Pe…
playlist_add
Jun 4, 2020
Breathing While Black in America
This week: as anger over police brutality explodes into the once-empty streets, we tackle an equally oppressive force for black Americans: environmental racism.
Coronavirus has exposed an unsettling reality for black and brown people, who are dying at higher rates in the country’s most polluted communities. We’re suddenly talking again about structural racism in policing and criminal justice. But the story of race, energy and the environment is also very important to understanding the anger of the moment.
We’re going to speak with a seasoned lawyer and organizer, who is working on the “mass melanization” of the environmental movement: Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, the North America Director for 350.org
Later in the show: if people lose their jobs and can’t pay their bills, what does that mean for their safety in a summer heat wave? And what does it mean for the financial health of utilities?
Finally, a new approach to residential demand response. Why are Consumers Energy,…
playlist_add
May 28, 2020
Watt It Takes: Building Distributed, 'Restorative' Hydropower
Gia Schneider and her brother Abe started Natel Energy based on a hydropower turbine their father designed. And after more than a decade of R&D, pilots, software development and a project for Apple, Natel is preparing for the next level of scale.
“Our objectives have actually not wavered. But they haven’t wavered because of rigid adherence to dogma, they have not wavered because we check in consistently about ‘is this the right problem to solve?’” says Schneider.
Natel is commercializing a turbine for low-head hydro applications at old dams, irrigation canals and run-of-river projects. It’s designed to protect wildlife and drastically cut the ecological impact of hydropower. The original design came from Gia’s father, who started working on low-flow turbines back in the 1970s -- but it’s come a long way since then.
Gia also has a long history in energy. She worked at Constellation Energy and in Accenture’s utility practice. She started the energy and carbon tradi…
playlist_add
May 22, 2020
The Battery Boom Continues
This week, we cover some hopeful signs amidst the economic destruction.
First, we’ll look at the record-breaking activity in battery storage.
A coal plant in North Dakota will be replaced in part with a one-acre battery array from Form Energy that uses a new technology capable of discharging for 150 hours – that’s more than 30 times longer than lithium batteries.
Hawaii’s electric utility just awarded contracts for 16 projects that add up to more than 3 gigawatt-hours of storage, in order to replace an oil-fired and a coal-fired power plant.
And in California, Southern California Edison signed contracts for 770 megawatts of batteries, many paired with solar projects, to replace gas plants. That’s 200 megawatts more than the entire battery capacity installed in 2019.
Plus, in China, more hybrid wind/solar and battery plants are starting to emerge.
This led Dan Finn-Foley, Wood Mackenzie’s head of energy storage, to declare: “The utility energy storage market…
playlist_add
May 15, 2020
Layoffs Surge in Clean Energy
This week, we look at sky-high layoffs in clean energy. How do we get people back to work?
The first major analysis of unemployment in the clean energy sector has been released for April. According to E2 and BW Research, nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in energy efficiency, manufacturing, electric vehicles and clean power and fuels.
We’ve seen a 17 percent drop in the green workforce since the start of the year. Those losses amount to double the employment growth in clean energy for the last three years.
It’s likely to get worse before it gets better. How much should we worry? And what sectors will come back the fastest?
Then, what do 200 of the world’s top economic advisers think about the most effective low-carbon solutions for economic recovery?
And finally, we’ll revisit wildfires. Why can’t California utilities, especially northern giant PG&E, get it right when it comes to fire prevention?
Recommended reading:
* E2: Clean energy Unemployment Claims April 2…
playlist_add
May 8, 2020
Trump’s Deregulation Push + Michael Moore’s Bad-Faith Movie
This week: while the country is distracted by infection rates, deaths and protests, what else have we been missing?
We peek out from behind the quarantine curtain to see what the Trump administration has been up to on the energy front.
The Trump administration has declared a national emergency over cyber threats to the power grid. Equipment vendors “where a foreign adversary has an interest” will be banned. Most transformers are built in China. Will this create uncertainty or slow grid work?
The executive branch has been busy with environmental rollbacks. The Trump administration wants to loosen as much environmental regulation as possible in the six months before the election. We look at the list.
Then, we answer your questions. We sourced nearly 200 questions from our recent live show. And we’re going to tackle some of them.
They include: Michael Moore’s bad-faith trashing of clean energy and the environmental movement; one group’s attempt to kill solar net metering…
playlist_add
Apr 30, 2020
Watt It Takes: From Self-Replicating Machines to Decarbonization
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Saul Griffith, the founder and chief scientist at Other Lab.
Saul Griffith has a PhD in materials science and information theory. He’s co-founded over a dozen companies. And now he’s determined to prove that we already have what it takes to decarbonize the economy.
“The reality is I think it's still possible to completely decarbonize by 2030 and save everyone money. And we just got to start thinking about it correctly,” says Saul.
Other Lab is an R&D incubator and accelerator that helps pair startups in robotics and renewable energy with government labs and corporate investors. It has partnered with NASA, the Navy, the Department of Energy, Google, Facebook, GE and Ford to help build and fund projects in energy, automation, and robotics “in service of 100% decarbonization.”
Saul co-founded Makani Wind, the high-altitude wind company acquired by Google, and the tracker company Sunfolding. He brings th…
playlist_add
Apr 23, 2020
Live From Our Homes to Yours, Literally
This week, we bring you a joint episode of The Energy Gang and The Interchange, recorded in front of a live audience from our quarantine quarters around the country.
When we started making our podcasts seven years ago, it was clear that the energy transition would be a difficult one.
Both shows were designed as a forum to grapple with tough issues in an accessible, candid way. The clean energy industry has faced its share of crises over the years — but nothing quite like the current pandemic and economic freeze.
Supply chains are in limbo, funding opportunities for startups have vanished, and once-growing companies are at a standstill. Meanwhile, political leaders are trying to get money to struggling people and businesses, setting the stage for trillions more dollars in spending on infrastructure.
How will it all pan out? We’re trying to figure it out, just like you.
In this episode, we take listener questions about how to use the current crisis as an opportunity. We…
playlist_add
Apr 18, 2020
Reckoning With Utilities’ Dirty Past
We’re doing a free live show from our homes! Sign up here to join us on Wednesday April 22nd. You can watch a behind-the-scenes recording with The Energy Gang and The Interchange.
This week: The many ways that dirty energy has controlled the politics of clean energy.
Dr. Leah Stokes, an expert on interest groups and their influence over policy, joins the gang. Her new book, Short Circuiting Policy, is the focus of our episode.
Who are the truly bad actor utilities? How have they held back climate policy, and where would we be without their resistance?
Suddenly, utilities are embracing much more ambitious carbon-free energy targets. How optimistic should we be about their intentions?
We’ll talk about the history of clean energy politics detailed in Leah’s book, which she researched over a seven-year period.
Then: the election. With Bernie Sanders out, what will his climate voters do? How long will they hold out, what influence do they have, and how will they wield it?
Rec…
playlist_add
Apr 10, 2020
Will Pollution Pauses Have a Lasting Impact?
The world is experiencing a sudden, dramatic drop in all kinds of air pollution. The skies are dramatically different. People can hear birds they didn’t even know were there, and see landscapes that have been shrouded for decades.
It’s saved thousands of lives in averted asthma and heart attacks. When this is all over, will people clamor for cleaner air? We discuss the potential long-term impacts on this week’s episode.
Then: the 2020 climate summit is postponed. Could that be a good thing? What are the political benefits and diplomatic drawbacks?
Finally, we’ll assess curtailments of solar and wind energy as electricity consumption drops around the world.
Recommended reading:
* Clean Air Memes from India: You Can See Los Angeles from Mumbai Now
* Reuters: Biggest fall in carbon emissions since World War Two
* WSJ: Coronavirus Lockdowns Clear the Air But the Effect Could be Fleeting
* Twitter: Katharine Hayhoe’s Most Recent Cool Explainer
* Bulletin of the Atom…
playlist_add
Apr 2, 2020
Does the Economic Crisis Shift the Clean Energy Calculus?
This week: The coronavirus shockwave brings staggering losses of lives, jobs, and money.
So many applied for unemployment last week – 5 times more than ever before – that it was hard for graphic artists to draw a Y-axis that would fit them in historical comparisons. We’re now at 10 million unemployment claims.
With so much turmoil and uncertainty, we are going to dig back into some of the big themes of the week.
First, we’ll have a recap of stimulus activity. The day after the unprecedented unemployment numbers, the federal government approved a boost to the economy twice as large as any before in the history of the United States. What’s in it? What’s coming next?
Then, essential workers in energy: how grid operators are making sure that all-important juice keeps flowing to your home or essential workplace.
And finally, how the oil price shock may – or may not – impact renewables investment from fossil fuel majors.
Mentioned on the show:
* Gail Tverberg: Ou…
playlist_add
Mar 27, 2020
Election Special: Coronavirus and Climate Collide
This is a special crossover episode between The Energy Gang and Climate 2020.
Coronavirus brought the 2020 election to a screeching halt. Climate was once a top issue in the Democratic primary, but it’s been overtaken by a virus and a looming economic apocalypse.
Primaries are delayed. Traditional campaigning has stopped. Biden is hiding out, preparing for the general election. Bernie Sanders is hanging on. And the way we think about all kinds of issues has totally flipped.
So how will climate, cleantech and the environment fit into this new political world?
The climate community is struggling with how to message. What are the appropriate ways to keep the focus on climate change, while we face public health and economic crises?
What about the intersection of extreme weather and coronavirus? Many state officials fear the next season’s floods, hurricanes and fires – events that can require evacuation while people are supposed to stay homebound. How will climate change comp…
playlist_add
Mar 25, 2020
The Vast Potential of Networked EV Chargers [Content From Enel X]
This is an original, branded podcast produced in partnership with Enel X and GTM Creative Strategies.
Electric vehicle chargers now outnumber gas stations in some countries. They’re getting easier to find. They’re easier to install in homes. And they’re getting way smarter.
So how can we harness all these chargers for the benefit of the grid and consumers?
In this special podcast episode, produced in partnership with Enel X, we’re exploring the vast potential of electric vehicle chargers. We’ll talk with Giovanni Bertolino, the head of e-mobility for North America at Enel-X about a concept called managed charging. It’s also known as intelligent charging.
Giovanni’s team deploys networks of chargers that can adapt to pricing and grid needs — providing demand response services, and potentially, real-time services to manage the frequency of the grid.
We speak with Giovanni about the rise of managed charging. We started with the underlying market conditions: the g…
playlist_add
Mar 19, 2020
The Coronavirus Fallout
This week: how coronavirus could accelerate or decelerate the energy transition.
We’re facing an oil shock amid a pandemic, supply chains are still in disarray, economic gears are grinding to a near halt, and countries are scrambling to put stimulus packages in place. How will this shape the energy system?
