We all fall victim to myths. But when they're deeply tied to our belief systems, they can be nearly impossible to break. On this week's show, we're busting some of the most common myths in clean energy: No, storage doesn't necessarily increase emissions. It depends on how it's used . No, solar isn't just for rich Democrats. In California, Republicans are buying solar more often . No, renewable energy doesn't inherently raise electric rates. In fact, U.S. electricity prices have fallen . In the s...
May 04, 2018•46 min
This podcast episode sponsored by West Monroe Partners , and brought to you by creative strategies. How do we think about change in the electric utility industry caused by distributed resources? Is it like telecom? Internet-based retail? Sam Uyeno, senior manager in West Monroe Partners’ energy and utilities practice, says that it may be more like ride sharing. As distributed resources flourish, he argues that utilities will have to think about how to leverage new customers within its network — ...
May 02, 2018•26 min
Are we entering a new era of grid planning? In recent years, we've assumed that sweeping reforms are the best way to get distributed energy built. But in pockets of the country, a more localized approach to deploying these assets is taking hold – and it could be the sign of a much bigger shift to come. On this week's Energy Gang, we'll look at Washington, D.C.'s new proposal for an authority that would push PEPCO to consider distributed alternatives to infrastructure projects. Then, why is one o...
Apr 27, 2018•48 min
SunPower couldn’t convince the Trump Administration to abandon tariffs on imported solar panels. So now it plans to buy one of the companies pushing tariffs in the first place. Yesterday, SunPower unveiled plans to acquire SolarWorld’s U.S. operations. Two months ago, CEO Tom Werner said SunPower was going to divest from America. But now he’s buying his way back in. In this week's episode, we'll explain how Trump's demands for tariffs are shifting the PV manufacturing landscape. Then, 173 countr...
Apr 19, 2018•48 min
Statoil is the largest operator of oil and gas rigs around the world. Consequently, the company's biggest low-carbon investments are offshore: floating wind farms and distributed carbon capture and storage. This week, we're talking to Stephen Bull, the VP in charge of Statoil's low-carbon business, about where he sees the most potential. We'll talk to him about the performance of floating wind, the economics of CCS, and whether oil companies are investing enough in their new energy divisions. We...
Apr 13, 2018•40 min
After a multi-year decline, global carbon emissions are on the upswing. The International Energy Agency now says that emissions grew in 2017 -- caused by an increase oil, natural gas and coal demand. Nearly three-quarters of new energy demand across the globe was served by fossil fuels. At the same time, America saw another yearly drop in carbon emissions, which IEA says was assisted by renewables. But with more and more carbon-free nuclear plants slated for closure across the U.S., many worry t...
Apr 05, 2018•49 min
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for two of Silicon Valley’s top car companies. After a pedestrian was killed by one of Uber’s autonomous cars in Arizona, the company’s AV operations were suspended. Other driverless car companies are now weighing the consequences to the technology, and regulators are asking if we need to slow down real-world testing. Tesla is dealing with two crashes of its own. The crash of a Model X is raising questions about autopilot mode, and its stock has crashed 25 percent...
Mar 29, 2018•36 min
In the early 2000s, investors weren't very interested in SunEdison's business plan to finance solar with power purchase agreements. "No one wanted to hear about physical infrastructure," said Jigar Shah, who drafted the business plan and co-founded the company. It took until 2006 to raise venture capital. But soon after, PPA customers started rolling in: Staples, Ikea, then Whole Foods. "It was an idea who's time had come," said Shah. The PPA is now the backbone of solar. In this week's edition ...
Mar 26, 2018•56 min
There are three forces coming together in the transportation sector: vehicle autonomy, vehicle sharing, and vehicle electrification. On their own, app-based sharing and electric vehicles are powerful agents of change. Together with automation, "they're revolutionary," argues Dr. Dan Sperling, author of a new book on the subject. "It will change our lifestyles, it'll change the automobile industry, it'll change land use and cities, it'll change energy," he explains on this week's podcast. Sperlin...
Mar 16, 2018•59 min
Amazon's analytical approach to understanding the customer allowed it to move beyond books and dominate the retail space. Entire industries are getting upended and transformed as a result. This story about disruption is a familiar one. We’ve seen how it plays time and time again – and it’s not pretty for the incumbents who fail to catch up with technology. It's a compelling narrative in the utility space, where we are smack in the middle of an Amazon moment. Electricity consumers want choice. Th...
