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AI for climate: a real world test
15 juni 2023 · 1 uur 20 min
The list of potential uses for AI in climatetech is growing fast: developing better materials, optimizing solar farms, integrating renewables and microgrids. But many of these are still theoretical. We wanted to find a real-world application that changed the way we make climatetech.
So we decided to come up with our own test run.
Back in March Duncan Campbell, vice president at Scale Microgrids, used ChatGPT to code some battery dispatch software and tweeted about his experience. Duncan isn’t a professional software developer, but he still came up with some promising results.
Could a non-coder like Duncan use AI to do the work of several climatetech coders?
We invited Duncan to do it again and ramped up the challenge. We recruited Seyed Madaeni, CEO and co-founder of Verse to create a challenge for Duncan. Seyed is an expert in AI and the software used in electricity markets. He routinely sends “problem statements” to his team of software developers to create new software. This time, he sent a problem statement to Duncan that reflects real world conditions, one that we might actually assign to real engineers to solve.
The challenge? Develop battery dispatch software using ChatGPT.
In this episode, Duncan presents his results to Shayle and Seyed. They talk about things like: Lees meerThe different methods of optimizing battery dispatch, from old-school Excel sheets to more sophisticated software written by coders
Seyed’s process of assigning a problem statement to his engineering team and the simplified version he sent to Duncan
Duncan’s process of iteratively working with ChatGPT-4 to develop and debug the code
Why working with ChatGPT is like working with a bunch of really fast, but really inexperienced junior coders
If you want to see the code that Duncan wrote with ChatGPT, click here.
Watch the conversation on YouTube.
Recommended Resources:
Carbon Copy Live: How AI could supercharge climatetech
The Wall Street Journal: Why AI Is the Next Big Bet for Climate Te…
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The carbon market’s quality problem
8 juni 2023 · 48 min
Voluntary carbon credits are a lot like used cars; you really have no idea what their quality might be. Or maybe they’re more like expensive bottles of wine. Most people (or at least Shayle) can’t tell if they’re buying good quality wine. If it’s expensive, it must be good, right?
That’s the logic that has plagued voluntary carbon markets for years.
A carbon credit can work in two ways. First, it can avoid 1 metric ton of emissions that would have otherwise happened by, for example, preventing deforestation. Alternatively, a credit can directly remove a ton of carbon from the atmosphere through methods like direct air capture or biochar.
But widespread reporting reveals that most credits don’t do what they say they do. Just this month the CEO of the world’s leading certifier stepped down after an analysis by The Guardian found that over 90% of rainforest carbon credits were worthless. In May, a new $1 billion California lawsuit alleged that the credits that Delta relied on for its claim of reaching carbon neutrality claims were bogus.
Carbon credits are in crisis at the same moment we need to massively scale up carbon credits to meet net zero goals. So what do we do about these quality problems?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Allister Furey, co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, a company that rates the quality of credits, akin to what agencies like Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s do for bonds.
Shayle and Allister cover topics like: Lees meerThe history of the first voluntary carbon markets and their early problems, like producing fluorocarbons just to destroy them
The state of the current market, including its size, segments and prices
The wide gulf in price between the cheapest avoidance credits and the most ambitious engineered removal credits
Why Allister thinks we need to be on a “war footing” to reach to the highly ambitious carbon removal targets to meet net zero, such as growing the market from $2 billion to $1 trillion by 2050
Why high prices do not necessarily mean h…
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Keeping copper from limiting the energy transition
1 juni 2023 · 49 min
The energy transition is fueling skyrocketing demand for copper, an essential metal for renewables, batteries, and other climatetech.
But supply isn’t keeping up. There’s more than enough copper in the earth’s known reserves to supply our growing demand for the metal, but supply is stagnating due to rising extraction costs and decades-long lead times to open new mines.
A July 2022 report from S&P Global predicts that demand could begin to exceed supply in just a few years.. Without action, a growing supply gap could last into the 2050s, hampering the speed and scale of the transition.
What can we do about it?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Cristóbal Undurraga, the CEO of copper mining technology company Ceibo. They talk about the causes of stagnating supply and the technologies that could help increase production.
They cover topics like: Lees meerEnergy usage and carbon emissions in copper supply chains
The limitations of scrap recycling to meet growing demand
The geopolitics of copper supply chains, including China’s major role in smelting
The pros and cons of the two major copper extraction methods – concentration and electrolysis
The two major types of ore – copper oxides and copper sulfides, and why one is so much harder to mine
The long lead times to build new mines and why constructing new ones isn’t easy
Ceibo’s approach to increase mine capacity using novel electrolysis technology for copper sulfides
Recommended Resources:
S&P Global: The Future of Copper
The Economist: Copper is the missing ingredient of the energy transition
Bloomberg: The Green Energy Transition Has a Chilean Copper Problem
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers who are at the forefront of the transition to a sustainable economy. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Catalyst is supported by … -
Four ways to store sunlight
25 mei 2023 · 58 min
Are you a utility or climatetech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transition-AI: Boston, on June 15. Our listeners get a 20% discount with the code PSPODS20.
On the Catalyst with Shayle Kann podcast this week:
The good news: the U.S. has about 47 days’ worth of energy stored up for later use. The bad news? Virtually all of it is in the form of fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas. By comparison, if you add up all the energy stored in batteries, pumped hydropower and other zero-carbon storage, it adds up to just a few seconds’ worth.
This small scale of low-carbon energy storage is a big problem. We’re building out intermittent renewables fast, and we need enough energy storage to back up wind when turbines slow down and solar when the sun isn’t shining.
But there are technologies that could get us there. In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, who is a partner and head of research at Energy Impact Partners. Andy recently wrote a piece called Four ways to store sunlight, which compares lithium-ion batteries, heat storage, ion-air batteries, and hydrogen. Andy and Shayle cover topics like: Lees meerThe storage trifecta: short duration, diurnal, and multi-day seasonal
Andy’s guess at how low the price of lithium-ion batteries could go
Why we would use heat storage and hydrogen, despite their low round-trip efficiencies
Why molten-salt heat storage didn’t take off
High hopes for iron-air batteries’ low costs
Blending hydrogen into gas turbines
How all these technologies are competing against carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Recommended Resources:
Andy Lubershane: Four ways to store sunlight
Form Energy: Enabling a True 24/7 Carbon-Free Resource Portfolio for Great River Energy with Multi-Day Storage
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conversati… -
Unpacking EPA’s newly proposed power emissions rule
18 mei 2023 · 55 min
Are you a utility or climate tech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transition-AI: Boston on June 15. Our listeners get a 20% discount with the code PSPODS20.
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the EPA’s first attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. But it also preserved the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The agency just needed to find the right approach. The question for the EPA was: What legal tools would pass the scrutiny of the court?
Last week, Biden’s EPA came out with its answer. The proposed plan requires new and existing power plants to meet emission standards. The agency estimates that the rule would reduce GHG emissions by a total 617 million tons through 2042, a small but meaningful fraction of the total. Right now the U.S. power sector emits about 1.5 billion tons per year.
It’s an approach that dovetails with the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of key emissions-reducing technologies, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen. If the IRA was the Biden administration’s carrot for reducing climate emissions, then the new rule is the stick.
In this episode, Shayle unpacks the proposal with John Larsen, who leads U.S. climate policy research at the Rhodium Group. In March, John’s team modeled the impact of hypothetical power emissions standards on the U.S. power fleet, finding that many coal plants might shut down rather than install CCS.
Shayle and John dig into specifics, like: Lees meerThe four main options available to power plant operators under the proposed rules: shut down, install carbon capture and storage (CCS), co-fire with hydrogen, or just run less
The differences in rules for new and existing plants
How the standards become more stringent with higher capacity factors
The role of states in the rules and the “off-ramps” they could use to get around some of …
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The great Bitcoin energy debate
11 mei 2023 · 48 min
Depending on who you talk to, Bitcoin mines are either great for the grid or the worst thing that’s ever happened to it. These warehouses of computers essentially turn electricity into bitcoins. Proponents argue that mines can do a number of things for the grid, like: Lees meer
Support grid reliability by reducing demand during peak hours
Incentivize new renewable generation by raising the prices that solar and wind farms receive
Reduce methane emissions by capturing flare gas from fossil fuel wells and then using that gas to generate electricity for mine operations
Meanwhile, opponents argue that the mines raise emissions and electricity prices. So how do we make sense of the great Bitcoin energy debate?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Ben Hertz-Shargel, global head of grid edge at Wood Mackenzie. The New York Times recently reported on the role of Bitcoin mining on the grid, and Ben was part of a team that contributed to the report.
