The Wharton Current

Small Scale, Big Impact: Nuclear Microreactors -- James Walker, CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy by The Wharton Current

Energy Geopolitics in Transition — Dr. Benjamin Schmitt, Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Kleinman Center for Energy Policy by The Wharton Current

Geothermal energy may be the biggest dark horse in the clean energy transition. And it's bipartisan. At Deploy24, Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm gave a strong endorsement of geothermal, calling it her "personal favorite" power source. Recently confirmed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said he is “optimistic about advancing geothermal technology deployment." Sage Geosystems is helping turn that vision into a reality. By adapting advanced drilling techniques from oil and gas, Sage is unlocking hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal -- a breakthrough that could dramatically expand geothermal's reach well beyond traditional hotspots. In the latest episode of The Wharton Current, Ian Miller and Siddharth Challani sat down with Jason Peart, General Manager of Strategy & Development at Sage Geosystems, to discuss: - Scaling Geothermal Beyond Current Limits: Geothermal has always been constrained to a few specific regions -- until now. Learn how HDR technology could capture geothermal potential across the U.S. and increase its power capacity by orders of magnitude by 2050. - Serving Critical Customer Needs: Sage is working with major utilities, the Department of Defense and top tech leaders to make geothermal a go-to solution for clean baseload and long-duration energy storage. Explore how Sage's customers are integrating HDR geothermal into their energy strategies. - Building an Impactful Career in Energy: Hear how Jason's focus on community, adaptability, and lifelong learning has shaped his dynamic career and opened doors in the fast-evolving energy sector. If you have any feedback, please reach out to ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu

What's next for clean energy under a Trump administration? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jen Wilcox. Now a Penn professor, Dr. Wilcox led the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management under the Biden Administration. Named one of the Time 100 in Climate in 2023, she had a front row seat as Biden's pro-clean energy policies spurred growth in the industry, and she provides unique insight on what lies ahead under Trump. In the episode, Dr. Wilcox joined hosts Ian Miller and Lilly Chadwick to discuss: - Clean Energy Winners and Losers: Which technologies will have the most and the fewest roadblocks under Trump, and how Elon Musk may affect the outcome - Agencies and Policies at Risk: How the conservative majority in the Supreme Court and the Senate will facilitate Trump's ability to advance his agenda, and which environmental agencies and policies are most at risk - Reasons for Optimism: Despite foreseeable challenges, why to feel hopeful about the future of clean energy over the next four years If you have any feedback, please reach out to ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu

What if aging wind parks could produce 5x more green energy? Lars Meyer, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of NeXtWind, is focused on making that vision a reality. In 2023, NeXtWind raised $750M to "repower" aging wind farms across Germany, upgrading inefficient turbines and increasing power output by 4-5x. In this episode, Lars joined host Ian Miller to discuss: - Enabling Net Zero: How Lars and his co-founders identified critical gaps in Europe's energy transition and designed NeXtWind's business model to rapidly scale renewable capacity - Adapting to New Frontiers: How NeXtWind is preparing to evolve as markets rely more heavily on variable renewable electricity - Lars' Life Lessons: How conviction, courage and even a fortuitous soccer match can make all the difference in an entrepreneur's career https://www.nextwind.de/ Any feedback? Please reach out ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu

Over the past decade, climate tech venture capital has expanded rapidly. Total funding increased by 12.5x and new venture firms like Clean Energy Ventures emerged, filling critical gaps in the capital stack and helping founders reimagine a more sustainable future. Our guest, Matt Cohen, Principal at Clean Energy Ventures, has dedicated his career to helping climate tech entrepreneurs scale their businesses. He and his colleagues are focused on maximizing impact, investing only in companies that can mitigate 2.5 gigatons of CO2 by 2050. In this episode, Matt returned to Penn, his alma mater, and joined host Ian Miller to discuss Clean Energy Venture's mission and share his insight on: - Finding your unique strengths as a climate tech investor or operator - Identifying pockets of opportunity across climate technology verticals - Communicating a compelling vision and generating investor excitement as a founder Any feedback? Please reach out ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu

