Interchange Recharged

America’s physical infrastructure is in the dumps. The American Society of Civil Engineers regularly gives the country’s infrastructure a near-failing grade. We need to rebuild a lot of stuff. Hardening our roads, grids, buildings, transit systems has a climate context to it: we need to do it better and we need to do it cleaner. This week, we are exploring the cleantech opportunities in physical i...

This week, we have a special addendum to our deep decarbonization draft.  We’re talking with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson , the vice president of communication and engagement at Project Drawdown. Katharine is one of the minds behind the Project Drawdown solutions list that we used as the basis for our draft. We chose the list because it spans so many different areas of the global economy. Katharin...

This week, we offer our second installment of the Deep Decarbonization Draft — our fantasy sports event for energy and climate nerds.  Last year’s draft inspired similar versions at conferences and in the classroom. We’re bringing the game back by popular demand.  The premise is simple: Shayle and Stephen choose their teams of decarbonization technologies and methods, and then pit them a...

This week, we present the final episode in our 3-part interview series on climate risk. We’re going deep on the housing market.  Our guest co-authored an important study quantifying extreme weather risk in the U.S. housing market — and identifying how banks are shifting that risk to us, the taxpayers. Shayle Kann talks with Amine Ouazad , a professor of applied economics at the graduate busin...

This week, we present the second episode in our 3-part interview series on climate risk.  As the latest wildfires in California finally get under control, residents and public officials are in a state of panic. The scope and frequency of these disasters is expanding quickly. And it’s not solved by sprinkling more wind and solar on the grid — it’s a planning issue of the highest magnitude.&nbs...

This week, we present the first episode in our 3-part interview series on climate risk. How do we measure and quantify both the physical and economic risk of a warming planet? This question has very real consequences for the way companies are run, the way cities are planned, and the way markets are valued. In this episode, Shayle Kann speaks with Trevor Houser , a partner with Rhodium Group. ...

This week, we present a special episode in collaboration with Centrica Business Solutions and GTM Creative Strategies. For the last decade and a half, we’ve been hearing about how the internet-of-things would completely reshape how our buildings operate -- and how people operate within them. But while the layer of digital tech in buildings is advancing all the time, the IOT revolution is taking lo...

This week: three barometers of the energy transition. There are a lot of numbers flying at us every day — and it is our job to figure what they indicate about change.  In this episode, we’ll choose three different numbers from the transportation, heating and electricity sectors, and explain what they mean. At the end, we’ll choose which stat is most important. Follow along with us: Stat 1 : 2...

Could you do us a favor? Take our listener survey so we can give you more relevant content:  bit.ly/gtmpodcast Venture capital is an effective source of money for scaling companies quickly. But what if your company needs 15 years to prove itself? That’s the time horizon for many “tough tech” companies in energy that are developing new semiconductors, industrial processes, chemical production...

The market for home batteries is picking up. Residential storage capacity installations outpaced utility-scale installations in the second quarter of this year. There were more residential batteries installed in Q2 than in all of 2017. So what’s driving the mini-boom? Residential storage doesn’t mirror other technologies like solar. It’s more of an emotional sell — and there are a lot different va...

There are $70 billion worth of natural gas-fired power plants planned in the U.S. through the mid 2020s. But a combination of wind, solar, batteries and demand-side management could threaten 90 percent of those investments. New modeling from the Rocky Mountain Institute shows that more than 60 gigawatts of new gas plants are already economically challenged. And by the mid 2030s, existing gas plant...

We are now in a new age for clean energy: the age of 100%. Every week, we get some new declaration from a corporation, a city, a state or a utility that they are going 100%. But not all targets are created equal. 100% what? 100% clean? 100% renewable? 100% carbon free? Net zero emissions? To someone who doesn’t follow energy closely, they may all seem like the same thing. But these targets often v...

