The Carbon Copy

In 2021, Commonwealth Fusion Systems proved it had built the most powerful magnet in the world. The breakthrough was based on a specific material - a tape - that conducts massive amounts of current with very little loss.  Rick Needham, Chief Commercial Officer for CFS, says the breakthrough led to a $1.8 billion Series B fundraising round. Since then, the company has turned its attention to turning this scientific breakthrough into a commercial technology. And in late 2024, the company announced it had signed a deal with Dominion Energy Virginia to build the world's first commercial fusion power plant, ARC.  In this episode, Lara talks with Rick about how CFS plans to take its technology from the lab to real-world deployment. They discuss major milestones, like proving net energy gain and finding a customer for a technology that has never been proven in the field. And Rick makes the argument that fusion is much closer than most people think.    Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

Clean energy attracts nearly $3 trillion in investment annually, but most of that capital flows to massive utility-scale projects through the world's biggest banks and large-scale asset managers. Meanwhile, smaller distributed projects — rooftop solar, batteries, microgrids — face a structural financing challenge that Amanda Li calls "death by a thousand cuts." As co-founder and COO of Banyan Infrastructure, Li sees this dynamic constantly. Distributed infrastructure developers are trying to secure deals for $500,000 or $1 million, but face the same transaction costs as billion-dollar projects. "You might have a thousand times the amount of data at every single one of those stages, a thousand models, a thousand PDF documents or contracts, a thousand counterparties," Li explains. "So that's where the overhead really becomes crushing." Rachel Halfaker, who leads the community infrastructure program at the Milken Institute, sees the same fragmentation from a different angle. Unlike utility-scale projects with a single counterparty, distributed energy involves "a hundred business owners, a hundred nonprofits, a hundred YMCAs or churches" who aren't accustomed to thinking about term sheets and risk profiles. The solution they are pursuing? Standardization. But previous attempts have failed for specific reasons that go beyond market immaturity. "Everyone intellectually understands and believes in the benefits of coordination and standardization," said Li. But past efforts lacked dedicated coordinators and sufficient critical mass. The complexity of distributed energy finance makes standardization uniquely challenging. These projects often require blended capital stacks where three or more financing sources must align simultaneously. "All three things have to be in coordination in order for that deal to pencil,” said Halfaker. This orchestration typically falls to local developers with small teams, rather than the armies of investment bankers and lawyers that structure utility-scale deals. The result is frequent near-misses where viable projects nearly fall apart due to financing complexity. In this episode, recorded live as part of Latitude Media's Frontier Forum series, Stephen Lacey talks with Li and Halfaker about why standardization is critical for scaling distributed energy into a trillion-dollar asset class.  They explore how standardization could eventually enable securitization — the "holy grail" that would create secondary markets for distributed energy assets. This episode was recorded live as part of Latitude Media's Frontier Forum with Banyan Infrastructure. Watch the full video here and download Banyan's white paper on standardization here.

This week, we're bringing you a special episode of Catalyst with Shayle Kann, a show about how to decarbonize the planet. In this episode: what it takes to secure investments for first-of-a-kind infrastructure projects.  First-of-a-kind projects need infrastructure investment, the kind of money that costs less than venture capital and usually comes in the form of deals worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. But infrastructure investors are notoriously conservative and convincing them to bite can be challenging.  So what do infrastructure investors really want? In this episode, Shayle talks to Mario Fernandez, head of Breakthrough Energy's FOAK finance program. It has worked with companies like Rondo, Form Energy, and Lanzajet to overcome challenges on the path to infrastructure investment. Coincidentally, the program is also called Catalyst (no relation to our show). Mario and Shayle talk about the journey from lab-proven technology to a fully de-risked infrastructure investment, covering topics like: Why investors want to see a path to multiple, repeatable projects Mario's prescription for a scale-up path: pilot, demo, and FOAK project The difficulty of following that path on a limited financial runway The commercial construct and the tension between negotiating a flexible offtake and securing a customer Developing the right capital stack and accurately estimating capital needs Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

 In 2023, Sarah Jewett was on her honeymoon in France when she received a life-changing text: steam was flowing from Fervo Energy's first commercial geothermal project in Nevada. That moment confirmed their revolutionary approach—applying horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing from the oil and gas industry to tap heat resources previously considered inaccessible. Unlike traditional geothermal that requires rare, steam-laden sites, Fervo's technology can access hot rock that exists almost everywhere underground. After proving their concept with Project Red in Nevada, the company is now building Cape Station, a 500-megawatt facility that will be one of America's largest geothermal plants, in Utah. In this episode, Lara talks with Sarah about navigating first-of-a-kind financing challenges, finding partners willing to take on the risk of new technology, and deciding when to take the next step in a scaling journey.  Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. Register here for Transition-AI 2025 in Boston on June 12th, 2025. Use promo code LATITUDEPODS10 for 10% off your ticket.

In 2021, Neha Palmer co-founced Terawatt Infrastructure with a bold mission: create the backbone for America's electric trucking revolution. Within its first year, Terawatt secured a billion-dollar investment. But as the company developed plans for a nationwide charging network, it confronted the daunting challenge of building infrastructure for an electric truck market that barely existed.  High-profile bankruptcies like Nikola Motors cast long shadows over the sector's viability, raising questions about whether heavy-duty transport can truly be electrified. In this episode, Lara talks with Neha about how Terawatt aims to transform freight transport despite market skepticism. Neha explains Terawatt's strategic approach to site selection, innovative charging designs for fully-loaded trucks, and the vision for a revolutionary California-to-Texas network. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.Register here for Transition-AI 2025 in Boston on June 12th, 2025. Use promo code LATITUDEPODS10 for 10% off your ticket.

