Interchange Recharged

There is no path to deep decarbonization that doesn't involve a clean power sector. And there is no path to a clean power sector that doesn't involve deploying massive amounts of wind, solar, and lithium-ion batteries. Those three technologies don't solve the entire problem of climate change, but they are the workhorses that will power a broader, multi-sector decarbonization approach. The power se...

The Nobel prize in chemistry in 1918 was awarded to a German man named Fritz Haber for a process to fix nitrogen from the air. The technique, which later became known as the Haber-bosch process, is probably one of the four or five most important inventions of the last century. Because nitrogen feeds crops. And as our population boomed during the 20th century, nitrogen fertilizer became the core fu...

We use the term “energy transition” to define markets, technology, business models. But what about people? The transition away from fossil fuels isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have. The hardest part isn’t building out the clean resources. It’s shutting down the dirty stuff at a pace the science demands. And that means disrupting entire classes of employment and communities that depend on fossil...

Carbon accounting and disclosure is getting attention at the highest levels. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, said in July: "I think updates to public company disclosures and to fund disclosures [on climate] could bring needed transparency to our capital markets. When it comes to disclosure, investors have told us what they want. It’s now time for the Commission to take the baton." Gensler d...

In the great debate over crypto mining vs. climate, there are two camps. First, the crypto enthusiasts, like Square, say things like, "Bitcoin is key to an abundant, clean energy future ".  And then there are the energy wonks, who point out that, if bitcoin mining were a country, it would already be in the top 30 for total energy consumption , rivaling Ukraine.  The energy camp tends to...

Back in 2016, Mateo Jaramillo left Tesla, where he was leading the stationary energy storage business, and started looking for a new challenge to tackle. He took on long-duration energy storage -- not long duration like 8 hours or 12 hours, but days or weeks or more. In 2017 he came on the show to talk about it .  He formed a company, now Form Energy, that has been toiling on this problem in...

This week, we’ll take a peek at the news. Last week, president Biden unveiled his administration's plan for a $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan which the democrats hope to pass through reconciliation. While the details are still sparse, we do know that one of the linchpins of the Biden administration's climate strategy -- a national clean electricity standard (CES) -- is included in the plan. It's...

In this episode, we’re measuring the energy transition -- using “Price is Right” rules.  Our former co-host Stephen Lacey is back on the show to face off against our current host, Shayle Kann. Producer Daniel Woldorff steps in as arbiter.  We’ll guess stats and trivia about climate tech, and discuss what those figures mean for the energy transition. They cover the MSRPs of popular EVs, t...

Elon Musk’s magic is making huge promises to transform a tech sector -- and then, after a series of setbacks, ultimately deliver.  But the Solar Roof never delivered on its promise of chic, affordable solar-power generating roof shingles, as Dana Hall’s recent article in Bloomberg lays out. Today, there are some solar roofs on homes. The Gigafactory that was meant to churn them out in Buffalo...

There were about eight years when climate tech was wandering in the wilderness, so to speak. It started after the Solyndra bankruptcy in 2011 and ended about two years ago, when the market began heating up again. During that time, people in this space examined the valleys of death. What are the stages in a climate tech company’s life cycle that might be painful -- or even fatal -- to go through? A...

We spend most of our time on this show talking about what's happening in climate tech. What technologies, business models, and markets are being developed? By whom? And how much impact will they ultimately have on decarbonization? But there's an equally interesting topic. What isn't happening? In other words, where is the white space? What areas, technologies, or markets need more attention? ...

The array of AI applications within climate tech is staggering -- and rapidly expanding.  There are lots of exciting point solutions, but there’s no clear example of AI directly and meaningfully reducing GHG emissions on a global scale. Yet. Last year we had Priya Donti on the show . She’s a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon and co-chair of the Climate Change AI organization. This week, she came...

Was 2020 the year of carbon transparency? That’s what our host Shayle predicted back in 2019. Today, we’re checking in on that prediction with a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes. It originally aired almost a year ago in late June 2020.  A handful of companies have experimented with labeling the carbon content of their products, but it's never really caught on. Now that might be cha...

