This week on Watt It Takes : How a product manager at Google saw promise in geothermal heat pumps — and applied the lessons of solar to an underserved market. In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Kathy Hannun, the co-founder of Dandelion, a home geothermal company that uses a proprietary drilling technique, simple product design, and financing to cut the cost of ground-source heating and cooling. For seven years, Kathy was on the rapid evaluation team at Alphabet X — forme...
Apr 24, 2019•33 min
This week, we present a special episode produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital. How do you broker billions of dollars worth of renewable energy deals — and do it again and again? It takes grit, sure. But it also requires empathy. And that, says Conor McKenna, is the real art of the deal. McKenna is a senior managing director at CohnReznick Capital Markets. He’s helped close 8 gigawatts of wind, solar and biomass projects over his career. We all know “The Art of the Deal,” Donald Trum...
Apr 23, 2019•22 min
The tech giants are all going long on renewables, but Amazon seems to be going long on oil and gas. A new story details Amazon’s budding romance with the fossil fuel industry, while also lagging behind its peers in buying clean energy for its operations. Other tech companies are using their analytics for helping extract more fossil fuels — but is the extent of Amazon’s pursuit unique? Then, a new study shows that three-quarters of all coal in the US is more expensive than new renewables. But the...
Apr 18, 2019•40 min
This week, the Green New Deal ripples through Washington. A few leading Republicans are responding to the progressive climate plan with some ideas of their own: the New Manhattan Project and the Green Real Deal. They’ve gotten a mostly cold response from the left. But have we finally broken the ice for a legitimate cross-party policy discussion on climate? We’ll look at the GOP responses. Then, Trump’s latest verbal convulsion. Speaking at a fundraiser, the president said wind noise causes cance...
Apr 12, 2019•42 min
This past week, we recorded a live show at the MIT Energy Conference. The theme of the show: what the grid may look like by 2040. As a topical show, we usually don’t know what we’re going to be discussing until a day or two in advance. But the theme of the MIT conference was "tough tech and the 2040 grid" — so we decided to take it head on. To start, we’ll adjust our brains to the 2040 timeframe with some fantastical scenarios. Then, we create our own plans. We will each outline a possible futur...
Apr 07, 2019•46 min
Lyft is set for an IPO on Friday; Uber is driving up to the IPO window soon. Investors seem enthusiastic, but skeptics see a lot of risks and a bumpy path to profitability. In 2018, transportation network companies — pretty much Lyft and Uber — gave 2.6 billion rides. Lyft gave a billion of those rides, doubling its revenue over 2017 to $2.2 billion. We know the consumer appetite is there. But as Lyft hits the public markets, many wonder if that volume can be turned into profits. Autonomous cars...
Mar 28, 2019•1 hr 3 min
We're on spring break this week. We'll be back on Thursday with our regular show. To get you through the next few days, we’re offering up an earlier episode of Watt It Takes about the origin story of Greentech Media. In this edition of Watt It Takes, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviews GTM Co-Founder Scott Clavenna about the beginning of the company, the challenges of being a startup in the cleantech world, and our recent acquisition by Wood Mackenzie. Watt It Takes is a live interview series...
Mar 24, 2019•54 min
The latest numbers for U.S. energy storage activity are out. They show a surge of activity coming over the next five years, leading to 6x market growth. By 2024, the storage market will be worth $4.7 billion dollars, driven evenly by utility-scale and behind-the-meter battery projects. On this week's episode, we'll unpack the numbers in the latest Energy Storage Monitor from Wood Mackenzie and the Energy Storage Association. They show a doubling and then a tripling of storage to come — making ba...
Mar 14, 2019•56 min
This week on Watt It Takes : Terry Jester has seen it all in her four-decade career in solar and electronics. As both an engineer and an executive, she’s learned that timing is everything in the energy business. “I think as I’ve gotten older, I understand when best to strike…a good idea can not make it for bad timing, and a bad idea can go too far.” In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Terry, who is now chief executive of SolPad, maker of a modular home solar-storage syste...
Mar 06, 2019•50 min
This week, we’ve got a bonus episode produced in collaboration with NEXTracker. It’s all about the risks and rewards of doing business in the roaring Latin American solar market. We are speaking with two of the most in-the-know people on the subject. We’re joined by Manan Parikh, Wood a solar analyst focused on the Americas for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. And we’ll hear from Alejo Lopez, a senior director at NEXTracker, who’s helped grow a 3-gigawatt pipeline of trackers in Latin Amer...
