Interchange Recharged

This week, we present a special episode brought to you by the Energy News Network . We profile State Senator Bob Steinburg, a local North Carolina politician who spent a lot of time in his republican primary campaign talking about the benefits of renewable energy.  We also talk with Elizabeth Outzs, a journalist at the Energy News Network, who covered Steinburg’s campaign. “What we’re seeing...

Forget everything you think you know about solar. A growing body of research and real-world experience shows that solar can be a flexible, dispatchable resource. And it can potentially rival gas plants in providing grid regulation services — without the use of batteries. We’ve had the technology to allow solar and wind to provide grid services for years. So how do we open up markets to unleash the...

This week, we’ve got our year-end recap — with an Interchange twist.  We’re going to cover the following topics: The story that didn’t warrant the attention it got.  The story that should have gotten more attention than it did. The energy tech/sector/personality that had the biggest breakthrough of the year The energy tech/sector/personality that had the biggest setback of the year A not...

This week, we've got a live episode recorded at GTM's storage summit. We'll talk about the hottest energy storage stories of 2018, Oscars style. Julian Spector and Stephen Lacey debate nominees and award recipients in the following categories: Best original policy and regulatory development Best application for storage in a hybrid or supporting role Best foreign storage market Best new artist Best...

This week, we’re road tripping across Europe.  In Poland’s coal country, diplomats are breathing in smog-filled air, preparing to strengthen a global climate deal. In France, angry protestors are rioting in the streets over a gas tax as part of the president’s climate policy. And in the U.K., Britons may leave the European Union without a deal in place, threatening the health of energy m...

We’re back with another edition of “consensus” this week. GTM Co-Founder Scott Clavenna joins us to explain the arcane and hyped up world of blockchain to our listeners in the energy business. We promised not to discuss blockchain on The Interchange until we saw some newsworthy developments — now we have too much to sift through. So we’re going to survey the most important stories of the last year...

There are tradeoffs to everything in energy. So why not put those tradeoffs to a test? We recently crowdsourced some "would you rather" scenarios from our listeners. On this week's  Interchange  podcast, we'll choose our favorites and debate the scenarios. Here are the scenarios: Would you rather have $10 billion in renewable deployment funding, startup funding, or R&D...

When you grow plants with electrons rather than the sun, what happens to the grid? This week, we’re talking about the energy profile of indoor plant factories. Indoor farming is having a moment. Venture capitalists are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into vertical farming startups growing in urban, industrial facilities. Cities are easing restrictions to encourage more plant factories. A...

This week, we’re taking bets on the future of energy. Shayle wrote a piece celebrating his colleague’s expected daughter, nicknamed Bug.  Bug will be born at the beginning of 2019. She’ll enter high school in 2033 and turn 30 in 2049. What will her future look like? In this episode, we outline 8 different scenarios that Bug may face in her lifetime — and decide whether or not to take Shayle’s...

How are residential customers shopping for solar? This week, Stephen shares his solar experience. He’ll explain how and why he made his decision — and what it tells us about the way people look for solar offerings today. Brian Sadler, the VP of project development at Revolusun, describes the residential solar sales cycle. Vikram Aggarwal, the CEO of EnergySage, talks about how installers can bette...

This week, a conversation with Joe Aamidor, an expert on smart buildings.  Over the last two years, large multinational energy firms have dumped billions of dollars into commercial energy management — acquiring companies in smart lighting, demand response, battery storage, energy billing, microgrids, smart controls and software. But there’s no one-size fits all approach to the built environme...

This week, we present an original podcast, brought to you by Wunder Capital . Katie and Becca do a lot of solar deals. They're closing tens of millions in commercial solar projects every month. Karen is an SREC trader and longtime real estate pro. She recently approached Katie and Becca with a complicated merchant solar project. The three of them worked hard to refinance the project -- and when it...

Self-flying electric airplanes are closer than you think. But how close? Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures, has been watching the space intently. His firm recently invested in Lilium, a startup making a vertical takeoff and landing jet.  "In the near future, this industry could vastly change how and where we all live, work and play. There are indeed threats and challeng...