We’re going to break the conversation into three parts: the impact on fossil fuels and renewables; long-term prospects for decarbonization; and a blueprint for a low-carbon stimulus.
Where will the money go when this is all over? Could clean energy have the advantage over fossil energy from investors and governments?
Recommended reading:
* GTM: Could the Oil Price Collapse Drive More $$ Into Renewables
* GTM: For Wind and Solar Sectors, Biggest Coronavirus Risk May Be a Damaged Economy
* Business Insider: Coronavirus Stunts Clean Energy Growth
* WSJ: Oil Markets Point to Lasting Glut of Crude
* WSJ: Oil Drop Takes Down Hedge Fund
* OilPrice.com: Oil Price Crash C…
playlist_add
Mar 12, 2020
Watt It Takes: Turning Real Estate Into Clean-Power Assets
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Robyn Beavers, the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Power.
Blueprint works with real estate companies to turn their buildings into clean energy power plants. Blueprint developed software that helps building owners optimize their use of co-generation, fuel cells, solar or batteries.
Robin has a long history in the worlds of tech, real estate and energy. She was an early employee at Google, and went on to found the company’s environmental strategy group. She later built the innovation team at NRG Energy. She later went into the world of real estate, where she oversaw venture investments at Lennar.
Today, she’s bringing all that experience together in the hopes of making buildings more dynamic actors on the grid.
This conversation was recorded at the Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California.
To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the even…
playlist_add
Mar 5, 2020
We Spend Jeff Bezos’ Climate Money
What to do with all this climate money moving around?
The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, says he is going to channel $10 billion of his own dollars into climate solutions. Is this the biggest climate philanthropy ever? And where should he be devoting those dollars? We’ll help him spend it.
Then, the mushy middle. Our own Jigar Shah’s Generate Capital has raised another billion dollars to fund climate tech that is less attractive to some investors – fuel cells, microgrids and unconventional solar projects. We’ll talk about the underserved opportunities in finance.
And a new pot of money from ARPA-E to scale up existing technologies. It’s paltry compared to the money people like Gates and Bezos are throwing into the space. What role is the government playing to scale climate tech?
Recommended reading:
* EENews: He Wants to Own It. Will $10B Buy the Climate Movement?
* The Atlantic: $10 Billion? In This climate?
* GTM: Generate Capital’s $1B Raise Dra…
playlist_add
Feb 21, 2020
Is BP's Shift for Real?
Just weeks after taking over as CEO of BP, Bernard Looney unveiled a series of climate targets. This isn’t the first time BP has tried to make a push into clean energy and decarbonization -- is this time different?
In this week’s episode, we’ll look at the pressures that BP is facing. What does it take for a publicly-owned company to reevaluate its core product? And how do you reduce the carbon intensity of a hydrocarbon business? We’ll dig through the details.
Then, natural gas is suddenly in the hot seat. For gas-only utilities, one pathway is clear. They have to push renewable methane. But what are the limitations? And how will the battle over natural gas connections play out?
Finally, we’ll talk about another reversal, this time in Virginia. The state legislature is right in the middle of setting some pretty strong goals for offshore wind and storage, and they’ve got a governor who wants to sign it. What caused the politics to turn around so suddenly?
Recommende…
playlist_add
Feb 14, 2020
The State of Off-Grid Energy Access
This week: The cutting-edge business of bringing power to the last billion people on Earth without it.
We’ll follow the money, the markets, the business models and ask whether distributed renewables are providing a real alternative to slow grid connections.
Investments in off-grid power in Africa and Asia have skyrocketed in the last five years. Thirty times more money went into the sector in 2018 compared with 2013. More than $500 million dollars was invested in electrification in 2018, for the first time, an analysis by Wood Mackenzie found.
The money is finally bringing lights, cell phone charging and electric stoves to millions of people who had to rely on kerosene and wood. But is the money getting funneled to the right projects? Can they scale to meet a high-energy society? And what are the bottlenecks in international finance preventing these solutions from expanding faster?
Ben Attia joins us for a dive into the state of the market. Ben has spent years immersed in the…
playlist_add
Feb 8, 2020
Watt It Takes: Bringing Printable Batteries From Lab to Market
This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Dr. Christine Ho, the co-founder and CEO of Imprint Energy.
Imprint Energy is the company created to commercialize Christine’s invention: a tiny, zinc-based solid-state battery that can be screen printed. It’s being integrated into sensors and other tiny devices across the internet-of-things.
Christine’s father was an entrepreneur. She saw the highs and lows of that life. She followed his path -- and has faced her own similar tumult. Today, Imprint is licensing its technology to multiple manufacturers, and it’s printed hundreds of thousands of batteries.
This conversation was recorded at the Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California.
To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. Listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.
Subscribe to GTM’s newsletter to learn more about the companies we profile on this series.
This…
playlist_add
Jan 31, 2020
Arizona Public Service’s Historic Shift
This week: The largest utility in one of the West’s reddest states will go carbon-free by 2050.
The power company that has poured tens of millions of dollars into electing friendly regulators and fighting renewable energy says it’s all in for zero carbon electricity — even if the exact pathway isn’t yet clear.
Wasn’t APS investing heavily in keeping the Four Corners coal plant open longer? What happened? And how will this impact the way the utility starts planning its resource mix today?
Then, Congressional Republicans say they’re getting serious about climate. They’ve got a new messaging bill. We’ll talk about what’s in it — or what’s not in it — and ask why they’re tackling the issue now?
Plus, plug-in hybrids versus electric cars. Honda’s CEO says he thinks plug-in hybrids will dominate for a long time. What will the electric mobility transition look like? Will we jump straight to EVs, or will hybrids be a viable interim step for some automakers…
playlist_add
Jan 24, 2020
Microsoft’s Carbon-Negative Gambit
This week: Microsoft is setting a new standard for corporate climate targets.
The technology company promised to remove all of the carbon that it’s ever put in the atmosphere -- going back to when it was founded in an Albuquerque garage in 1975.
That includes $1 billion in carbon removal technologies and methods. Can it pull off such an ambitious plan? And will it force other corporates to follow?
Then, a landmark climate case. Twenty-one young people who sued the federal government for the right to live in a stable climate prevailed and prevailed and prevailed…until they lost. A judge agreed with their case, but said the courts weren’t the place to remedy climate change. What does it mean for future litigation?
Plus, we have a new member of the gang we’re going to meet. It’s Ingrid Lobet, our senior editor. Make sure to follow her on Twitter.
Resources:
* MIT Technology Review: Microsoft Will Invest $1B in Carbon Reduction and Removal Tech
* Wall Street Journal…
playlist_add
Jan 17, 2020
The World’s Biggest Capitalist Says Climate Is ‘Reshaping Finance’
The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, is suddenly putting sustainability and climate risk at the center of its investment strategy.
“Investors are increasingly...recognizing that climate risk is investment risk. These questions are driving a profound reassessment of risk and asset values. And because capital markets pull future risk forward, we will see changes in capital allocation more quickly than we see changes to the climate itself,” wrote BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in his yearly investment letter.
BlackRock manages over $7 trillion in assets. This new strategy could have a wide impact on the world of finance -- and put climate risk at the top of investor considerations.
Plus, activists are targeting banks like Chase and Citibank by hitting them on the consumer finance side. We check in on the divestment movement as it gains momentum.
Then, a look at some lesser-known, but formidable greenhouse gases: refrigerants. How much a problem are they?
Finally, Californi…
playlist_add
Jan 11, 2020
Will Australia's Hellish Fires Influence Climate Politics?
This week, a look at the bushfires in Australia — their impact to the country, to the grid, and to politics of climate.
Then, a big change could be coming to a foundational federal policy in America. Are the proposed changes to PURPA a thoughtful response to market conditions and cheap renewables, or a political play?
Finally, we learn to code. Joe Biden is the latest democrat to push the idea that laid-off miners should learn to code. Why did it spark so much derision?
Recommended reading:
* The Atlantic: Australia Will Lose to Climate Change
* GTM: FERC Proposal Brings New Threat to Already-Suffering PURPA Solar Markets
* Gizmodo: Biden Tells Miners to Learn to Code
This podcast is brought to you by KORE Power. KORE Power is a leading manufacturer of high density, high voltage energy storage solutions for utility, industrial, microgrids, and mission-critical markets. Find out more.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https…
playlist_add
Dec 26, 2019
Presenting: The Deep Decarbonization Draft
We have some bonus listening as we close out the year!
We present one of our most popular episodes of The Interchange: The Deep Decarbonization Draft.
It's like fantasy sports for energy nerds. The premise is simple: Shayle and Stephen choose their teams of decarbonization technologies and methods, and then pit them against each other to determine who’s best at saving the planet.
Go subscribe to The Interchange anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the perfect compliment to The Energy Gang.
Happy New Year!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Dec 23, 2019
Reflections on the Last 10 Years, Projections for the Next 10
We’re closing out the decade this week with a retrospective.
We have been doing this show since 2013. So we are going to share some of our top story lines in energy and cleantech of the last 10 years — many of which played out while we were doing this show.
We’ll start with some personal retrospectives. What was consuming us back in 2009? How did that story shake out?
Then we’ll choose the most important stories that defined the teens. Katherine will choose the top policy trend, Jigar will choose the top business trend, and Stephen will choose the top tech trend.
Finally, we’ll look ahead to 2030 and beyond. What needs to happen in policy, business, technology to “win” the decade?=
If you’re looking for more listening over the holidays, check out our year-end episode of The Interchange.
Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation.
Support for this podcast comes fr…
playlist_add
Dec 13, 2019
Watt It Takes: The Founder-Engineer Turning CO2 Into Usable Stuff
This week on Watt It Takes: Emily Kirsch sits down with Dr. Etosha Cave, the co-founder and chief science officer of Opus 12.
Opus 12 is a team of engineers, electrochemists and materials scientists working on a technology that converts carbon dioxide into useable products. They are developing a metal catalyst that can turn CO2 into synthetic gas for fuels and ethylene for plastics.
If the tech works at commercial scale, it would be a vital solution for slashing CO2 from industrial sources. The company has brought in about $20 million in funding.
In this interview, Etosha talks about the inspiration for the technology, which came from her love of space and desire to go to Mars.
She talks about being a founder who’s also a black woman, and how that’s influenced her relationships with other people in energy.
And she talks about where Opus 12’s tech development stands.
To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the…
playlist_add
Dec 10, 2019
This Clean-Energy Tax Pro Knows Your Deepest Secrets [Special Content]
This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between CohnReznick Capital and GTM Creative Strategies.
Sheslie Royster is the person that big companies turn to when making an acquisition, investing in real estate, or finding a creative way to use tax credits. She’s a tax expert, focused mostly in wind and solar.
Those deals include a lot of numbers and math, of course. But Sheslie says the math isn’t as important as it seems. It’s the interpretation of the math that matters.