Mar 05, 2019•25 min
We weren’t planning on making the Green New Deal a weekly item on the show. Then a video of Senator Dianne Feinstein dropped over the weekend, where she appears to lecture climate-protesting kids. It set off a chain reaction of outrage. The social media fervor has since died down, but some really interesting journalism was left in its wake. This whole affair highlighted the crazy upheaval in climate politics — we’re going to tackle some of the bigger questions raised. Are kids a legitimate const...
Feb 28, 2019•43 min
It’s been one year since the Trump White House slapped 30 percent tariffs on solar cells and modules imported into the US. What happened since? The solar industry said tariffs would destroy tens of thousands of jobs and set the market back years. Turns out, the market is a lot more resilient than presumed. We now have the jobs numbers and installation data for 2018 — and yes, the tariffs definitely hurt solar, but not nearly as much as expected. We’ll take stock of how tariffs shaped America’s s...
Feb 21, 2019•55 min
The Green New Deal plan is out, and we’re suddenly having a national conversation about climate change again. It’s also injecting some early drama into the presidential primaries. This week, we’re digging into the plan. We’ll tell you what’s in it, assess the reactions, and look at whether it will amount to anything. Also: is the democratic-socialist agenda antithetical the “creating climate wealth” framing — or complimentary? Then, recycling is in crisis. You’re probably recycling wrong. China ...
Feb 14, 2019•59 min
This week on Watt It Takes : How David Crane worked his way up in the power business to become CEO of NRG Energy — only to get tossed out of the job for his bold stance on climate. In this episode, Emily Kirsch talks with Crane about taking risks in the conservative power industry. We’re going to hear from Crane about why being a CEO is so lonely, how his open exit letter to NRG employees went viral, the best investment he ever made, and his early career. Watt It Takes is a collaboration between...
Feb 08, 2019•1 hr 17 min
This week: a battle Royale for energy dominance. We're cross-posting an episode from our other Greentech Media podcast, The Interchange . The competitors: utilities, oil & gas majors, mobility providers and big tech. We’re pitting them against each other inside of a voice-activated, electrified cage to see who will emerge as the energy company of the future. Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , Spotify or wherever you find your audio content....
Feb 05, 2019•45 min
What will the U.S. grid mix look like in 2050? It depends on which models you follow. The future according to the Energy Information Administration's latest report : wind will stop growing, coal will stop declining, demand for electricity will keep going up, and emission reductions will moderate. A lot of people are unhappy about it. It's no secret that EIA is ultra-conservative in its modeling. But why is there such a disconnect from the technological and economic shifts in energy markets? And ...
Jan 31, 2019•50 min
What is energy efficiency? That sounds like a pretty simple question. But it’s not. Defining efficiency used to be pretty straightforward: weatherize, upgrade equipment and lighting, use a bit of social science to cut consumption. But now efficiency is becoming just as much about shaping demand in real-time to support distributed energy. And that’s shaping how it gets defined, implemented and tracked. A confluence of factors — the rise of new consumer tech in the home, bundled distributed energy...
Jan 24, 2019•46 min
We are about to witness one of the most contentious and consequential bankruptcies in the history of energy. PG&E, California’s biggest utility, is reeling from wildfire costs — and it is now headed to the courts, where it will likely be dismantled. Will it crush California’s goals to clean up the electric grid? Or will lawmakers step in with a political fix? The stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re going to tackle the big questions raised by PG&E’s spiral. Then, why are hundreds of liberal ...
Jan 17, 2019•58 min
The political insanity in Washington can feel disconnected from reality. But two years into the Trump presidency, Americans all over the country are feeling it in the form of higher pollution. In this week's episode, we're starting off with a look at how the government shutdown and Trump's regulatory rollback are impacting energy-related agencies, and encouraging the discharge of more chemicals, heavy metals and air pollutants. Then Bill Gates is once again talking about the limits of renewables...
Jan 09, 2019•44 min
This week, it’s our year-ender episode. And you know what that means: we’re going round the horn with our assessment of 2018. First, we’ll discuss the top trends of the year. Then, a roundup of the best energy journalism of 2018. And finally, some predictions for 2019 — with a twist. Here some links to our top journalism choices: “ The Coal Bailout Nobody is Talking About ,” by Joseph Daniel “ Drilled ” podcast, by Amy Westervelt An interview with Ken Ward, jr. about his MacArthur Genius grant f...