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 markets were already excited about the new product, but Drew's team struggled to keep up with demand. With Powerwall 2 already announced, pressure mounted while the supply chain faltered. And with Tesla prioritizing vehicles,, the energy team was left to "get the scraps and figure it out".  In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks with Drew Baglino, former senior vice president of powertrain and energy at Tesla, about building a new product category through bootstrapping and creative resource sharing. Drew shares how a couple dozen "Swiss Army knife" engineers created a residential battery system that would ultimately define the market. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

In 2018, LineVision was a young company with revolutionary technology for electric transmission lines. Its dynamic line rating sensors and software could increase the capacity of existing power lines by up to 40% without building new infrastructure — a critical solution for integrating renewables and meeting growing electricity demand. But to prove its tech, it needed to win over notoriously cautious utilities. When a crucial project worth $750,000 went to a competitor, LineVision's leadership made a last-ditch appeal that changed the company's trajectory. In this episode, host Lara Pierpoint talks with LineVision's vice president of customer success,  Karthik Rao, about navigating utility cybersecurity requirements, escaping “pilot hell,” and how LineVision became the partner behind the world's largest DLR project. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

Dan Shugar has been trying to move solar panels around since the 1980s. What started with a few experiments as a young engineer has turned into one of the biggest solar tracker companies in the world. In 2012 he founded Nextracker with a single product. Since then, Nextracker has revolutionized tracking technology through an array of innovative products. This week, host Lara Pierpoint talks with Nextracker CEO and founder Dan Shugar about product innovation and customer relationships, and how Nextracker made it through the pandemic. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts.

When Raffi Garabedian co-founded Electric Hydrogen in 2020, he saw existing electrolyzers as too small and expensive to make green hydrogen economically viable. Instead of building standard sub-megawatt units, his team aimed for 100-megawatt systems at half the industry cost. Initial market enthusiasm brought millions in capacity reservations, fueling construction of a Massachusetts manufacturing plant. Then came the "trough of disillusionment" – a global cooling on hydrogen as projects faltered under high costs. In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to Raffi about taking big technology risks while building a factory during market volatility. He explains why startups, not incumbents, are best positioned to drive the cost reductions needed to make green hydrogen competitive with fossil alternatives. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts.

Leila Madrone founded Sunfolding in 2012 with an innovative idea – build a solar tracker using pneumatic "airbags" instead of motors and torque tubes. By 2015, the company was deploying the technology in a field test in Davis, California.  Over the next six years, Sunfolding iterated on the technology's design, built out the supply chain, and tried to prove bankability. Then, in 2021, the company found themselves faced with a major decision: take on a utility scale solar project during a global pandemic, or pass.  In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to Leila about SunFolding's journey from breakthrough technology to shutdown, exploring the critical decisions that shaped the company's path and ultimately led to Sunfolding shutting down in 2023. Leila also shares the broader lessons for climate hardware startups navigating the complex intersection of innovation, manufacturing, and venture funding. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

This week, we're featuring an episode of Open Circuit, a new show from Latitude Media that reunites Jigar Shah, Katherine Hamilton, and Stephen Lacey. Many listeners may remember them from The Energy Gang, a show they co-hosted for eight years. They are back together, co-hosting a weekly roundtable that will cover the latest news – to explain what's really accelerating the energy transition, from technological leaps and supply chain shifts, to market upheavals and policy uncertainty. If you like what you hear, go to your podcast app and subscribe to Open Circuit. You can also hear every episode and read transcripts at Latitudemedia.com. We'll be back with a normal episode of The Green Blueprint next week.

In May 2024, Yanni Tsipis was watching as his team prepared to pour a low-carbon version of concrete — one that had never been used in a commercial project. As senior vice president of WS Development, he was in charge of the team building Boston's largest net-zero office building for operating emissions (not embodied emissions), and he had spearheaded an effort to use a new type of low-carbon cement from a startup called Sublime Systems. It's hard to understate how big of a deal it is for the construction industry to try a new version of cement. It's the glue that holds concrete particles together, and the recipe used today has barely changed since 1824. It's incredibly versatile stuff, but making it accounts for nearly 8% of global emissions, so there's pressure on the industry to clean up. But with the literal foundations of buildings, bridges, and roads at stake, you can understand why the industry might be slow to change.  But Yanni's team wanted to try.  In this episode, Lara talked to Yanni about the journey to the first commercial deployment of this low-carbon cement. He talks about the economics of cement, securing enough material in time to meet construction deadlines, and earning buy-in from WS Development's internal team, plus their long list of contractors and subcontractors. It's a case study in finding the right customer for a first-of-a-kind climate tech project. Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Daniel Woldorff and Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter. On February 19th, join Latitude Media and Crux Climate for their upcoming Frontier Forum to unpack Crux's 2024 Transferable Tax Credit Market Intelligence Report. Learn how tax credit transferability is accelerating investment in energy, and gain insights into what is shaping the market's growth through 2025 and beyond. Register today for this virtual event.

When Chris Taylor and his team at GridStor were building California's largest battery storage project in Goleta, they saw an opportunity: become one of the first companies to transfer tax credits under the newly passed Inflation Reduction Act. But there was no playbook to follow. Instead of working with smaller, specialized investors, GridStor took an unconventional approach. They went straight to JP Morgan, one of the largest tax credit investors in the country, to prove that battery storage projects could work with mainstream financial institutions. The strategy involved navigating complex legal requirements, securing specific opinion letters, and creating a framework that other companies could follow. In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to Chris Taylor, CEO of GridStor, about executing this groundbreaking financial deal while simultaneously building a 60-megawatt battery storage facility. They discuss the challenges of pioneering new financial territory, working with major financial institutions as a startup, and what successful tax credit transfers could mean for scaling clean energy projects. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

On Christmas Eve 2023, Doug Chan wasn't celebrating with family. Instead, he was in Hellisheiði, Iceland with his team, preparing to commission Mammoth — what would become the world's largest operational direct air capture facility. Getting there wasn't easy. After building two successful smaller plants, Climeworks faced its biggest challenge yet in attempting a 10x scale-up of its Orca plant. When the team broke ground, they discovered issues with their newly designed equipment that forced tough decisions. And Iceland's harsh winter conditions complicated both construction and operations. In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to Douglas Chan, chief operations officer at Climeworks, about proving and scaling direct air capture technology. They discuss managing technology risks, choosing the right partners — and what's next as Climeworks plans for an even bigger facility in Louisiana. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

In 2022, John O'Donnell and Peter von Behrens figured out how to design a heat battery that would deliver heat at very high, constant temperatures. The breakthrough came on the heels of two years of research and development, some of which took place in Peter's garage.  Now, John and Peter were ready to prove their technology at commercial scale. So they approached a long-time innovation partner, Calgren Renewable Fuels, about deploying a 2-megawatt-hour heat battery for industrial heat delivery in Calgren's Pixley, California plant. That's when the next wave of problem solving started. It turns out, designing the technology was just half the battle. Manufacturing and installing a commercial scale demonstration proved harder than expected. In October 2023, they started on a six-month construction project that threw a myriad of challenges at the new start-up.  In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to John O'Donnell, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Rondo Energy, about the bumpy road of building a first-of-a-kind commercial demonstration. They cover things like the structural engineering challenges of scaling a new technology, and finding the right construction partner. Plus, John explains what new design specs mean for the company going forward.  The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.

