The Green Blueprint

As the carbon dioxide removal industry grows, engineered solutions like direct-air capture are getting more attention. According to the IPCC, novel methods for carbon dioxide removal are necessary to meet the Paris climate targets.  But another UN body, the UNFCCC, recently sparked controversy by concluding in draft language that “engineering-based removal activities…pose unknown environmental and...

This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by South32. Pat Risner spent 25 years as an engineer, general manager, and executive at one of the largest mining companies in the world, BHP. Today, he's the president of the Hermosa Project, a mining development in Arizona run by the global mining firm, South32.  That mine is the only advanced project in America that could produce manganese and z...

A year after it was passed, the Inflation Reduction Act is already reshaping the energy and automotive industries in the U.S. New factories for a wide array of clean energy components are being planned. Old factories are being reopened, retooled, or expanded. According to a Canary Media analysis, that is amounting to over $70 billion in new investments in the manufacturing sector for electric cars...

In August, the US government is set to issue standards for hydrogen tax credits. Over the last year, a debate has been raging over how strict those standards should be for matching renewables with hydrogen production. With rules set to be released in the coming weeks, ad campaigns have popped up from industry trying to persuade the feds to adopt looser standards, and green groups pushing for  With...

For years, rooftop solar was overlooked as a reliability solution in New England. But in a very sudden reversal, the region's grid operator says it’s critical to keeping the lights on across the region. New England doesn't have its own fossil resources, so the region is dependent on oil and natural gas imported from other regions of the country. Over the last decade and a half, aging coal, nuclear...

For decades, we have wildly underestimated the growth of renewables. Now that cost curves and deployments have exceeded all expectations, what’s next for the clean energy industry? This week, we feature a conversation between journalist David Roberts and futurist Ramez Naam about what's ahead for tech trends – from renewables and batteries, to grid management, to space-based solar power and geoeng...

Mateo Jaramillo is the co-founder and CEO of the long-duration storage company Form Energy.  Mateo has spent the last two decades building battery storage companies, with home base being California. But he just moved from Silicon Valley to the Rust Belt, where Form is scaling production of its iron-air batteries at an old steel mill in West Virginia. The location sits at the intersection of major...

Putin’s assault on Ukraine triggered an energy crisis that sent Europe’s economies into a tailspin and put the European energy transition to the test. But how did the European Union, a leader in climate action, become so dependent on Russian oil and gas to begin with?  This week, we're posting the first episode in a new five-part series for The Big Switch. The show is a collaboration between Post...

Last week, we started the show with a simple question: what do we want from the artificial intelligence systems advancing so quickly?  Inevitably, when we start grappling with that question, we have to talk about ethics and data quality. This week, we feature two conversations about the ethics and implementation of AI across the energy economy.  We'll talk with Pamela Isom, an AI ethicist and form...

We are at the start of a commercial arms race in artificial intelligence that has thrilled some, and alarmed others. For many, it's both. There's no shortage of heady proclamations about where the technology is headed. Google CEO Sundar Pachai calls AI “more profound than fire or electricity.” We are in the middle of a period of exuberance in AI, which will inevitably lead to some kind of market c...

As we evaluate the Biden team's approach to building back domestic manufacturing and climate-positive infrastructure, we keep coming back to the question: what makes the current push different from the Obama era one?  You can’t answer the question without exploring the factors behind the demise of some companies of the cleantech 1.0 era – in particular, the story of A123 Systems. This week, we’re...

Republicans dominate every part of government in Texas. It's been that way for two decades. It also happens to be a state with the most wind and utility-scale solar development in the country. Over their 20 years of dominance, Republicans in the state have mostly supported renewables, often in a very warm way. But lately, they've turned against them. In a very short period of time, America's faste...

We are at an inflection point for electric vehicles. The mass adoption phase is underway in many countries, including America. The US government is putting billions of dollars behind EV charging and battery production. And nearly every automaker is releasing or developing an EV model.  But the race to electrify cars and trucks is about so much more than transportation. For an executive like Annett...

This week, we’re running a bonus episode from our friends at Environmental Defense Fund and their podcast Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers. Transportation is the largest single source of carbon emissions in the U.S. People who can electrify vehicle fleets are in demand — especially in school districts, where diesel emissions are causing skyrocketing rates of childhood asthma. In this...

In the nine months since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, $28 billion in new manufacturing investments have been unveiled. Credit Suisse expects the IRA to support $1.7 trillion in new US manufacturing in a decade. Shalini Ramanathan of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is watching the space, excited about that industrial growth. She’s also eager to see a whole new category of cust...

Are you a utility or climate tech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transition-AI: Boston on June 15. Our listeners get a 20% discount with the code PSPODS20. Our show this week was recorded live at the Nuclear Energy Assembly in Washington, DC. It comes in three parts.  First, we're asking: how do we prepare the US nuclea...

Are you a utility or climate tech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transition-AI: Boston on June 15. Our listeners get a 20% discount with the code PSPODS20. We’re hard at work on a new season of The Big Switch podcast, which will go deep on the impact of the European energy crisis. And this week, we’re featuring an episo...

Over the last two years, we’ve created the foundation for a green industrial awakening in America — thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Collectively, they will leverage hundreds of billions of dollars to support domestic producers. The green industrial framework is not new, but the policy levers are more powerful than ev...

The landscape for peaker power plants in New York is changing. Over the next two years, dozens of aging oil- and gas-fired plants will be phased out around New York City, thanks to stronger air quality rules and the state’s climate law.  Under the rules, some of National Grid's peaking generation will shut down permanently, and some will steadily ramp down. The plan to overhaul these plants is par...

Around the US, cities are passing laws to phase fossil gas out of buildings. But the culinary industry is pushing back, saying that gas bans hurt chefs and restaurant owners. This week, the California Restaurant Association successfully won a lawsuit challenging Berkeley's pioneering gas ban. Chris Galarza is on a mission to show chefs that industrial induction cooking is far superior to gas. He’s...

We're sharing an episode of a podcast we love, Drilled from our friends over at Critical Frequency. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is… the crime of the century? Now, the original true crime podcast about climate change is...

Up until six months ago, artificial intelligence might not have squeaked into the top five areas of climate tech for most people. But the Cambrian explosion of large language models – led by ChatGPT – has suddenly hooked hundreds of millions of users, offered mind-boggling creative capabilities that have surprised almost everyone, and kicked off an AI arms race in the tech world. What are the most...

In five years, we've tripled the amount of solar capacity connected to America's grid. Wind capacity has grown 60% in the last 5 years. And in just the last year alone, battery capacity has doubled. But there’s also a surge in opposition to local projects. According to the Sabin Center for Climate Law at Columbia University, there are now 121 local policies that restrict or outright ban wind and s...

In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s supercomputer found that Los Angeles can hit 100% clean power within a decade and a half. But how will it be implemented in reality – in a way that benefits everyone? That’s the $86 billion question for the city.  There are many other questions to answer: How will a utility serving four million residents phase out coal and gas, triple its yearly...

Silicon Valley Bank was a mid-sized bank that catered to entrepreneurs in the tech sector. The bank was an early supporter of the climate tech and sustainability space, with over 1,500 clients across the industry. But things quickly unraveled this month after SVB executives told investors they'd sold off a massive portfolio of mortgage bonds – creating a historic run on the bank and a government t...