Rising electric vehicle demand is creating new challenges for both EV owners and utilities. Concentrated charging times are driving up electricity prices, making it more expensive to charge EVs. This "peaky" electricity demand is pushing utilities to rely on fossil fuel plants, impacting the energy transition. Apoorv Bhargava, CEO of WeaveGrid, is focused on addressing these problems by making the grid more intelligent and resilient. In this episode, Apoorv and co-hosts Emily Goldfield and Ian Miller dive into WeaveGrid's world and discuss: - The Evolution of the Electric Grid: Explore the essential grid improvements needed to enable wide-spread electrification across industries. - Innovations in EV Charging: Learn how WeaveGrid is using software to optimize EV charging and to transform EVs into distributed energy storage assets. - Insights from a Climate Tech Founder: Hear about Apoorv's journey as a Stanford GSB graduate, successful founder and Forbes 30-Under-30 recipient, and his perspectives on building a meaningful career in climate tech. ------- Any feedback? Please reach out ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu.

You hear it every day -- artificial intelligence is the future. But artificial intelligence data centers require an extraordinary amount of electricity. How are utilities going to meet this growing demand all while transitioning to a greener energy mix? Nelson Abramson, CEO of Verrus, is revolutionizing the data center industry by developing a more sustainable and energy efficient data center design. In this episode, Nelson and co-hosts Siddharth Challani and Ian Miller dive into Verrus' vision and discuss: 1. The Explosive Growth in AI and Data Centers 2. The Impact on Energy Demand and Climate Change 3. Innovative Data Center Designs for the Future If you'd like to connect with Nelson or share your thoughts on this episode, please write to ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu. https://www.verrusdata.com/

For investors, taking sustainability seriously requires high-quality company-level data. That, in turn, requires standards that ensure companies across industries and economies are providing this kind of investor-useful data. We need accounting standards for sustainability reporting, just like what we have for financial reporting. Our guest this week is from the international body that's tackling this task. Elizabeth Seeger is a Wharton MBA alum and board member at the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), a 14-member body within the world's standards-setter for accounting, the IFRS Foundation. The ISSB released this summer a pair of global baseline standards for sustainability and climate reporting. They're working with countries and international organizations around the world (G7, G20, central bank governors, and more) to drive global adoption. Listen to learn: -- How the ISSB is unifying the global maze of sustainability accounting standards -- How the board draws on financial reporting concepts in underpinning its sustainability reporting standards -- How sustainability reporting standards in public markets affect private markets. Bio: Elizabeth Seeger has over 20 years' experience of standard-setting, investment and working on sustainability topics. She joined the ISSB from global investment firm KKR, where she served as Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, responsible for helping oversee the firm's consideration of sustainability matters throughout KKR's investment process and part of KKR's Global Impact team. She also oversaw KKR's public sustainability reporting efforts, including the development of SASB and TCFD-aligned reporting. Before joining KKR in 2009, she served as a project manager in the corporate partnerships programme (now known as EDF+Business) of Environmental Defence Fund. Elizabeth's comments represent her views and opinions and not those of the ISSB or the IFRS Foundation.

What technologies can get us to net-zero steel? Dr. Christina Chang knows this space as well as anyone in venture capital. She's a PhD chemist and inventor in fields from solar PV to advanced manufacturing, a former steel startup CEO, and now a partner at Lowercarbon Capital. Join us to learn: -- Which technologies can help cut steel emissions -- and why near-commercial options like CCUS and hydrogen can't get us to net-zero -- How modularity can help electrochemical iron-making drive down the green premium -- What the Inflation Reduction Act means (and doesn't mean!) for green steel production costs Christina's full background: A chemist, climate tech founder and CEO, Dr. Christina Chang has invented technologies across nanomaterials, catalysis for mining waste remediation, thin-film solar panels, solar water-splitting for H2 production, and sustainable steel. She is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, the multi-billion dollar VC firm backing kickass companies that fix the planet profitably. Previously, Dr. Chang led federal funding for sustainable manufacturing research ARPA-E, including steel, chemicals, cement, rare earths, and carbon-negative building materials. Dr. Chang earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Harvard. On the Marshall Scholarship, Dr. Chang earned an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London and an MPhil in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a Bachelor's in Chemistry, with Certificates in Engineering Biology, Applications of Computing, and Materials Science and Engineering. She is a United States Presidential Scholar, a Goldwater Scholar, a Draper Laboratory Fellow, and an alumna of the Research Science Institute.