In the aftermath of the presidential election, the clean energy industry is scrambling to figure out what a second Trump administration would mean for their companies and projects. But Tom Burton isn't just looking at the next four years. After 25 years serving the industry with the law firm Mintz, he's thinking about the growth of the industry over another couple of decades. “Back in 2000, many pundits said the internet was dead – and that was around the time Google started their business. These transitions take decades. We're probably in the third inning of the game, and we're moving in the right direction,” said Burton.  So what does the state of play look like in that third inning? In this episode, produced in partnership with Mintz, we have a series of conversations tackling some of the biggest stories shaping clean energy today – across finance, policy, and markets. Tom Burton, chair of the energy & sustainability practice of Mintz, details the three distinct phases of the industry: innovation, growth, and scaling. Tanya Das, director of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, explains why she remains optimistic about the US policy environment. Frank O'Sullivan, managing director of the energy transition team at S2G ventures, talks about the need to de-risk emerging clean energy technologies for infrastructure investors. And Sayles Braga, a senior partner at Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, discusses innovations to manage data center load growth in the AI era.  These conversations were recorded at the Mintz Energy Transition Summit. For finance, policy, and market insights from the Mintz team, sign up for their newsletter.

In 2022, Via Separations was getting ready to build its commercial-scale filtration system, a technology that could help cut emissions and costs for a wide range of industries like paper, chemicals, and food processing.  And when the company faced two paths — scale up 10x or 100x — CEO and co-founder Shreya Dave decided to scale faster by building a commercial project at a paper mill in Alberta, Canada. It was a choice that put Via in a race against cash burn and the onset of the cold Canadian winter. The stakes for the company were high. The goal was to replace energy-intensive industrial evaporation at the paper mill with a first-of-a-kind membrane, akin to a pasta strainer, made of graphene dioxide.  Shreya and her team had worked for years in an MIT lab to develop the membrane, hoping to extract materials with far less energy. Initial tests had shown promise. Scaling up 100x would prove their technology was viable for broader commercial applications. That is, if they could overcome the challenges. In this episode, Lara Pierpoint talks to Shreya Dave, co-founder and CEO of Via Separations, about the risk of going big. They cover things like the challenges of finding a first customer and grappling with how fast to scale. Plus, Shreya explains what she would have done differently. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter. On December 3 in Washington, DC, Latitude Media is bringing together a range of experts for Transition-AI 2024, a one-day, in-person event addressing both sides of the AI-energy nexus: the challenges AI poses to the grid, and the opportunities. Our podcast listeners get a 10% discount on this year's conference using the code LMPODS10. Register today here!

In 2009, John Woolard's team flipped the switch on a first-of-a-kind concentrated solar power project. The pilot paved the way for BrightSource Energy, where John was CEO, to build its first commercial CSP plant, a 440-megawatt project in the Mojave Desert called Ivanpah.  John and his team believed they were far ahead of the competition, including photovoltaics. And they were on the verge of building several large, concentrated solar plants. That was the plan. But in the middle of building the first commercial plant, the BrightSource team faced a series of unexpected challenges that forced them to ask: “if we stay the course, will we survive?” In the first episode of The Green Blueprint, host Lara Pierpoint talks to John Woolard, former CEO of BrightSource Energy and current CEO at Meridian Clean Energy, on lessons from the concentrated solar boom and bust.  They dig into how John salvaged a financial deal that collapsed in the middle of a global financial crisis, the unexpected challenges of permitting and environmental regulations, the competitive threat of solar PV, and knowing when to pivot. The Green Blueprint is a co-production of Latitude Media and Trellis Climate. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter. On December 3 in Washington, DC, Latitude Media is bringing together a range of experts for Transition-AI 2024, a one-day, in-person event addressing both sides of the AI-energy nexus: the challenges AI poses to the grid, and the opportunities. Our podcast listeners get a 10% discount on this year's conference using the code LMPODS10. Register today here!

We've already invented many of the solutions needed to decarbonize the global economy. But a big chunk of emission reductions will come from technologies that are not yet commercial. We don't have decades to get these commercialized – we have years. So what can we learn from the people who are bringing new technologies from the lab to the market, constructing first-of-a-kind projects, building companies, challenging and transforming incumbents, and finding the right kind of investment to support their scaling? The Green Blueprint is a new show from Latitude Media and Trellis Climate about the architects of the clean energy economy.  Hosted by Lara Pierpoint, managing director at Trellis, the show profiles the people who are doing the hero's work of scaling clean technologies: founders, investors, engineers, policymakers, and organizational leaders who are solving a complex set of challenges in the quest to scale quickly. Every other week, we'll hear stories about the complexity of building gigafactories, the mind-boggling logistics of mega-clean energy projects, and the risky choices on how fast to scale – plus boardroom disagreements, financial hardships, and moments of failure and redemption. The Green Blueprint is dropping this fall. You can find it on Latitude Media, or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Since we stopped The Carbon Copy, some listeners had questions about what's next. Here's a preview of our new podcast, the Transition-AI event in December, and a new newsletter called the AI-Energy Nexus. Stay tuned to the feed for our new show, dropping later this fall!

Dynamic pricing is everywhere – and impacts all of us. Whether it's the time of day, your location, or the amount of demand, so many of our decisions are driven by real-time pricing changes. But it's still a relatively new concept in electricity. This week, we're featuring a conversation with Scott Engstrom of GridX and Economist Ahmad Faruqui on the imperative for good rate design – and the consequences of getting it wrong. How do we create dynamic rates that are fair, transparent, and effective at valuing distributed resources? And how do we use technology to design and implement those rates – and perhaps eventually automate them on a real-time basis, as many hope? This episode was recorded live as part of our Frontier Forum series. Watch the full video here.