Everyone is paying close attention to Judge Brett Kavanaugh. On Thursday, Trump's Supreme Court nominee will face questions from Congress about alleged sexual assaults. In most cases, Supreme Court confirmation hearings aren't made-for-television affairs. But a  new poll  out from PBS and NPR shows that 58 percent of Americans will be paying attention to this week’s confirmation hea...

This week, we take stock of the market for solar and storage.  How much solar and storage are getting built — and at what cost? We’re joined by MJ Shiao, director of Americas research for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, for a look at the factors currently driving PV development and battery deployments. We'll answer: How have tariffs impacted pricing? How did the sudden slowdown in Chin...

This spring, electric bikes and electric scooters started showing up on the streets of a handful of major U.S. cities in droves. Where did they come from? They were put there by a new breed of Silicon Valley companies focused on creating a new "last mile" ride sharing service. The startups have spread so quickly, Uber and Lyft are now trying to get in on the action. This week,...

The clean energy industry may not have a lot of money to spend collectively on advertisements. But over the years, we've seen numerous TV ads, infographics, slogans, and all kinds of marketing campaigns from individual companies. So this week, we are going to rank some of our favorite – and least favorite – marketing efforts. We'll also debate the perennial question: do we need a "Got Milk" campai...

This week, we’ve got an investigation into the always-on vampires lurking in your home.  Actually, one vampire in particular: your DVR box. The engineers over at Sense Labs recently started opening up and testing DVR boxes. They found that power-save mode doesn’t actually do anything — it only saves about a watt of energy. Compared to smart televisions, gaming consoles or smart phones, the po...

This week, we present an original podcast, brought to you by Wunder Capital. If you’re interested in learning more about is connecting investors and installers at a record pace, read the company’s  2018 mid-year review .  Nick and Nick are good friends. They’re fellow solar geeks. They do business together. In fact, they may have cracked the commercial solar code together. Nick Kerwin is...

This week on Watt It Takes: We’ll hear from  Susan Kennedy , the CEO of Advanced Microgrid Solutions, about her transition from politics to behind-the-meter energy storage. Kennedy was an important player in California environmental politics. She influenced some of the biggest pieces of legislation that launched the state’s solar industry and cap-and-trade market. She also worked as a senior...

Ten years ago, in the summer of 2009, the U.S. House passed a landmark cap-and-trade bill. Then it died in the Senate a year later. The politics of climate have been completely frozen ever since. The rise of the Tea Party, Republican anti-Obama sentiment, and an influx of money against pro-climate candidates derailed the issue. Republicans stopped engaging — and the ones who did believe in fi...

Elon Musk recently laid out his plan for a government on Mars in one tweet : “Direct democracy by the people. Laws must be short, as there is trickery in length. Automatic expiration of rules to prevent death by bureaucracy. Any rule can be removed by 40% of people to overcome inertia. Freedom.” That got us thinking. Could we craft an ideal U.S. energy policy in less than 280 characters?  On...

Ah, the pivot. Did you know that Nokia started out as a paper mill in Finland? Or that Nintendo once made instant rice? Many of the world's leading companies start out in radically different markets. Cleantech is the same. Sales cycles are often slow, technologies don't work as planned, and customer needs are constantly evolving. In the tumultuous world of energy, companies pivot all the time...

The politics of energy independence are both deeply bipartisan and deeply partisan. Every president since Richard Nixon has declared a goal of eliminating America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy. But each President approaches independence from a very different political lens. Jimmy Carter was the first to make renewable energy a centerpiece. Ronald Reagan dismantled that strategy and ins...

On this week's Interchange podcast, we saddle up to some adult beverages in a back room at GTM's grid edge conference to discuss the biggest topics in the industry. First, to artificial intelligence and machine learning: What do we exactly mean by "distributed intelligence?" We'll examine some clear use cases. Then to utility innovation: How do power incumbents grapple with the technologies that c...