“I'd say a minimal amount is math. I'd say in the deals that we have where we're discussing tax issues, the numbers play a part but it's a smaller part. It's more the theory behind what's going on behind the numbers. What does this mean? What was the intent of the law? What is the intent of the deal?”
Sheslie is a tax partner at CohnReznick. She works on some very complicated projects that require a deep level of trust and intimacy.
“It's a personal relationship. People are telling you things a…
playlist_add
Dec 7, 2019
Tesla's Cybertruck: Win or Fail?
Truck buyers are historically some of the most brand-loyal auto consumers But recent surveys suggest that loyalty is loosening.
Into the picture steps Elon Musk, who dropped the Tesla Cybertruck last month. This space-age truck concept is truly putting the shift in consumer preferences to the test. It’s also tearing a lot of opinionated people apart.
In this episode: what is the Cybertruck and where might it fit into the emerging electric truck market? And can it sway truck buyers who don't care about Tesla?
Then, there’s a major tax bill in Congress right now that would be a boon to renewables — what are its chances?
Finally, what would we do with a million dollars? We answer a listener question about how to invest with impact.
Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.
Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts…
playlist_add
Nov 22, 2019
New Candidates, 'Climategate' Redux, & Top Turkeys of 2019
This week: our pre-thanksgiving intellectual feast. It’s a four-course meal as usual.
For the hors d’oeuvres, we’re serving up something new: a roundup of the new entrants into the presidential race, and how they stack up on environmental issues.
For the side dishes, we’ll reheat some leftovers. We’ll look at the climategate debacle 10 years later.
And for the main course. What people or companies will we choose as the top turkeys of the year?
We’ll end with a little aperitif — our free electrons.
Read along with us:
* POLITICO: The Left Smells a Rat in Bloomberg, Patrick Bids
* Greenwire: As Mass. Governor, Deval Patrick Promoted RGGI, Clean Power
* BBC Documentary: Climategate 10 Years Later
* Columbia Journalism Review: Michael Mann on Coverage Since ‘Climategate’
* Our top Turkeys: Andrew Wheeler's plan to dismantle EPA; Saudi Aramco's lagging IPO; and Elon Musk's lies about solar.
Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the…
playlist_add
Nov 15, 2019
Is Big Tech Fueling the Climate Disinformation War?
As we reckon with the dark side of Silicon Valley’s tech giants, there’s more scrutiny into how these companies are assisting climate denial and obfuscation.
We’ll look at a few different stories:
Climate and clean energy are getting disadvantaged by Facebook and Twitter’s different policies on political ads: how do we define issue ads and political speech?
Google, Facebook and others are getting called out for their support of groups that spread extreme climate denial: How much criticism do they deserve?
And Amazon, Microsoft and Google are building the digital backbone of industries that are wrecking the planet. How should we think about their role and culpability?
In the second half of the show, we’ll discuss America’s withdraws from the Paris climate treaty. With U.S. global leadership in shambles, who’s going to fill the gap? And how could elections change things?
Finally, how California’s wildfire crisis is stoking the state’s distributed generation market…
playlist_add
Nov 8, 2019
Watt It Takes: A Tesla Veteran’s Mission to Build Long-Duration Batteries
This week on Watt It Takes: how a would-be priest made it his mission to spread the gospel of battery storage.
In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Mateo Jaramillo, the CEO and co-founder of Form Energy.
Form is working on a new kind of long-duration battery. And Mateo has one of the longer-duration careers in the storage industry.
In the early 2000s, he deployed the first behind-the-meter systems in New York for demand response — seeing the grid services potential well before anyone else.
Mateo went on to start the stationary energy storage unit at Tesla, launching and building the powerwall business. He also helped launch the supercharger business.
Today, he’s working on a new electrochemical battery that could provide storage services for days, not just hours. The idea is to unlock baseload renewables.
The chemistry was spun out of work from MIT researchers. It’s being scaled by a group of engineers and entrepreneurs with deep technical experienc…
playlist_add
Oct 31, 2019
The Scariest Stories of the Year
We recorded this episode on Halloween morning. We woke up and felt like celebrating the theme of the holiday.
If you’re listening after Halloween, don’t fret. There’s still plenty of newsworthy stuff in here.
First up, we’re choosing the story from 2019 that is most worthy of its own horror movie. As a bonus, we are also choosing the genre of horror.
Then, we pick the zombie story or trend of the year that just won’t die.
And finally, the company or person that deserves a treat.
We’ll end with some bone-chilling Free Electrons.
Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcast
Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.
Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.
See…
playlist_add
Oct 26, 2019
Who’s Trying to Re-Kill the Electric Car?
Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcast
This week: it’s the oil industry versus the world.
We’re examining two legal battles for oil majors playing out in states. One involves electric cars and one involves responsibility for climate change.
We’ll start first with a story from POLITICO’s Gavin Bade. Advocacy groups backed by oil companies are increasingly lobbying against utilities that are trying to support electric vehicles. Are we seeing a coming political clash between the oil industry and utility industry?
We’re joined by Gavin, who’s been tracking these emerging challenges.
Then, we are devoting our second half of the show to the legal challenges against fossil fuel companies.
Exxon is on trial in New York and numerous other states and cities are bringing suit against oil majors. It’s got everyone paying attention to this very complicated yet riveting issue: as the science and legal arg…
playlist_add
Oct 18, 2019
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcast
The world’s fifth-largest economy looked more like a developing country last week, as PG&E purposefully cut power to millions of people in Northern California for days.
We knew this was coming. The growing safety and financial risk of wildfires in the state mean mass power outages will become more common. But in this case, PG&E was slammed for the way it handled things.
We’ll dig into the scope, the fallout, and the solutions of California’s power shutoffs due to wildfire threats.
Then: Dyson made a big business out of selling $400 hair dryers and $500 vacuum cleaners, but it couldn’t make a high-end electric car work. We’ll talk about why Dyson wrote off its EV plans.
Finally, the Trump administration lifts a tariff exemption for bifacial solar panels. So why are these two-sided solar panels becoming so popular now?
Additional resources:
* New York Times:…
playlist_add
Oct 15, 2019
Are Ancient Bugs the Key to Storing Wind and Solar? [Special Content From NREL]
This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and GTM Creative Strategies.
As grids get saturated with wind and solar electricity, there’s pressure to find new ways to store that energy across daily, monthly or seasonal variations.
Could the answer be a billion-year-old microbe?
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and SoCalGas are currently testing a new bioreactor that could turn renewable electrons into renewable methane -- allowing excess generation to be “stored” in existing natural gas pipelines.
The system relies on an ancient microorganism that ferments hydrogen and carbon dioxide and turns it into methane. By feeding the bugs hydrogen from renewable resources and CO2 from industrial sources, companies like SoCalGas could harness a new supply of renewable natural gas.
NREL has been testing the process in the lab for years. And it finally built a larger-scale version of the bioreactor.
We sent producer Cather…
playlist_add
Oct 2, 2019
Watt It Takes: The Startup Making Solar-Storage Better Than the African Grid
Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcast
This week on Watt It Takes: how a computer nerd who loved assembling electronics became obsessed with designing a solar-storage system to light up Africa.
In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Xavier Helgesen, the co-founder and chief technology officer at ZOLA Electric.
Zola is a provider of solar and storage systems in Africa. Since its founding in 2012, the company has served over a million people with clean power in five countries.
Over the years, Zola has evolved from a small, scrappy startup that offered very basic energy packages into a hardware company that installs sleek, scalable power systems that function better than the grid.
“[Our goal] was not to be worse than the grid, but available anywhere — but to just be better than the grid. For solar and batteries to fundamentally be cheaper and more reliable than the grid. And if we succee…
playlist_add
Sep 29, 2019
Clean Energy’s Ever-Changing Policy Risk [Special Content From CohnReznick]
This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between CohnReznick Capital and GTM Creative Strategies.
Britta Von Oesen knows risk.
As an intern in Lehman Brothers’ global energy unit in 2008, she watched the collapse of the investment bank in real time.
Later, she watched European markets grind to a halt after feed-in-tariffs were reversed.
And in the U.S., she’s monitored the ever-changing tax policies and regulations that impact wind, solar and storage.
Today, Britta is a managing director at CohnReznick Capital. Her job is to help figure out how to get wind and solar deals done in the face of policy and financial risk.
In this special episode, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital, we sit down with Britta Von Oesen to unpack some of those policy uncertainties and what they mean for renewables.
Go to CohnReznickCapital.com to learn more about how the company builds relationships, closes deals, and helps clean energy companies excel.
See Privacy Pol…
playlist_add
Sep 27, 2019
Turmoil at an Iconic American Hydropower Giant
The Bonneville Power Administration, the government-owned “power marketing agency” that serves the Pacific Northwest, is facing a strong current of problems.
As cheap renewables make hydro less competitive in the region, BPA is now bleeding money. There’s now concern that its utility customers will stop buying hydro after contracts expire.
Meanwhile, the cost of rehabilitating salmon populations is mounting. As the power provider grapples with $15 billion in debt, some are calling for a reformation of BPA. How can the government prepare the hulking agency for the competitive clean energy future?
We’ll talk to a Jeremy P. Jacobs, a reporter for E&E’s Greenwire, who’s been digging into the story. You can read parts one, part two and part three of his ongoing series.
Then, climate strikes swept the globe last Friday, raising unprecedented media coverage. How is this different from previous mobilizations around climate? We’ll put this moment in the context of recent his…
playlist_add
Sep 17, 2019
Does Climate Change Make Good Political TV?
This week: We’ve gone from drought to flood.
People who care about climate change have spent the last three presidential election cycles cajoling, prodding and begging television news outlets to cover the issue. But the more pressure mounted, the more coverage lagged.
Across all three debates between Clinton and Trump in 2016, environmental issues got just under 5 and a half minutes of air time. And in all of 2016, the major networks talked about climate for just 50 minutes combined.
And then suddenly in September, we got CNN’s town hall, a seven-hour extravaganza that actually allowed candidates some time to tease out the nuances of their plans.
Sure, the moderators asked some weird questions about cheeseburgers, plastic straws and electric cars. But for the most part, the conversation was substantive and helpful.
In this episode, we’re digging into a few questions: Did the town hall advance the narrative? Did it change the campaign and polling? And which candidate perfor…
playlist_add
Sep 13, 2019
How America Thwarted a Giant ‘Extension Cord’ for Renewables
America is a place where if you can dream something — no matter how big or ambitious — you can do it.
Unless you’re trying to string 700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to bring wind power from Oklahoma to Tennessee.
Our guest this week is Russell Gold, author of a new book about the saga that unfolded when wind energy pioneer Michael Skelly tried just that.
The book, “Superpower,” is all about Skelly’s attempt to build one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects in recent history — and how he faced nearly every obstacle imaginable. What does Skelly’s journey tell us about America’s diminishing ability to do great things?