Some news: this will be our final installment of The Carbon Copy. But don't go anywhere! Later this fall, the feed will be transformed into a new show that will profile the people architecting the clean energy economy. We promise it will be a valuable part of your media diet. For our last episode, we brought back some old friends: Jigar Shah, director of the DOE's loan programs office, and Katherine Hamilton, chair of 38 North.  Jigar, Katherine, and Stephen dissect some of the biggest storylines of the year in clean energy business and policy. They'll tackle AI energy demand, grid constraints, geothermal, nuclear, the demise of California's rooftop solar industry, and America's green bank. Which trends are overrated, which ones are underrated, and what does it all mean for mass deployment?  The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will provide $27 billion for clean energy projects nationwide, potentially mobilizing up to $150 billion in public and private capital. Join Latitude Media and Banyan Infrastructure on July 18th for an in-depth discussion on how we can deploy these billions with the highest impact. Register for free here.  Make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When millions of smart meters rolled out across the country at the turn of the last decade, many people hoped it would create the backbone of a digital grid. Today, you'll find few who think meters lived up to expectations. One survey found only 3% of advanced meters supported by the 2009 stimulus bill brought customer savings. Mike Phillips, the CEO of Sense, is still bullish on the role of advanced meters for grid intelligence and bill savings. But as utilities start a new wave of rollouts to replace old technology, he worries they aren't investing in the right architecture. “Most people think of meters just as data collection devices. You have to start to change that mindset, and once you start to think of this as a distributed platform – not just a data collection device – this entire world of making use of machine learning at the edge starts to get opened up,” said Philips. This week: a conversation with Mike Phillips on what AMI 2.0 should look like. Past deployments of smart meters didn't bring the intelligence promised. How do we avoid the same outcome? The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will provide $27 billion for clean energy projects nationwide, potentially mobilizing up to $150 billion in public and private capital. Join Latitude Media and Banyan Infrastructure on July 18th for an in-depth discussion on how we can deploy these billions with the highest impact. Register for free here.  Make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Solar is the fastest growing electricity-generating technology in history. That rapid scaling was a result of squeezing cost reductions out of every step of production. But there's one critical piece that hasn't changed much: frames. Aluminum frames now make up one-quarter of the cost of a PV module. And that metal mostly comes from China, a country that controls nearly 60% of the world's smelting. Since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, companies have built or planned 155 gigawatts of production capacity for modules, cells, wafers, and power electronics in the US. But up until now, frames have been overlooked. So what would it take to replace foreign-sourced aluminum with US-made recycled steel – and why does it matter? This week, we feature a conversation with Gregg Patterson, the CEO of Origami Solar, and MJ Shiao, the VP of supply chain and manufacturing at the American Clean Power Association. This conversation isn't just about frames – it's a story about geopolitics, trade, the complexities of manufacturing, and the urgency of improving the reliability of solar.  This event was recorded live as part of Latitude Media's Frontier Forum series, in partnership with Origami Solar. You can watch the full conversation here.

A lot of climate tech investors are still trying to figure out how to invest in artificial intelligence. Will it become a unique investment category? Or just a natural enhancement of what many startups are already building? There's an emerging class of startups that wouldn't exist without AI. Citrine Informatics is using generative AI to speed up discovery of new materials; Koloma is using AI to identify potential sources of geologic hydrogen; and Zanskar is using AI to accelerate and derisk geothermal exploration. Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures, thinks that AI is pushing the “edge of the possible” in climate tech. He recently led a $30 million Series B round in Zanskar, calling it “generative science at work.” “I think generative science is the next phase…it is going to shorten the distance to some of these massive solutions,” in batteries, solar, nuclear, and geothermal, said Beebe, speaking on The Carbon Copy. “Zanskar doesn't have special drilling technology. They don't have new fluids or new Rankin cycle systems on the top. They literally just have a better way to look for geothermal because in America.” This week, Beebe joins the show to riff on AI-driven climate solutions, the need for more clean, firm power to meet rising power demand, and a variety of other tech trends that are shaping what he calls “the climate decade.” Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We need to invest many trillions of dollars every year to build a climate-positive economy. We know what those technologies are – but they're all at very different levels of readiness. So what would it take to scale critical climate technologies? That was the simple-but-complicated question recently posed by a group of energy, industry, and high-tech experts at McKinsey. The research offers a clear account of the state of a dozen types of climate technologies, which could collectively slash emissions by 90%. We sat down with co-authors Anna Orthofer and Mark Patel to walk through the adoption pathways for everything from renewables to hydrogen to lab-grown meat. What's ready to scale, and what's behind schedule? Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Data centers are an impressive energy success story. Over the last 25 years, internet traffic has climbed more than 500x while data center electricity use has remained flat.  The servers and energy infrastructure have gotten wildly more efficient, and the biggest tech companies have focused on powering those warehouse-scale computers with renewables. But a lot of people are suddenly alarmed about data centers again, as energy demand for AI surges. Data centers are getting built so fast, many utilities are pushing for lots of new fossil gas plants to serve them. And while tech companies have made strong progress on building renewables to match data centers, grid constraints are making it harder. We have a very small window to fully decarbonize the grid – this may make it harder to squeeze through it. So, are growing concerns over AI's power demand justified? How are they contributing to America's growing hunger for electricity? And what technologies and grid management techniques can address it?  This week, we've assembled a group of experts to answer those questions: Brian Janous, co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure; Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation; and John Belizaire, CEO of data center developer Soluna. This conversation was part of Latitude Media's Transition-AI series. Watch the full event here. Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The origin of Tesla was rooted in two goals: electrify transportation to drive down emissions that are warming the planet; and do it by driving down the cost of EVs to make them accessible to the masses. Is Musk now walking away from both? “He's decided I'm not a car company. I'm an AI and robotics company. It's astonishing what's happening with Tesla,” said Steve LeVine, editor of The Electric, a publication on batteries and EVs from The Information. Tesla has always been a tumultuous company. But the last few months have been particularly chaotic – and possibly more transformative than any other moment in its history. This week, we talk with LeVine about the whirlwind inside Tesla. We'll hear about a series of decisions by Musk that threw the car teams into turmoil, and could radically change the course of the company. Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, we have something a little different: a news quiz. We recently took the stage with four investors at the Prelude Climate Summit — armed with a bell, a buzzer, and four different categories of questions. We tested two teams of venture investors on their knowledge of the most recent industry news. Shayle Kann and Cassie Bowe, partners at venture firm Energy Impact Partners, are team "High Voltage." Shayle is also host of Latitude's climate tech deep-dive podcast Catalyst. Dr. Carley Anderson, principal at venture firm Prelude Ventures, and Matt Eggers, Prelude's manager director, are team "Shayle Gassed." Which team will come out on top? Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, we have a drop-in episode from our new podcast at Latitude Media: Political Climate. Since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in August 2022, we've asked ourselves a big question: could the government and the private sector actually get this sprawling set of climate programs up and running? So far, many would answer “yes.” The IRA has already created over 170,000 jobs and supported $110 billion in new clean energy manufacturing – with a majority of that investment headed to conservative-leaning states. Now, as we head toward November's presidential election, many Americans are wondering whether a second Trump Administration could unravel much of the work that's been done. In the first episode of the new season of Political Climate, hosts Julia Pyper, Brandon Hurlbut and Emily Domenech take stock of the IRA: they discuss how it's been received politically, the roadblocks facing implementation, and look toward the different scenarios that could unfold after the election. The show wraps up with our brand-new segment, “The Mark-up.”  Subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter to get weekly updates on tech, markets, policy, and deals across clean energy and climate tech.