Adding renewables and batteries to our power grid cuts emissions and can lower costs. But it also makes grid stability a more complex affair. That's in part because these systems tend to have less "inertia" -- a byproduct of turbine rotation that helps insulate grids against fluctuations in supply and demand. The old models and heuristics for inertia management no longer apply, and grid operators compensate by running their systems more conservatively -- higher cost, and higher emissions. What's the alternative? Frederico Rauter is chief revenue officer at Reactive Technologies, a Series C startup with a pioneering new technology for precise inertia measurement. Frederico tells us: -- What inertia is, and how their technology improves upon the current tools for monitoring it -- Why utilities can be slow to adopt new technologies, and how they've developed their product with those obstacles in mind -- How he built a career before Reactive tackling innovation in large corporates (SNCF, Siemens) If you'd like to connect with Frederico or share your thoughts on this episode, please write to edmund.downie@princeton.edu.

Rising climate risk has corporates around the world announcing targets to cut their emissions. But how can investors know whether a company's targets are ambitious enough to support our world's climate goals -- to help mitigate global climate risk? Ned Downie & Adriel Barrett-Johnson talk in this episode with Luiz Amaral, the CEO of the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a UN-backed initiative to define and promote best practices in science-based corporate target-setting. Luiz shares: -- How SBTi fits into the growing ecosystem of standards-setters in corporate climate action -- Why ambition in target-setting matters for corporate climate performance -- How SBTi is revamping its governance structure and expanding into accountability around climate targets as part of its next stage

Join host Ellie McDonald on this episode of The Wharton Current as she welcomes Leshika Samarasinghe, founder and solo GP of Twine Ventures! Twine Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in purpose-driven startups focused on healthcare, fintech, and climate technology. With a Harvard Business School degree and early experience at Google and ARPA-E, Leshika shares her unique investor perspective with listeners in this episode. She also shares her inspiring journey, the vision behind Twine Ventures, and her insights on the macro and climatetech VC markets. Don't miss out on this engaging and informative conversation with Leshika Samarasinghe!

How do you store a lot of zero-carbon energy for cheap? Justin Briggs and his co-founders at Antora Energy believe in a simple answer. Find a cheap and abundant material that can retain a lot of energy in a small volume -- and use zero-carbon electricity to get it really hot. That's the product that Antora Energy offers: thermal energy storage using blocks of solid carbon. They've raised $50mn in Series A funding as they target scaling their product, focusing on markets in industry. Justin sat down with Ned Downie and Shivani Shikha to talk about: -- Why the Antora team decided that thermal energy storage was such an appealing product to develop -- How they see their competitive edge against other thermal energy storage technologies for industrial decarbonization -- How centering their mission -- stopping climate change -- in raising funds made them more attractive to venture investors

Energy efficiency saves consumers money, and we need deep cuts in home energy use to reach our world's net-zero goals. How can we get more homeowners to invest in it? That's the question that drives Lauren Salz. She's CEO and co-founder of Sealed, an energy and financial technology company that helps homeowners finance home improvements that save on energy costs and emissions too. Lauren tells us about what makes homeowners invest in energy efficiency(hint: it's often not about money, and definitely not about climate!) and about how she and her co-founder have built Sealed to fit those motivations. She also walks through how she transitioned from consulting to starting a company and shares stories from her days as a surprisingly well-paid street musician in London.

In this episode, Ned Downie and Ellie McDonald chat with a founder from an area of climatetech that's only starting to get the attention it deserves -- adaptation. Guest Bessie Schwarz is co-founder and CEO of Floodbase, a company that provides near real-time data on flood mapping and flood risk for markets including parametric insurance, risk analysis, and disaster management. They announced a $12mn Series A in late January 2023 led by Lowercarbon Capital. Bessie talks about what Floodbase brings to insurance, risk, and disaster management markets; what it's like to go from being a community organizer to being a startup founder and climate tech; and how adaptation funding as a space has changed since she and her co-founders started working on this company a decade ago.

The market for carbon capture focuses on large-scale projects -- capture retrofits in heavy industry, say, or enormous facilities to suck carbon directly out of the air. But should we also be capturing carbon inside buildings? Our guest for this week says yes. Nick Martin is COO of Carbon Reform, a Delaware-based startup developing a modular retrofit device for commercial HVAC systems that scrubs both traditional indoor air pollutants and carbon dioxide. They raised $3mn in seed funding in fall 2022. We discuss with him how their module can save customers money on energy costs, how they're thinking about target markets, and why traditional carbon-capture policy incentives need tweaking to serve decentralized solutions like theirs.