Shayle and Ben discuss:How Bitcoin mines affect electricity prices for nearby consumers
Whether mines use only excess renewable generation or incentivize fossil-fuel generators to ramp up
What mines’ load profiles say about their flexibility and price-sensitivity, especially during peak demand
The evidence on whether mines are signing long-term power purchase agreements, repowering mothballed projects or otherwise helping to incentivize new renewables construction
Alternative crypto currencies that don’t require so much electricity
Recommended Resources:
NYT: The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin
Earth Justice and The Sierra Club: The Energy Bomb: How Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrency Mining Worsens the Climate Crisis and Harms Communities Now
Coinspeaker: Texas Senate Passes Bill to Limit Incentives for Crypto Miners Participating in Demand Response Programs
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conve… -
Understanding the transmission bottleneck
4 mei 2023 · 41 min
The U.S. power grid is clogged, and it’s holding back the energy transition.
Solar and wind farms are waiting four or more years to connect to the grid. Rising congestion costs are driving up retail electricity prices while hurting generator revenues. And the process of approving projects for interconnection is so complicated and expensive that it’s forcing developers to abandon the projects they were planning to build.
We need much more transmission capacity and a better process for connecting projects. And we need it now more than ever. Demand for power will skyrocket as we connect EVs, heat pumps and other new loads to the grid. But Rob Gramlich, our guest today, comes with good news: We did it before. We can do it again.
Rob is the founder and president of Grid Strategies. In this episode, Shayle and Rob talk through the three major challenges of transmission – congestion, interconnection, and buildout. And Rob explains how we’ve built out transmission in the past with efforts like ERCOT’s Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) and MISO’s Multi-Value Projects (MVPs).
They also cover topics like: Lees meerThe history of transmission in the U.S.
The three P’s of transmission challenges: planning, permitting, and paying
How congestion costs might shoot up over the next few years as grid capacity lags behind generation, causing new generation to slow and retail electricity prices to go up
Reforming the slow, complex, and expensive approval process for interconnection at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Where local opposition fits into transmission’s larger problems
Recommended Resources:
Grid Strategies: Transmission Congestion Costs in the U.S. RTOs
Grid Strategies: Fewer New Miles: The U.S. Transmission Grid in the 2010s
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers who are at the fo… -
The Carbon Copy: A rogue geoengineering startup sparks worry
27 april 2023 · 26 min
We’re bringing you a special crossover episode this week from Catalyst’s sister podcast, The Carbon Copy. It’s about a rogue startup that was trying to do something we’ve talked about on this show: solar geoengineering.
Last year, Time staff writer Alejandro de la Garza found himself on the floor of a hotel room in Nevada with two guys trying to cook sulfur dioxide out of a tin can.
Luke Iseman and Andrew Song are the co-founders of Make Sunsets, a startup claiming to be implementing solar geoengineering by launching weather balloons filled with SO2 into the stratosphere.
Their first experimental launch in the Mexican state of Baja California resulted in a swift regulatory response from the Mexican government. But when they ran another test launch a few weeks ago just outside of Reno, Nevada, Luke invited Alejandro to join them.
This week, we speak with Alejandro about his Time profile of the controversial startup. Plus, we talk with geoengineering experts Holly Buck and Kevin Surprise.
“Any single person you talk to in solar geoengineering research, whether they’re bullish or against it, they all think that what Make Sunsets is doing is a bad idea,” explains Alejandro.
Make Sunsets represents a turning point for the field of geoengineering, with rogue actors pushing the field from academic debate into the real world. Is the company’s recent balloon launch an act of performance art — or an open door to an uncontrolled climate experiment? Lees meerRecommended Resources:
Time: Exclusive: Inside a Controversial Startup's Risky Attempt to Control Our Climate
The Guardian: Solar geoengineering could be ‘remarkably inexpensive’ – report
MIT Technology Review: This technology could alter the entire planet. These groups want every nation to have a say.
US Geological Survey: The Atmospheric Impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption
Catalyst: Solar geoengineering: Is it worth the risk?
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst com… -
How to build more hydropower
20 april 2023 · 54 min
Hydropower is the world’s largest source of renewable electricity today, according to the IEA. Like gas peaker plants, it’s highly dispatchable, meaning it can complement intermittent renewables like wind and solar.
And we could get a lot more of it. The IEA estimates that we could double the amount of energy produced globally. One peer-reviewed study found that global economic potential for hydropower was 21,000 terawatt hours per year, more than five times the current generation today.
So how could we deploy more hydropower?
In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks to Gia Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Natel Energy, a hydropower technology company. One key argument Gia makes is that if we can build smaller projects with lower ecosystem impacts, we can tap into more zero-carbon power.
Gia and Lara talk through: Lees meerHow quickly we need to build more hydropower to meet 2050 net-zero targets
The benefits of traditional hydro as a full-stack grid resource Different types of hydro technology like run of river, hydrokinetic, and traditional large-scale dams
Why smaller, more distributed systems are key to unlocking hydropower potential
Different technologies to manage fish and debris like bypass channels, screens and fish-safe turbines
The co-benefits of improving riverine landscapes, including making ecosystems and hydroelectric infrastructure more resilient to climate change
How hydrology and forecasting can help us better manage dams in a changing climate
Recommended Resources:
Energy & Environmental Science: A comprehensive view of global potential for hydro-generated electricity
Bloomberg: The World’s Biggest Source of Clean Energy Is Evaporating Fast
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Support for Catalyst comes from Climate Positive, a podcast by HASI, that features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers who are at the forefront of the transition to a sustainable economy. Listen and subsc… -
What the new Treasury rules mean for EV supply chains
6 april 2023 · 34 min
The battery manufacturing announcements have been coming one after another—a VW cathode facility in Canada; a Tesla factory in Mexico; a Ford battery plant in Michigan.
These companies hope to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s lucrative EV tax credits: Lees meerUp to $3,750 for strategic minerals mined in the U.S. or its many free trade partner countries
Up to $3,750 for battery components produced only in the U.S., Mexico, or Canada.
But there’s a catch. A whole bunch of intermediate battery products don’t fit neatly into either bucket. For example, lithium gets processed into precursor cathode active material before it becomes cathode active material, the powder that actually makes it onto the factory floor of a battery manufacturer. Battery electrolytes go through multiple processing steps, too.
Until last week, suppliers of these products were left wondering: Where should we manufacture to qualify? And for which credit?
Congress had left these details up to the Treasury Department, and on Friday regulators released guidance for these intermediate products, or “constituent materials.” The new rules pleased some and angered others.
So what do the changes mean for EV supply chains?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Sam Jaffe, our resident EV-supply-chain whisperer. He’s the vice president of Battery Storage Solutions at E Source. He’s come on the show before to talk about the holy grail of batteries and the basics of the IRA’s EV tax credits.
This time, Sam explains the new Treasury guidance.They cover topics like:Incentivizing domestic manufacturing while also giving auto companies the flexibility to qualify for credits
Why Joe Manchin and European countries are upset about the new rules
Japan’s last-minute free trade agreement before the rules came out
How hard it will be for EV manufacturers to get qualifying constituent materials anytime soon, especially as they launch new mass market models
What we still don’t know about how the Treasury will imp…
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SVB, the banking crisis and climatetech
30 maart 2023 · 39 min
The run on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) earlier this month was a hair-raising experience for anyone in climatetech. The bank catered to entrepreneurs in tech, especially climate. So when news of SVB’s troubled assets hit social media, startups scrambled to withdraw millions of dollars and draft emergency plans to make payroll. But after the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation (FDIC) took over SVB and another troubled regional institution, Signature Bank, the dust started to settle. The FDIC announced that it would insure the full deposits at SVB, above the $250,000 guarantee.
But how did this all happen? And what does it mean for climatetech today?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Saloni Multani, partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions and former chief financial officer for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. She came on the show last May to explain what the economic downturn meant for climatetech. This time Saloni and Shayle cover topics like: Lees meerWhat led to the problems at SVB, Signature, and others
How trends in the broader banking system signal a new environment for climatetech companies
The durability of climatetech opportunities Whether others will fill the hole left by SVB, which was a critical partner to many climatetech projects, including 62% of U.S. community solar projects
Recommended Resources:
The Carbon Copy: A bank collapse threatens climate startups
Canary: Community solar industry says it can ride out Silicon Valley Bank failure
The Guardian: ‘The first Twitter-fuelled bank run’: how social media compounded SVB’s collapse
Catalyst: How will the downturn affect climatetech?
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antenn… -
Betting big on renewable natural gas
23 maart 2023 · 44 min
Landfills, dairy farms and wastewater plants all emit methane, the potent greenhouse gas produced when organic material decomposes in the absence of oxygen.
But instead of emitting that methane (often called biomethane or waste methane), it’s possible to capture and refine it, resulting in renewable natural gas, or RNG. Capturing methane that would have been emitted anyway (something that’s still up for debate) creates RNG that’s carbon neutral or carbon negative. And using that RNG to displace fossil-fuel derived natural gas can cut overall emissions.
