Experts Only

This week on the pod, Jon Powers sits down with Piper Foster Wild, CEO of 60 Hertz, to discuss how microgrids can reduce diesel dependence in rural Alaskan communities. It’s a fascinating discussion on how new technology is empowering these communities who have been plagued by operation and maintenance failures, living with the uncertainty their energy needs will be met. Prior to moving to Alaska,...

This week on the pod, Jon Powers sits down with Katherine Hamilton, co-founder and chair of 38 North Solutions, to discuss current climate culture and the challenges political leaders face with clean energy innovation. It’s a fascinating discussion on how policy makers influence new technologies, resilience and clean energy, and the role of innovation as a marketforce. Katherine has had a dynamic...

Thomas Byrne sits down with Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, to discuss climate change solutions, updates on progress from #California, and Terry’s journey to CEO of Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (and of course what it’s like working with Leo). Terry has an impressive and expansive history working on environmental causes for more than 20 years in state government, universiti...

This week, Thomas Byrne sits down with Gretchen Bakke, cultural anthropology professor at McGill University, to discuss her most recent book “The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future.” In the last century, America’s electrical supply has evolved from a series of smaller, distributed energy sources to mostly monopolized large utility companies. And still the energy system...

This week’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the NY Green Innovation Showcase, hosted by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Jon Powers sits down with Alicia Barton, President and CEO of NYSERDA, to talk about New York’s current and future roadmap in the energy transition. This conversation features insights from Alicia on the state of clean energ...

This week’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Clean Energy Leadership Institute’s (CELI) EMPOWER conference in DC. EMPOWER is the first conference dedicated to young professionals driving change in the clean energy sector, which says a lot about CELI’s mission as an organization. For those who don’t know CELI - the organization dedicated to developing and connecting the next gene...

Thomas Byrne joins us this week with an interesting conversation with Rob Day, Founder and Partner at Spring Lane Capital. Rob has been a sustainable resources private equity investor since 2004, and acts or has served as a Director, Observer and advisory board member to multiple companies in the energy tech and related sectors. Rob also serves on the Board at the New England Clean Energy Council....

On the pod this week, Jon sits down with Kelly Speakes-Backman, the CEO of the Energy Storage Association, the national trade association dedicated to energy storage, working toward a more resilient, efficient, sustainable and affordable electricity grid. The organization represents a diverse group of companies, including independent power producers, electric utilities, energy service companies, f...

Missed Solar Power International and Energy Storage International in Anaheim this year? Experts Only hosted our podcast in front of a live audience to discuss the Economics of Microgrids with Miranda Ballentine (Constant Power), Sachu Constantine (Vote Solar), David Rubin (PG&E) and Mike Wu (Converge Strategies). Today’s episode is a bit longer than our typical podcast as we discuss the evolvi...

Happy Birthday Experts Only! Thanks to all our listeners so far, it’s been a big year for our podcast, we’ve released 30 episodes with leading experts ranging from investors, industry visionaries, and innovators across the cleantech space and financial markets focusing on the intersection of energy, innovation and finance. We’ve invited back our first Experts Only guest, Abby Ross Hopper, Presiden...

Today we are speaking with Ilan Gur, the Founder and Executive Director of Cyclotron Road, a fellowship program that supports hard science and technology innovators as they advance a project with the potential for global impact. Ilan founded Cyclotron Road in order to provide entrepreneurial scientists and engineers with access to support and infrastructure that he noticed was lacking during his t...

This week, we are speaking with Nancy Pfund, Founder and Man­ag­ing Part­ner of DBL Part­ners, a ven­ture cap­i­tal firm whose goal is to com­bine top-​​tier finan­cial returns with mean­ing­ful social, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic returns in the regions and sec­tors in which it invests. As a lead­ing player in the grow­ing field of impact invest­ing, helping to reveal the power of ven­ture cap­...

This week, Jon Powers speaks with, Bill Bush, the Chief Financial Officer of Stem, a leading energy storage company, where he manages the company’s corporate and project financing efforts, guiding Stem from a startup to a $200 million-invested leader in the industry. Prior to joining Stem, Bill was CFO at multiple companies within the solar space, including Borrego Solar Systems, and Solar Semicon...