The excitement around green hydrogen has grown dramatically in recent years. Will it live up to the hype? This week, we turn to technologist, author and investor Ramez Naam.  Ramez and Shayle examine the drivers behind cost improvement -- namely the costs of electricity and different electrolyzer technologies -- and why they are likely still a long way off the deep declines hydrogen needs to...

A decarbonized power sector will unlock massive opportunities across nearly every other sector, either via direct electrification or via indirect electrification via the production of low-carbon fuels, like green hydrogen. But here’s the rub. Many of the companies that are working on these solutions rely on pretty heroic assumptions around the cost, availability and cleanliness of electricity in o...

The pandemic has forced just about every part of society to reckon with resilience, but for cities the question is especially urgent. Will the global trend toward urbanization, which has been underway for more than 50 years, change its trajectory? Will increasing density remain the norm? The intersection of these two issues -- resilience and urbanism -- is relevant in a COVID context, but it's als...

The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office might be the most talked about -- and yet least understood -- part of the federal government’s efforts to support climate tech.  It has already invested more than $35 billion in everything from Tesla's first big factory to the first two nuclear reactors to begin construction in the U.S. in more than 30 years. It was crucial in getting the fir...

There are few areas harder to decarbonize than heavy industry. But the stakes are high. Altogether, industry represents over 30% of global GHG emissions, when counting both direct process emissions and industrial energy use. It’s also a huge opportunity for innovation. This week, Shayle talks with Rebecca Dell , the Director of the Industry Program at The Climateworks Foundation, about the technol...

There’s money to be made in climate tech, broadly defined. But where exactly? As investment pours into climate tech, it’s true that a rising tide lifts all boats. But in markets -- especially fast-changing markets, like batteries, hydrogen, carbon capture, just to name a few -- those boats don't all get the same lift.  Certain parts of the value chain, from upstream mining or manufacturing to...

The grid of the future lies 850 miles off the coast of Portugal, on an island in the Azores called Graciosa. The island has always been dependent on fossil fuels. But in 2018, that changed. That’s when a group of developers kicked off a hybrid wind-solar-battery storage power plant to slash diesel consumption. The plant consists of 1 megawatt of solar, 4.5 megawatts of wind, and a 6 megawatt/3.2 m...

This week: artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the many ways they can decarbonize the economy. From optimizing buildings to modeling new industrial processes to better managing the grid, AI and machine learning are core to many technology strategies for addressing climate change. So how, exactly, will they be implemented? And what problems can they solve? With us is  Priya Donti ,...

In 2017, Google became the first major company to reach 100% renewable energy through corporate renewables procurement.  But it was also the first major company to acknowledge that 100% renewable is not really 100% carbon-free. So Google set out to go further, and match procurement on an hourly basis, to reach the promised land of 24/7 zero carbon energy. It's going to be hard. But Micha...

In 2010, solar modules cost a little over $2 per watt. Many people questioned whether solar costs could come down another 50%. Well, here we are today with solar modules well below 50 cents per watt, far cheaper than most expectations. And it wasn’t some breakthrough revolutionary technology -- it’s been the crystalline-silicon solar panel the whole time. History has a tendency to repeat itself. O...

The oil majors are slowly recognizing that in a decarbonized world their fundamental business is going to have to change.  So what are they thinking? Where are they deploying resources -- and not deploying resources?  Ed Crooks is the right person to ask. He’s our oil major whisperer. He Vice Chair for the Americas at Wood Mackenzie. Last time we had him on the show was in May of 2020 wh...

Heather Rock joined PG&E as director of climate resilience in 2018 -- just two weeks before a faulty PG&E line sparked the most destructive wildfire in U.S. history.  It’s hard to imagine a more complicated or politically-charged role. Back in November 2019, our host Shayle made a bet. In a Medium post called “ The World around Us ,” he wrote: “I think we’re on the cusp of a cultural...