Leaders in Cleantech

What’s it all about? Wireless charging!! We accept this as obvious for our smart phones, but less so for cars and vehicles of all types, but it was a flat phone battery that inspired the technology behind wireless charging leader Wi-Tricity. I speak with CEO Alex Gruzen about the technology, applications, and how close we are to simply driving over a charge pad, walking away, and coming back to a...

What’s it all about? Never a more important time than to think about where you spend your time (working time) and where you put and spend your money. This week I speak to serial cleantech investor and entrepreneur Duncan Grierson about his new venture, Clim8 Invest, and cleantech/fintech company making ESG investing readily available and much more transparent. I hope you enjoy the episode. About D...

What’s it all about? I love how Jeff and Dan have built Key Capture Energy to be a leading player in the utility scale energy storage sector since founding not many years ago. I first met and worked with Jeff Bishop three years ago, and we recorded one of the early episodes of the podcast. So much has changed in the business and the sector I wanted to share that journey, and Jeff’s thoughts and in...

More energy dense, faster charging batteries. Batteries, or any energy storage of all natures, are so critical to the ongoing energy and mobility transitions. One of the areas that doesn’t get much thought, but is so critical, is material science, the materials which enable bigger, better, faster, more efficient batteries. This week I speak to Francis Wang, CEO of Nanograf. From PhD to entrepreneu...

What’s it all about? The electrification of transport continues at pace (literally and metaphorically), and one of the most interesting areas of growth, particularly for those who have to deal with high levels of local and regional road traffic congestion, is electric taxi’s. One of the leading pioneers in this sector is Vertical Aerospace. I was able to speak to founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatric...

What’s it all about? Extreme fast charging of electric vehicles! I love batteries, and cars, and of course electric vehicles, and I’ve been watching Storedot for some time, and how they are creating batteries that can charge a car fully in 5 minutes. Now I don’t mind a 30-40 minute charge whilst stopped at a service station, or trickle charging at home, but for some people it’s still a barrier to...

What’s it all about? I first met Jules through his work at Cleantech Group, but was delighted when I saw, via a number of VC contacts, that he was leading the Cleantech for Europe initiative. I’ve worked for and with many of the VC’s involved, and their portfolio companies. This is a great initiative, with the mission to help the EU lead the race to net zero by putting innovation at the center of...

What’s it all about? In a nutshell, Lithium! So much is spoken about the supply and availability of Lithium, and about the Lithium battery sector, from availability of source material, the impact of extraction, and of course the geopolitics of lithium and battery supply. There is no doubt these are huge topics, with a significant impact on how and if we can make the transitions to clean energy and...

What’s it all about? It’s great to hear about start-ups, and those journeys, but we all know scale is what we want, it’s not easy, but you can have more impact and do more ‘good’ when you have scale. I’ve seen Anesco grow over the last ten years and make a real impact in the deployment of solar and energy efficiency in particular. It was great to have time to speak to the (relatively) new CEO Mark...

What’s it all about? One of the things that drives me most is helping cleantech founders and start-ups to scale and bring great products and solutions to the world. I do this through the Hyperion Executive Search team, through mentoring for accelerators and incubators like Plug & Play, and Foresight Cananda, and through this podcast. This week I’m keen to share a great new Rockstart accelerato...

What’s it all about? At last. With caution and compliance being followed, live events are back. I expect very many of the Leaders in Cleantech audience are familiar with the all things clean mobility and energy Youtube Channel Fully Charged. As well as having over 800,000 subscribers and 2 million monthly views, the Fully Charged team have also been running fantastic events, in the UK and Austin,...

What’s it all about? I was delighted when the Fifth Wall people reached out about the podcast. For some time I’ve wanted to address areas of the climate challenge, and areas of technology that are hugely important, but don’t often get much press or attention, including on this podcast. In particular the Built Environment is of enormous importance to us all on many levels, it is of course where we...

What’s it all about? Energy Storage!! More importantly optimising and commercialising grid scale energy storage assets. I first met Ben at a conference in London some years ago. He has since gone on to co-found one of the leading energy storage optimisation companies, recently expanding into Australia and the US. We have a dive into battery tech, long duration storage, entrepreneurship, and intern...

Toddington’s is a fascinating story, if you want to know about his childhood of TV powered by Solar in the deserts of Bahrain, or why he’s named after a service station, listen to our first conversation (episode 15- link below), but on this episode we focus on the concept of ‘Sun to wheel’, using solar power and batteries to power fast charging of electric vehicles through Electric Forecourts and...

What’s it all about? Money and People, the two main ingredients for a successful business (a damn good product/service is the other). More specifically it’s the RIGHT money and the RIGHT people. The right people is something we specialise in at Hyperion Executive Search, but I love to engage with passionate, experienced and mission driven VC’s and Investors who can provide money and so much more....

In my early days in renewable energy Good Energy were one of the few companies out there providing customers with clean energy to the consumer. They were a pioneer and inspiration as I co-founded my solar business. Now, many years later I have had the opportunity to have CEO and Founder Juliet Davenport share her founding story, and much more besides. An engaging and passionate climate activist, e...

What’s it all about? Green Hydrogen! I’ve been aware of Graham and the work of ITM for some time, since meeting their Germany team at Power to X event in Dusseldorf, and seeing the scale of their recently expanded manufacturing capacity, I thought it would be a great time to have CEO Dr Graham Cooley on the podcast. Hydrogen is still in some ways contentious, but as I’ve said many times, it’s abou...

Lubomila Jordanova is a cleantech force of nature. A passionate founder, leader and connector of people. I’ve enjoyed working with Lubomila via the Greentech Alliance, and seen how she has built and raised funds for the innovative Plan. A Earth platform, and transitioned the business during Covid. She has a great story and energy, and was delighted to be able to share that on the podcast. About Lu...

What’s it all about? Addressing the heating issue through geothermal energy, even at a domestic level. I’ve seen Dandelion growing, and raising funds and thought it is a technology we haven’t yet covered on the podcast, so I was delighted when Michael agreed to join me and tell his, and their story, and how heat pumps are one more solution in our armoury. About Michael Sachse: Michael Sachse is an...

What’s it all about? Going Double Unicorn in 5 years, and still knowing you are still only at the beginning of the journey! I speak to tech founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Greg Jackson about how he used tech as the platform to disrupt one of the industries most resistant to, and in need of disruption- energy supply. With a focus on technology solving problems, and driving down costs, AND a focus...

What’s it all about? Flow batteries have had their technical and commercial challenges over the years, so it’s good to see that the technology is really starting to get traction in that 6-12 hour storage category. It’s also good to hear a good traditional ‘started in my garage’ cleantech start-ups story, just watch for the EPA. This week I talk to Craig Evans about scaling a the flow battery techn...

One of the biggest challenges I face is trying to keep up with all the great books my guests recommend as part of the show. One that I absolutely loved and found incredibly useful was The Grid: The fraying wires between Americans and our energy future. After the recent black outs in Texas I thought it a great time to speak with the author Gretchen Bakke, and ask why that happened, what needs to ch...

Green Hydrogen! It’s hard to do or read anything in the sustainable technology sector without hearing about Green Hydrogen at present. What part does hydrogen have to play in the clean energy and mobility transitions? I’ve been working recently with hydrogen founders and entrepreneurs and I’m really intrigued as to where and how we could or should utilise hydrogen in the decarbonisation mission we...

I first spoke to Christian about joining on the podcast over two years ago, we planned to do so at the Hyperion office in Munich, time and pandemics conspired against us. But with so much happening in the space, and so much need for long duration energy storage, I didn’t want to wait any longer, seeing the progress they are making as a company, so I’m delighted to return to one of a few favourite...

Those who listen to the podcast will know I’m a big fan of the electrification of everything, but I’m also a (clean) technology agnostic, and in the drive to reduce fossil fuel consumption, sectors like hydrogen and biofuels may have a significant part to play. This week I talk with the very passionate and driven CEO of a biofuel company that recently made a game-changing breakthrough. Sarah Eller...