Today we sit down with the CEO of Elemental Excelerator , Dawn Lippert. Elemental Excelerator is a startup accelerator, supporting companies who seek to improve communities through technology, innovation, economic opportunity, and sustainable modernization. They've awarded over $22 million to over 60 companies working in energy, transportation, water and agriculture. Dawn has had an incredible car...

In today’s episode, Jon Powers sits down with Amory Lovins, the co-founder, Chief Scientist, as well as the Chairman Emeritus, of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Amory is a leading innovator on energy and environmental issues. Time has named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy named one of the 100 top global thinkers. His current work explores how to make int...

Join CEO Thomas Byrne and VP Zoe Berkery as they sit down with Erin Robert. Erin is Head of Capital Strategies at J.P. Morgan Chase Sustainable Finance. We cover a number of topics, including green bonds, corporate sustainability, and J.P. Morgan's effort to transform into a clean energy advisor and financier. She's a great guest with tons of insights we're sure you will enjoy as much as we did. E...

Today we're speaking with Greg Wetstone, the President and CEO of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE). ACORE is a national nonprofit focused on how finance, policy, and technology accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. Throughout his career, Greg's demonstrated leadership in this sector both in the private and public sector. Prior to joining ACORE, he served as the V...

This week, Thomas speaks with Jessica Bailey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Greenworks Lending, a leading PACE lending platform. Jessica is a pioneer and advocate of PACE lending, and Greenworks has done some groundbreaking deals in the past year. Jessica discusses her career to date, Greenworks, the PACE market, and the future of the industry. It’s fascinating conversation about how to set up market...

This week, Jon, sits down with Dr Emily Reichert, Emily is the CEO of Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech incubator in the United States. She helped grow the company from it’s four co-founders into a global leader in cleantech. Emily is chemist by training, who went to MIT Sloan Management. Listen in and learn how she leverages her technical experience and enhanced her skillset with the manageme...

This week, Thomas Byrne, CEO of CleanCapital, sits down with Varun Sivaram, a thought leader in the clean energy space. He’s We discuss his exceptional new book, Taming the Sun, which outlines the current clean energy landscape, and the advances that we need to make to unleash it. It's a thought-provoking book, and we encourage all listeners to grab a copy. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Exper...

For our 20th episode of Experts Only, we are bringing you an Experts Only first. Join us for our first ever live taping of the podcast at the PACENation Summit in Denver last month. Our bi-partisan panel discusses the different perspectives on PACE, how it relates to policy goals, and the wavering support from the federal government. The panel was a lively discussion of PACE administrators who are...

This week, Thomas Byrne, CEO of CleanCapital, sits down with Graham Smith, CEO and Founder of Open Energy Group. We discuss the challenges of financing small scale solar as well as the opportunities presented by technology to simplify the process. Graham was drawn to clean energy from a very early age and seized the opportunity to combine his background in finance with his early passion as a caree...

We have a unique episode this week. There is a lot of industry interest in PACE financing but not a lot of people know how it works. So we're joined this week by PACEnation's, David Gabrielson. David serves as the Executive Director and founded PACEnation in 2010. David and I will talk about PACE, which is property assessed clean energy, which is a financing mechanism that enables low cost, long t...

Join us this week for a great conversation with Ethan Zindler, Head of Americas at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Ethan’s career has taken him from baggage checker on the Clinton campaign to the White House to MTV to the early days of clean energy covering Cape Wind. For the last 12 years, as Head of Americas for Bloomberg NEF, he’s been at the helm when it comes to clean energy research, with indu...

Jon is back this week for a deep dive on energy with Dr. Arun Majumdar, former Director of Department of Energy’s ARPA-E and now at Stanford University. This conversation takes us through the amazing transformations that are happening in the energy space. We talk about how we are in a “tipping period” where we are seeing fundamental change in the energy markets, technology and the future of the sp...