AI is suddenly in use everywhere – and it's headed for the power sector.  New research from Latitude Intelligence and Indigo Advisory Group shows a coming wave of AI integration, inside and outside of utilities.  Distributed energy companies are increasingly integrating AI into their products, and many power companies are building teams to take advantage of automation for operational efficiency and grid monitoring.  But adoption will be uneven – and an autonomous superbrain for the electric grid may never fully materialize.  In this episode, we'll break down the pathways for AI on the electric grid, and test the market knowledge of a few leaders in this space. We're joined by David Groarke, who led the research for Latitude Intelligence on AI adoption; Sadia Raveendran, VP of industry solutions at Uplight; and Apoorv Bhargava, CEO and co-founder of WeaveGrid. We'll look at the influx of EVs, the rise of virtual power plants, and the growth in peak demand and ask: where is artificial intelligence and machine learning helping? Are growing concerns over AI's power demand justified? Join us for our upcoming Transition-AI event featuring three experts with a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence. Don't miss this live, virtual event on May 8.

John O'Donnell co-founded and ran two solar thermal companies. He watched as the technology shifted from being the most promising utility-scale solar technology, to getting out-competed by photovoltaics everywhere. But he stayed passionate about heat. Today, he's CEO of Rondo Energy, which makes a “heat battery” for industrial applications using bricks, heating coils, and cheap, intermittent renewables. And that cheap PV that made solar thermal so difficult is now a critical input for decarbonizing factories and processing plants. John distills his decade and a half in the solar thermal business to a simple lesson: don't be too innovative. In this episode, we talk with John O'Donnell about the different methods for decarbonizing industrial heat, the use cases for heat batteries, and lessons learned from his days in solar thermal.  Are growing concerns over AI's power demand justified? Join us for our upcoming Transition-AI event featuring three experts with a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence. Don't miss this live, virtual event on May 8.

Mark Gurman has been covering Apple since 2009. His reporting career is full of scoops about new products or strategic decisions from inside the company.  His latest scoop in February: Apple is finally shutting down its efforts to build an autonomous electric car. Apple first started exploring an electric car in 2014. At that point, cars had already become computers on wheels, Tesla was scaling mass-market production, and vehicle autonomy was the hottest thing in the tech industry. “It made sense that Apple, which has a massive prowess in manufacturing, an incredible design ethos and a high standard for safety…would try to take a crack at that market,” said Gurman, a chief correspondent at Bloomberg. But after a decade of internal disputes, redesigns, and leadership changes, Apple is officially moving on from cars. “This was a clear admission of failure and admission of a need to disperse some of the resources from that program to other projects at the company,” explained Gurman. In March, Gurman co-authored a piece detailing exactly what happened over the last 10 years of secretive work. This week, we talk with him about the vision, the technological challenges, and ask: what if Apple had just acquired Tesla from the start? This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we're digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

The US green hydrogen industry is at a critical juncture.  After months of input and debate, the government put out draft rules for tax credits at the end of last year – setting strict requirements for matching new, local renewables to hydrogen production. It was hailed by many as a really important step for ensuring that green hydrogen actually lives up to its name. But across the industry, the reaction has been mixed – even among those who want to make the industry as clean as possible.  Maeve Allsup, one of our reporters at Latitude Media, started asking around the industry: how are these rules impacting projects? This week, we have a crossover episode with The Latitude, a podcast that brings you stories from our journalists and columnists reporting at the commercial edge of energy tech, markets, and deals. Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents two features from the pages of Latitude Media on how the US green hydrogen industry is responding to new rules and canceling some projects. Like what you hear? For more of Latitude Media's coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter. This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we're digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

There are many forces that could hold back AI in the power system: computing infrastructure, power availability, regulation, and corporate inertia. The biggest one? Good data.  Utilities and grid operators are awash in data. But getting access to it – or making sense of it – is very difficult.  For a better understanding of how to change that, we turn to someone who spends a lot of his time in the so-called data cloud: Tititaan Palazzi, the head of power and utilities at Snowflake. “Data naturally ends up in different boxes, in different silos. And when you then want to ask questions of the data, it becomes really hard. You can't ask questions across the enterprise,” he explained. In 2018, Palazzi co-founded Myst AI with Pieter Verhoeven, an engineer who built critical demand response applications for the Nest Thermostat. Myst was focused on AI-driven time-series forecasting for the grid.  “In the energy industry, there is a lot of time-series data coming from the grid. At the same time, using AI for forecasting is quite challenging because every time you need to create a new prediction, you need to have the latest data. And so from an engineering perspective, it was quite complicated to do,” said Palazzi. Palazzi and Verhoeven arrived at Snowflake after Myst was acquired by the company last year.  This week, we feature a conversation with Snowflake's Titiaan Palazzi on busting data silos, some early wins for AI in the power sector, and what phase of the transition we're in.  This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we're digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