Big players in energy are betting big on RNG. Last fall BP acquired RNG producer Archaea for $4.1 billion, Shell bought Nature Energy for $2 billion and NextEra purchased $1.1 billion in RNG assets from Energy Power Partners.
So what’s behind this recent flurry of activity? And to what extent could RNG actually offset carbon emissions?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Brandon Moffatt, cofounder of Stormfisher, an RNG and hydrogen producer.
They cover topics like: Lees meerRNG feedstocks like dairy farms, wastewater treatment plants, and landfills
How much waste methane is available for RNG
How different feedstocks determine RNG’s carbon intensity
Government subsidies like the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs)
Recommended Resources:
Environmental Research Letters: At scale, renewable natural gas systems could be climate intensive: the influence of methane feedstock and leakage rates
Bloomberg: The Gas Industry’s Survival Plan: Make Fuel From Cow Poop
Vox: The false promise of “renewable natural gas”
CBC: Renewable natural gas could help slow climate change, but by how much?
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that'… -
The greenhouse gas you don’t know about
16 maart 2023 · 46 min
Nitrous oxide or N2O is the third largest source of GHG emissions behind carbon dioxide and methane. Also known as laughing gas, it’s long-lived like carbon dioxide and incredibly potent like methane. And it accounts for about 6% of global warming.
So where does it come from? And what do we do about it?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Eric Davidson, professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and principal scientist at Spark Climate Solutions. Eric studies the surprising source of nitrous oxide: bacteria in the soil. Eric and Shayle talk about topics like: Lees meerHow the application of nitrogen fertilizer causes more emissions than the production of fertilizer itself
The challenging economics of agriculture that cause farmers to over-apply fertilizer
How precise and timely application of fertilizer could cut emissions
New livestock feed additives that could replace the N2O-intensive crops in animal feed
New crops that require less fertilizer
Recommended Resources:
Nature Climate Change: Improving the social cost of nitrous oxide
The Conversation: New research: nitrous oxide emissions 300 times more powerful than CO₂ are jeopardizing Earth’s future
Nature: A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Mass. on April 6. We’ll record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. The company… -
The Carbon Copy: The great electrician shortage
9 maart 2023 · 31 min
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.
We’re bringing you a special crossover episode this week from Catalyst’s sister podcast, The Carbon Copy. I host the show and we did an episode recently about this urgent climate tech problem: America’s shortage of electricians.
To decarbonize the economy, we need to electrify everything. That means installing millions of heat pumps, EV chargers, electric water heaters and rooftop solar panels.
But there’s one big problem: finding enough electricians to make it happen. Electricians across the country are flooded with work — and just as demand is skyrocketing, many in the field are nearing retirement age.
This week, in a special collaboration with Grist, reporter Emily Pontecorvo discusses where to find all the electricians we need to electrify everything and how we can train enough new entrants to the field to meet our climate goals. Read Emily’s feature article.
Transcript available here. Lees meerRecommended Resources:
Canary: We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electrify everything
Canary: How to get contractors on board with heat pumps and electrification
Canary: US climate law to spur thousands of new jobs in every state
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. The company’s platform lets consumers turn their smart thermostats, EVs, batteries, water heaters, and other products into virtual power plants th… -
A theory of change for climate investing [partner content]
8 maart 2023 · 24 min
Last year’s surge in oil prices brought record windfall profits for oil majors, and a boon for investors. But historic trends don’t favor fossil fuels.
From 2010 to 2020, the oil & gas sector underperformed the broader S&P 500 index. The sector gained 6% over that period, while the benchmark S&P index grew 180%. Some called it a "lost decade" for fossil fuel investors.
“If anything, oil's been a drag,” says Zach Stein, the co-founder and CEO of Carbon Collective, a company building climate-focused portfolios for investors and employer 401(k) plans.
The recent surge for the oil and gas sector shows how fundamental fossil fuels are for today's economy. But looking forward, oil is facing the most significant competition it has ever seen, thanks to electrification and clean energy.
That view of the long-term threat to fossil fuels drove Zach to co-found Carbon Collective – with a mission to build funds around industries that will deliver strong returns in a climate-constrained world.
In this episode, produced with Carbon Collective, Zach Stein talks with Stephen Lacey about trends in sustainable investing – how to define the category, identify good investments, and separate it from the confusing world of ESG.
If you want to invest sustainably – at work or individually – you can learn more at carboncollective.co. There, you can see how the portfolios are built and read more about the company's theory of change. Lees meer -
More 2023 trends: EVs, onshoring, and the three ages of decarbonization
2 maart 2023 · 47 min
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachusetts on April 6 with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.
We had so much to cover in Nat Bullard’s monster climate trends deck that we’re back for another episode. Haven’t heard the first part yet? Listen here.
Nat was the chief content officer at BloombergNEF until last year. He is now a senior contributor at BNEF and Bloomberg Green as well as a venture partner at Voyager Ventures.
Shayle and Nat dig into topics like: Lees meerEVs. From 2017 to 2022, internal combustion engine car sales globally declined by nearly a third. Yet EV sales are on the rise. Will growth in EVs stave off the decline of passenger vehicle sales?
Onshoring of supply chains. Companies have announced plans to bring manufacturing facilities to the U.S. or nearby countries. In the EV value chain alone, there were $70 billion worth of announcements in 2022. Will this onshoring trend have lasting power?
The three ages of decarbonization. First came renewable energy, then the energy transition, and starting in 2019, the net zero age. It builds on everything we did before, but now with a focus on molecules, calories, industry, and pressure on the boardroom.
Plus: What we can do with old coal sites and the types of projects that tend to have cost overruns.
For a full transcript, click here
Recommended resources:
Nathaniel Bullard: Decarbonization: The long view, trends and transience, net zero
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. The comp… -
2023 trends: biomass, ESG, batteries and more
23 februari 2023 · 40 min
It’s the first year of what we hope is an annual event: Nat Bullard has released his first climate trends report. He was the chief content officer at BloombergNEF until last year, and now is a senior contributor at BNEF and Bloomberg Green. He’s also a venture partner at Voyager Ventures. Lees meer
There’s so much in this 141-slide deck that we’ve split the conversation into two episodes. In this first part, Shayle and Nat dig into topics like:
Land use. For example: we grow 40% of the U.S. corn to offset 10% of U.S. motor gas demand. Also, despite a growing world population, land used for agriculture globally has been shrinking. What do these trends mean for alternative proteins and sustainable aviation fuels?
ESG. In 2022, there were more anti-ESG than pro-ESG regulatory developments. And while ESG fund flows were positive last year, they’re still only a fraction of their peak in 2021. Where is ESG investment heading and should we even be putting environmental, social and governance criteria in the same bucket?
Batteries. Battery costs rose in 2022, but battery system costs rose faster. And yet there’s still rising demand for utility-scale batteries. Meanwhile, the top ten battery manufacturers of 2022 were in Asia. What do these trends mean for the battery market and manufacturing supply chains?
For a full transcript, click here
Recommended resources:
Nathaniel Bullard: Decarbonization: The long view, trends and transience, net zero
Catalyst: Climatetech’s surprising bottleneck: Land access
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. The company’s platform lets con…
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Strong opinions on SMRs
16 februari 2023 · 45 min
Recent announcements in the world of nuclear power might make you think that new nuclear technologies are close to deployment in North America. But look closely and you’ll find that progress is actually painfully slow, weighed down by regulatory challenges. Lees meer
Today’s guest argues that all those rules and regulations need to be overhauled.In this episode, Shayle talks to Bret Kugelmass, CEO and founder of nuclear reactor developer Last Energy. He’s also the host of the podcast Titans of Nuclear. They cover topics like:
Small modular vs micro vs traditional reactors
The state of SMR and nuclear development in North America
Why utilities are disincentivized to build nuclear
Places that are currently seeing a lot of construction, like China and Poland
Building with existing components vs developing new designs
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s certification and licensing process
Overhauling the bureaucracy and the institutional design of the Commission itself
Click here for a full transcript.
Recommended Resources:
Catalyst: Will advanced reactors solve nuclear’s problems?
Canary: Small modular nuclear reactors: The race is on to actually build them
Canary: A small modular nuclear reactor just got U.S. approval — a big milestone
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. The company’s platform lets consumers turn their smart thermostats, EVs, batteries, water heaters, and other products into virtual power plants that keep the grid stable and enable higher penetration of solar and wind power. And they are hiring! Learn more and see open roles at energy…
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What hydrogen leakage means for the climate
9 februari 2023 · 42 min
Recent research has raised questions about the global-warming impact of uncombusted hydrogen. When it leaks from storage, pipes and other infrastructure into the atmosphere, new studies suggest hydrogen absorbs more heat than previously understood. And, perhaps more importantly, it extends the atmospheric life of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Proponents argue that hydrogen is a critical climate solution. “Green” hydrogen, for example, is made with zero-carbon electricity, effectively turning things like solar and wind energy into a storable fuel that can replace natural gas in many end uses. But could hydrogen’s warming impacts outweigh its advantages?