Dec 21, 2018•52 min
This week on Watt It Takes : Wunder Capital CEO Bryan Birsic on why he wants to solve the commercial solar financing challenge, when so many others couldn't. "That is what a startup is to me. It's 50 or 100 people who can move a multi-billion-dollar industry in a way that an incumbent with thousands of people and multitudes of resources cannot," says Birsic. Since its launch in 2014, Wunder has exploded onto the solar scene. In this edition of Watt It Takes , Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks wi...
Dec 06, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Back in 2008, there was a lot of excitement about geothermal. Many major banks were backing large-scale geothermal projects around the world; a wide range of startups were promising to unlock new resources; and wind and solar hadn’t shown their explosive growth yet. But then the financial crisis hit. In the decade since, growth in geothermal has been lumpy — relegated to a handful of supportive markets around the world. Why has geothermal grown so slowly compared to other renewables? What’s hold...
Nov 28, 2018•47 min
California has seen a million and a half acres of forest burned this year. As the state recovers from the devastating Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire, residents are looking for someone to blame. Now attention turns to utilities. Both Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric are under investigation and facing class-action lawsuits for potentially starting the blazes. What happens to utilities if they are found at fault? And how do you protect a vulnerable electric grid as these fire g...
Nov 21, 2018•40 min
This week on Watt It Takes : How Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich convinced homeowners and banks to invest millions into third-party rooftop solar during the great recession. “Everybody said it won’t work. We took it as a challenge,” says Jurich. “And so we just went for it.” Sunrun was a pioneer in residential solar services. Unlike some of its fallen brethren pushing the national model, Sunrun grew at a much more sustainable clip. Today, the company is at the top of its game. Sunrun installed 100 megawa...
Nov 15, 2018•57 min
This week: we make sense of America’s midterm elections. Will Democrats do anything on energy in the House? Why did so many ballot initiatives fail? What does the score tell us about the value of running as a climate hawk? First, we’ll look at what happened in states with major ballot questions on carbon pricing, market design and renewables. Then, what happens over the next two years under Democratic leadership in the House. Finally, some specific races we were watching and why. We’re giving li...
Nov 08, 2018•46 min
Ten years ago this week, stock markets around the world cratered as fears grew that the global economy was headed into a deep, dark recession. Alan Greenspan called it “a once-in-a-century credit tsunami.” Today, we are still feeling the economic and geopolitical consequences of the financial crisis. Energy markets were also transformed as a result — often in surprisingly positive ways. In this episode of The Energy Gang , we’ll discussing the impact of the 2008 market meltdown a decade on. Woul...
Oct 26, 2018•1 hr 1 min
This week: the White House abandons a plan to save coal plants. Did Trump read the IPCC’s latest report and have a change of heart? Turns out, the legally-flimsy effort caved under its own weight. We’ll explain. Then, failing Brexit talks weigh heavily on energy companies in the UK. If a deal can’t be struck with the EU, what will happen to energy markets? Finally, Illinois came out of nowhere with an ambitious community solar program. But it’s gone nowhere. What happened? Recommended reading: P...
Oct 18, 2018•42 min
For two years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been working on a new analysis about global emissions pathways. The report was released this week — and the conclusion is pretty dire. Or is it actually more hopeful than it appears? This week, we’ll discuss the IPCC’s findings, debate the tone, and dissect media coverage of the report. Then, Orsted, the Danish mega-energy producer, is buying a leading American offshore wind developer. What does it say about the coming rush of offs...
Oct 11, 2018•51 min
This week, we're live in New York City. Our theme: are we making progress? We're joined by special guest Eric Roston, the sustainability editor at Bloomberg. A big thanks to the Urban Future Lab, ACRE and Solar One for organizing the show as part of Clean Energy Connections. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Oct 08, 2018•1 hr 35 min
For all our East Coast fans of The Energy Gang : make sure to get your tickets for our live show on October 4 in New York City! Find them here . This week on Watt It Takes: Why one man spent 15 years of his life obsessed with flying a solar airplane around the world. We’re going to hear from Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss-balloonist-turned-futurist who co-piloted Solar Impulse, the first solar-electric airplane to navigate the globe. Piccard is a very inspiring person. His entire mission was to do th...
Sep 25, 2018•49 min