Early in her career, Amanda Li worked on many deals in solar and storage as part of a billion-dollar sustainable infrastructure fund. And she discovered a problem that often hinders deployment: the underwriting process is cumbersome and slow. “All of it was in spreadsheets, word documents, emails. When you look at a solar deal, there's a lot of documentation, a lot of counterparties to deal with, and that information needs to be processed somehow. It felt like we were spending a lot of time just trying to process the information,” explained Li. This problem has only grown over time as more distributed assets need financing, and policies like the Inflation Reduction Act support smaller clean energy projects at the community level. These small- to mid-sized projects often require as much diligence and paperwork as much larger deals. So in 2018, Amanda co-founded Banyan Infrastructure, a software platform that simplifies transactions for a wide range of sustainable infrastructure projects – replacing spreadsheets, email, and PDFs with digitized loans and workflows. The company has raised more than $42 million and works with green banks, Wall Street firms, and local lenders to make deals simpler.  “If at every single layer there aren't standards, there aren't connected processes, it's going to move really slowly,” said Li. In this episode, produced in partnership with Banyan Infrastructure, we explore the shifting world of sustainable finance.  Stephen Lacey talks with Banyan COO Amanda Li about solving financial bottlenecks, how the IRA is bringing in new players to the market, and what it will take to unlock trillions of new dollars per year for the energy transition. Banyan Infrastructure is simplifying and accelerating the financing of sustainable infrastructure. Read the company's white paper on unlocking the full potential of sustainable finance, or request a demo to learn how the software works.

When Brian Janous took charge of Microsoft's clean energy strategy in 2011, the company's data center demand was modest. He was measuring new demand in the tens of megawatts. Over the years, that grew to hundreds of megawatts of new demand as hyperscale computing expanded. And then everything changed in the spring of 2023, with the public launch of ChatGPT 3.5, which ran on Microsoft's data centers. “That was the moment that I realized we were going to need a bigger boat. This is a massive leap in a period of like six months – and the amount of time that it takes to actually build infrastructure was measured in years,” said Janous. Projections show data center energy demand could double in the next couple of years, driven by artificial intelligence. Janous saw the hockey stick growth coming, and he realized the disconnect between how fast AI is moving and how the core input to data centers – electricity supply – is struggling to keep pace. After decades of flat demand, load forecasts are doubling because of data centers, expanding ports, new manufacturing plants supported by the IRA, and electric cars.  Janous recently co-founded a company, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, to help utilities unlock grid capacity with grid-enhancing technologies, batteries, and other flexible resources to meet the onslaught of new demand. He also advises LineVision, a dynamic line rating company that is helping expand transmission capacity. This week: we talk with Janous about why we don't need energy miracles – we need to think creatively about planning, and squeezing more out of the system. This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we're digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

In the early 2000s, Steve Cotton ran a company serving the fast-growing data center industry with backup battery systems. And when those systems reached the end of their lives, the company monetized kilotons of lead-acid batteries by sending them to recycling facilities – industrial plants that break down and burn the components. “It's very dangerous. You've got lead dust all over the floor. You've got a bunch of people wearing hot suits, literally chucking batteries into high temperature furnaces. And it is not a healthy environment,” said Cotton. Two decades later, the technology has shifted – and lithium-ion batteries are now the dominant form of storage. But recycling hasn't changed a lot. Today, there are two types of dominant battery recycling methods. One is using high heat, similar to the process that Steve witnessed at the lead-acid facilities. The other is giving batteries a chemical bath, in a process known as hydrometallurgy. Both create a lot of waste. Steve saw how big the battery recycling waste problem could become. And in 2015, he invested in a company called Aqua Metals. And he became so convinced by Aqua Metals' novel approach to recycling, he became the CEO. “We're using electricity to drive the process and the electricity itself comes from renewable resources. And that can produce this metal supply chain with a true opportunity to have a net zero environmental impact,” said Cotton. The battery recycling industry is experiencing rapid growth, as companies and countries look to build secure, circular supply chains for critical minerals. In this episode, produced in partnership with Aqua Metals, Steve Cotton sits down with Stephen Lacey to talk about the growing battery waste problem, and the urgency to invest in recycling techniques that don't lock in new sources of waste. This is a partner episode, brought to you by AquaMetals. Aqua Metals is pioneering cleaner and safer battery metals recycling through innovation. The company is building the first sustainable battery recycling operation in North America in Tahoe-Reno. Watch a tour of the company's pilot facility, and learn more by reading the company's recyclopedia.

Can a couple trillion dollars feel small? Global investments in the energy transition – from the buildout of factories and power projects to project finance and government debt – hit nearly $1.8 trillion last year.  That's almost as big as the GDP of South Korea. It's nearly 20% more than the year before, and nearly eight times more than a decade ago. But even with those record levels of spending, we are astonishingly behind what's needed to stay on a net-zero trajectory this decade.  This week, we'll talk about what's growing, what's lagging, and what the trillion-dollar scale means at the ground level. Then, geoengineering is nudging closer to the mainstream of scientific and environmental discourse. Are we giving up, or just being realistic? Katherine Hamilton of 38 North and Shalini Ramanathan of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners join us this week to sift through these trends. For more of Latitude Media's coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

If we want any chance of affordably and reliably building a grid powered 100% by zero-carbon resources, we need to triple the capacity of virtual power plants.  That's the conclusion of a report released last fall by the Department of Energy, which examined the different business models and integration approaches for tying solar, batteries, thermostats, electric cars, water heaters, and other distributed assets into dispatchable power plants. The US already has tens of gigawatts of VPP capacity, mostly in the form of “bring your own device” programs that harness thermostats or water heaters for demand response services. But there are new models emerging that harness rooftop solar, batteries, and EV charging to enable bigger, longer-lasting load shifts. “I like to say that the term VPP is kind of like the term sandwich. There are lots of different kinds, they're full of different ingredients, and they serve lots of different purposes,” said Jen Downing, an engagement officer at the DOE, who leads the agency's work on the space.  The concept of VPPs has been around for nearly 30 years. But as the US faces a dramatic increase in peak demand by 2030 – and with distributed resource capacity set to double – the urgency for deploying them has increased. “We're going to need clean, firm [power]. We're going to need more transmission capacity to transport that electricity. But one way to address that increase in peak is to use distributed energy resources to either serve that peak locally or to shift that peak outside of peak hours. And so that's where VPPs come in,” said Downing. This week on The Carbon Copy, we spoke with DOE's Jen Downing about the different ways that virtual power plants are getting built – and the need to build many more. Read our show notes and all our industry coverage at Latitudemedia.com.

