The Energy Gang

This week: Microsoft is setting a new standard for corporate climate targets.The technology company promised to remove all of the carbon that it’s ever put in the atmosphere -- going back to when it was founded in an Albuquerque garage in 1975. That includes $1 billion in carbon removal technologies and methods. Can it pull off such an ambitious plan? And will it force other corporates to follow?Then, a landmark climate case. Twenty-one young people who sued the federal government for the right to live in a stable climate prevailed and prevailed and prevailed…until they lost. A judge agreed with their case, but said the courts weren’t the place to remedy climate change. What does it mean for future litigation?Plus, we have a new member of the gang we’re going to meet. It’s Ingrid Lobet, our senior editor. Make sure to follow her on Twitter. Resources:MIT Technology Review: Microsoft Will Invest $1B in Carbon Reduction and Removal TechWall Street Journal: Microsoft Raises Stakes in Corporate Climate

The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, is suddenly putting sustainability and climate risk at the center of its investment strategy. “Investors are increasingly...recognizing that climate risk is investment risk. These questions are driving a profound reassessment of risk and asset values. And because capital markets pull future risk forward, we will see changes in capital allocation more quickly than we see changes to the climate itself,” wrote BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in his yearly investment letter.BlackRock manages over $7 trillion in assets. This new strategy could have a wide impact on the world of finance -- and put climate risk at the top of investor considerations.Plus, activists are targeting banks like Chase and Citibank by hitting them on the consumer finance side. We check in on the divestment movement as it gains momentum.Then, a look at some lesser-known, but formidable greenhouse gases: refrigerants. How much a problem are they?Finally, California looks beyond lithium-ion batteries

This week, a look at the bushfires in Australia — their impact to the country, to the grid, and to politics of climate.Then, a big change could be coming to a foundational federal policy in America. Are the proposed changes to PURPA a thoughtful response to market conditions and cheap renewables, or a political play?Finally, we learn to code. Joe Biden is the latest democrat to push the idea that laid-off miners should learn to code. Why did it spark so much derision?Recommended reading:The Atlantic: Australia Will Lose to Climate ChangeGTM: FERC Proposal Brings New Threat to Already-Suffering PURPA Solar MarketsGizmodo: Biden Tells Miners to Learn to CodeThis podcast is brought to you by KORE Power. KORE Power is a leading manufacturer of high density, high voltage energy storage solutions for utility, industrial, microgrids, and mission-critical markets. Find out more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We have some bonus listening as we close out the year!We present one of our most popular episodes of The Interchange: The Deep Decarbonization Draft.It's like fantasy sports for energy nerds. The premise is simple: Shayle and Stephen choose their teams of decarbonization technologies and methods, and then pit them against each other to determine who’s best at saving the planet.Go subscribe to The Interchange anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the perfect compliment to The Energy Gang.Happy New Year!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re closing out the decade this week with a retrospective. We have been doing this show since 2013. So we are going to share some of our top story lines in energy and cleantech of the last 10 years — many of which played out while we were doing this show.We’ll start with some personal retrospectives. What was consuming us back in 2009? How did that story shake out?Then we’ll choose the most important stories that defined the teens. Katherine will choose the top policy trend, Jigar will choose the top business trend, and Stephen will choose the top tech trend.Finally, we’ll look ahead to 2030 and beyond. What needs to happen in policy, business, technology to “win” the decade?=If you’re looking for more listening over the holidays, check out our year-end episode of The Interchange. Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation. Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. PG&E is helpi

This week on Watt It Takes: Emily Kirsch sits down with Dr. Etosha Cave, the co-founder and chief science officer of Opus 12.Opus 12 is a team of engineers, electrochemists and materials scientists working on a technology that converts carbon dioxide into useable products. They are developing a metal catalyst that can turn CO2 into synthetic gas for fuels and ethylene for plastics.If the tech works at commercial scale, it would be a vital solution for slashing CO2 from industrial sources. The company has brought in about $20 million in funding. In this interview, Etosha talks about the inspiration for the technology, which came from her love of space and desire to go to Mars.She talks about being a founder who’s also a black woman, and how that’s influenced her relationships with other people in energy.And she talks about where Opus 12’s tech development stands. To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. Listen to

This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between CohnReznick Capital and GTM Creative Strategies. Sheslie Royster is the person that big companies turn to when making an acquisition, investing in real estate, or finding a creative way to use tax credits. She’s a tax expert, focused mostly in wind and solar.Those deals include a lot of numbers and math, of course. But Sheslie says the math isn’t as important as it seems. It’s the interpretation of the math that matters.“I'd say a minimal amount is math. I'd say in the deals that we have where we're discussing tax issues, the numbers play a part but it's a smaller part. It's more the theory behind what's going on behind the numbers. What does this mean? What was the intent of the law? What is the intent of the deal?”Sheslie is a tax partner at CohnReznick. She works on some very complicated projects that require a deep level of trust and intimacy.“It's a personal relationship. People are telling you things about themselves that sometimes their spous

