Open Circuit

America is choosing obstruction over abundance. While AI, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing require massive infrastructure investments, we're trapped in a permitting system designed for a different era — and a political system that rewards blocking over building. In this episode of Open Circuit, we're joined by Brian Deese, former director of the National Economic Council and current MIT in...

When 47 million people across Spain and Portugal lost power for nearly half a day in April, the finger-pointing began immediately. "Too much renewable energy," declared the critics. Even U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright piled on: "When you hitch your wagon to the weather, it's a risky endeavor.” There's just one problem with this blame-renewables narrative: it's completely wrong. In this crossov...

The climate tech investment landscape is undergoing a major recalibration. After a period of rapid growth and inflated valuations, investors and startups are now navigating a complex environment shaped by tariffs, shifting incentives, and economic clouds. In this episode of Open Circuit, we examine the latest data and investor sentiment trends with Kim Zou, CEO of Sightline Climate.  Sightline’s d...

The grid faces a mismatch: the system is getting smarter, but we're not getting smarter about how we use it. Utilities have installed 130 million advanced meters. Millions of homes have smart thermostats, water heaters, and batteries that could work in concert. Data centers could unlock over 100 gigawatts of new capacity without major infrastructure expansion. Yet most smart devices aren't coordin...

The exponential growth of AI is colliding with the linear reality of building energy infrastructure — forcing a rethink of how tech companies power their ambitions.  Is the corporate clean energy playbook becoming obsolete? In this live episode from Transition-AI in Boston, we dive deep into the infrastructure challenges of the AI era. We’re joined by Caroline Golin, who spent eight years building...

This week, we’re featuring an episode of The Green Blueprint featuring Drew Baglino, a former SVP at Tesla. Subscribe here.  In 2014, Drew Baglino was helping build Tesla's energy division with a passionate, scrappy team. Using parts from Tesla's vehicles, they created the first Powerwall home battery. But as demand grew, they hit a critical bottleneck: cell shortages. Customers across multiple ma...

America is facing an uncomfortable question: do we know how to build anymore?  House Republicans just passed a reconciliation bill that would repeal much of the Inflation Reduction Act while adding up to $5 trillion to the national debt. The legislation doesn't just gut clean energy incentives — it hinders the most realistic path to meeting exploding electricity demand. After leveraging hundreds o...

Texans take pride in their competitive electricity market, a system designed to let the cheapest resources win. And that market is increasingly choosing clean energy, with wind, solar, and batteries dominating new generation. Nearly 40 gigawatts have been added in just four years, equivalent to the capacity of a mid-sized European country. This market-driven boom has unequivocally lowered costs an...

When Elon Musk canceled Tesla's affordable Model 2 last year to go all-in on Robotaxis, he may have made the most consequential decision in the company's history. As Chinese automaker BYD captures global market share with lower-cost vehicles and superior charging technology, has Tesla prematurely surrendered the market it created? "In his mind, I think he ushered in the EV revolution for the world...

The Department of Energy is losing talent at an alarming rate. Described by insiders as a "hostile takeover," the agency's transformation under Trump has pushed out thousands of scientists, engineers, and policy experts. What's left behind are gutted offices, stalled infrastructure projects, and billions in funding commitments thrown into question.  This isn't a typical government transition — it'...

This week, we’re asking the central question of the energy transition: How fast are we going? Clean energy is bringing in $2 trillion of investment annually. Wind and solar now account for the vast majority of new electricity capacity globally. And we may already be at “peak trade” of fossil fuels. And yet, when we look at the share of renewables in final energy consumption, they’re increasing onl...

When tech giants build massive data centers to power AI, they're often negotiating confidential deals with utilities that few people will ever see — but that everyone might pay for.  Harvard legal expert Ari Peskoe has uncovered a pattern across 40 state regulatory proceedings: special contracts between utilities and data centers being approved with minimal public scrutiny, potentially shifting bi...

The business world is facing a tsunami of uncertainty. Across nearly every industry, investment is seizing up amid unpredictable tariffs and contradictory domestic policies.  In this week’s episode of Open Circuit, we examine how this compounding uncertainty is impacting clean energy during a critical moment of spiking demand and rising costs. We dissect the signals from the market, revealing that...

President Trump promised energy dominance. But his sweeping new tariffs are delivering the opposite – creating unprecedented uncertainty for every sector of the energy economy. Faced with a market in revolt, the president blinked. Just hours after his tariffs went into effect, he put a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, keeping a 10% baseline tariff and a 125% tariff on China.  In this episode of...

It's fair to say the last decade was the climate era of the energy transition. From the Paris Agreement to corporate net zero pledges, reducing carbon emissions dominated the global framework for deploying clean energy. But something profound is shifting. In this episode of Open Circuit, we explore how a new security-driven paradigm is replacing climate as the primary driver of energy investments....

Five years ago, as lockdowns swept the globe, we witnessed an energy shock that destroyed oil demand, upended electricity demand patterns, and dropped global emissions by staggering levels overnight.  In this episode of Open Circuit, we revisit predictions made during those early uncertain days and examine three major paradoxes that emerged.  First, how staying home rewired our physical and digita...

The residential solar industry is facing its most challenging period in years. High interest rates, sweeping policy change, and stubbornly high customer acquisition costs are all causing a contraction after years of rapid growth. In this episode of Open Circuit, we examine this market transition. We’ll look at how the industry may emerge from the current downturn — through cost reduction, communit...

Major U.S. financial institutions are backing away from climate commitments – all six largest American banks have exited the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, BlackRock has quit comparable initiatives, and the Federal Reserve has withdrawn from climate risk assessment networks. Is this merely rebranding for the Trump era, or a fundamental shift in how finance approaches sustainable investments? In this e...

Elon Musk built Tesla with help from government loans and carbon credits. Today, he's swinging a chainsaw at the very agencies that launched his empire — while directly undermining President Trump's "energy dominance" agenda. In this episode of Open Circuit, we examine the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency's indiscriminate cuts. When these cuts hit nuclear security teams and grid o...

The tech industry is pouring $1.3 trillion into data centers globally over the next five years. While efficiency breakthroughs like the launch of DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model might reduce computing needs, the sheer scale of AI deployment means we're still facing historic demand growth. Data center electricity consumption doubled under Biden — and it's projected to triple by 2030. In this episode,...

The Trump administration wants energy abundance. But it just declared war on the fastest and cheapest ways to achieve it. That's the central paradox emerging from the administration's first weeks in office, where a flood of executive orders, permit freezes, and funding delays are creating precisely the kind of uncertainty that could thwart its own energy goals. In our first episode of Open Circuit...

The greatest industrial transformation in history is well underway — but it's going to be messy, contentious, and certainly not linear. In the midst of a volatile political and economic era, Jigar Shah, Katherine Hamilton, and Stephen Lacey are reuniting to launch Open Circuit, a show that decodes the technology, business, and policy trends shaping clean energy and climate technologies. You might...