The storage market is full of surprises. Last year, global storage installations were a third higher than expected, driven mostly by Chinese policy to attach batteries to renewables.  Meanwhile, a ramp-up in manufacturing is causing oversupply – and a potential shakeout for smaller battery makers. By 2030, the world could see 1.8 terawatt-hours of storage capacity installed, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  Rapid manufacturing expansion, a shift in chemistries and designs, and increases in duration for grid-connected systems are making battery storage one of the most dynamic sectors of the clean energy economy. “We do have to constantly be reconsidering our assumptions,” said Yayoi Sekine, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “I think now we're currently in an environment where the industry is actually able to sustain itself in terms of its own battery manufacturing and supply chains. That's a pretty big shift and that's happened very recently.” This week on The Carbon Copy, we feature a conversation with Yayoi Sekine pricing, tech, manufacturing, and deployment trends that are shaping battery storage. Subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter to get weekly updates on tech, markets, and deals across clean energy and climate tech.

As President Biden's green industrial policies reignite the US manufacturing base, AI computing workloads soar, and machines across the economy turn electric, the power grid is facing an historic increase in demand. After almost two decades of flat electricity consumption, suddenly America's grid planners are doubling their forecasts for demand – raising the urgency for new infrastructure. This week, we'll ask: what's needed, and what happens if we can't build it? Then, some major changes in the world of tax finance. We'll look at how transferable tax credits are opening up new kinds of deals for clean energy – and take a deeper dive into the long-awaited and controversial details of hydrogen tax credits. Katherine Hamilton of 38 North and Shalini Ramanathan of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners join us this week to sift through these trends. Subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter to get weekly updates on tech, markets, and deals across clean energy and climate tech.

Artificial intelligence is quickly accelerating drug discovery, healthcare services, product design, and manufacturing efficiency. Now it's here for materials development – and it could be one of the most influential uses of AI in energy. A decade ago, Greg Mulholland started playing around with machine learning as a way to accelerate product development of materials inside LEDs. After seeing its potential – and witnessing the rapid evolution of AI – he co-founded Citrine Informatics. Citrine built an AI platform that helps researchers advance cutting-edge materials for use in solar cells, batteries, electric cars, and more. “It allows us to move through generations of materials discovery so much faster that we're not just incrementally improving things, but we're actually driving forward the whole industry and raising the bar on ourselves in a pretty exciting way,” says Greg. This week: Greg Mulholland, CEO of Citrine Informatics, describes the many ways that artificial intelligence is pushing the performance of clean energy and climate technologies – and helping clean up the materials that make up the world around us. Subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter to get all our news coverage and podcasts on the industry straight to your inbox. Sign up for Latitude Media's Frontier Forum on January 31, featuring Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, who will break down the budding market for clean energy tax credits. We'll dissect current transactions and pricing, compare buyer and seller expectations, and look at where the market is headed in 2024.

Turbulent. Equilibrating. Those are the words that investors Gabriel Kra and Carly Anderson use to describe the last year for venture capital in climate tech.  We now have a full picture of the year for climate tech venture investing in 2023. Fresh data from Sightline Climate shows a decline in deal counts, round sizes, and a dropoff in repeat investors.  It was a year of rising interest rates, declining valuations, a bank collapse, and falling exits. But it was also when many companies started building factories, and forging a path toward a green industrial economy. “If rates go up and IPO markets dry up, we all suffer from that just like everybody else does,” said Kra. “But when we look back, we're going to realize, that's when products started rolling off the lines.” “I think it was a year of looking around and figuring out, ‘hey, what's real and we, where is, where is the ground?' And I think we're at a pretty solid place now to go forward, “ said Anderson. This week: we feature perspectives from two investors on the mixed environment for fundraising, the impact on different sectors, and why we may actually look back on 2023 in a positive light. Sign up for Latitude Media's Frontier Forum on January 31, featuring Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, who will break down the budding market for clean energy tax credits. We'll dissect current transactions and pricing, compare buyer and seller expectations, and look at where the market is headed in 2024.

When the numbers for 2023 are finalized, there could be another 320 to 413 gigawatts of solar installed around the world – bringing global capacity to nearly 1.5 terawatts. Solar is now on track to surpass coal and fossil gas capacity in the next few years, bringing generation to 10% of global electricity supply.  There's universal recognition that we're firmly in the solar era. But outlooks on how fast the technology will grow are mixed. And that's because a mix of constraints – market design, trade barriers, and grid capacity – could cap yearly growth. This week on The Carbon Copy, we talk with Wood Mackenzie's Michelle Davis about the tech and deployment trends that will shape the next decade of solar PV expansion. Sign up for Latitude Media's Frontier Forum on January 31, featuring Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, who will break down the budding market for clean energy tax credits. We'll dissect current transactions and pricing, compare buyer and seller expectations, and look at where the market is headed in 2024.

The competing trends in the energy transition from 2023 were stark: a looming peak in demand for oil, gas, and coal; a global agreement to transition away from fossil fuels; and an increasingly realistic pathway to triple renewables development. But we also experienced the hottest global temperatures in 125,000 years, record US oil & gas production, inflation headwinds that challenged large renewables projects, and a very tough year for clean energy stocks. Every new investment in energy infrastructure matters in an increasingly consequential way. This is the decade to get it right, and we're almost halfway through it. So, as is tradition, we spend some time outlining our picks for storylines of the year – with that urgency in mind. And we'll talk about what they signal about the path ahead here in the US and beyond. Sign up for Latitude Media's Frontier Forum on January 29, featuring Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, who will break down the budding market for clean energy tax credits. We'll dissect current transactions and pricing, compare buyer and seller expectations, and look at where the market is headed in 2024. The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.