Russell Gold is a veteran newspaper reporter who was a pulitzer prize finalist for his reporting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He wrote a book in 2014 on the rise of fracking, called “The Boom.” He’ll join us to talk about the reasons why Skelly’s transmission plan failed.
Then, two top presidential cand…
playlist_add
Sep 5, 2019
Watt It Takes: The Startup Reshaping Mobility Planning With Data
This week on Watt It Takes: How an energy researcher obsessed with electric vehicles stumbled upon a vast trove of transportation data and built a company that is reshaping infrastructure planning for mobility.
Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Laura Schewel, the founder and CEO of Streetlight Data.
Laura spent her career studying storage, electric vehicles, and transportation systems at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and then as a research fellow at UC Berkeley.
While at UC Berkeley, she got interested in finding a way to give electric vehicle owners more information about how they were driving their cars. She ended up uncovering a data gold mine in the process.
Laura built a company that now processes over 100 billion data points and provides transportation and urban planners with a granular view of how roads, bike lanes and sidewalks are being used.
In this episode, Laura Schewel talks about how she ultimately pursued the idea…
playlist_add
Aug 30, 2019
The Problem With Carbon Offsets
With flight shame growing in popularity, extreme weather intensifying, and the Amazon burning, there’s more demand than ever for carbon offsets to assuage our guilt and make us feel like we’re doing something.
But those credits many not be doing what you think they are — or anything at all.
This week, we’re discussing the complicated and frustrating world of carbon offsets. There’s a reason why even the United Nations is now calling out their limitations.
This conversation is particularly important as California considers joining the Tropical Forest Standard as part of its cap-and-trade program.
Then, we’ll talk about new climate plans from Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. What’s in them? And who will become the climate candidate?
Finally, we dig into a bill from Ohio that bails out big utilities and guts clean energy. The politics of this thing are ugly — and they are only getting uglier.
Read along with us:
* ProPublica: An Even More Inconvenient Truth
* B…
playlist_add
Aug 23, 2019
The New Normal for the Grid: Batteries
In nearly every corner of the country, energy storage projects are finding their way onto the grid — they’re getting bigger, cheaper, more diverse, and even a little bit weirder.
Most of all, they’re just becoming normal.
This week, we’re talking about the new normal for power operations. It includes a lot of batteries. And maybe some air tanks, water pumps and cranes too.
GTM Staff Writer Julian Spector joins us as a guest co-host to round up the most topical projects and tell us where the storage market is headed.
Then we’ll look at a novel approach to long-duration storage: a gravity-based system from Energy Vault that just got a major injection of Japanese venture dollars. How skeptical should we be?
And finally, we’ll look at all the other alternatives to lithium-ion that are vying for traction in the market. Will pumped hydro see a revival? Can flow batteries finally prove themselves?
Read Julian Spector’s reporting here. And sign up for the GTM newsletter h…
playlist_add
Aug 16, 2019
How Electric Cars and Renewables Could Beat Oil
Solar and wind sent European utilities into financial disarray, and U.S. utilities are facing a similar fate. Are global oil companies next?
A new report from one of the world’s biggest banks, BNP Paribas, says that solar and wind paired with electric cars provide up to 7 times more useful energy for mobility than gasoline dollar for dollar. And that economic reality could hit oil companies sooner than they think.
“The oil industry has never before in its history faced the kind of threat that renewable electricity in tandem with EVs poses to its business model,” concludes the report.
This week, we’ll dig into the findings. How does it square with current projections for EV growth and oil demand?
Then, a regulatory surprise from the Trump Administration is delaying an 800-megawatt offshore wind project. It could also hurt other projects planned for the East Coast. Is this a careful step, or a cynical political move from a hostile White House?
Finally, 16-year-old climate…
playlist_add
Aug 2, 2019
Watt It Takes: Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers
This week on Watt It Takes: How a former Apple engineer applied design principles from the iPod and the iPad to smart thermostats — jolting an industry badly in need of change.
Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Matt Rogers, the co-founder and former chief product officer of Nest.
Nest is best known for its elegant learning thermostat, the first major breakout hit in the smart home space. Google later acquired the company for $3.2 billion.
In this interview, Rogers talks about his Apple influence, how he and co-founder Tony Fadell initially got obsessed with the connected home, and how Nest fit into the Google structure.
Before Nest launched, “the connected home wasn’t really a thing. It was a bunch of hackers stringing things together, there were no products to speak of, really,” says Rogers. “And I was like ‘this is a huge opportunity, we can go and make great products like we did at Apple.’”
This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headq…
playlist_add
Jul 14, 2019
Why Is Trump Suddenly Talking About the Environment?
Note: after this episode, we will be on hiatus for a few weeks while Stephen Lacey goes on paternity leave. We’ll be back soon!
On July 8, Donald Trump stood in the East Room of the White House and delivered a speech on his “environmental leadership.” What could he possibly talk about?
Onlookers called the speech “Orwellian.” The Trump Administration has tried to pull America out of a global climate agreement, sent officials to try to sell coal at the latest UN climate summit, forced climate scientists out of the government, and rolled back 83 environmental rules.
So why is Trump talking about the environment now? What does it tell us about how voters feel about the issue going into the election? We’ll look at the possible political reasons for the timing of the speech.
Then, we’ll look at New York’s big climate law. How does the state plan to cut emissions 85 percent by 2050? And how will ambitious policy in California and New York influence other states?
Finally,…
playlist_add
Jul 9, 2019
Greening the Cannabis Industry [Special Content From CohnReznick]
This week, we present a special episode produced on behalf of CohnReznick.
There’s a bonanza sweeping across North America: cannabis.
As more states legalize marijuana, the industry is attracting high-profile investors and bringing in $6.5 billion in yearly sales.
But it also faces two major challenges: limited access to banking and high energy costs.
Because cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, traditional banks are unwilling to do business with the thousands of companies serving the market.
At the same time, the industry now eats up $6 billion in electricity costs. Growers are paying tens of thousands of dollars per month to power cultivation sites, and some utilities are worried about strain on the grid in certain locations.
Trying to slash that electricity use is very hard for cash-only companies that can’t get access to traditional financing.
“The capital you would most typically have to deploy if you wanted to site solar at a cultivation facility will…
playlist_add
Jul 1, 2019
The Trump-Branded Version of the Clean Power Plan
This week: we examine the Trump alternative to the Clean Power Plan, look at the gap between red and blue states on climate change, and review the presidential debates.
Up first: how Trump's EPA is replacing Obama's major climate rule.
Then, the red-blue climate divide. States are putting ambitious new climate plans in place. But they’re almost all in states dominated by democrats -- and the new EPA power plant rule only makes that gap bigger. What are the long-term economic consequences for the red states failing to change?
Finally, we got 15 minutes of climate talk in the first two Democratic presidential debates. Does this yet again prove why we need a climate-only debate?
Recommended reading:
* Yale Climate Connections: The Trump EPA Strategy to Undo the Clean Power Plan
* New York Times: Blue States Roll Out Aggressive Climate Strategies. Red States Keep to the Sidelines
* The Guardian: A Climate-Themed Debate? The Democrats Owe It to Voters
Support for this podcast…
playlist_add
Jun 23, 2019
Watt It Takes: Creating a Battery Unicorn
This week on Watt It Takes: How a Ukrainian immigrant quietly toiled away on a new battery chemistry and created a billion-dollar unicorn.
Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Gene Berdichevsky, the CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies.
Sila is developing a new lithium-ion battery chemistry that uses silicon in place of graphite — leading to an improvement in battery density by 20 percent. This spring, Daimler led a $170 million round in Sila, valuing the startup at $1 billion.
Berdichevsky was the seventh employee at Tesla, where he developed the Roadster’s battery.
For the last eight years, Berdichevsky’s team at Sila has been working on a drop-in replacement for today’s lithium-ion batteries.
This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters. Buy tickets for upcoming events.
Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify…
playlist_add
Jun 13, 2019
Will Geothermal Ever Boom Like Fracking?
It’s been a decade since the fracking boom reshaped U.S. energy markets — so when will we ever use our drilling prowess to create a similar geothermal boom?
That’s the hope. The Department of Energy just released a massive new report revisiting America’s geothermal potential in conventional hydrothermal, enhanced geothermal, direct use and heat pumps.
And the potential is enormous — but it’s just sitting there, largely untapped. We’re going to open up DOE’s report and see which borehole it takes us down.
Then, the Biden and Warren campaigns both unveiled their energy and climate plans. Have they risen to the political and environmental stakes?
Finally, are states squandering billions in settlement dollars from the VW diesel scandal?
Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s E…
playlist_add
Jun 3, 2019
Comparing Presidential Candidates on Climate and Cleantech
It may be a couple election cycles late, but we’re finally getting a wave of climate plans from presidential candidates. The issue is now front and center in the Democratic primaries.
We’ve spent the last week collecting the plans from leading candidates, surveying the stances of the rest of the field, and monitoring the reactions. We’ll sort through them in this week’s Energy Gang episode.
In the first half of the show, we’ll compare and contrast the unique plans from Elizabeth Warren, Jay Inslee, Beto O’Rourke, Michael Bennet and John Delaney. What is unique about each candidate’s proposal?
Then, we’ll tackle the rest of the field in the second half of the episode. Most of them are either using the Green New Deal as a fallback, or using it as a foil. We will take an account of how that short-but-influential congressional resolution — and the activism behind it — is having an impact on the presidential campaign.
Recommended reading:
* Buzzfeed: Democrats W…
playlist_add
May 23, 2019
Breaking Down Global Subsidies for Fossil Fuels
A new report from the International Monetary Fund shows that the world spent $5.2 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2017. That’s half a trillion dollars more than in 2015.
But it also shows that fossil fuel subsidy spending is down by half since 2012. What gives? How much are we actually spending to make fossil fuels cheaper?
We’ll clarify the different ways economists are measuring that spending.
Then, U.S. tax subsidies for solar and wind are set to ramp downward as part of a deal struck in 2015. But some are calling for an extension of those credits once again.
Wait, didn’t the industry say it would be just fine without them? We’ll look at arguments for and against another extension.
Finally, PG&E is warning California customers about planned blackouts during this year’s fire seasons. Does this open up a new opportunity for commercial microgrids and residential battery backup?
Recommended reading:
* Atlantic: The Hidden Subsidy of Fossil Fuels
* GTM: US Sol…
playlist_add
May 16, 2019
America Has 2 Million Solar Systems. How'd We Get Here?
It took four decades for America to install a million solar systems. And it took just three years to install the second million.
From here on out, the U.S. market will likely see a million systems every couple of years, according to the latest data from Wood Mackenzie.
To mark this new era of scale, we’re going to look back at the most important trends that got us to the first couple of million systems — and the most important trends that will keep many more millions coming.
