Interchange Recharged

To continue to accelerate the energy transition investment in clean tech companies is essential. We’ve seen more growth in the last 5 years than the last 100 with trillions of dollars flooding the market in the interests of accelerating the path to Net Zero.  On today's Interchange, we are joined by  Matthew Nordan  for an eye-opening conversation. Matthew is the General Partner of&...

Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Energy and Storage Summit has wrapped for 2022. Across 3 days of talks on solar and storage, we were live in San Diego, bringing you highlights from each day of the conference. On the final day we have a packed show for you, featuring an extended interview with Kelly Sarber from Strategic Management Group and Vanessa Witte, Senior Research Analyst on Solar Storage at Wood Ma...

Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Energy and Storage Summit is on now, and we’re bringing you all the action from 3 days of talks right here on The Interchange. We are live in San Diego, bringing you highlights from each day of the conference. We're here on day 2 of the summit, and the focus of the day is on the ever-evolving connection between solar and storage. In this recap of the second day, David is joi...

Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Energy and Storage Summit is on now, and we’re bringing you all the action from 3 days of talks right here on The Interchange. We are live in San Diego, bringing you highlights from each day of the conference. Across the next 3 special episodes, we talk to some of the best and brightest in solar and storage, exploring new technology and policies.   Day one is all a...

For this special episode - we look back at some of the highlights of the past 6 months, featuring clips from Alight, the Coalition for Community Solar Access, WattTime, UC Davis, Quaise Energy and Ecosene. We’ll be back in 2 weeks and taking a look at the financing of the energy transition, with Matthew Nordan, Partner at Azolla Ventures. The podcast is also going to be heading off to the Sol...

We are currently going through a reformation of the power grid, and a revitalization process in how we produce clean energy. Not only are there more ways to create and harness energy than ever before, but there are also new ways to store that energy. The energy storage industry is booming, but the modern batteries we use require one key component; lithium. To continue utilizing and perfecting thes...

When the sun stays out for a few extra hours in summer, where do we store the excess energy? This is one of the biggest challenges facing the renewable energy industry. When looking at countries like Norway, which is currently powered by 50% renewable energy, mostly coming from Hydropower, they run into the same old problem: having high influxes of energy and then dips. How do you store energy whe...

If you were offered free software that would automatically reduce the CO2 emissions from your energy usage would you accept it? This week's guest, WattTime, found that 90% of survey participants said “yes” to that very same question. At the other end of the scale, only about 55%  of Americans believe in climate change, according to a 2019 survey. New programs that help reduce emissions from d...

It feels like every other week we hear news about another CEO or billionaire jetting off into space. Are we entering a new era of the Space Race? instead of politicians and governments gloating about their space programs, we now have billionaires live-streaming their afternoon flights to the edge of the ozone. Every one of these launches emits 300 tons of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere....

Have you ever played around with the idea of installing a solar system for your home? Where would you start? What worries you most about the process? The price? Quality of work? What about the durability of the equipment? These concerns are often a barrier to residential solar. This week in the Interchange recharged we meet Otovo – an interesting business with European roots who are trying to remo...

75% of American households do not have access to solar power. Residents that do not own their own home or who live in apartments are unable to host a solar system and reap the benefits. So, what’s the solution? Community solar. Community solar projects subscribe multiple customers, including households, businesses, municipal buildings, and community organizations. These subscribers receive en...

The energy transition is an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ journey. As we know, there is no silver bullet or golden ticket that will get us to where we need to be. Just like our economy, it is compiled of complex systems, smaller markets, and key stakeholders. Another thing about our economy? It is always in a state of motion. Moving from one system to the next - carbon is an invisible stakeholder that is si...

Geothermal technology is a hugely untapped sustainable energy source. In this episode of the Interchange: Recharged, we drill Carlos, the CEO of Quaise Energy, on all things geothermal and the opportunities it presents to decarbonise energy production. Quaise seeks to unlock the potential of geothermal at the Terawatt scale. Carlos studied at MIT and then spent 15 years with Schlumberger, before h...

America's energy transition is a complex and intricate process with a lot of moving parts. When discussing decarbonizing the globe, the electrical grid is usually overlooked and left out of the conversation. With an influx of renewable energy entering the grid, a constantly growing energy demand, coupled with record-breaking weather events and ageing infrastructure we have seen the strength o...

On the Interchange this week, we are joined by Alight CEO and founder Dr Harald Overholm. Harald was previously a cleantech venture capitalist and an advisor on solar markets to the WWF and the Swedish Government. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Cambridge with a thesis on solar diffusion and PPA. Alight is the leading solar Power Purchase Agreement provider in the Nordics. The company...

President Biden’s Build Back Better bill includes tax incentives for consumers to switch to electric vehicles, and a multi-billion dollar plan for charging stations and infrastructure. The intent is there, but why is EV adoption in the US still lagging behind the rest of the world?  This week on The Interchange, we are joined by Professor Gil Tal from UC Davis, and Professor Peter Wells from...

You can develop enough renewable energy to power the world, but without energy storage systems, those developments are rendered somewhat moot. To achieve President Biden’s target of 90% renewables by 2035, the US needs an additional 9 terawatts of solar storage. What do our current storage solutions look like? Are batteries leading the charge? To answer those questions we turn to  Rebecca Cie...

Why wouldn’t everyone invest in solar? Well, for that reason exactly: it’s an investment. Although it’s praised for its low maintenance costs and long-term savings, it is still a hefty investment in terms of individual finance cost, manufacturing, and installation. The production of solar panels requires expensive raw material, such as high-grade silicon, and silver for the wiring and cells. If th...

An announcement: this is Shayle Kann's last episode of the show. In Shayle's final episode, he shares a few words about the history of the show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

At the beginning of the pandemic, energy prices crashed. We did an episode of this show trying to figure out how oil prices fell to negative $40 per barrel. Times have changed. Oil is up over $100/barrel. But far more acute is what’s happening with natural gas, particularly in Europe and Asia. In the US, natural gas prices have doubled in the last year. But in parts of Europe, the price has risen...

We’re rebroadcasting one or our favorite episodes, called “Would I Lie to You?”  We originally ran it right after the 2020 election as a light-hearted distraction during a dark news cycle. Shayle Kann gets together with Adam James, the Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President at Energy Impact Partners (where Shayle also works) to play an energy-themed version of the British game show Would I...

Shayle has been brewing up an investment thesis around how decarbonization will create stratification in traditional commodity sectors, like chemicals and materials. If you can produce the same thing in the same cost range -- but you can do so in a CO2-free or carbon-negative -- you'll reap the rewards. Lanzatech is a great test case for that thesis, as well as a great story to tell about the hist...

In January 2020, Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft, announced that the company had set a target of becoming carbon negative by 2030. How does the company plan to do it? What does going carbon negative actually entail? Brandon Middaugh , the Director of Microsoft’s $1B Climate Innovation Fund , comes on the show to explain. The fund invests in various climate technologies as a part of the comp...

The road to solar glory has been littered with failed companies -- the ones you may know (Solyndra) and hundreds you probably do not. Will the burgeoning hydrogen space follow a similar bumpy road? Hydrogen is at a similar phase of market and technological maturity, with similar levels of hype.  In this episode, Shayle talks to Raffi Garabedian , the former CTO of pioneering solar manufacture...

In the world of venture capital, climate tech is about as hot as it gets. In the first two quarters of 2021, climate tech companies raised $16B from VCs. New designated funds are announced regularly, startup valuations are sky high, and times are frothy. It's never been a better time to be a climate tech entrepreneur. It's easy to get lost in the noise -- so what does the hard data say? How much i...