Truck buyers are historically some of the most brand-loyal auto consumers But recent surveys suggest that loyalty is loosening.Into the picture steps Elon Musk, who dropped the Tesla Cybertruck last month. This space-age truck concept is truly putting the shift in consumer preferences to the test. It’s also tearing a lot of opinionated people apart.In this episode: what is the Cybertruck and where might it fit into the emerging electric truck market? And can it sway truck buyers who don't care about Tesla?Then, there’s a major tax bill in Congress right now that would be a boon to renewables — what are its chances?Finally, what would we do with a million dollars? We answer a listener question about how to invest with impact.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google

This week: our pre-thanksgiving intellectual feast. It’s a four-course meal as usual.For the hors d’oeuvres, we’re serving up something new: a roundup of the new entrants into the presidential race, and how they stack up on environmental issues.For the side dishes, we’ll reheat some leftovers. We’ll look at the climategate debacle 10 years later.And for the main course. What people or companies will we choose as the top turkeys of the year?We’ll end with a little aperitif — our free electrons. Read along with us:POLITICO: The Left Smells a Rat in Bloomberg, Patrick BidsGreenwire: As Mass. Governor, Deval Patrick Promoted RGGI, Clean PowerBBC Documentary: Climategate 10 Years LaterColumbia Journalism Review: Michael Mann on Coverage Since ‘Climategate’Our top Turkeys: Andrew Wheeler's plan to dismantle EPA; Saudi Aramco's lagging IPO; and Elon Musk's lies about solar.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow

As we reckon with the dark side of Silicon Valley’s tech giants, there’s more scrutiny into how these companies are assisting climate denial and obfuscation.We’ll look at a few different stories:Climate and clean energy are getting disadvantaged by Facebook and Twitter’s different policies on political ads: how do we define issue ads and political speech?Google, Facebook and others are getting called out for their support of groups that spread extreme climate denial: How much criticism do they deserve?And Amazon, Microsoft and Google are building the digital backbone of industries that are wrecking the planet. How should we think about their role and culpability?In the second half of the show, we’ll discuss America’s withdraws from the Paris climate treaty. With U.S. global leadership in shambles, who’s going to fill the gap? And how could elections change things?Finally, how California’s wildfire crisis is stoking the state’s distributed generation market. We’ll look at the business impacts.Recommended resou

This week on Watt It Takes: how a would-be priest made it his mission to spread the gospel of battery storage.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Mateo Jaramillo, the CEO and co-founder of Form Energy.Form is working on a new kind of long-duration battery. And Mateo has one of the longer-duration careers in the storage industry. In the early 2000s, he deployed the first behind-the-meter systems in New York for demand response — seeing the grid services potential well before anyone else.Mateo went on to start the stationary energy storage unit at Tesla, launching and building the powerwall business. He also helped launch the supercharger business.Today, he’s working on a new electrochemical battery that could provide storage services for days, not just hours. The idea is to unlock baseload renewables.The chemistry was spun out of work from MIT researchers. It’s being scaled by a group of engineers and entrepreneurs with deep technical experience — and like Mateo, the bumps and brui

We recorded this episode on Halloween morning. We woke up and felt like celebrating the theme of the holiday.If you’re listening after Halloween, don’t fret. There’s still plenty of newsworthy stuff in here.First up, we’re choosing the story from 2019 that is most worthy of its own horror movie. As a bonus, we are also choosing the genre of horror.Then, we pick the zombie story or trend of the year that just won’t die.And finally, the company or person that deserves a treat.We’ll end with some bone-chilling Free Electrons.Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcastSupport for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https:

Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcastThis week: it’s the oil industry versus the world. We’re examining two legal battles for oil majors playing out in states. One involves electric cars and one involves responsibility for climate change.We’ll start first with a story from POLITICO’s Gavin Bade. Advocacy groups backed by oil companies are increasingly lobbying against utilities that are trying to support electric vehicles. Are we seeing a coming political clash between the oil industry and utility industry?We’re joined by Gavin, who’s been tracking these emerging challenges.Then, we are devoting our second half of the show to the legal challenges against fossil fuel companies. Exxon is on trial in New York and numerous other states and cities are bringing suit against oil majors. It’s got everyone paying attention to this very complicated yet riveting issue: as the science and legal arguments evolve, will big fossil fuel co

Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcastThe world’s fifth-largest economy looked more like a developing country last week, as PG&E purposefully cut power to millions of people in Northern California for days.We knew this was coming. The growing safety and financial risk of wildfires in the state mean mass power outages will become more common. But in this case, PG&E was slammed for the way it handled things.We’ll dig into the scope, the fallout, and the solutions of California’s power shutoffs due to wildfire threats.Then: Dyson made a big business out of selling $400 hair dryers and $500 vacuum cleaners, but it couldn’t make a high-end electric car work. We’ll talk about why Dyson wrote off its EV plans.Finally, the Trump administration lifts a tariff exemption for bifacial solar panels. So why are these two-sided solar panels becoming so popular now?Additional resources:New York Times: Inside PG&E’s Control RoomBloomb