Mar 06, 2018•38 min
Last June, comedian John Oliver devoted a long segment to the struggling coal industry on his HBO show Last Week Tonight . He turned his attention to Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, one of the most bombastic advocates of coal. And then Murray sued Oliver for defamation. That defamation lawsuit was thrown out by a judge last week. But the saga tells us a lot about Robert Murray, one of the most influential figures behind the Trump Administration's coal policies. In this week's episode, w...
Mar 01, 2018•49 min
If storage is the Swiss Army Knife of the electric grid, then U.S. energy regulators are breaking out their tool belts. Last week brought a historic ruling at FERC. Commissioners told regional grid operators to create rules valuing the grid services of energy storage. Will it screw natural gas peakers – or maybe cut, saw, file, prune, hook, or crimp them? Later in the podcast, an infrastructure redux. The White House’s infrastructure plan is out. When it comes to energy, the Trump Administration...
Feb 23, 2018•47 min
Since the White House slapped penalties on solar panels made outside America, a handful of companies say they’re likely to ramp up production in the U.S. In recent weeks, two Asian producers -- Jinko Solar and United Renewable Energy -- said they're planning to set up new module assembly plants. Other domestic producers are making plans to hire new employees. How should we interpret this activity? Does this mean the tariffs are working? On this week's Energy Gang , we're joined by GTM Senior Edi...
Feb 07, 2018•45 min
There are tens of thousands large-scale wind turbines scattered across America. That means over a million and a half households are located five miles from a turbine. And they’re actually inching closer to homes on average, according to government researchers . So how do those machines impact our property values, our soundscapes, and our quality of life? The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has a slew of new data on the impact of wind turbines on our lives. In this week's podcast, we’re going to d...
Feb 01, 2018•42 min
The Trump Administration just imposed 30 percent tariffs on imported solar cells and modules. How much will it stunt solar growth in America? Will it spark a broader trade war? There are a lot of questions about the impact. In this podcast, we’re giving you the answers – or, as many answers we have, just a day after the decision. This week, we'll bring together our teams from The Interchange and The Energy Gang together to answer listener questions about the tariffs. We'll also talk with GTM Res...
Jan 23, 2018•44 min
The next sector ripe for electrification: aviation. Electric airplanes could completely make over the regional airline sector -- fundamentally changing the way we move around the country and creating new economic opportunities. On this week's Energy Gang , we'll talk with Ashish Kumar, the CEO of Zunum Aero, about the company's electric propulsion system and hybrid-electric airplane model. We'll discuss design challenges, battery requirements, immediate market opportunities, and the long-term ec...
Jan 19, 2018•48 min
Nearly one year after President Trump was sworn into office, we’re re-examining the state of energy politics in Washington. Our post-election episodes were some of our most popular shows of last year. This week, we’re returning to the subject now that we’ve got experience, and not just speculation. Amy Harder , an energy and climate reporter with Axios, joins us to talk about a wide range of topics: Rick Perry's NOPR rejection, deregulation, solar tariffs, ANWR drilling, carbon taxes, an infrast...
Jan 11, 2018•53 min
What's it like inside the Environmental Protection Agency as the Trump Administration dismantles it from the top down? This week, ProPublica’s Talia Buford joins us on The Energy Gang to talk about how Scott Pruitt’s aggressive regulatory rollback agenda is changing the agency’s relationship to science, to industry, and to the staffers who've worked there for decades. An abandoned rule on effluent from power plants tells us a lot about Pruitt's approach to disassembling the EPA. Then, New York G...
Jan 05, 2018•59 min
We spend most of our time talking about other companies. For our first podcast of the year, we're turning the tables and reflecting on GTM. In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviews GTM Co-Founder Scott Clavenna about the origins of our company, the challenges of being a startup in the cleantech world, and our recent acquisition by Wood Mackenzie. Watt It Takes is a live interview series produced by Powerhouse in partnership with GTM. The conversation was recorded ...
Jan 03, 2018•57 min
Good journalism is more important than ever. In our last episode of the year, we're choosing our favorite energy reporting of 2017. We'll start off with a conversation about a damning investigative piece on how U.S. utilities put ratepayers on the hook for $40 billion in failed coal and nuke projects. Tony Bartelme, a special projects reporter at the Post and Courier , joins us to talk about his bombshell story , "Power Failure: How Utilities Across the U.S. Changed the Rules to Make Big Bets Wi...