In less than a decade, America has become the world's biggest exporter of liquified natural gas.  In the mid-2000s, the US was building terminals to import more fossil gas. But that all changed after the fracking boom unlocked vast reserves of hydrocarbons.  The US became a net exporter in 2017. Then, Russia's war on Ukraine forced a scramble for new supplies of gas in Europe – and American companies stepped in. The consequence: a historic push for new terminals, a vast new source of heat-trapping gasses that could wipe out US climate gains, and a growing conflict over how the government approves new LNG infrastructure. This week: we explore the latest climate flash point: liquified gas. We're joined by Bill McKibben, author, organizer and founder of Third Act; Nicole Pollack, a contributing writer at Canary Media; and Jeremy Symons, analyst, political strategist, and principal at Symons Public Affairs. Resources mentioned in this episode: Canary Media: Nicole Pollack's deep dive into the controversies over FERC approval of LNG exports. New Yorker: Bill McKibben's article on Robert Howarth's latest research on LNG emissions. Jeremy Symons' recent research on how LNG exports are causing US emissions to rise. Sign up for Latitude Media's Frontier Forum on January 29, featuring Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, who will break down the budding market for clean energy tax credits. We'll dissect current transactions and pricing, compare buyer and seller expectations, and look at where the market is headed in 2024. It's Canary Media's listener drive through the end of the year. Make a tax-deductible donation today. The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.

The nuclear industry is grappling with several issues: high interest rates, rising commodity prices, limited supply chains, fuel availability, and a regulatory environment that has been slow to adapt to new technologies.  In the west, nuclear knowhow has faded over the decades. Even with a surge in policy support and public interest, development is stagnant and capacity has fallen. Momentum has moved over to Asia, mostly China. But that's not nearly enough. While global renewables have tripled in just over a decade, net global nuclear capacity has barely budged upward. The reality is that we may need to see capacity double – or even triple – by 2050 to keep us on a net-zero path, on top of tripling wind and solar. So this week, we'll revisit the stories shaping nuclear power in 2023 and ask: are we getting anywhere closer to unlocking real growth? Or will the industry stay in a perpetual holding pattern? Breakthrough Institute: Advanced nuclear is in trouble E&E News: What's next after the NuScale cancellation Canary Media: The future of small reactors at stake as NuScale deal flops Bloomberg: US, UK lead pledge to triple nuclear power by 2050  It's Canary Media's listener drive through the end of the year. Make a tax-deductible donation today. Sign up for Latitude Media's newsletter to get updates on the tech and business frontiers of the climatetech industry. The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.

It took 12 years to triple global renewables – and now we need to do it in eight years.  As the latest UN climate summit begins, there's a proposal on the table to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. Countries may agree to it in theory, but can the market meet it in practice? This week, we'll look at why this tripling is necessary, how it could be done, and what technologies will dominate. Then, we'll address a confusing narrative that has emerged around electric cars. We're seeing a historic ramp-up in domestic EV production, and record sales. But many are fretting that the market is weakening – and automakers are pulling back. What gives? We'll end with the forecast: our picks for stories that tell us something about the near or far future. Resources mentioned in the show: BNEF: Tripling global renewables by 2030 Is necessary to achieve net zero Carbon Brief: Why deals at COP28 to triple renewables and double efficiency are crucial  Latitude Media: To triple renewables capacity, solar is a boon – and a potential problem NYT: A new law supercharged EV manufacturing, but not sales Business Insider: Automakers are scrambling over EVs It's Canary Media's listener drive through the end of the year. Make a tax-deductible donation today. This episode of Carbon Copy is brought to you by the Energy Show, hosted by Barry Cinnamon. Questioning if that cool new product or service really pencils out for customers? Curious about customer adoption of IRA policies? Wondering how the grid can keep up with home electrification? For the real-world scoop on clean energy technologies with a focus on the customer perspective, don't miss the Energy Show at www.energyshow.biz. The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.

Weather forecasts for the grid depend on supercomputers to calculate the flow of heat, water, and radiation in the atmosphere, and then spit out predictions about what could happen next. These supercomputers are powerful. But they are also expensive and slow, relative to how quickly the weather changes. A new class of AI-based weather forecasts could change the game for grid operators and renewable energy developers. Will they take hold? This week, we explore a variety of emerging applications for artificial intelligence in energy.  First, we'll look at how machine learning can improve and democratize weather prediction with journalist Emma Woollacott, Dr. Jack Kelly of Open Climate Fix, and Dr. Noelia Otero Felipe of the University of Bern. Then, we'll hear from a few companies that are using AI for demand response, virtual power plants, and EV charging. Latitude producer Erin Hardick explores AI trends at the grid edge with Apoorv Bhargava of WeaveGrid, Jae Beom Bae of Leap, Paul McDonald of Opower at Oracle Energy and Water, and Carlos Nouel of National Grid. It's Canary Media's listener drive through the end of the year. Make a tax-deductible donation today! This episode of Carbon Copy is brought to you by the Energy Show, hosted by Barry Cinnamon. Questioning if that cool new product or service really pencils out for customers? Curious about customer adoption of IRA policies? Wondering how the grid can keep up with home electrification? For the real-world scoop on clean energy technologies with a focus on the customer perspective, don't miss the Energy Show at www.energyshow.biz. The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.

This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by Intersect Power. The U.S. grid is in trouble. It's old; it's really hard to build new transmission lines; and that is limiting the amount of wind and solar we can add to the system. Sheldon Kimber, Founder and CEO of the clean energy developer Intersect Power, says the grid is “broken.” But he has a plan to get around those constraints.  In this episode, produced in partnership with Intersect Power, Sheldon Kimber talks with Stephen Lacey about creative strategies for building renewables that don't rely on overhauling the grid.  If you want to read more about Sheldon's vision on how this strategy will play out, he has an op-ed published at Latitude Media.  Intersect Power is a clean energy company bringing innovative and scalable low-carbon solutions to its customers in global energy markets. The company develops, owns, and operates some of the world's largest clean energy resources – providing low-carbon electricity, fuels, and related products to customers for U.S. consumption and international export. Learn more about Intersect's projects and business model.