That depends on your assumptions about how and where we use it.
In this episode, Shayle talks to Thomas Koch Blank, senior principal at RMI, where he leads the organization’s Breakthrough Technology Program. Shayle and Thomas examine the new research and discuss topics like: Lees meerWhere we will use hydrogen and varying risks of leakage in those applications
Poor applications for hydrogen, like turning “blue” hydrogen derived from steam methane reforming into synfuel
Estimated leakage rates and the incentives for hydrogen producers to build low-leakage systems
Hydrogen’s total warming impact, factoring in how much natural gas it could replace
How natural gas and hydrogen compare kilogram for kilogram or megajoule for megajoule
The time horizon we should use to evaluate the global warming potential of hydrogen
Hydrogen leakage measurement, verification, and safety
Recommended Resources:
Environmental Defense Fund: Emissions of Hydrogen Could Undermine Its Climate Benefits; Warming Effects Are Two to Six Times Higher Than Previously Thought
RMI: Hydrogen Reality Check #1: Hydrogen Is Not a Significant Warming Risk
Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy: Hydrogen Leakage: A Potential Risk for the Hydrogen Economy
Click here for a full transcript.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Me…
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Mailbag episode! Biotech, layoffs, battery recycling and more
2 februari 2023 · 48 min
It’s that time of year when we reach into our listener mailbag and answer your questions. And you had some good ones. In this episode, Shayle once again hands the mic to guest host Sarah Golden, VP of energy at GreenBiz Sarah Golden. Together they cover things like: Lees meer
The role of biology in creating fossil-fuel-free materials
Whether the marginal cost of electricity is heading toward zero
Solving the dilemma of financing first-of-a-kind projects
The impact of tech layoffs on climatetech
The biggest roadblocks to decarbonization
What role battery recycling will play in addressing the shortage of lithium and other critical minerals
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.
What else should we cover on the show? Leave us a voicemail at 919-808-5832. Or email us at catalyst@postscriptaudio.com. You can also tag us on Twitter.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more. -
The journey to monetizing DERs
26 januari 2023 · 47 min
Here’s the dream: millions of controllable devices—from EV chargers to thermostats, fridges, and batteries—working together to inject power back into the grid. They reduce load when there’s not enough electricity supply to meet demand. They ease transmission congestion and maintain grid frequency. And these devices, collectively called distributed energy resources or DERs, are all controlled remotely by grid operators.
So how far are we from this dream?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Mathew Sachs, senior vice president for strategic planning and business development at CPower, a company that aggregates DERs and sells DER services to the grid. They talk about where we are on the long and winding path to large-scale deployment of DERs and what it takes to monetize them. They dig in on: Lees meerEV chargers, the fastest growing category of DERs, as well as V1G and V2G
How much easier it is to share your financial data with a credit check than to share your energy data with a DER aggregator
How current rules create obstacles to monetizing DERs
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 2222 and the status of new DER rules in NYISO and CAISO
Positive developments like the declining costs of DERs and rising watts per customer acquired
Full transcript here
Recommended Resources:
Canary: FERC Order 2222: Experts offer cheers and jeers for first round of filings
Canary: Is ‘vehicle-to-everything’ charging ready for prime time?
Catalyst: Tapping the gold mine of consumer energy data
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more. -
This episode is trash
19 januari 2023 · 35 min
In the U.S. alone, food waste is responsible for the equivalent emissions from 42 coal power plants. Globally it accounts for 10% of greenhouse gases, more than heavy industries like cement and steel.
Why? Wasted food means wasted energy. Throwing a piece of food in the trash is like tossing out the fertilizer and fuel used to make it, too. And we waste a lot of it. Nearly one third of all food grown gets trashed. On top of that, when food decomposes in landfills through anaerobic digestion, it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
So how do we clean up food waste?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Matt Rogers, founder and CEO of Mill. Matt founded Nest, the smart thermostat company, and has now turned his attention to food.
Disclosure: Shayle’s venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners is an investor in Mill.
Matt and Shayle cover topics like: Lees meerWhere food waste occurs along the value chain (hint: The biggest source of waste is us, when we toss food we’ve already purchased.)
The causes of emissions, from energy inputs to anaerobic digestion in landfills
The current solutions to food waste, such as composting, green bin programs, supply chain management software and shelf-life extension.
The challenges with landfills, including trucking waste and landfill capacity.
Mill’s new consumer-focused food waste technology, which includes shipping dehydrated food scraps in the mail.
How much consumers care about food waste and carbon emissions.
Recommended Resources:
ReFED: Drawdown Update Affirms Reducing Food Waste as a Leading Solution to Climate Change
ReFED: Roadmap to 2030: Reducing US Food Waste by 50%
Canary: Eating the Earth | Decarbonizing our food systems
Climavores: Today's food crisis is a postcard from our warming future
EPA: From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste
Click here for a full transcript
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years,… -
Introducing: With Great Power, a show about the people building the future grid
18 januari 2023 · 22 min
In this bonus episode, we present With Great Power, a podcast from GridX about the people building the future grid, today.
The grid is no longer the biggest source of carbon emissions in America. It's transportation.
Electric vehicles are a key part of decarbonizing the transportation sector – making utilities an important force in growing EV adoption.
Electric cars will create a new opportunity for power providers to scale their business. But first, they need to get people to buy them. And that's where people like Karl Popham come in.
“The mindset is how can we get EVs to your customers as quickly as possible and as profitable for the salesperson as possible,” explains Karl, who is manager of electric vehicles and emerging technologies at Austin Energy.
This week, Brad speaks with Karl about Austin Energy’s work in making electric cars as accessible as possible by taking a dealership-centric approach.
You can find many more episodes like this over at the With Great Power feed. Subscribe to it on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to shows. Lees meer -
Natural gas whiplash
12 januari 2023 · 44 min
The natural gas market has been through a wild ride, especially in Europe. The pandemic first pushed the prices way down. Then a resurgent economy and an unusually long European winter sent them back up to record heights. And by September of last year, Russia had dramatically cut natural gas flows to Europe, further squeezing supply.
The high prices were especially painful for the continent, which relies heavily on the fuel for home heating, industry and power plants. But high prices also catalyzed efforts to shift to lower carbon technologies like renewables, hydrogen and heat pumps.
Then fast forward to this past December, and now gas prices have plummeted again. What’s going on? What’s causing these rapid swings and what might happen next?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Anne-Sophie Corbeau, research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy where she studies natural gas and hydrogen. Her article, “Putin’s energy gambit fizzles as warm winter saves Europe” recently ran in Bloomberg.
They discuss how we got here, covering topics like: Lees meerThe range of factors at play, such as LNG cargos, a European drought, and unusual weather patterns
Whether Europe might resume large-scale natural gas imports from Russia
Why China’s zero covid policy and an unusually warm winter amounted to a lucky break for Europe
What topics should we cover on the show? Send us an email or voice memo to catalyst@postscripaudio.com.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more. -
Ammonia: the beer of decarbonization
5 januari 2023 · 53 min
The Haber-Bosch process, which turns nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia, produces an essential ingredient in fertilizers and explosives. But it’s responsible for 2% of global emissions.
Ammonia could become an important low-carbon fuel, because when combusted it emits no carbon. We could use it in ships, heavy industry and even mixed in with coal or gas in power plants.
So what’s keeping us from using it as a new low-carbon fuel? And why would you use it instead of hydrogen, which you already need to make ammonia?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct. Julio and a team of colleagues just co-authored a report on low-carbon ammonia for the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum. Lees meerThey cover topics like:
Why some countries like Japan, Singapore and Korea are especially interested in developing ammonia infrastructure.
How ammonia compares to other low-carbon fuels like methanol and hydrogen.
How we would need to retrofit coal and gas power plants to co-fire with ammonia
Addressing ammonia’s corrosion and toxicity issues.
The areas that need more research, such as ammonia’s impact on air quality and radiative forcing.
Key constraints like human capital and infrastructure.
Recommended Resources:
Innovation for Cool Earth Forum: Low-Carbon Ammonia Roadmap
Canary: Watch this TED talk to get up to speed on green ammonia and shipping
Canary: The race is on to build the world’s first ammonia-powered ship
Chemical & Engineering News: Will Japan run on ammonia?