Concrete is the most used material in the world after water -- but an indispensable input, cement, accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions. How do we slash cement's carbon footprint? Join the Current to hear thoughts on this from Ian Riley, CEO of the World Cement Association, a global trade body for the cement industry. Ian is a cement industry veteran whose C-suite experience includes a stint in China, the country producing more than half of the world's cement. We talk about how urban mining and local materials sourcing can support cement decarbonization, why stranded assets are a real concern for the sector, and how China is thinking about emissions in cement sector policy.

Join us on The Wharton Current as we sit down with Sara Harari, Associate Director of Innovation and Strategic Advisor to the President at Connecticut Green Bank. Sara discusses the future of clean technologies and how state-level green banks are driving investment in sustainable infrastructure and technology. We also delve into the intricacies of the Inflation Reduction Act, Sara's role as co-chair of the Connecticut Hydrogen Task Force, and the importance of diversity and equity within the climate space.

The Wharton Current welcomes Christine Harada, Wharton alum and Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Council, to discuss the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill and the IRA. Along the way we get political and even a bit philosophical, discussing her career, the value of working in the public sector, and her perspective on the importance of being engaged in civic life as a business leader.

For our final episode of 2022, we welcome Sarah Jewett, Director of Strategy at Fervo Energy, a startup working on next-generation geothermal. Fervo brings drilling innovations from oil and gas to make geothermal a real option for 24-7 zero-carbon power. Sarah walks us through the oil & gas drilling technologies that Fervo is leveraging, and the opportunities for geothermal to bring the oil and gas workforce into the clean-energy transition. She breaks down where geothermal belongs in the clean-power supply stack and how the IRA can help give geothermal the subsidy support that has helped solar and wind scale.

This week, the Current teams up with the Wharton Sustainable Business Club to talk with Alex LaPlaza, partner at major cleantech VC Lowercarbon Capital. He talks with hosts Ned Downie and Nehali Jain about how standing on the rim of an active volcano helped convince him to work on climate; why Lowercarbon is investing big-time in carbon removal; and why he thinks adaptation is a overlooked and undervalued area for investment. He's also got some interesting reflections on why he went into venture, and what you should consider if you're looking at that space.

The Current welcomes Sophie Lu, Principal, Carbon Management (Scope 3) at BHP, one of the world's biggest mining companies. Sophie breaks down for us how a major company like BHP thinks about emissions management across their value chain. She shares insights on the future of steel decarbonization. And she tells us why cutting emissions isn't just about moonshot technologies -- it's also about change management, building coalitions within corporates and across value chains that can push forward the cuts we need. If you like, subscribe and share on Twitter (@whartoncurrent), Instagram (@thewhartoncurrent), and LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Wharton Current, host Ellie McDonald sits down with Derek Warnick, the co-founder and CFO of Electric Hydrogen. Join us as we talk about the booming hydrogen space in the United States, Electric Hydrogen's unique business model, and the implications of the Inflation Reduction Act on climatetech.

"High temperature superconductors have been proposed as a holy grail for transmission for at least three decades," says VEIR CTO Tim Heidel. In this episode, Edmund Downie and Adriel Barrett-Johnson sit down with Tim to discuss VEIR, a startup developing a new generation of transmission lines that promise to carry up to 5x as much power as their conventional counterparts. We talk about the grid's desperate need for transmission expansion, VEIR's technology and business goals, and Tim's experience in cleantech innovation over the past decade at the Department of Energy and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

How to approach the energy transition when 65% of your national budget comes from oil profits? In this episode, host Adriel Barrett-Johnson sits down with Adam Sieminski, the outgoing President of KAPSARC, the advisory body to the Saudi authorities on energy and climate. Saudi authorities on energy and climate. They discuss the role of a thinktank in advising policy makers on climate, how the energy transition is discussed within the Kingdom, and the challenges for Saudi Arabia in setting goals toward net zero carbon emissions.

The technology of battery recycling hasn't changed in a century - until now. In this episode, host Adriel Barrett-Johnson sits down with Megan O'Connor, Founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a battery recycling and metals processing company. They discuss the battery materials supply chain, the need for critical mineral processing capacity in the US, and the innovation in electro-extraction for battery recycling that Megan developed during her PhD, which is now the foundation of Nth Cycle.

