Volts

Today's electricity grids are kept stable by the inertia of spinning masses — mostly fossil fuel generators. But what happens when those spinning masses are replaced by inverter-based resources like wind, solar, and batteries? The answer is that inverters must take over the stabilizing job, becoming "grid-forming" rather than merely “grid-following.” I chat with two experts about how grid-forming...

Lithium-ion dominates the battery world, but alternative chemistries are finding their niches. I talk with Landon Mossburg, CEO of Peak Energy, about using sodium-ion batteries for large-scale grid storage. They trade some energy density for a longer life and radically lower operating costs, thanks to an innovative, passively cooled design. We also explore the geopolitical opportunity of competing...

This week I talk with Dan Stein, whose organization Giving Green seeks to align climate philanthropy with the principles of effective altruism. But what does "effective" mean in the face of fossil fuel autocracy? We discuss the difficulties of measuring systems change and debate the limits of technocratic solutions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

Movement veterans Bill McKibben and Jamie Henn have been thinking about where climate activism goes from here. They argue for a new focus on celebrating and accelerating the miraculous global boom in solar power. We get into what it looks like to fight for building stuff, how to win the online information war for clean energy, and why the sun offers not just cheaper power, but a form of liberation...

In this episode, I'm joined by Frank Rambo of the Horizon Climate Initiative to discuss "uneconomic dispatch" — the costly and polluting practice of running coal plants even when cheaper, cleaner options are available. We dig into why utilities get away with this, how the Trump administration is now trying to force them to continue via bogus "reliability" claims, and why fighting this practice at...

In this episode, I'm joined by Jake Higdon and Isabel Munilla, who helped develop the original "foreign entity of concern" (FEOC) standards for the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to encourage domestic supply chains. We explore the security risks that prompted FEOC policy, the delicate balance required to do it right, and the absolute hash that Republicans made of it in their recent budget b...

In this episode, recorded live back in May, I'm joined by the one and only Jigar Shah to discuss Washington state climate policy and post-IRA policy in general. Jigar argues that to build political durability, the climate movement must shift its focus from shiny tech to solving everyday cost-of-living problems and that smart finance is the real key to scaling the energy transition for everyone. Th...

I'm joined by Alon Levy of NYU's Transit Costs Project, whose work documents how expensive it is to build transit in the US relative to the rest of the world. We discuss how countries like Spain and Italy build cheaply by relying on in-house public expertise and standardized designs, while the Anglosphere is captured by a costly ideology of privatization. Levy explains how applying these lessons c...

Ann Arbor voted to create a parallel, municipal electric utility that offers only distributed renewables, and Missy Stults is the woman making it real. We explore the nuts and bolts: buying existing solar for seed revenue, building microgrids in a city still served by DTE, and why DTE is — so far — more curious than threatened. If it works, the SEU could become the blueprint for every climate-ambi...

In this episode, Arc CEO Mitch Lee explains why the jump from gas-powered boats to electric boats is even bigger, in terms of quality and user experience, than the jump from gas-powered cars to EVs. EBs are strikingly quieter, have greater torque, and require much less maintenance. Oh, and despite what Trump says, they are also much safer and less likely to strand their occupants. This is a public...

I chat with Kostantsa Rangelova and Dave Jones, authors of a new Ember report, who find that solar-plus-storage costs have declined so much that it can now provide baseload-level power in sunny cities for less than the cost of new nuclear or even new gas. We discuss why even energy pros are behind the curve on this, how quickly the technology is improving, and why most of the world doesn't see nat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf In this "What the F is Happening" episode, I'm joined by Jane Flegal and Jesse Jenkins to perform a wake for the Inflation Reduction Act after the passage of the GOP's "Big Beautiful Bill." We sift through the wreckage to see what was saved versus what was buried, analyze the political forces that determined the outcome, a...