Then, Tesla has a new way to package and sell solar online. Will it work?
Finally, what’s the best way to frame climate change and the clean energy transition? Presidential candidates are talking about the issues, and press outlets are trying to reframe coverage. What's working and what needs to change?
Recommended reading:
* GTM: US Surpasses 2 Million Solar Installations as Industry Looks to ‘Dominate’ the 2020s
* GTM: Tesla Embraces New Solar Strategy But Analysts Remain Skeptical
* New Y…
playlist_add
May 3, 2019
How Much Do Renewable Energy Mandates Really Cost?
For well over a decade, researchers have been modeling the cost of state renewable energy mandates.
The results break down in predictable ways: conservative and progressive groups often come to very different conclusions based about costs and benefits.
An authoritative 2015 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found that compliance costs for state renewables targets only make up 2 percent of retail rates in most U.S. states.
After a lull, the debate over the cost of renewable energy targets is re-emerging. A new working paper from economists at the University of Chicago concludes that mandates are the most expensive way to reduce carbon pollution — and that they are much bigger drivers of rate increases than previously thought.
Many researchers are pushing back on the economists’ modeling of electricity rates. But it’s worth revisiting this debate, since renewables and carbon-free energy targets are used as placeholders for more ambitious climate policy.
In this…
playlist_add
Apr 24, 2019
Watt It Takes: Why This Founder Dug Into Home Geothermal
This week on Watt It Takes: How a product manager at Google saw promise in geothermal heat pumps — and applied the lessons of solar to an underserved market.
In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Kathy Hannun, the co-founder of Dandelion, a home geothermal company that uses a proprietary drilling technique, simple product design, and financing to cut the cost of ground-source heating and cooling.
For seven years, Kathy was on the rapid evaluation team at Alphabet X — formerly Google X — evaluating technology moonshots. That’s where she stumbled upon the opportunity in geothermal.
We’re going to hear from Kathy about what she learned trying to tackle a tough tech like home geothermal. We’ll also hear about what she learned from her time at Google, how she built her team, and why raising money as an expecting mother presented some unique challenges.
This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters. Buy tickets for upcoming events…
playlist_add
Apr 23, 2019
The Art of Closing Billions in Wind and Solar Deals [Special Content From CohnReznick]
This week, we present a special episode produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital.
How do you broker billions of dollars worth of renewable energy deals — and do it again and again?
It takes grit, sure. But it also requires empathy.
And that, says Conor McKenna, is the real art of the deal.
McKenna is a senior managing director at CohnReznick Capital Markets. He’s helped close 8 gigawatts of wind, solar and biomass projects over his career.
We all know “The Art of the Deal,” Donald Trump’s 1987 book that offers hard-nosed business advice. The book includes lessons like fight back, play the game hard, and deliver the goods.
This advice has shaped our perception of real estate and Wall Street culture. But McKenna says one important lesson is missing: how to form good relationships so that everyone benefits from a deal.
“Every time we’ve seen someone focus on getting that last dollar out of an individual transaction, we’ve found that they’ve had a muc…
playlist_add
Apr 18, 2019
Amazon Cozies Up to Fossil Fuels
The tech giants are all going long on renewables, but Amazon seems to be going long on oil and gas.
A new story details Amazon’s budding romance with the fossil fuel industry, while also lagging behind its peers in buying clean energy for its operations.
Other tech companies are using their analytics for helping extract more fossil fuels — but is the extent of Amazon’s pursuit unique?
Then, a new study shows that three-quarters of all coal in the US is more expensive than new renewables. But there’s an ongoing push in states from coal groups to force plants to stay open. We’ll have the latest in the feeble attempt to save coal.
Finally, the supreme court rejects a challenge to state nuclear subsidies. Is it a green light for more states to save their nuke fleets?
Recommended reading:
* Gizmodo: Amazon Is Aggressively Pursuing Big Oil as It Stalls Out on Clean Energy
* Vox: Amazon Says It’s a Leader on Fighting Climate Change. 5,000 Employees Disagree
* Indy Star…
playlist_add
Apr 12, 2019
Interpreting GOP Responses to the Green New Deal
This week, the Green New Deal ripples through Washington.
A few leading Republicans are responding to the progressive climate plan with some ideas of their own: the New Manhattan Project and the Green Real Deal.
They’ve gotten a mostly cold response from the left. But have we finally broken the ice for a legitimate cross-party policy discussion on climate? We’ll look at the GOP responses.
Then, Trump’s latest verbal convulsion. Speaking at a fundraiser, the president said wind noise causes cancer and kills property values. We’ll take this opportunity to review what the literature says about the impact of wind.
Finally, we’ll go to Virginia, where there’s been a ton of legislative activity on solar, efficiency, grid infrastructure and climate — some of which was blocked by the state’s mega-utility Dominion Energy. We’ll examine the politics.
Recommended reading:
* Bloomberg: GOP Tiptoes Toward Climate Plans as Ocasio-Cortez Turns Up Heat
* Matt Gaetz: 'Gree…
playlist_add
Apr 7, 2019
Live at MIT: The 2040 Grid
This past week, we recorded a live show at the MIT Energy Conference.
The theme of the show: what the grid may look like by 2040.
As a topical show, we usually don’t know what we’re going to be discussing until a day or two in advance. But the theme of the MIT conference was "tough tech and the 2040 grid" — so we decided to take it head on.
To start, we’ll adjust our brains to the 2040 timeframe with some fantastical scenarios.
Then, we create our own plans. We will each outline a possible future for the 2040 time frame — Katherine will look at policy and politics, Jigar will look at the business environment, and Stephen looks at technology make-up.
Finally, a news circuit. We’ll provide some quick commentary on top stories of the day.
And we’ll end with our Free Electrons.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Mar 28, 2019
What Does Lyft's IPO Signal for the Future of Mobility?
Lyft is set for an IPO on Friday; Uber is driving up to the IPO window soon. Investors seem enthusiastic, but skeptics see a lot of risks and a bumpy path to profitability.
In 2018, transportation network companies — pretty much Lyft and Uber — gave 2.6 billion rides. Lyft gave a billion of those rides, doubling its revenue over 2017 to $2.2 billion.
We know the consumer appetite is there. But as Lyft hits the public markets, many wonder if that volume can be turned into profits. Autonomous cars, competition from other shared mobility companies, and regulations are all a potential risk.
So what does Lyft’s IPO — and soon Uber’s — tell us about where mobility is headed? We're discussing on this week's Energy Gang podcast.
Then, one of America’s biggest utilities said recently it will offer only carbon-free energy by 2050. In the second half of the show, we’re going to dig into Xcel’s plan. How will they do it? And will it encourage other big power companies to do t…
playlist_add
Mar 24, 2019
Replay: The Story Behind Greentech Media's Founding
We're on spring break this week. We'll be back on Thursday with our regular show.
To get you through the next few days, we’re offering up an earlier episode of Watt It Takes about the origin story of Greentech Media.
In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviews GTM Co-Founder Scott Clavenna about the beginning of the company, the challenges of being a startup in the cleantech world, and our recent acquisition by Wood Mackenzie.
Watt It Takes is a live interview series produced by Powerhouse in partnership with GTM. The conversation was recorded live in Oakland, California.
Don't forget to subscribe to our other GTM podcast, The Interchange.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Mar 14, 2019
The Battery Storage Market Kicks Into High Gear
The latest numbers for U.S. energy storage activity are out. They show a surge of activity coming over the next five years, leading to 6x market growth.
By 2024, the storage market will be worth $4.7 billion dollars, driven evenly by utility-scale and behind-the-meter battery projects.
On this week's episode, we'll unpack the numbers in the latest Energy Storage Monitor from Wood Mackenzie and the Energy Storage Association. They show a doubling and then a tripling of storage to come — making batteries an important part of utility planning in every region of the country.
Where’s growth happening, and what does it mean for grid planning?
Then, with many farmers in crisis, more of them are putting solar on their land. That’s providing new sources of income, but many fear it could take prime croplands out of commission. How do we site solar on agricultural lands properly?
And finally, what is going on over at Tesla? We’ll make try to make sense of the confusing series of d…
playlist_add
Mar 6, 2019
Watt It Takes: Terry Jester Brings 40 Years of Solar Experience to Startups
This week on Watt It Takes: Terry Jester has seen it all in her four-decade career in solar and electronics. As both an engineer and an executive, she’s learned that timing is everything in the energy business.
“I think as I’ve gotten older, I understand when best to strike…a good idea can not make it for bad timing, and a bad idea can go too far.”
In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Terry, who is now chief executive of SolPad, maker of a modular home solar-storage system.
Terry started her career at ARCO solar in 1979, where she worked on making products that could last decades. She’s since held operations or engineering positions at Shell, Siemens, SunPower, SolarWorld and Solaria — witnessing the initial evolution and eventual explosion of solar firsthand.
Terry is now in the startup world, where she’s trying to help SolPad carve out a niche in the market for home solar-battery systems. So we’re going to hear about how she’s applyi…
playlist_add
Mar 5, 2019
Risks and Rewards of Latin America's Solar Boom [Special Content From NEXTracker]
This week, we’ve got a bonus episode produced in collaboration with NEXTracker.
It’s all about the risks and rewards of doing business in the roaring Latin American solar market.
We are speaking with two of the most in-the-know people on the subject.
We’re joined by Manan Parikh, Wood a solar analyst focused on the Americas for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.
And we’ll hear from Alejo Lopez, a senior director at NEXTracker, who’s helped grow a 3-gigawatt pipeline of trackers in Latin America — resulting in some of the cheapest and grandest solar projects in the world.
Auctions in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil are unleashing extremely low prices — between 2 and 3 cents a kilowatt-hour. As a result, the region is actually the strongest for trackers compared to the rest of the world.
It’s also a pretty crazy place to do business. Every country is very different. Political and economic volatility can make markets super hot one year, and then no…
playlist_add
Feb 28, 2019
Is Climate Delayism the New Denialism?
We weren’t planning on making the Green New Deal a weekly item on the show. Then a video of Senator Dianne Feinstein dropped over the weekend, where she appears to lecture climate-protesting kids. It set off a chain reaction of outrage.
The social media fervor has since died down, but some really interesting journalism was left in its wake. This whole affair highlighted the crazy upheaval in climate politics — we’re going to tackle some of the bigger questions raised.
Are kids a legitimate constituency? What makes climate politics so different from other issues? Are climate delayers as bad as climate deniers? What’s the end game for Democrats?
Then, another ethics conflict for Trump’s energy people. We’ll talk about an EPA official who worked with a secretive utility group that lobbies against air pollution regulations, just months before he took a role regulating air pollution.