Last year the IEA put out a report that said that if we actually start tracking toward net zero by 2050, we will need 42x the lithium that we currently produce annually. Battery recycling will be one of the pillars of meeting that intense demand and enabling us to sustainably and ethically source the critical minerals needed to power the energy transition. On this episode of the Wharton Current, host Adriel Barrett-Johnson sits down with Wilson Ma of Li Cycle, a leading battery recycling company in North America. They discuss the role of battery recycling in the energy transition and the significance of Li Cycle's updates to some of the traditional processes. https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions/mineral-requirements-for-clean-energy-transitions

Weaning ourselves off of carbon for energy purposes is front and center in climate work. Less discussed but arguably equally important to decarbonization is the move away from petroleum-based materials to produce the goods we consume. On this episode of the Wharton Current, host Adriel Barrett-Johnson sits down with Wharton grad Rich Riley, CEO of Origin Materials, a carbon negative materials company. They discuss the importance of carbon negative materials in decarbonization, what it takes for a materials company to be carbon negative, how Origin Materials is scaling, and Rich's experience as CEO.

Despite contributing approximately 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, little progress has been made in decarbonizing cement production. In this episode, co-hosts Ellie McDonald and Thomas Obermeier sit down with Cody Finke, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Brimstone, which is seeking to introduce carbon-negative cement to the market. We discuss Cody's path to finding the most relevant problem to tackle that could have a meaningful impact at scale, how that led him to founding Brimstone in 2019 with Hugo Leandri, the existing cement and concrete ecosystem that appears uninterested in pursuing decarbonization, and why he is confident that a lower-cost solution, not CCS, is the only feasible pathway for the industry.

On this episode, co-hosts Nick Van Hollen and Thomas Obermeier sit down with Meghan O'Sullivan, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. They discuss how the geopolitics of energy will evolve during the transition to cleaner energy sources, focusing on the distinction between the long-term geopolitical implications of a net-zero world and the short-term perils that will arrive in the next few decades. Within this framework, they also examine the counterintuitive forces sustaining petrostates, the growing importance of clean energy supply chains, and energy's central role in the ongoing war in Ukraine. [Updated for clarity on June 1, 2022]

On this episode of The Wharton Current, host Ellie McDonald sits down with Luke Mairo, the co-founder and COO of Voltpost. Join us as we talk about trends in the electric vehicle space, Voltpost's business model, and what policy initiatives are set to catalyze EV infrastructure build out. To learn more about Voltpost, visit their website at https://www.voltpost.com/ or check out their LinkedIn page.

In this episode, host Thomas Obermeier sits down with Silicon Ranch co-founders Reagan Farr, CEO and President, and Matt Kisber, Chairman of the Board. Since starting the company together with former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen in 2011 in Nashville, TN, they have grown the utility-scale solar owner and operator into one of the largest independent power producers in the United States. In this episode, they discuss Silicon Ranch's origin and unique struggles as a solar company in the Southeast in the early 2010s, their recent $775mm new equity capital raise, the value of strong stakeholder partnerships in times of crises, as well as how regenerative land management practices and solar energy can be mutually beneficial.

According to the IEA, heat is the world's largest energy end use, accounting for almost half of global final energy consumption in 2021, significantly more than electricity (20%) and transport (30%). Of that, industrial processes are responsible for 51% of the energy consumed. In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Ellie McDonald sit down with John O'Donnell, founder and CEO of Rondo Energy, which is seeking to provide low-cost zero-carbon industrial heat through its Rondo Heat Battery. We discuss why industrial heat has historically been seen as a hard to decarbonize industry, how Rondo is seeking to change that by deploying its Heat Battery, and how its product differs from other energy storage technologies.

On this episode of The Wharton Current, host Ellie McDonald sits down with Peter McHale, the Co-Founder and CEO of Gaia AI. Join us as we talk about Gaia AI's business model, trends in the carbon credit space, specifically surrounding forest carbon credits, and what climate tech startups are looking for from early stage investors. To learn more about Gaia AI, visit their website at www.gaia-ai.eco/ or check out their LinkedIn page (www.linkedin.com/company/gaiaai/).