In this episode, I talk with Montana state senators Forrest Mandeville (R) and Ellie Boldman (D) about the bipartisan housing reforms their state has passed over the last two legislative sessions — reforms so sweeping YIMBYs have dubbed them the "Montana miracle." We discuss the unlikely coalition supporting the bills, the impact of the policies, and the generational divide that increasingly separ...

PG&E, California's notoriously troubled utility, is trying to prove it can innovate, so I invited Quinn Nakayama, head of its new GRiD program, to explain how. We discuss its strategy of publicly outlining its problems to attract partners and its shift toward faster, more flexible interconnection for new loads like EVs and data centers. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with...

The frantic buildout of AI data centers is threatening to overwhelm electric grids, but what if they could be part of the solution? I chat with Jeff Bladen of Verrus, a company designing data centers to be "good grid citizens" from the ground up. We discuss how their novel architecture, combining large-scale batteries with a more efficient internal power network, provides flexibility that helps ut...

In this episode, I chat with fellow energy nerd-turned-ag-reporter Michael Grunwald about agriculture’s climate impact. We explore the folly of biofuels, the promise of meat alternatives, and the central importance of increasing yields. While we can imagine a future of energy abundance, land is a zero-sum game — no one’s making more — so the choices here are uniquely difficult and important. This...

In this episode, I'm joined by two of California's leading housing champions, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Senator Scott Wiener, to discuss their bills to reform the state's notorious environmental review law, CEQA. We explore how a well-intentioned 1970s environmental protection has become a tool for NIMBYs, unions, and even oil companies to delay or kill housing projects — and why the politics...

In this episode, Rep. Mike Levin and I discuss the “Big Beautiful Bill” that raises energy bills, kills 830,000 jobs, and gifts China the next industrial revolution. We unpack the fossil-fuel cash behind the carnage, the paradox of red districts cutting their own subsidies, and the optimistic playbook — centered on transmission and real climate economics — for the next Democratic majority. This is...

Washington state just passed one of the strongest transit-oriented development bills in the nation, and in this episode, I talk with Rep. Julia Reed and Alex Brennan from Futurewise about how they got it done. We discuss why building more housing near transit is so important, what this landmark legislation entails for density and affordability, and how it positions Washington as a leader in pro-ho...

On June 4, at a Canary Media event in Washington, DC, I sat down with Senator Martin Heinrich to dissect the GOP’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — a sledgehammer aimed at the Inflation Reduction Act, public-lands protections, and US science. We talk about the handful of Republican votes that could still save key tax credits, why bipartisan permitting reform isn’t dead yet, and how the bill’s self...

In this episode, I'm digging into the surprisingly overlooked world of electric motors with Ankit Somani of Conifer, a startup aiming to revolutionize these unsung workhorses of the energy system. We explore their ambitious approach to making motors lighter, more efficient, and cheaper to build, all while ditching problematic rare-earth magnets. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss t...

In this episode, I talk with Taylor Krause, who went from working on hydrogen policy at RMI to finding a quantum physicist husband and unexpected fame on Netflix's Love Is Blind . We unpack her surreal journey from clean-energy wonk to popular influencer and how she's navigating using her newfound influence. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce...

In this episode, I chat with Johanna Wolfson, co-founder of Azolla Ventures, about their unique philanthropic-backed VC model tackling the tough problem of sustainable mining for the clean energy transition. We explore the promising tech Azolla is backing to reduce mining's impact, from using electrochemistry to refine copper without dirty smelting to advanced techniques for processing low-grade o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf This week on "What the F is Happening" (periodic episodes in which we reluctantly discuss current events) we talk with Adrian Deveny, a former Senate aide who was in the trenches for the IRA's creation, about the House GOP's "Big Beautiful Bill." In its current form, it amounts to wholesale destruction of the last four yea...

In this episode, I talk with Catie Gould and Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute about the "dark matter" of urban land use: parking — specifically, the municipal parking mandates that help make housing more expensive and scarce. We discuss a landmark new parking reform bill in my home state of Washington, what it does and the coalition that made it possible, and point to other places where par...