Zack Colman of Politico joins us to talk about the ties he uncovered. What do they tell…
playlist_add
Feb 21, 2019
How Trump's Tariffs Hit US Solar, One Year On
It’s been one year since the Trump White House slapped 30 percent tariffs on solar cells and modules imported into the US. What happened since?
The solar industry said tariffs would destroy tens of thousands of jobs and set the market back years. Turns out, the market is a lot more resilient than presumed. We now have the jobs numbers and installation data for 2018 — and yes, the tariffs definitely hurt solar, but not nearly as much as expected.
We’ll take stock of how tariffs shaped America’s solar market over the last year, both bad and good.
Then, Shell continues its distributed-energy acquisition spree. The oil giant just scooped up German battery services company sonnen — one month after buying EV charging firm Greenlots in January. What’s the end game?
We’ll end with a Trump Administration plan to freeze lighting standards. Is this Trump’s vendetta against hipster bars using globe lights and Edison bulbs?
We’re doing a live show at the MIT Energy Conferenc…
playlist_add
Feb 14, 2019
Parsing the Green New Deal
The Green New Deal plan is out, and we’re suddenly having a national conversation about climate change again. It’s also injecting some early drama into the presidential primaries.
This week, we’re digging into the plan. We’ll tell you what’s in it, assess the reactions, and look at whether it will amount to anything. Also: is the democratic-socialist agenda antithetical the “creating climate wealth” framing — or complimentary?
Then, recycling is in crisis. You’re probably recycling wrong. China is cracking down. And your city is probably losing money. We’ll ask how to address it.
Finally, lab-grown meat and meat alternatives are facing a backlash from the meat industry. Bills are getting introduced in states around the country to prevent companies from using the word "meat." Could it set the industry back just as these products are gaining traction?
We’re doing a live show at the MIT Energy Conference on April 4 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Follow this link…
playlist_add
Feb 8, 2019
Watt It Takes: How David Crane Jolted the Power Sector
This week on Watt It Takes: How David Crane worked his way up in the power business to become CEO of NRG Energy — only to get tossed out of the job for his bold stance on climate.
In this episode, Emily Kirsch talks with Crane about taking risks in the conservative power industry.
We’re going to hear from Crane about why being a CEO is so lonely, how his open exit letter to NRG employees went viral, the best investment he ever made, and his early career.
Watt It Takes is a collaboration between Powerhouse and Greentech Media. The series is recorded in front of a live audience at Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California. Buy tickets for upcoming events.
Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Feb 5, 2019
The Interchange: Utilities vs Oil Majors vs Mobility Providers vs Big Tech
This week: a battle Royale for energy dominance.
We're cross-posting an episode from our other Greentech Media podcast, The Interchange.
The competitors: utilities, oil & gas majors, mobility providers and big tech. We’re pitting them against each other inside of a voice-activated, electrified cage to see who will emerge as the energy company of the future.
Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jan 31, 2019
The Debate Over America's 2050 Energy Mix
What will the U.S. grid mix look like in 2050? It depends on which models you follow.
The future according to the Energy Information Administration's latest report: wind will stop growing, coal will stop declining, demand for electricity will keep going up, and emission reductions will moderate. A lot of people are unhappy about it.
It's no secret that EIA is ultra-conservative in its modeling. But why is there such a disconnect from the technological and economic shifts in energy markets? And why does EIA have such a hard time mapping technological change? We'll offer some solutions to the government's data problem.
Then: cancel your trip to Disneyland, stock up on Coca-Cola, and hoard as many iPhones as possible. We'll look at how the world’s biggest companies are detailing their risks to climate change.
Finally, we'll end on a philosophical note: who is to blame for climate change? Individuals? Companies? Governments? We'll take a cue from an articulate 16-year-old in Davos.…
playlist_add
Jan 24, 2019
A New Paradigm for Energy Efficiency
What is energy efficiency? That sounds like a pretty simple question. But it’s not.
Defining efficiency used to be pretty straightforward: weatherize, upgrade equipment and lighting, use a bit of social science to cut consumption. But now efficiency is becoming just as much about shaping demand in real-time to support distributed energy. And that’s shaping how it gets defined, implemented and tracked.
A confluence of factors — the rise of new consumer tech in the home, bundled distributed energy offerings, a shifting demand curve due to PV, improvements to data collection, and the “electrify everything movement — are changing efficiency's role on the grid. We'll discuss this changing paradigm in our first segment.
Then, we'll move to electrification. Why are heat pumps suddenly getting so much attention? And how can they help meet efficiency and decarbonization goals?
Finally, we'll end with an update on how global power brokers are thinking about energy at the World Econ…
playlist_add
Jan 17, 2019
PG&E's Looming Historic Bankruptcy
We are about to witness one of the most contentious and consequential bankruptcies in the history of energy.
PG&E, California’s biggest utility, is reeling from wildfire costs — and it is now headed to the courts, where it will likely be dismantled.
Will it crush California’s goals to clean up the electric grid? Or will lawmakers step in with a political fix? The stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re going to tackle the big questions raised by PG&E’s spiral.
Then, why are hundreds of liberal green groups shutting down every technology except wind and solar as part of the Green New Deal? We’ll discuss a letter has raised a lot of criticism — and risks fighting among allies even before a real plan is considered.
Finally, we’ll have a rundown of a terrifying Wall Street Journal story about how the Russians infiltrated dozens of utilities, allowing them to hide out inside the computer systems controlling the grid.
Don't forget to rate and review us on Apple podcasts. We'…
playlist_add
Jan 9, 2019
Government Shuts Down, Pollution Ramps Up
The political insanity in Washington can feel disconnected from reality. But two years into the Trump presidency, Americans all over the country are feeling it in the form of higher pollution.
In this week's episode, we're starting off with a look at how the government shutdown and Trump's regulatory rollback are impacting energy-related agencies, and encouraging the discharge of more chemicals, heavy metals and air pollutants.
Then Bill Gates is once again talking about the limits of renewables and the importance of nukes. Where does Gates’ message and investment thesis stack up with the reality of the global emissions picture?
Finally, we revisit the media and climate change. 60 Minutes is talking about the New Green Deal; Meet the Press devoted an hour to climate; and the New York Times called climate change the most important story of 2018. A sign of things of change in the media environment?
Read along with us:
* New York Times: 'This Is Our Reality Now'
* The Guardia…
playlist_add
Dec 21, 2018
2018 Reflections and Prognostications
This week, it’s our year-ender episode. And you know what that means: we’re going round the horn with our assessment of 2018.
First, we’ll discuss the top trends of the year.
Then, a roundup of the best energy journalism of 2018.
And finally, some predictions for 2019 — with a twist.
Here some links to our top journalism choices:
* “The Coal Bailout Nobody is Talking About,” by Joseph Daniel
* “Drilled” podcast, by Amy Westervelt
* An interview with Ken Ward, jr. about his MacArthur Genius grant for investigative reporting on the coal industry.
* And Stephen’s other picks for top podcasts of the year.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by GE's Reservoir, a modular lithium-ion energy storage system that can slash construction costs by 50 percent. Find out more about what Reservoir can do for your electric grid, solar plant, wind farm, microgrid or thermal power plant.
Use the promo code PODCAST to get a $50 discount for a GTM Squared membership thi…
playlist_add
Dec 6, 2018
Watt It Takes: The Origin Story of Wunder Capital
This week on Watt It Takes: Wunder Capital CEO Bryan Birsic on why he wants to solve the commercial solar financing challenge, when so many others couldn't.
"That is what a startup is to me. It's 50 or 100 people who can move a multi-billion-dollar industry in a way that an incumbent with thousands of people and multitudes of resources cannot," says Birsic.
Since its launch in 2014, Wunder has exploded onto the solar scene. In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Birsic about applying the lessons from fintech to cleantech.
Watt It Takes is a collaboration between Powerhouse and Greentech Media. The series is recorded in front of a live audience at Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California. Buy tickets for upcoming events.
This podcast is brought to you by GE's Reservoir, a modular lithium-ion energy storage system that can slash construction costs by 50 percent. Find out more about what Reservoir can do for your electric gri…
playlist_add
Nov 28, 2018
Can Geothermal Scale?
Back in 2008, there was a lot of excitement about geothermal. Many major banks were backing large-scale geothermal projects around the world; a wide range of startups were promising to unlock new resources; and wind and solar hadn’t shown their explosive growth yet.
But then the financial crisis hit. In the decade since, growth in geothermal has been lumpy — relegated to a handful of supportive markets around the world.
Why has geothermal grown so slowly compared to other renewables? What’s holding it back?
This week, we’re joined by Alexander Richter, the founder of the geothermal news site ThinkGeoEnergy. Alex has experience in project finance, research and journalism. We’ll talk with him about the last decade of geothermal development.
Then, in the second half of the show, we discuss the Green New Deal.
There’s a movement within the Democratic Party to push climate hard. What’s behind it? How would the New Green Deal work? (For a compliment to this discussio…
playlist_add
Nov 21, 2018
What if Utilities Are to Blame for Wildfires?
California has seen a million and a half acres of forest burned this year. As the state recovers from the devastating Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire, residents are looking for someone to blame.
Now attention turns to utilities. Both Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric are under investigation and facing class-action lawsuits for potentially starting the blazes.
What happens to utilities if they are found at fault? And how do you protect a vulnerable electric grid as these fire get worse and worse? We'll discuss.
Then, we’ll mark the Thanksgiving week in the second half of the show. We’ll each share our picks for the top turkey of 2018. Who made the biggest blunders this year?
Recommended reading:
* GTM: If Wildfires Drive PG&E Into Bankruptcy, What Happens to Renewable Energy Contracts?
* SF Chronicle: California Regulator Lays Groundwork for PG&E Bailout
* National Geographic: See How a Warmer World Primed California for Large Fires
The Energy Gang…
playlist_add
Nov 15, 2018
Watt It Takes: The Origin Story of Sunrun
This week on Watt It Takes: How Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich convinced homeowners and banks to invest millions into third-party rooftop solar during the great recession.
“Everybody said it won’t work. We took it as a challenge,” says Jurich. “And so we just went for it.”
Sunrun was a pioneer in residential solar services. Unlike some of its fallen brethren pushing the national model, Sunrun grew at a much more sustainable clip. Today, the company is at the top of its game. Sunrun installed 100 megawatts of residential solar last quarter. It will likely install 5,000 residential batteries. It’s now partnering with utilities on using those batteries and rooftop systems as a virtual power plant.
In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Jurich about how she went from begging homeowners at county fairs to signing hundreds of thousands of customers.
This podcast is brought to you by GE's Reservoir, a modular lithium-ion energy storage system tha…
playlist_add
Nov 8, 2018
Post-Election Punditry
This week: we make sense of America’s midterm elections.
Will Democrats do anything on energy in the House? Why did so many ballot initiatives fail? What does the score tell us about the value of running as a climate hawk?
First, we’ll look at what happened in states with major ballot questions on carbon pricing, market design and renewables.