In this episode, co-host Adriel Barrett-Johnson sits down with Teague Egan, Founder and CEO of EnergyX, a lithium extraction startup. They discuss how Teague founded the company, the role of lithium in the energy transition, and how EnergyX is working with the government of Bolivia to run pilots of their technology. They get into why there aren't more greentech companies in Bolivia, and what might need to change for a community of greentech startups to grow there. For the New York Times feature on EnergyX, see here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/business/energy-environment/bolivia-lithium-electric-cars.html For more on the history of Potosi, see here: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/21/story-of-cities-6-potosi-bolivia-peru-inca-first-city-capitalism

In this episode of The Wharton Current, co-hosts Ellie McDonald and Thomas Obermeier sit down with Ed Ballard, the bureau chief for Wall Street Journal Pro Sustainable Business Unit. Join us as we talk about the implications of COP26, what sustainability KPIs are gaining traction in public and private sectors, and how companies are planning to meet seemingly impossible carbon pledges. Find the Pro Sustainability Business newsletter at https://www.wsj.com/newsletters (search for: Pro Sustainable Business) and Ed at https://www.wsj.com/news/author/ed-ballard.

There's never been a better time to be a climate tech entrepreneur. Over the course of 2021, more than 70 new climate-dedicated investment funds were set up to deploy $35B+ to climate tech solutions. In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Nick Van Hollen sit down with Wharton grad Amy Duffuor, Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund and General Partner at Azolla Ventures, to learn about Prime Impact Fund's pioneering investment model, the evolving role of “catalytic capital”, and investment opportunities with gigaton-scale climate impact. They also discuss Amy's journey from Wharton to Prime and keys to success for MBA students looking to attract early-stage funding for their own ventures or make a career transition into climate investing.

In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Nick Van Hollen sit down with Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, a tech company whose platform enables users to access cleaner and more affordable electricity through products like community solar and offers valuable data and payment capabilities for energy service providers. They discuss the benefits of community solar and why the Department of Energy's goal of expanding community solar to 5 million households by 2025 is setting the bar too low. They also explore what makes Arcadia's platform unique and why data is currency in a world with more distributed energy resources, drawing similarities between Arcadia's evolving business model and the data services responsible for innovation in the fintech industry at companies like Stripe and PayPal.

In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Nick Van Hollen sit down with Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment, to discuss how models can be used to understand complex energy systems and why solely relying on variable energy sources such as solar and wind is like having your star point guard play center. We also discuss the merits of the proposed Clean Electricity Performance Program versus a carbon tax. Check out Jesse's new project REPEAT (Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit), which evaluates the impact of federal energy and climate policies, here: https://repeatproject.org/

In this episode, host Thomas Obermeier sits down with PJ Deschenes, Managing Director at Nomura Greentech, to discuss the current state of SPACs, provide a primer on what they actually are, and explain how the continued growth in climate tech SPACs can be tied back to a 'Green Swan' event in 2020.

In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Charles Lachapelle sit down with the authors of the Climate Tech VC newsletter, Sophie Purdom, early stage climate tech investor, and Kim Zou, investor at Energy Impact Partners. They discuss the state of climate tech, how it's different from cleantech 1.0, and which areas within the space are currently particularly attractive to venture capital investors. Check out the latest Climate Tech VC newsletter and subscribe at https://climatetechvc.org/.

In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Hamza Zafar interview Mark Tercek, author of The Instigator newsletter and former Goldman Sachs partner and CEO of The Nature Conservancy to discuss his work advising private sector leaders on ambitious environmental strategies that make business sense and how having a climate focus maximizes shareholder value.

In this episode, co-hosts Charles Lachapelle, Hamza Zafar interview Zach Gross, Executive Director at JP Morgan in their Power & Utilities Investment Banking team to discuss the trends in US offshore wind.

In this episode, co-hosts Charles Lachapelle and Hamza Zafar interview Wharton professor Business Economics and Public Policy, Arthur van Benthem, to discuss the current energy and emissions policies in the US.

In this episode, co-hosts Charles Lachapelle, Hamza Zafar, and Hayley McCurdy interview first year Wharton MBA student Jonte Boysen to discuss his work on carbon capture.

In this episode, co-hosts Charles Lachapelle and Hamza Zafar interview second-year Wharton MBA student Sid Radhakrishna to discuss his experience working at Breakthrough Energy Ventures over the summer.

In this first ever episode co-hosts Charles Lachapelle and Hamza Zafar introduce the new Wharton Energy Club podcast! The Energy Club is launching a brand new podcast to interview people in the energy ecosystem at Wharton and beyond.