Full transcript here.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more. -
Why methane matters
22 december 2022 · 46 min
Today we’re talking about two climate blind spots: methane and short-term warming. Most of us think of global warming as a long game. How do we reach net zero by 2050? And how should we curb carbon dioxide emissions to get there?
But the warming happening now and in the next few years is just as important.
Short-term warming exacerbates wildfires, hurricanes and other climate impacts now. And the short-term trajectory of warming can make things better or worse in the long run. At some point before we reach net zero emissions, it’s increasingly likely that we will overshoot our 1.5 degree target. Hopefully we will come back down, but the more we overshoot, the worse the effects of climate change will be. Which is why we should bend the curve of that trajectory by tackling the causes of short-term warming.
High up on that list is methane. It lives in the atmosphere for only 12 years, but in the 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere it causes about 84 times more warming than carbon dioxide. That means it’s also a powerful solution. Methane in the atmosphere right now causes about 30% of global warming to date, but cutting emissions now would actually have a cooling effect. Why? Because, unlike carbon dioxide which lasts for several hundred years, methane breaks down relatively quickly.
So how do we tackle the methane problem?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Erika Reinhardt, co-founder of Spark Climate Solutions, a non-profit focused on under-addressed climate solutions. Right now Spark is focusing on methane emissions from livestock, also known as enteric methane. Lees meerShayle and Erika cover topics like:
Why we should consider different time-scale standards for measuring global warming impact, such as GWP100 and GWP20
How short-lived aerosols mask the full warming impact of greenhouse gasses
Methane removal, including the process of oxidation and methane sinks
Different sources of methane, such as wetlands, livestock and fossil fuel production
Ready-to-deploy sol…
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Advance market commitments to decarbonize heavy industry
15 december 2022 · 52 min
A coalition of companies organized by the U.S. government is promising to purchase low-carbon versions of commodities from “hard to abate” heavy industries. This sort of policy is called an advanced market commitment, which the U.S. has used in the past to accelerate the development of new technologies. With guaranteed revenue from the government, manufacturers are able to take risks to create products that they might not have otherwise.
In the leadup to COP26 last year, John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, announced the First Movers Coalition (FMC) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. It now involves 65 companies—including Delta, Maersk, and Rio Tinto—that will buy or supply a percentage of low-carbon products by 2030. India, Norway and eight other countries have signed on, too. The coalition has also committed to purchase carbon removal, adding to the wave of similar pledges like the $1 billion Frontier Fund.
So how will the FMC work?
In this episode, Shayle talks to FMC’s brainchild, Varun Sivaram. Varun is managing director and senior advisor for clean energy and innovation in Kerry's office.
They cover topics like: Lees meerWhy advanced market commitments are not silver bullets
The FMC’s ability to make companies keep their commitments
How the FMC is developing standards for low-carbon products
How much progress coalition members have made toward their targets
How the Inflation Reduction Act and the FMC support each other
The FMC’s ability to endure changes of administration
When we can stop calling these sectors “hard to abate”
Recommended Resources:
Bloomberg: Companies Commit to Buying Super-Green Cement in Corporate Climate Club
Columbia University: To Bring Emissions-Slashing Technologies to Market, the United States Needs Targeted Demand-Pull Innovation Policies
Harvard University: Using Advance Market Commitments for Public Purpose Technology Development
Catalyst: Growing the carbon dioxide removal market
Catalyst is a…
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The trends shaping the energy transition [partner content]
13 december 2022 · 17 min
We are headed into an uncertain future for the climate – but the range of possible scenarios is getting clearer. We’ve likely avoided the worst-case scenarios, thanks to the progress made in clean energy.
And that has experts feeling conflicted.
“People who are deep in the industry of trying to address climate change flip flop from skepticism to the amazing opportunity we have,” says DNV Senior Vice President Nick Brod. “Every few weeks, we see new technologies that show us that there is endless potential to make things more and more efficient.”
“We definitely have a lot of the technologies in wind and solar and storage – and there continues to be breakthroughs,” says DNV Senior Vice President Marion Hill.
We have most of the tools available to slow climate change. So where are the opportunities? And what are the bottlenecks to growth?
In this special episode, produced in partnership with DNV, we feature a conversation between Stephen Lacey, Nick Brod, and Marion Hill about the trends reshaping supply and demand on the grid.
DNV provides advice and assurance to customers across the spectrum of the energy transition, from generation to end use – in solar, storage, wind, grid planning, hydrogen, carbon capture, and more. To learn more about how experts like Nick and Marion can help you accelerate the energy transition, go to dnv.com/catalyst Lees meer -
Solving the conundrum of industrial heat
8 december 2022 · 46 min
To make products like cement, cereal and even baby food, you need heat—and lots of it. Industrial heat consumes about one-fifth of all energy used in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency.
Factories often burn coal or natural gas to generate consistent temperatures up to 2200 degrees Celsius. And most run nearly 24/7 to maintain profitability in competitive commodity markets.
Other sectors like power and ground transportation have clear pathways to decarbonization, relying mainly on electrification and cheap intermittent renewables. But these solutions don’t deliver consistent temperatures and the 24/7 energy needed to make things like steel and petrochemicals. So industrial heat has been a far more stubborn problem to solve.
But there’s a crowded field of technologies lining up to try, including hydrogen, biogas, heat pumps, electric arc furnaces, and even heat batteries.
In this episode, Shayle talks to John O’Donnell, co-founder and CEO of Rondo Energy, a thermal storage startup. Shayle’s venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners has made investments in Rondo Energy. They break down the challenges of industrial heat and discuss the range of technologies that could help to generate it with low emissions.
John and Shayle cover topics like: Lees meerWhich fuels do we currently rely on for specific industrial uses, and where could we use alternatives?
How thermal batteries can help to solve the intermittency challenges of wind and solar
Industrial grid defection, where large industrial facilities build behind-the-meter renewables to avoid the rising costs of delivered electricity
The potential for industrial growth in places with access to cheap renewables, like the American midwest
Recommended Resources:
McKinsey: Net-zero heat: Long-duration energy storage to accelerate energy system decarbonization
Canary: This startup’s energy storage tech is ‘essentially a giant toaster’
Canary: This startup wants to use cheap surplus clean energy to make high-te…
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Unpopular solar opinions, 2022 edition
1 december 2022 · 45 min
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.
In a funny twist of fate, solar’s success has made it old news. It’s the fastest-growing source of electricity in the world and one of the cheapest. But it’s far from the hot topic it was a decade ago when utility-scale photovoltaics were still an emerging technology. Now that it’s a more mature tool in the climate fight, we take it for granted.
And yet there’s so much more we need to do. To reach net zero by 2050, we likely need to quadruple global solar capacity by 2030, according to projections by BloombergNEF (BNEF). But labor shortages, high material costs and interconnection bottlenecks stand in the way.
So how do we get there?
In this episode Shayle talks to Jenny Chase, who managed BloombergNEF’s solar insights team for 17 years before leaving the role this month. Every year she tweets a thread of 50 not-always-popular opinions on solar, covering the state of the industry and the challenges it needs to solve. For this episode, Shayle picked the opinions he found most interesting and unpacked them with Jenny.
They cover Jenny’s opinions on: Lees meerThe biggest bottlenecks holding back solar deployment, like labor shortages, high polysilicon prices and grid interconnection backlogs
Why we don’t need new technology breakthroughs in solar
Perovskite and building-integrated photovoltaics
How residential solar and battery salespeople are making up their savings projections
How the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act could spur an unsustainable boom in solar and hydrogen equipment manufacturing
Why leading forecasts could be underestimating solar deployment
Recommended Resources:
Twitter: Jenny Chase’s 2022 opinions-on-solar thread
Canary Media: What’s behind solar’s polysilicon shortage — and why it’s not getting better anytime soon
Canary Media: Perovskites can make solar panels more efficient than silicon alone
Bloomberg: Solar Outshines Wind to Lead China’s Clean-En…
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Fixing cement’s carbon problem
17 november 2022 · 43 min
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card.
Join us on November 30 for a live, virtual episode of Climavores. Come ask a question about food, nutrition, and eating for the climate.
Concrete is an incredible material. It’s essentially pourable rock, and we use it in almost every part of the built world. We also consume more of it than any other man-made material in the world—about three tons per person annually.
And the secret ingredient in all this concrete? Cement. Think of it as the glue that binds the crushed rocks in concrete together.
But here’s the problem. Making cement emits lots of carbon. The cement industry alone produces 8% of global emissions.
Why? First, the process happens at 1500 degrees Celsius, a temperature so hot that companies often burn coal to reach it. Second, the chemical reaction involved in creating cement releases carbon dioxide.
So what are the solutions?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Leah Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Sublime Systems, a startup that has developed a novel way to produce cement at room temperature without releasing carbon dioxide. Shayle’s venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners is an investor in Sublime.
Shayle and Leah discuss: Lees meerThe important properties of cement and why we use so much of it
The chemistry of cement and why it releases carbon dioxide
Alternative chemistries to Portland cement, the most common and useful formulation
Things you can add to the mix, called supplementary cementitious materials, to offset some of the Portland cement required (like fly ash from coal-fired power plants)
Adopting performance-based standards that allow more flexibility in the materials used in cement
Replacing coal with electrification and alternative fuels in cement kilns
Post-combustion carbon capture for cement kilns
CarbonCure’s technique for injecting carbon dioxide into concrete to increase strength and reduce the amount of cement required
Sublime System’…
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Unleashing the magic of heat pumps
10 november 2022 · 41 min
What’s not to love about heat pumps? Well… a few things, actually.
Don’t take this the wrong way: Heat pumps are magic. They heat. They cool. They’re way more efficient than gas boilers. Switching to one can save a household hundreds of dollars in energy bills and lots of carbon emissions. It's why governments are incentivizing and requiring them.
But heat pump adoption has slowed nationally. It’s even declined in colder regions. What‘s holding it back?
In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, managing director for research and innovation at Energy Impact Partners, a climatetech venture capital firm.
Andy and Shayle talk about the state of heat pump technology and what we need to fix to speed up adoption. They cover topics like: Lees meerThe relatively high upfront costs and messy customer journey to installation
What mass adoption would do to peak demand on the grid in cold climates
How heat pumps dramatically ramp up electrical load in a typical home and on the grid
Heat pumps powered by natural gas or hydrogen
Plus, why Andy would be a great early adopter for any company that wants to pitch Shayle on solving these problems.
Recommended Resources:
US Department of Energy: Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge
Canary Media: Heat pumps now required for new homes in Washington state
Canary Media: One weird trick to make heat pumps boom
Canary Media: Will tough standards for heat pump tax credits hurt adoption?
Canary Media: Window heat pumps will help electrify New York City’s apartments
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by CohnReznick, a trusted partner for navigating the complex and evolving financial, tax and regulatory landscape of the renewable s… -
Getting more energy on the wires
3 november 2022 · 59 min
Want to build a power plant in the U.S.? Here are three things to know. Lees meer
First, connecting a wind farm, utility-scale battery, or other big source of power to the grid means getting in line. A typical project’s wait time has increased from around two years in 2005 to four years in 2020, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Second, the interconnection queue is a crowded place. In 2020 there were 1.44 terawatts of projects in the queue. That’s more than the U.S.’s current fleet of generation.
Third, dropouts are the norm. Only 25% of projects make it to completion. Projects withdraw from the queue for lots of reasons, but wait times are a big factor. During long waits, negotiations can fall apart and rights can expire, reports Emma Penrod of Utility Dive.
Why the bottleneck and long queues? Lack of transmission is the single biggest factor. We need way more of it to bring power from rural areas with rich wind and solar potential to power-hungry population centers. But NIMBYism and a complex permitting process have slowed the construction of new transmission to a glacial pace. So while congress debates permitting reform, what technologies could help us get more energy on the wires?
In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks to Liza Reed, electricity transmission Research manager for climate policy at the Niskanen Center, a think tank in Washington D.C. She’s also a grid fellow at Prime Movers Lab.
Lara and Liza explore ways to expand transmission capacity:
Replacing steel-reinforced lines with composite-core lines to carry more energy, known in the industry as “reconductoring”
High-voltage direct current lines capable of sending lots of power long distances (a common solution in China but rare in the U.S.)
Running transmission lines underground, known as “undergrounding”
Building lines along existing rights of way, such as highways
High temperature superconductors, which involve cooling wires down to carry more power
Line monitoring…
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Climatetech for developing economies
27 oktober 2022 · 48 min
Utilities in developing countries are juggling a complex set of problems: How to extend electricity to those who don’t have it; how to deploy large-scale power generation to power economic growth; and how to pursue these goals while decarbonizing.
In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks to Kate Steel, CEO of Nithio, a finance company focused on off-grid clean energy in Africa. Kate and Lara discuss the options for separating economic growth from fossil fuels. And she argues that we have the technology to develop low-carbon electrified economies in developing economies; we just need to deploy it.
Lara and Kate weigh in on: Lees meerThe tension between expanding access to low-cost power and attracting investment in large-scale baseload generation
Why off-grid solar is often more economically viable than diesel generators for rural electrification
How canceled power purchase agreements have stymied the development of renewables and how to solve these financing challenges
“Reverse” tech transfer from developing countries to developed ones, such as hyper-efficient appliances
Options for off-grid power, such as lanterns, microgrids, microhydro, biogas and liquefied petroleum gas canisters.
How transportation may leapfrog fossil fuels in developing countries with electric motorbikes, buses and cars
Recommended Resources:
Canary Media: COP26 players pledge funding to shut down coal plants
Bloomberg: A New Era of Climate Disasters Revives Calls for Climate Reparations
Canary Media: Expanding solar access in Africa through artificial intelligence
Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment: Roadmap to Zero-Carbon Electrification of Africa
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.
Catalyst is suppo… -
How the US climate bill will finance the energy transition [partner content]
24 oktober 2022 · 16 min
In this episode, produced in partnership with CohnReznick, we explore the market implications of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Inflation Reduction Act is an incredibly important win for climate. It puts the U.S. back on the global stage as a serious climate negotiator. It puts the country within reach of a net-zero grid. And it will put hundreds of billions of dollars toward renewables, storage, carbon-capture, and hydrogen.
In reality, it’s a very practical – and very complicated – tax bill. We support clean energy in America through the tax code, and this legislation builds on that framework in a big way.
This episode was produced in partnership with CohnReznick and CohnReznick Capital.
CohnReznick’s Renewable Energy Industry Practice can help your business move forward by proactively addressing even your most complicated challenges and needs.
And CohnReznick Capital’s industry-leading investment banking team can help your company break through the dynamic and evolving sustainability sector by simplifying project finance, M&A, capital raising, and restructuring. Lees meer -
What’s holding up hydrogen in Europe?
20 oktober 2022 · 44 min
Europe’s hydrogen economy is so close to becoming a reality. Billions in public and private dollars are lining up to invest in a wave of newly planned hydrogen facilities. EU policymakers are finalizing new regulations and subsidies. And the region’s energy crisis–sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine–has accelerated the need for alternative energy sources like hydrogen. Lees meer
But an unexpected twist: The U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act, with subsidies for hydrogen production and far looser rules than those under consideration in Europe. Could Europe lose its hydrogen competitiveness?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Gniewomir Flis, an independent hydrogen consultant. Previously he researched hydrogen at Agora Energiewende, a decarbonization think tank, and Energy Revolution Venture, a decarbonization venture capital firm.
Gniewomir explains that some in Europe worry the U.S. might become a more attractive place to invest in hydrogen if the EU’s rules are too strict. This concern throws more complexity into an already difficult policy-making process. It’s causing EU policymakers to fight over proposed rules and investors to delay final decisions to greenlight European projects.
Gniewomir and Shayle discuss questions like:
What’s the evidence for the concerns about Europe’s competitiveness?
What counts as renewable hydrogen in the proposed EU rules? They discuss the three key criteria that could be required for subsidies: additionality, temporal correlation and geographic correlation
Which electrolyzer technology—proton exchange membrane (PEM), alkaline, or solid oxide—is best for which power generation technology, such as solar, gas, and wind?
How will the proposed rules impact developing countries’ plans to export hydrogen to Europe?
How do we transport hydrogen? They discuss options, such as metal hydride, ammonia, methanol and liquid (also known as cryogenic) hydrogen.
Will China ultimately take over electrolyzer manufacturing, like it did for sola…
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What climatetech can learn from the oceans
13 oktober 2022 · 37 min
So you want to build an offshore wind farm. Are you prepared to manage the marine ecosystem impacts of construction? What about monitoring and protecting underwater electrical cables?
Or maybe you want to decarbonize shipping. Do you know how to trace low-carbon fuel through ports or maintain storage tanks in marine environments? How about managing worker safety on the ocean?
These are the kinds of questions that crop up at the intersection of climatetech and something called bluetech, the range of technologies that touch the oceans. And this marine-based expertise may prove invaluable to climate solutions.
In this episode, Shayle talks to Alissa Peterson, co-founder and chief executive officer of SeaAhead, an organization that supports and incubates bluetech companies. They survey a range of technologies, covering topics like: Lees meerAlternative low-carbon fuels for shipping, such as ammonia, methanol and hydrogen
Alternative proteins, fisheries and kelp
Oceanic carbon removal, such as ocean alkalinity enhancement and sinking kelp to the bottom of the seabed
In the U.S., will big coastal infrastructure, like offshore wind, suffer the same fate as long-distance transmission lines, stalling in an overly strict regulatory environment?