This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and GTM Creative Strategies. As grids get saturated with wind and solar electricity, there’s pressure to find new ways to store that energy across daily, monthly or seasonal variations.Could the answer be a billion-year-old microbe?The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and SoCalGas are currently testing a new bioreactor that could turn renewable electrons into renewable methane -- allowing excess generation to be “stored” in existing natural gas pipelines.The system relies on an ancient microorganism that ferments hydrogen and carbon dioxide and turns it into methane. By feeding the bugs hydrogen from renewable resources and CO2 from industrial sources, companies like SoCalGas could harness a new supply of renewable natural gas.NREL has been testing the process in the lab for years. And it finally built a larger-scale version of the bioreactor. We sent producer Catherine Jaffee to NREL’s lab in Golden

Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content: bit.ly/gtmpodcastThis week on Watt It Takes: how a computer nerd who loved assembling electronics became obsessed with designing a solar-storage system to light up Africa.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Xavier Helgesen, the co-founder and chief technology officer at ZOLA Electric.Zola is a provider of solar and storage systems in Africa. Since its founding in 2012, the company has served over a million people with clean power in five countries.Over the years, Zola has evolved from a small, scrappy startup that offered very basic energy packages into a hardware company that installs sleek, scalable power systems that function better than the grid. “[Our goal] was not to be worse than the grid, but available anywhere — but to just be better than the grid. For solar and batteries to fundamentally be cheaper and more reliable than the grid. And if we succeed in that in the developing world,

This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between CohnReznick Capital and GTM Creative Strategies. Britta Von Oesen knows risk. As an intern in Lehman Brothers’ global energy unit in 2008, she watched the collapse of the investment bank in real time. Later, she watched European markets grind to a halt after feed-in-tariffs were reversed.And in the U.S., she’s monitored the ever-changing tax policies and regulations that impact wind, solar and storage.Today, Britta is a managing director at CohnReznick Capital. Her job is to help figure out how to get wind and solar deals done in the face of policy and financial risk. In this special episode, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital, we sit down with Britta Von Oesen to unpack some of those policy uncertainties and what they mean for renewables.Go to CohnReznickCapital.com to learn more about how the company builds relationships, closes deals, and helps clean energy companies excel.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/pri

The Bonneville Power Administration, the government-owned “power marketing agency” that serves the Pacific Northwest, is facing a strong current of problems. As cheap renewables make hydro less competitive in the region, BPA is now bleeding money. There’s now concern that its utility customers will stop buying hydro after contracts expire.Meanwhile, the cost of rehabilitating salmon populations is mounting. As the power provider grapples with $15 billion in debt, some are calling for a reformation of BPA. How can the government prepare the hulking agency for the competitive clean energy future?We’ll talk to a Jeremy P. Jacobs, a reporter for E&E’s Greenwire, who’s been digging into the story. You can read parts one, part two and part three of his ongoing series.Then, climate strikes swept the globe last Friday, raising unprecedented media coverage. How is this different from previous mobilizations around climate? We’ll put this moment in the context of recent history.Finally, offshore wind is getting

This week: We’ve gone from drought to flood.People who care about climate change have spent the last three presidential election cycles cajoling, prodding and begging television news outlets to cover the issue. But the more pressure mounted, the more coverage lagged. Across all three debates between Clinton and Trump in 2016, environmental issues got just under 5 and a half minutes of air time. And in all of 2016, the major networks talked about climate for just 50 minutes combined.And then suddenly in September, we got CNN’s town hall, a seven-hour extravaganza that actually allowed candidates some time to tease out the nuances of their plans.Sure, the moderators asked some weird questions about cheeseburgers, plastic straws and electric cars. But for the most part, the conversation was substantive and helpful.In this episode, we’re digging into a few questions: Did the town hall advance the narrative? Did it change the campaign and polling? And which candidate performed the best?We’re joined by Dr. Lea

America is a place where if you can dream something — no matter how big or ambitious — you can do it. Unless you’re trying to string 700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to bring wind power from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Our guest this week is Russell Gold, author of a new book about the saga that unfolded when wind energy pioneer Michael Skelly tried just that. The book, “Superpower,” is all about Skelly’s attempt to build one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects in recent history — and how he faced nearly every obstacle imaginable. What does Skelly’s journey tell us about America’s diminishing ability to do great things?Russell Gold is a veteran newspaper reporter who was a pulitzer prize finalist for his reporting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He wrote a book in 2014 on the rise of fracking, called “The Boom.” He’ll join us to talk about the reasons why Skelly’s transmission plan failed.Then, two top presidential candidates are calling for a ban on fracking and pro