Dec 22, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Energy storage has arrived. This year brought numerous record-breaking battery projects, dozens of acquisitions and partnerships, and over a dozen utility integrated resource plans that factor storage. Within a decade, the U.S. storage market could be 25 times bigger than it is today -- swamping natural gas peaker plants, and enabling a vast array of new grid applications. In this week's episode, we open up our vault of data and describe the state of storage in America: which sectors are dominat...
Dec 14, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Southern New England is hungry for more clean energy, and states like Connecticut and Massachusetts are turning to Hydro-Quebec for its excess hydropower. There's one sticking point: they need a new transmission line to get all that power from Northern Quebec. And citizens in the states that could host new transmission projects -- New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine -- are resisting construction plans. A lot of attention has focused on controversial transmission projects like Northern Pass. But wha...
Dec 08, 2017•53 min
We've reached a new stage in cleantech. Years after the VC bubble popped, startups are pursuing new approaches to scaling, finding customers, partnering, and raising money. Those new approaches to scaling early-stage cleantech were crystallized this year. And we're going to talk about them. This week, we recorded live at Greentown Labs , the largest cleantech incubator in the country. We discussed a wide range of trends: the emergence of blockchain, a diversifying class of corporate investors, t...
Dec 01, 2017•1 hr 1 min
Dan Shugar lives, breathes and bleeds solar. "If you cut my wrist, pure silicon comes out," he exclaimed in an interview with Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch, as part of the Watt It Takes interview series . This week, Shugar steps behind the microphone to talk about turning his passion for PV into deals and acquisitions worth over $1 billion. Shugar has a storied career. Some call him the "King Midas" of solar, because he's turned so many ventures into gold. He's the former president of Powerlight, ...
Nov 22, 2017•59 min
The House passed its tax reform bill yesterday that includes cuts to renewable energy tax credits. The package is already having a chilling effect as developers stall projects because of a potential change to the tax code. What will happen when the Senate and House try to reconcile their two bills? We'll try to anticipate the political chess match before the pieces move. Then, we'll take a look at Tesla's newest shiny object: the electric semi-truck. Is this a convenient distraction for Musk as ...
Nov 17, 2017•49 min
This week: a conversation with Andrew Birch, the co-founder and CEO of Sungevity. For those who’ve been following the wild ride in solar, you’re going to want to listen to this conversation. Sungevity was once one of the biggest residential solar installers in the U.S. – until it filed for bankruptcy protection at the beginning of the year. In this interview, Andrew Birch talks candidly about how Sungevity was founded, what killed an acquisition deal to save the installer, how market forces and ...
Nov 07, 2017•54 min
Since taking over as administrator of the EPA, Scott Pruitt's meeting calendar has been filled almost exclusively with industry interests. Now he's opening the door even wider for industry. On Tuesday, the Administrator issued a new decree: any scientist getting funding from the EPA will no longer be allowed to serve on the agency's scientific advisory board. He's replacing scientists with representatives from the chemical, fossil fuel and utility industries. The scientific community is up in ar...
Nov 03, 2017•51 min
"Don’t let government pick winners and losers." That was Rick Perry’s mantra as Texas governor and a presidential candidate. But it didn’t take him long to abandon it as energy secretary. This week, we’ll revisit the rare, bizarre request from Perry asking federal regulators to restructure electricity markets and prop up struggling coal and nuclear plants. Then, the latest on the post-Hurricane energy crisis in Puerto Rico. We'll talk about the rebuilding effort, a controversial grid-rebuilding ...
Oct 27, 2017•58 min
This week, we’re unveiling a new podcast collaboration between Greentech Media and Powerhouse, called "Watt it Takes." Watt It Takes is produced and recorded live at Powerhouse, a cleantech incubator and seed fund in Oakland, CA. Each month, a founder of a top clean energy company shares the personal story behind the company they’ve built. Our first episode features Dick Swanson, founder, and former CEO and CTO of SunPower, who talks about the wild ups and downs of building one of the largest so...
Oct 09, 2017•1 hr 6 min
When we first hit the record button four years ago, the energy landscape looked very different. Oil prices were above $90 per barrel. Utilities were only just starting to take distributed resources seriously as grid assets. Coal was still on the upswing globally. There was great uncertainty around a global climate deal. And Donald Trump was still two years away from announcing his presidential campaign. For our 200th episode of The Energy Gang, we'll reflect on the biggest changes we saw coming ...
Sep 29, 2017•51 min