Recommended Resources:
Canary Media: Zero-emissions cargo shipping catches on in cities and port communities
Canary Media: Offshore wind installations surged threefold last year
SeaAhead : Innovation in Offshore Wind Reverse Pitch
MIT Technology Review: Companies hoping to grow carbon-sucking kelp may be rushing ahead of the science
Catalyst is a production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by CohnReznick, a trusted partner for navigating the complex and evolving financial, tax … -
How well does soil actually store carbon?
6 oktober 2022 · 35 min
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
There’s a buzz right now about paying farmers to trap and store emissions. Soil is a carbon sink, and certain farming practices accelerate carbon capture while others hurt it.
Enter soil carbon credits to incentivize sequestration through methods like cover cropping, no-till farming and agroforestry. These are practices often included under the umbrella of regenerative agriculture. So what does science say about how well these methods actually lock away carbon?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Eric Slessarev, staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he studies soil carbon.
Eric says there’s a lot we don’t know about how well these practices actually work. There are even more fundamental questions like how much carbon is in the soil. Turns out dirt is pretty complicated.
They cover things like: Lees meerHow exactly carbon gets into the soil and why it sticks around.
The challenges with measuring soil carbon.
The difference between soil carbon and enhanced weathering.
How microbes, minerals and the depth of root systems affect storage.
Specific practices like no-till farming, agroforestry and cover cropping.
Why our soil carbon models may need a big update.
Resources:
Canary Media: Carbon storage gets dirty: The movement to sequester CO2 in soils
International Soil Carbon Network Seminar Series: Towards a Durable Understanding of Soil Carbon as a Tool for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.
Catalyst is supported by CohnReznick, your comprehensive source for navigating the complex and evo… -
Is the Inflation Reduction Act a win for EVs and batteries?
29 september 2022 · 45 min
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
Depending on which headlines you read, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will either hurt U.S. electric vehicle sales by replacing existing tax credits with complicated new ones or build out a North American battery supply chain and rev up EV sales. So which is it?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Sam Jaffe, vice president of battery solutions at E-Source, about the key provisions of the IRA’s EV and battery tax credits. Sam explains how the IRA will spur a North American EV battery supply chain in the long run but will also create winners and losers along the way.
There’s a $30 billion pot of money for various tax credits and limited time to make use of them. Who will get to it first? There are already some early movers.
Sam explains the key provisions: Lees meerThe EV components tax credit reduces the cost of EVs whose batteries contain materials assembled in the U.S. or its free-trade partner countries. This includes electrodes, electrolyte components and cells.
The strategic minerals tax credit reduces the cost of EVs whose batteries contain minerals mined and processed in the U.S. or its free-trade partner countries. These minerals include lithium, cobalt, and rare earth metals, among others.
The 45X advanced manufacturing production credit reduces the cost of making batteries in the U.S.
Certain credits ratchet up the percentage of materials required to qualify over several years. So once an EV model qualifies, it will have to maintain eligibility by getting a larger and larger share of its components and minerals from approved countries.
They also cover which part of the battery industry will benefit more– the EV battery side or the stationary storage side. And Sam explains why he’s paying attention to the Treasury Department’s forthcoming guidance on the tax credits.
Resources:The New York Times…
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Columbia Energy Exchange: Will Putin’s Energy Strategy Backfire?
22 september 2022 · 54 min
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
Winter is coming. The energy crisis that is afflicting Europe and other parts of the world is worsening as Russia weaponizes natural gas.
This energy crisis has effects across climate tech, and so today we’re bringing you an episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, a podcast from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. On Catalyst, we don’t usually dig so deep into geopolitics and policy, but this crisis has big implications for markets, investment and technology.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin turned off supply of Russian gas through the Nord Stream pipeline earlier this month, prices across Europe soared – causing severe pain for manufacturers and consumers, and pushing the region closer to recession. European countries are weighing emergency measures, like price caps and rationing.
In addition to the immediate energy crisis, key questions remain about what all of this means for the clean energy transition. The supply of critical materials for clean energy technologies – such as copper, lithium, and cobalt – will also present challenges. A recent report by S&P Global predicted that demand for copper will double by 2035 as a consequence of the energy transition, and it is unclear if the existing supply chains can sustain such an increase.
How can governments and companies address the energy crisis without sacrificing progress on climate? And how might current and future supply shortages change the geopolitical landscape?
This week, Columbia Energy Exchange host Jason Bordoff talks with Dr. Dan Yergin, an internationally known authority on energy, geopolitics, and economics. He sits on the boards of numerous institutions – including Columbia’s Center of Global Energy Policy.
Dr. Yergin is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.” And his… Lees meer -
Averting water wars as we decarbonize
15 september 2022 · 39 min
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.
We designed our power plants, refineries, and other energy infrastructure to depend on water. But not just any kind of water—water that’s available at the right quantity, quality, place and time. When water falls outside of this Goldilocks zone, energy systems can unravel, sometimes in unexpected ways. Low water levels strain hydroelectric and thermal power production and restrict coal shipments by river. Extreme cold freezes water in natural gas infrastructure, causing blackouts. Examples abound.
The irony is that the energy system fuels climate change, which in turn fuels water problems for the energy system.
So how do we address these vulnerabilities as we decarbonize? And how can we build a resilient water-energy system in an increasingly chaotic climate?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Dr. Michael Webber, author of Thirst for Power: Energy, Water and Human Survival. Michael is a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas-Austin and chief technology officer at Energy Impact Partners, where Shayle is a partner.
They cover topics like: Lees meerThe surprising places we use water in energy, like extracting minerals and natural gas, growing crops for biofuels and sequestering carbon
The ways energy improves the quantity and quality of water, allowing us to move water longer distances, reach deeper wells and desalinate water
How to avoid exacerbating water problems as we decarbonize
Whether cheap, abundant electricity from nuclear fusion will power wide-spread desalination
Why the data on water systems is so scarce compared to energy systems
How prescient the new Mad Max water-war movies are
Resources:
Yale University Press: Thirst for Power: Energy, Water and Human Survival
The New York Times: Europe’s Scorching Summer Puts Unexpected Strain on Energy Supply
The New York Times: China’s…
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Could geothermal become a major zero-emissions player?
9 september 2022 · 1 uur 1 min
Drill down far enough anywhere in the world and you reach temperatures hot enough to generate firm, reliable zero-emission electricity. That’s the hope for new geothermal technologies that could scale the industry beyond well-known geothermal hot spots like Iceland.
But first the industry needs to overcome major challenges in financing and technology. It has also to deal with the public opinion around the oil and gas industry, which may be an essential partner in scaling geothermal because of its overlapping expertise in drilling and underground exploration.
In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks with Jamie Beard, executive director of Project Innerspace, a non-profit focused on expanding the use of geothermal energy globally.
Current geothermal technology relies on naturally occurring underground hot spots, common in places like Iceland and the western U.S.. But an approach called enhanced geothermal systems or “hot, dry rock,” would make geothermal available around the world, potentially adding hundreds of gigawatts to current geothermal capacity.
Lara and Jamie discuss major questions facing the geothermal industry, like: Lees meerHow and where to drill for consistent hot temperatures?
How long before a well is depleted of heat-carrying capacity?
What sort of surveying and information do funders need to deal with exploration risks?
How can the industry take advantage of the co-benefits of geothermal drilling, such as lithium extraction, carbon sequestration and waste heat?
What working fluids, like water or critical CO2, are appropriate for a given project?
How viable are geothermal-source heat pumps and how do they compare to air-source heat pumps?
What are the potential environmental impacts of geothermal?
What role should the oil and gas industry play in scaling this zero-emission technology?
Resources:
Canary Media: Advanced geothermal heats up with $138M round for startup Fervo Energy
Department of Energy: DOE Launches New Energy Earthshot to Sl…
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The dirt on soil carbon credits
25 augustus 2022 · 42 min
Soil is a massive carbon sink that’s stored away emissions for centuries. But years of destructive farming practices have released much of this carbon. Could incentivizing farmers help restore—and expand—soil’s carbon-carrying capacity?
In theory, yes. But the market for soil carbon credits—literally paying farmers to improve their practices—needs serious reform.
In this episode, Shayle talks with Freya Chay, program manager for carbon removal at CarbonPlan. The fundamental problem is that the existing carbon credits don’t do what they say they will do: permanently lock away additional carbon. Freya and Shayle survey the big challenges of the market and explore potential fixes, covering questions like: Lees meerHow do we measure—using models, samplings and satellites—the amount of carbon in a plot of soil?
What tools do we have to make sure the carbon will stay in the ground, such as buffer pools and ton-year accounting?
The additionality question: Without the credit, would the carbon have been captured anyway? Or would it have remained locked away anyway?