Then, what happens over the next two years under Democratic leadership in the House.
Finally, some specific races we were watching and why.
We’re giving listeners major discounts this fall. Use the promo code PODCAST to get a $50 discount for a GTM Squared membership and 20% off our final GTM conferences of the season.
Get your GTM conference discount here.
Get your GTM Squared discounted membership here.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by GE's Reservoir, a modular lithium-ion energy storage system that can slash construction costs by 50 percent. Find out more about what Reservoir can do for your electric grid, solar plant…
playlist_add
Oct 26, 2018
How the 2008 Financial Crisis Shaped Clean Energy
Ten years ago this week, stock markets around the world cratered as fears grew that the global economy was headed into a deep, dark recession.
Alan Greenspan called it “a once-in-a-century credit tsunami.”
Today, we are still feeling the economic and geopolitical consequences of the financial crisis. Energy markets were also transformed as a result — often in surprisingly positive ways.
In this episode of The Energy Gang, we’ll discussing the impact of the 2008 market meltdown a decade on. Would clean energy have received the same kind of government support without the crisis?
Then, we’ll turn to biomass. Biomass is one of the world’s top renewable resources for heat and electricity, but it’s facing some serious challenges, particularly here in the U.S. We’ll detail some of those problems.
Finally, Canada is putting a national carbon tax in place. How will it work? And can Prime Minister Trudeau rally Canadians in conservative-leaning provinces behind it?
The Ene…
playlist_add
Oct 18, 2018
Trump's Coal Bailout Stalls; Brexit Looms Large for Energy
This week: the White House abandons a plan to save coal plants. Did Trump read the IPCC’s latest report and have a change of heart? Turns out, the legally-flimsy effort caved under its own weight. We’ll explain.
Then, failing Brexit talks weigh heavily on energy companies in the UK. If a deal can’t be struck with the EU, what will happen to energy markets?
Finally, Illinois came out of nowhere with an ambitious community solar program. But it’s gone nowhere. What happened?
Recommended reading:
* Politico: Rick Perry’s Coal Rescue Runs Aground at White House
* Bloomberg: Report Debunking Trump’s Coal Plan Is Under Review, Administration Says
* GTM: No-Deal Brexit Leaves Renewables Exposed
* GTM: Inside the ‘Chaos’ Enveloping Illinois’ Distributed Solar Market
Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy…
playlist_add
Oct 11, 2018
Debating the New IPCC Report: Hellish or Hopeful?
For two years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been working on a new analysis about global emissions pathways. The report was released this week — and the conclusion is pretty dire.
Or is it actually more hopeful than it appears?
This week, we’ll discuss the IPCC’s findings, debate the tone, and dissect media coverage of the report.
Then, Orsted, the Danish mega-energy producer, is buying a leading American offshore wind developer. What does it say about the coming rush of offshore activity?
And finally, over to biofuels. President Trump is asking the EPA to lift restrictions on higher ethanol-gasoline blends in the summer. Farmers love it. The oil industry hates it. What was the political calculus?
Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Oct 8, 2018
Live in NYC: Are We Making Progress?
This week, we're live in New York City.
Our theme: are we making progress?
We're joined by special guest Eric Roston, the sustainability editor at Bloomberg.
A big thanks to the Urban Future Lab, ACRE and Solar One for organizing the show as part of Clean Energy Connections.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Sep 25, 2018
Watt It Takes: How to Fly a Solar Airplane Around the World
For all our East Coast fans of The Energy Gang: make sure to get your tickets for our live show on October 4 in New York City! Find them here.
This week on Watt It Takes: Why one man spent 15 years of his life obsessed with flying a solar airplane around the world.
We’re going to hear from Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss-balloonist-turned-futurist who co-piloted Solar Impulse, the first solar-electric airplane to navigate the globe.
Piccard is a very inspiring person. His entire mission was to do the impossible so that he could prove what is possible with renewable energy.
“We gave a new understanding of the level of complexity that renewable energies can solve. If you can fly around the world in a solar airplane, you can do everything,” says Piccard.
Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sat down with Piccard to hear more about the 15 years of work that went into his historic flight – and about the deep family history that influenced him.
Buy tickets to future Watt It Takes events here.…
playlist_add
Sep 21, 2018
Hurricane Redux: Toxic Sludge, Climate Denial and Battery Storage
Before you do anything else, buy tickets to our live show on October 4 in New York City. It sells out fast, so get your tickets now!
One year after Hurricanes Harvey and Maria crushed Texas and Puerto Rico, Florence became one of the ten costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
North Carolina is still reeling from severe flooding. And like Houston last year, the damage was made worse because of coastal development policies — even while state scientists sounded the alarm about rising sea levels.
We’re going to recap where things stand.
Then, residential battery storage. All these storms are creating new demand for batteries. It’s changing solar. We’ll discuss how much.
And then the billion-dollar pickup for Lucid Motors. Weren’t the Saudis supposed to take Tesla private? How did they end up throwing a $1 billion into lesser-known electric car company?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mi…
playlist_add
Sep 13, 2018
Watt It Takes: How Sunnova's John Berger Convinced Oil & Gas Investors to Believe in Solar
This week on Watt It Takes: How a Texas entrepreneur with fossil fuel roots came to see solar and storage as the future of energy.
We feature a conversation with John Berger, the CEO of the residential solar-and-storage firm Sunnova, about his mission to convince traditional energy investors to put their money into solar. Sunnova has pulled in tens of millions of dollars from investors who once thought solar was laughable.
"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 — 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.
Today, Sunnova is the fourth-biggest third-party solar provider in America, according to Wood Mackenzie's U.S. Distributed Solar Service.
Berger’s path…
playlist_add
Sep 6, 2018
California's 100% Clean Energy Gambit
This week: California passes a bill to source 100% clean electricity by 2045. What does that actually mean? And more importantly, how will the target be met?
Then, writing in the New York Times this weekend, journalist Bethany McLean warned about fracking’s financial bubble. Is this a dire warning or a re-hash of old arguments?
We’ll end with a look at battery materials. Sustainability concerns are growing, while markets for lithium, nickel and cobalt fluctuate wildly. Are EVs and stationary storage batteries already shaking things up?
Recommended reading/listening:
* Political Climate: Taking 100% Clean Energy From ‘Radical’ to ‘Political Reality’
* New York Times: The Next Financial Crisis Lurks Underground
* GTM: Battery Markets and Metals Markets Have Officially Collided
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing ra…
playlist_add
Aug 30, 2018
1979-1989: The Decade We Almost Saved the Planet
This week, we're using an entire episode to discuss an ambitious piece of reporting on climate change. Earlier this month, the New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to a specific period of time in modern history: 1979 and 1989.
It was a time when we first reckoned with the impact of climate change — a period of great awakening in science, politics and industry to the threat of greenhouse gases.
As we’re painfully aware, that awakening didn’t turn into action. The 31,000-word piece weaves together a narrative to help explain why — when everyone seemed to be on the same page about the threat — we failed.
We talk with Author Nathaniel Rich about the reason he wrote the piece, detail some of the most important moments during the decade, and address criticisms.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing ratings among any…
playlist_add
Aug 22, 2018
Watt It Takes: The Promise of Electric Buses With Proterra CEO Ryan Popple
This week on Watt It Takes: How Ryan Popple’s experience in the military, Tesla and venture capital helped him lead electric bus maker Proterra.
“It’s good for the ‘keep calm and carry on mentality’ when people tend to bring me a box of broken parts. So if you’re the founder or CEO of an organization, you shouldn’t be surprised when most of what is brought to you is bad news.”
Proterra is on a roll. The company is a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty electric buses in North America, with over 50 customers, a one-year backlog and vehicles on the road in two dozen cities. The company’s current pipeline represents 10 percent of the US transit fleet.
It took many years to reach this stage. Proterra faced numerous difficult technical re-designs and slow customer adoption over the last decade. In this interview, Popple reflects on how the company moved through the valley of death.
Watt It Takes is a collaboration between Powerhouse and Greentech Media. The series is rec…
playlist_add
Aug 16, 2018
One Trillion Watts of Wind and Solar
There are now one trillion watts of wind and solar installed around the world, according to new figures from BNEF.
It took a few decades to get here, but it’ll only take five years to do it again — and nearly 50 percent cheaper. Now that we’ve reached the terawatt scale, the true acceleration begins.
This week on the podcast, we'll contextualize that landmark for renewables.
Then, we'll discuss Tesla’s privatization debacle. Musk claimed on twitter that he has a plan to take Tesla private. Insiders said he didn’t. The board said it was never notified. Securities lawyers said Musk is flirting with the law. We’ll explain what’s going on.
We end in Germany, where a new commission is planning an end to coal in the country. Can it be a model for other industrialized countries?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing ratings…
playlist_add
Aug 8, 2018
Introducing Political Climate
The Gang is on summer vacation this week. We'll be back soon with our regular analysis and debate on the stories in energy.
Meanwhile, we'd like to introduce you to Political Climate, GTM's newest podcast hosted by Senior Editor Julia Pyper.
The show features healthy debates from Republicans and Democrats over the politics of energy and climate. Enjoy this bonus episode and share your feedback with The Energy Gang and Political Climate on Twitter.
Subscribe to Political Climate via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, TuneIn, Overcast, Stitcher and Spotify.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jul 30, 2018
Watt It Takes: How Schwarzenegger’s Chief of Staff Built a Battery Company
This week on Watt It Takes: We’ll hear from Susan Kennedy, the CEO of Advanced Microgrid Solutions, about her transition from politics to behind-the-meter energy storage.
Kennedy was an important player in California environmental politics. She influenced some of the biggest pieces of legislation that launched the state’s solar industry and cap-and-trade market. She also worked as a senior advisor to some the biggest names in both parties, including Dianne Feinstein and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After two decades in policy and politics, Kennedy set out to build a company that could take on the unique challenges of distributed energy integration. AMS was born. It has since become one of the most important startups in the booming behind-the-meter storage market.
"You have to believe that you can do anything. You have to have courage and faith to do what you've never done before."
Watt It Takes is a collaboration between Powerhouse and Greentech Media. The series is recorded in front…
playlist_add
Jul 27, 2018
A Grab Bag With Vox's David Roberts
This week, David Roberts, a staff writer at Vox, joins the gang to talk about a wide range of topics in the news.
How would a good carbon tax work? Are we fooling ourselves thinking Republicans will ever support one?
In the absence of a carbon price, is 100% renewable energy good politics? Is it good policy?
Should we bail out nuclear? Can renewables fill in the gap created by closing nuke plants?
What should we be hopeful about?
We’ll spend the second half of the show talking about electric buses. Jigar’s company, Generate Capital, is deploying $200 million for electric bus leases. Are we reaching a tipping point for transit?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing ratings among any North American manufacturer in the market. Learn more about Mission's high-efficiency modules.
Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple P…
playlist_add
Jul 18, 2018
Trump, Putin and European Gas
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
playlist_add
Jul 12, 2018
The Billion-Dollar Crash of Better Place
Dozens of companies across solar, batteries and biofuels have imploded over the years. But it's hard to match the spectacular implosion of Better Place five years ago.
Better Place rose to fame in 2007, pulling in nearly $1 billion of venture capital by promising to put millions of cheap electric cars and battery switching stations on roads around the world. It fell nearly as quickly into bankruptcy after a series of poor decisions, market twists and bitter internal disputes.
A new book on the company's history, Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World, uncovers lots of engrossing details on Better Place's quixotic mission to revolutionize electric vehicles.
On this week's Energy Gang podcast, we're talking to author Brian Blum about the Israeli EV company's rise and demise. "When you're an entrepreneur of any size, being able to change and to iterate is going to make your company a success. And Better Place really didn't do t…
playlist_add
Jul 5, 2018
Fantasy Sports for Energy Nerds
Like fantasy sports? Listen to our deep decarbonization draft.
The Energy Gang is break this week for the July 4 holiday. We'll be back next week.
In the meantime, we're offering up a re-run from The Interchange.
In this episode, Shayle and Stephen choose their rosters of nine technologies to decarbonize the global economy. The goal: find the best resource mix to keep global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.
* The draft has nine rounds. The “team” resulting from each person’s picks will need to stand on its own.
* Each pick must be a unique technology. For example, “energy efficiency” is not a pick, but “LED lighting” is.
* Technologies with major subsets must be picked separately. For example, rooftop solar and centralized solar are two different picks.
* The existing technology mix will stand. (We don’t need to pick “transmission & distribution" in order to have electricity.)
* The time horizon will be through 2050.
* The winner will be cho…
playlist_add
Jun 28, 2018
We Have a Gas Problem
A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science gives us a clearer picture of the climate impact of natural gas. According to researchers, methane leakage across oil and gas operations in the U.S. are 60 percent higher than government estimates. Put another way: the methane leakage from oil and gas has the same warming effect over a 20-year time period as all America’s coal capacity in 2015.
Natural gas has been vital to lowering power-sector carbon emissions. Are methane leaks reversing that progress? We'll provide some context.
Then, we'll talk about how GE and Siemens are grappling with dramatic changes in demand for gas turbines. Both companies are de-emphasizing their gas businesses, while accelerating investments in renewables and efficiency. How will these power giants evolve?
This podcast is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps. Find out m…
playlist_add
Jun 18, 2018
Watt It Takes: How a NASA Roboticist Built a Groundbreaking Solar Tracker
Leila Madrone was constantly looking for creative ways to use robots. In the mid 2000's, she co-founded a music group called Ensemble Robot, which featured robots that played music.
"I had this great passion to use robotics to have meaning in the world," said Madrone. Later, Madrone worked for NASA's intelligent robotics group.
Then she caught the solar bug: "Solar seemed like where the most possibility was for the future."
She teamed up with Saul Griffith, an expert in self-replicating machines, to start Sunfolding. It started with a seemingly simple idea: Solar trackers move solar panels over the day to create the most energy. But they’re made of heavy, expensive components. What if you could develop a cheaper, more efficient tracker using premium plastic materials and the power of air to maximize energy production?
With that idea, Leila built Sunfolding’s AirDrive technology that combines the functionality of motors, gears, dampers and batteries into a single component p…
playlist_add
Jun 14, 2018
Tesla's Layoffs: Musk Pushes for Profits
Elon Musk announced Monday that Tesla is laying off 9 percent of salaried employees at the company. This is not the first round of sweeping layoffs at Tesla — the most recent came after the SolarCity acquisition. But this appears to be the biggest so far.
We'll discuss Elon's new quest for profitability.
Then, we'll cover the never-ending saga in Washington over saving coal plants. The Trump Administration is now trying to invoke national security to prop up closing coal and nuke plants – and the nation’s top energy regulators are giving it the cold shoulder.
Finally, The Energy Gang is celebrating its fifth anniversary this week. To mark the occasion, we'll each pick a single moment from the last five years caused an unstoppable ripple in the world of energy.
This podcast is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps. Find out more.
Recommended readi…
playlist_add
May 24, 2018
Your Questions Answered: The Politics Edition
What’s the optimal way to spend money raised by a carbon tax?
How should climate play in Florida’s big toss-up Congressional race?
What’s the best energy platform for gubernatorial candidates?
This week: your questions answered. We got a bunch of queries from listeners about politics — so that’s the direction we’re headed. We'll discuss what these individual stories tell us about nationwide elections in 2018.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps. Find out more.
Recommended reading:
* PERI report on NY carbon tax: An Economic Framework for Promoting Climate Stabilization and Expanding Good Job Opportunities
* Miami Herald: Republicans Can’t Generate Buzz for Ros-Lehtinen’s Seat, and Some Say It’s Unwinnable
* Mother Jones: The Illinois Governor’s Race Is Poised to Become the Most Expensive in History
Su…
playlist_add
May 17, 2018
Electrify Everything: Rethinking Home Performance
There’s a new phrase bouncing around energy circles: Electrify Everything.
This week, we talk to Nate Adams, a home performance expert whose personal mission is to rip gas meters out of homes and move us closer toward full electrification. As he’s learned from experience, it’s not easy.
The electrification of homes may be getting easier in California, however.
In the second half of the show, we’re going to tackle California’s new building codes. Starting in 2020, most new homes will have to come with solar panels on the roof. And there are new incentives for electric space heating and water heating – a very big step toward electrification of everything.
The codes have created a very strong reaction, both positive and negative – and we’ll look at both sides.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps. Find out more.
Rec…
playlist_add
May 9, 2018
Watt It Takes: Billy Parish, From Dropout Activist to Solar CEO
Billy Parish dropped out of college to pursue a career in climate activism. Today, he's the CEO of America's biggest rooftop solar loan company, Mosaic.
In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviews Parish about his transition from activist to executive. They'll talk about the many iterations of Mosaic, difficulties in raising money from VCs, and Parish's philosophy on building a successful team.
Watt It Takes is a live interview series produced by Powerhouse in partnership with GTM. The conversation was recorded live in Oakland, California.
This podcast is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps. Find out more.
Listen to our other episodes of Watt It Takes:
* Nancy Pfund’s Pro Tips for Getting Started in Cleantech
* SunPower Founder Dick Swanson’s Guide to Launching a Cleantech Startup
* Lessons From the…
playlist_add
May 4, 2018
Mythbusting
We all fall victim to myths. But when they're deeply tied to our belief systems, they can be nearly impossible to break.
On this week's show, we're busting some of the most common myths in clean energy:
* No, storage doesn't necessarily increase emissions. It depends on how it's used.
* No, solar isn't just for rich Democrats. In California, Republicans are buying solar more often.
* No, renewable energy doesn't inherently raise electric rates. In fact, U.S. electricity prices have fallen.
In the second half of the program, we'll revisit the swampy politics of solar in Alabama, South Carolina and Florida. A battle over net metering wages in South Carolina; a dispute over solar leasing continues in Florida; and a legal fight over solar fees in Alabama escalates.
Do you have a question you want us to answer? We want to hear from you. Record yourself asking your question in a quiet room and send your voice memo to podcasts@greentechmedia.com. Maybe we'll answer it in an upc…
playlist_add
May 2, 2018
For Taxis, It's Uber. For Utilities, Could It Be DERs? [Original Content]
This podcast episode sponsored by West Monroe Partners, and brought to you by creative strategies.
How do we think about change in the electric utility industry caused by distributed resources? Is it like telecom? Internet-based retail?
Sam Uyeno, senior manager in West Monroe Partners’ energy and utilities practice, says that it may be more like ride sharing. As distributed resources flourish, he argues that utilities will have to think about how to leverage new customers within its network — just as Uber came into the taxi market and allowed anyone to become operators.
When you consider distributed resource management software, “maybe that’s the Uber.”
Utilities are making large investments to keep up with the quickening pace of technological innovation. But it may not be enough to keep up with distributed energy resources. Utilities should also be looking for a new regulatory compact all together, argues Tom Hulsebosch, senior managing director for West Monroe Partn…
playlist_add
Apr 27, 2018
A New Era of Grid Planning: "Folks Are Frustrated"
Are we entering a new era of grid planning? In recent years, we've assumed that sweeping reforms are the best way to get distributed energy built. But in pockets of the country, a more localized approach to deploying these assets is taking hold – and it could be the sign of a much bigger shift to come.
On this week's Energy Gang, we'll look at Washington, D.C.'s new proposal for an authority that would push PEPCO to consider distributed alternatives to infrastructure projects.
Then, why is one of the most progressive utilities in the country slow in scaling distributed energy offerings? We'll look at the mixed experience of Green Mountain Power.
Finally, we revisit Puerto Rico. The power is mostly back on, but hurricane season is approaching quickly. What comes next?
Do you have a question you want us to answer? We want to hear from you. Record yourself on your phone asking the question in a quiet room and send us your voice memo to podcasts@greentechmedia.com. Maybe we'll a…
playlist_add
Apr 19, 2018
Why SunPower Is Buying SolarWorld USA
SunPower couldn’t convince the Trump Administration to abandon tariffs on imported solar panels. So now it plans to buy one of the companies pushing tariffs in the first place.
Yesterday, SunPower unveiled plans to acquire SolarWorld’s U.S. operations. Two months ago, CEO Tom Werner said SunPower was going to divest from America. But now he’s buying his way back in.
In this week's episode, we'll explain how Trump's demands for tariffs are shifting the PV manufacturing landscape.
Then, 173 countries agreed to cut emissions from the shipping sector by 2050. What are the technological solutions for a sector that could make up one-fifth of global emissions by the middle of the century?
We'll end with the latest from Germany. Katherine was in the country getting an update on the closely scrutinized energy transition there — and we’ll get her take on where things stand.
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and prov…
playlist_add
Apr 13, 2018
Statoil Bets on Floating Wind and Carbon Capture
Statoil is the largest operator of oil and gas rigs around the world. Consequently, the company's biggest low-carbon investments are offshore: floating wind farms and distributed carbon capture and storage.
This week, we're talking to Stephen Bull, the VP in charge of Statoil's low-carbon business, about where he sees the most potential. We'll talk to him about the performance of floating wind, the economics of CCS, and whether oil companies are investing enough in their new energy divisions.
We'll spend the second half of the show talking about two days of debate in Washington over the future of technology. No, it wasn't Mark Zuckerberg's hearing on Capitol Hill. It was a conference at FERC, where regulators are trying to figure out how to integrate distributed resources into wholesale markets. What did they accomplish? What does it portend for the future of distributed energy?
The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides…