More Than Eight Minutes - Extended Interviews

Send us Fan Mail AI data centers are overwhelming the power grid — but the fastest, cheapest, and cleanest solution may already be sitting on rooftops. In this episode, Paul Schuster sits down with Sachu Constantine, Executive Director of Vote Solar, to explore why distributed solar and battery storage are the overlooked key to powering America's AI boom. Paul and Sachu unpack why utilities a...

Send us Fan Mail Paul sits with Tim Christophersen, VP of Climate Action at Salesforce and previously Head of Nature for Climate Branch at UNEP. Tim's recent book, Generation Restoration - How to Fix Our Relationship Crisis with Mother Nature , digs deep into the broken bond that we have with our natural world. Paul and Tim discuss not only how we got here in the first place, but what the pub...

Send us Fan Mail Let us know how we're doing - text us feedback or thoughts on episode content States have shifted to the forefront of climate leadership here in the US. And one of the tools that many of these States are employing to make it easier and less risky for individuals and companies to invest behind energy savings has been the Green Bank, a financial institution designed to overcome...

Send us Fan Mail With millions of miles of gas distribution pipelines under our feet, the transition away from gas and toward electrification needs to account for that existing infrastructure somehow. And that comes with risks, not only to gas distribution companies but to their customers as well. Understanding, anticipating and managing these risks is a vital part of a safe, equitable transition....

Send us Fan Mail The demand for electricity continues to go up. But instead of relying upon utilities to build more dirtier gas and oil fired power plants, a more novel approach is emerging. These Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) aggregate together a number of residential or commercial buildings and adjust demand in order to keep the grid operating optimally. Paul talks with Courtney Blodgett, Co-Found...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Paul sits with Stephanie Doyle, the California State Affairs Director for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), to discuss the changes that California has implemented to their net metering tariff for rooftop solar. NEM 3.0 (or also known as the Net Billing Tariff (NBT)) has reimagined the solar market in California, dramatically reducing the compensation...

Send us Fan Mail In order to meet the ambitious climate goals as enshrined in New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the state is about to embark upon a far reaching program to ratchet down emissions from heavy emitters. The Cap and Invest program has a lot of similarities to RGGI and other Cap & Trade efforts, with some key nuances on how New York is planning...

Send us Fan Mail Philanthropic giving to climate related causes is woefully small. But charitable dollars have a really important role to play because of their flexibility and different motivations. They can catalyze investment in areas where private or governmental dollars can not. In this episode, Paul sits with Randall Kempner, Senior Advisor to the Aspen Institute to discuss the role of philan...

Send us Fan Mail Paul sits with Mike Roeth of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) to discuss the current state of trucking and how that industry is decarbonizing. Although trucks only account for 5-10% of the vehicles on the road, they contribute up to a quarter of the transportation sector's greenhouse gas emissions. But whereas challenges remain to fully decarbonize lo...

Send us Fan Mail About 70% of New York City's emissions come from their buildings. So, getting a handle on this is super important. As one tool to enact, the city implemented Local Law 97 which not only requires buildings to become more energy efficient and, eventually, to reach net zero emissions - but the law ascribes penalties for properties that fail to meet the ratchet schedule. The firs...

Send us Fan Mail It's been about 6 and a half years since Hurricane Maria laid waste to Puerto Rico's power grid. As the island continues its recovery, it is pioneering a more distributed, renewable and resilient power infrastructure that the rest of us can learn from. In this episode, Paul sits down with Javier Rua of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico to talk about...

Send us Fan Mail Thermal Energy Networks are matriced assemblies of pipes and heat pumps where buildings can not only utilize the heat from the ground beneath us, but repurpose heat from the buildings around us to make certain we're not wasting anything. And, because of that, these systems may be a super efficient and cost effective means to decarbonize large swaths of cities and neighborhood...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Paul is joined by DR Richardson and Jan Keleher of Elephant Energy to discuss the challenges of the residential heat pump market. With an array of federal, state and local incentives, a myriad of technology options, sizing requirements, electrical upgrade decisions and other factors that play into installing these units, Elephant Energy has found a niche as a &quo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, recorded a few weeks ago, Paul sits with Catherine Atkin, co-founder of Carbon Accountable and one of the chief architects of California's new carbon disclosure law, SB 253. This legislation will, for the first time, require large companies doing business in California to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Paul and Catherine discuss the history...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Paul sits down Ashley Allen, Chief Sustainability Officer of the plant-based company, Oatly, to discuss the food system and the impact food has on climate change. In addition to discussing what Oatly is doing to mitigate their impact on GHG emissions, the two also discuss how the company is helping farmers and suppliers adapt to changing climate conditions as well...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, Paul sits down with Kathy Loftus of Retail Business Services, the services company for Ahold Delhaize USA which includes supermarkets such as Food Lion, Stop & Shop, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Giant Food. Kathy, RBS and the local retail brands of ADUSA are doing amazing work in helping to build sustainable supermarkets for the future. In addi...

Send us Fan Mail Not all of the energy challenges facing us are technical in nature. Equally important to scaling clean energy solutions are in lowering costs, investing in novel, newer technologies, and implementing processes that make it easy for consumers to transition. In this episode, Paul sits with Tom Chase from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, MassCEC, to discuss how that organizatio...

Send us Fan Mail The next decade could be that of battery storage. Boosted by new tax credits in the IRA, batteries are poised to become one of the most powerful tools in our tool belt for shifting to cleaner electricity. But storage isn’t just about storing solar power for use at night. They represent security, resiliency, flexibility and an opportunity for consumers to take advantage of utility...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Paul sits down with Greg Stevenson of Consumers Energy to talk about the utility's challenges and opportunities when it comes to helping the small and medium sized business (SMB) market. SMBs are something of a forgotten middle in the energy transition - as so much focus has been on large companies or on residential homeowners, but Greg and his team are putti...

Send us Fan Mail The influx of VC money in the 2006-2011 timeframe ignited what is now known as Cleantech 1.0; a boom, and trough, that have some people worried that today's frothy investment cycle may be headed for another sharp correction. In this extended episode, Paul interviews Jon Guerster of Activate Capital to understand how VC firms are thinking about today's Climatetech 2.0 - a...

Send us Fan Mail Not all renewable power projects are alike. A wind project placed next to another wind project may not have the same impact on reducing carbon emissions as one placed near a coal facility. The location and timing of when the renewable power is produced is important in order to truly maximize the impact.  Enter Resurety, an analytics firm that is providing large commercial & in...

Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode, Paul interviews Molly Bauch, head of US Energy Transition Services for Accenture. The two discuss the challenges that residential homeowners and businesses have faced in their journey toward clean energy - and what will be needed as the impacts from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation start to be felt.  Follow Paul on Lin...

Send us Fan Mail Paul sits down with Joe Aamidor of Aamidor Consulting to discuss Smart Building Management Systems. The built environment is a huge contributor to global emissions. But energy efficiency and weatherization solutions can only go so far in reducing the carbon from these facilities. Smart Building Management Systems step in to optimize the remaining energy usage and support a further...