What role could third-party grading systems play in differentiating high-quality credits from low-quality ones?
Resources:
CarbonPlan: A buyer’s guide to soil carbon offsets
CarbonPlan: Unpacking ton-year accounting
Canary Media: Carbon storage gets dirty: The movement to sequester CO2 in soils
Sylvera: Carbon Credit Ratings: Frameworks & Processes White Paper
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the la… -
Booking your first zero-emissions flight
18 augustus 2022 · 40 min
In aviation, there’s a crowd of low-carbon technologies vying for a slice of the market. On one hand, the long-haul portion of the market will likely rely on sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) which still emit greenhouse gasses but could be offset to net-zero. On the other hand, there’s a big share of air traffic that could go completely zero-emissions with the help of batteries and hydrogen.
So how soon could you book a ticket on a zero-emissions flight? And what routes are possible?
In this episode, Shayle talks with Jayant Mukhopadhaya, a researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Jayant recently authored two reports on electric aircraft and hydrogen aircraft. Shayle and Jayant dig in on some tough questions: Lees meerCan electric aircraft take incremental steps into the market given the limitations of current battery energy densities? Or do they need a technology breakthrough?
How do hydrogen fuel cell, compressed hydrogen combustion, and liquid hydrogen combustion compare?
How do airports need to prepare for hydrogen fueling? Hint: Terminal-sized upgrades.
Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Resources:Canary Media: Can battery-powered airplanes decarbonize air travel?
Canary Media: How do we clean up air travel? Fuel from fast-food grease is just the start
Bloomberg (video): Hydrogen May Be the Jet Fuel of the Future
Catalyst: A bumpy ride toward decarbonizing aviation
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America.… -
Will charging infrastructure be a bottleneck for electric vehicles?
11 augustus 2022 · 45 min
Electric vehicles (EVs) are moving quickly toward mass adoption. So how do we make sure that charging infrastructure keeps up?
The people who own, operate and install chargers have some big questions to answer: Lees meerCan public chargers run a profit, and how do business models need to change to accelerate deployment?
Why is it so hard to repair broken stations?
Does it matter where we install new ones?
When will chargers be as ubiquitous and easy to use as gas stations?
In this episode, Shayle digs into these questions with colleague Cassie Bowe, partner at the venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners, where she focuses on mobility. Cassie outlines the trajectory of charger deployment over the years, comparing charger accessibility in the U.S, China and Europe.
Shayle and Cassie cover smart charging (also known as V1G) and V2G, as well as the commodification of charging hardware. Plus, how soon we might see wireless charging and why Shayle doesn’t have an EV yet.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America. Catalyst listeners can receive 15% off a full conference, non-member pass using promo code CANARY15. Register here. -
What the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would mean for climatetech
5 augustus 2022 · 58 min
The $369 billion climate and tax bill from Sen. Joe Manchin III and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer caught everyone by surprise. Democrats had abandoned their climate legislation last month after Manchin, a must-have vote for Democrats, signaled his opposition to it.
But late last week Manchin and Schumer announced they had revived the deal under a new name – The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. If passed, it would be the most ambitious climate action in U.S. history.
And now with support from another key swing vote, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the bill is an important step closer to passage.
So what would the bill do?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins. Jesse leads the REPEAT Project, which analyzed the effects of the bill in a report released today. Overall, the bill would make clean energy cheaper and build up the capacity of climatetech industries in the U.S. and its allies across multiple sectors of the economy, including power, transportation, heavy industry and buildings.
Shayle and Jesse walk through the key provisions in the proposed legislation and their predicted impacts, including: Lees meerHundreds of new gigawatts of solar and wind capacity, plus new technology-neutral tax credits to support other technologies such as advanced nuclear
Building up a North American supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs)
Reducing the costs of EVs, sustainable aviation fuels, energy storage, hydrogen and more
Increased energy security for medium- and low-income households, such as installing heat pumps and insulation
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this y… -
Watt It Takes: TeraWatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer
28 juli 2022 · 42 min
We're bringing you something different today. It's an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, called Watt It Takes hosted by Emily Kirsch of Powerhouse Ventures. Lees meer
We talk a lot on Catalyst about how to finance and build climatetech. What we don’t always get into are the personal stories of people who are trying to do that work.
That’s exactly what Watt It Takes does. The show tells the stories of founders who are building a zero-carbon world — their upbringings, their risks, their failures, and their breakthroughs.
This episode is about Neha Palmer, CEO of TeraWatt Infrastructure, which builds large-scale electric vehicle charging hubs for medium and heavy transport.
Tens of millions of delivery vans and semi trucks move around the clock to keep supply chains humming. These medium- and heavy-duty vehicles make up more than 25 percent of transportation emissions in the US — even though they only make up 10 percent of all vehicles on the road.
We need to electrify medium and heavy-duty vehicles to meet our climate goals. But, how do we build and operate the charging infrastructure to power them?
That charging network is exactly what TeraWatt Infrastructure is building.
TeraWatt develops, owns, and manages charging infrastructure for these large vehicles. The company integrates hardware, software, and grid services along with on-site chargers. TerraWatt has a growing portfolio of land in strategic locations across the country that enables it to build and operate that charging infrastructure.
TeraWatt brings together a team of experts from data centers, transportation logistics, and electric cars. The more complex the high-powered charging needs, the better suited TeraWatt is for the task.
Watt It Takes host Emily Kirsch sat down with Neha to learn what it takes to electrify a sector with such massive energy demand. They talked about founding TeraWatt after Neha left Google, where she was a key figure in that company's ambitious renewable energy strategy. And …
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Seeking the holy grail of batteries
21 juli 2022 · 52 min
If there were a holy grail of electric vehicle batteries, it would be low-weight, long-range, and fast-charging. It would last a million miles and cost less than anything produced today.
So in the booming EV battery market, what kind of battery will check all those boxes? Who will invent it? And do we really need all those features in one battery in the first place?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Sam Jaffe, vice president of battery solutions at E-Source. They trace the history of the two major competing lithium-ion chemistries: Lithium Iron (or ferrous) Phosphate (LFP) and Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC).
Sam and Shayle also discuss the factors that shaped this competition, like China, Tesla, and access to capital. They discuss new partnerships between battery manufacturers and automakers, including LG and GM, Samsung SDI and Stellantis, ACC and Mercedes
And they cover questions like: Lees meerWho decides which chemistries to develop — automakers or battery part manufacturers?
Will a small number of chemistries dominate or will there be a rapid diversification of battery chemistries to meet different needs?
Is fast charging a nice-to-have or need-to-have?
Will the rising costs of battery materials, especially lithium, slow the adoption of EVs?
Plus, Sam explains why he is no longer bearish on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America. Catalyst listeners can receive 15% off a full conference, non-member pass using promo code CANARY15. Register her… -
Crossing the valley of death
14 juli 2022 · 51 min
In climatetech, the ‘valley of death’ describes the lack of capital for newer solutions, especially those that mainstream investors view as unproven. The climate tech world is full of technologies that would be fantastic tools for fighting the climate crisis, if only they could cross this valley of death and scale.
Scott Jacobs co-founded Generate Capital in 2014 to help address this problem. In this episode Shayle talks to Scott about how to successfully finance first-of-a-kind climatetech. They cover technologies like electric bus leasing, anaerobic digesters, microgrids and EV fleet charging infrastructure.
And they dig in on: Lees meerWinning over investors who don't have the time to understand complex technologies or business models
The kinds of support, beyond capital, that first-of-a-kind technologies need from investors
Navigating the rising cost of capital and supply chain problems
When exactly technologies have proven themselves in the eyes of investors
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America. Catalyst listeners can receive 15% off a full conference, non-member pass using promo code CANARY15. Register here. -
The Carbon Copy: Get ready for the battery recycling boom
7 juli 2022 · 21 min
On the Carbon Copy podcast this week:
It’s been over three months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves into global oil markets, causing supply constraints and skyrocketing prices. The conflict has complicated the flow of energy at a time when supply chains were already jumbled up because of Covid.
But it’s not just oil. The war is leaving its mark on all kinds of commodities, including the global supplies of minerals and metals. Geopolitical shifts are causing big spikes in the prices of lithium and nickel, two key components of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars.
However, this supply mess could actually be boosting a positive trend in the battery space: recycling.
Batteries are a pillar of the zero-carbon economy, but are they truly sustainable? And will technical advancements and evolving geopolitical alliances alter the battery-based economy for the better?
Our guest is Julian Spector, a senior reporter with Canary Media. Check out his latest report on five exciting startups tackling battery recycling from different angles. And check out all of Canary’s Recycling Renewables special coverage.
The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.
Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America. Catalyst listeners can receive 15% off a full conference, non-member pass using promo code CANARY15. Register here. Lees meer