New York State offered Tesla $750 million to turn Buffalo into a solar manufacturing hub — why hasn’t Tesla delivered on the vision it promised? It’s been five years since SolarCity first declared plans to become a solar manufacturer, and nearly three years since Musk unveiled the solar roof. Tesla had plans to pump out thousands of solar roofs per week by now. But the company has quietly struggle...

This week: how much methane are U.S. oil & natural gas drillers emitting? The data is accumulating — and it’s not looking good.  A recent Wall Street Journal analysis found yearly methane emissions were equivalent to 69 million cars on the road. Some estimates are higher. The United Nations says yearly methane leaks may amount to adding nearly 100 million cars.  As activist investors...

This week, we have an interview with Christopher Leonard, author of a new book, “ Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America .” Earlier this month, David Koch passed away. And it suddenly got everyone talking about the Koch Brothers again.  It got us thinking about them too — not just their role in politics, but about the company they built. Koch Industries...

This week, we explore a possible financial time bomb for renewable energy: merchant risk. Since the dawn of grid-connected wind and solar, long-term power purchase agreements were the financial glue that held projects together. Developers could rely on relatively simple multi-decade contracts, thanks in large part to policy that encouraged or mandated utilities to enter those agreements. Today, th...

This week, we’re talking about a trend that’s picking up in electricity markets: aggregation of distributed resources. Utilities have been remotely switching off air conditioners to manage demand for a long time. But a range of emerging resources — solar paired with batteries, smart thermostats, intelligent water heaters, electric car chargers — are creating new kinds of virtual power plants. Peop...

Note: after this episode, we will be on hiatus for a few weeks while Stephen Lacey goes on paternity leave. This week, a conversation about what the Green New Deal reveals about public opinion on climate change. Why are national climate politics frozen? The conventional understanding is that Americans are deeply divided on the issue along party lines. Until recently, Democrats have been scared of...

This week, we present a special episode on behalf of Centrica Business Solutions. The Green New Deal is now a driving force in climate politics. But up until now, it’s been mostly theoretical. And then, in April, Mayor Bill De Blasio declared that New York City is creating its own version of the Green New Deal . As part of the law, large commercial buildings will need to cut emissions by 40 percen...

Every year, we see a wide range of models for the future global energy system. The scenarios come from a wide array of organizations: International Energy Agency and the Energy Information Administration; oil companies like BP, Shell and Equinor; and research outfits like Wood Mackenzie and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. And the conclusions are all over the map.  So a group of experts at Resou...

On the docket this week: curtailment of renewable energy. Historically, we’ve thought about curtailment as a waste of valuable clean electricity — a financial penalty for renewable generators who need to monetize every last electron. It’s already an issue today. California has so much solar power, in certain months it is dialing back tens of thousands of megawatt-hours of PV generation. It’s happe...

This week, we’re challenging our long-held beliefs about whether individual actions matter. Even if we drastically altered our lifestyles, would it do anything to address climate change? We all want to believe that our individual life choices will have a meaningful impact on carbon emissions. But a focus on solar panels, LEDs and vegetarianism may just be a distraction. This week, Stephen is going...

Over the next two weeks, we are challenging our long-held assumptions about energy. We’re going to take the opposite stance of an argument that we agree with. Can we change our minds? In part 1, we’re revisiting the assumption that most people do not care about energy.  Most people care about convenience, lifestyle and price. But do they care enough about their energy use to make a change for...

We present a special episode produced in collaboration with Centrica Business Solutions. In 2006, Kate Sherwood left her job in strategy consulting to work in solar.  “I realized what I had been doing wasn't getting me out of bed anymore,” says Sherwood. “So, I took a very big pay cut to move into carrying a bag, into being a salesman.” Selling solar to corporate customers at that time wasn’t...

What would a truly bold presidential plan to decarbonize the economy look like? Democratic candidates are offering up their visions. Elizabeth Warren is focusing on banning fossil fuel extraction on public lands and using the military to counter climate threats; Beto O’Rourke is looking to executive action; Joe Biden is teasing a “middle ground” plan. Then there’s Washington State Governor Jay Ins...