Podcasts about Solar energy

Episode: 2608 Maria Telkes: Solar Energy Pioneer.  Today, here comes the sun.

US residential electricity prices have risen by more than 40 per cent since the start of 2021, which is much faster than general inflation. Utilities requested a total of $31 billion in increased rates last year, double the amount in 2024. And investor-owned utilities are planning to spend $1.4 trillion on capital projects over the next five years – enough on one calculation, to build almost 2,000 Hoover Dams at today's prices. So why are American electricity bills going up, and what can be done to provide some relief for hard-pressed consumers?In this episode, host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Dr Melissa Lott are joined by Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a nonprofit launched in 2024. Charles's focus is on US states' Public Utilities Commissions: the roughly 200 commissioners across the country who oversee around $200 billion in annual spending and ultimately determine what consumers pay. He calls them the “US Supreme Court justices of energy”.The discussion opens with questions of consumers' perceptions, and how they align with reality. The data show that in the past few years, electricity bills have been rising, on average, explaining why the issue has been rising up the political agenda.Recent Ipsos polling commissioned by PoweLines found that four in five Americans feel powerless about energy costs. The proportion who believe their state officials are serving their interests as consumers fell from 38 per cent to 29 per cent in a single year. Charles calls this "a new politics of electricity." It is a domain that until recently sat outside mainstream political attention, but now reaches governors' offices and the White House.Charles and Melissa then unpack what is actually driving the increases. Melissa walks through the top five cost drivers identified in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's analysis: fuel and wholesale supply, distribution costs, generation capex, transmission costs, and cost recovery from extreme weather events. Charles points beyond the line items to a fundamental issue: the traditional utility business model, which structurally rewards capital spending. The question about the impact of data centers is unavoidable. Charles breaks it down: until now, data centres have not been a meaningful driver of price increases across most of the country. But that does not mean they will not be in future. PJM's capacity auction, where prices have rocketed, is one early signal that the picture is starting to change.Charles offers three solutions. First, get more out of the existing grid, which is currently running at roughly 50 per cent utilisation, through technologies he describes as "ibuprofen for the grid." Second, modernise the utility business model, potentially drawing on the UK's totex approach, where utilities can earn a return on operational as well as capital spending. Third, improve grid planning, particularly how load is forecast and how integrated resource plans are built.Melissa zooms out to remind listeners what is actually at stake. Borrowing a line from Amory Lovins, she says: "I don't care about my electrons. I care about cold beer and hot showers." The question is not just about price, but about whether households can keep their homes safe and liveable year-round. You can learn more about PowerLines at PowerLines.org. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode: 3382 Thoughts about coping with the disorder in our lives and the disorder in our world.  Today, disorder.

Send us Fan MailJudd Messer, an advocate for wind and solar energy, as well as battery storage systems, on the Texas Electricity Grid, discusses how these assets contribute to reliability and affordability of electricity in Texas. 

In this episode, Owen Barrett, CEO of Shine, discusses how solar energy can be a game-changer for multifamily real estate, addressing misconceptions, financial benefits, and strategic implementation.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Mike Ratliff, co-founder and CTO of GridVar, to talk about the role software plays in the changing energy infrastructure. With over 30 years of experience in technology, Mike shares the path that took him from the early internet and cloud computing into energy and utility software, along with what he has learned about staying adaptable as the industry continues to shift. Mike explains why building software for the power grid comes with a very different set of constraints than building a typical web application and breaks down some of the challenges utilities are facing, including grid interconnection delays, power quality, increasing energy demand, and the growth of distributed energy resources. We also discuss demand response, microgrids, virtual power plants, battery storage, and how software can help utilities better understand and manage a grid that is becoming more complex. Mike also explains why Elixir and the BEAM are a strong fit for always-on energy systems, how an Erlang MQTT server first led him into the ecosystem, and what it takes to introduce Elixir inside an established organization. The episode closes with a broader look at AI-assisted development, the value of domain expertise, and why technical leaders still need communication, judgment, and a compelling story to move important ideas forward. Key topics discussed in this episode: Mike Ratliff's path from software to energy technology Lessons from three decades of technology industry change The value of generalists in modern software engineering Why good technical judgment remains difficult to replace Building software that interacts with physical infrastructure Why utility technology adoption can move slowly Understanding today's grid interconnection backlog Power quality challenges affecting new grid connections Using simulation to accelerate utility engineering studies Centralized and distributed approaches to grid management How solar energy creates the duck curve Using demand response to balance electricity consumption Edge devices supporting real-time grid coordination Microgrids and resilience in distributed energy systems Cybersecurity considerations for increasingly connected power grids Preparing utility infrastructure for extreme weather events Battery storage and the growth of renewable energy How virtual power plants coordinate distributed resources Why Elixir works well for energy software BEAM reliability for always-on utility infrastructure Discovering Elixir through Erlang and MQTT Building an early virtual power plant with Elixir Making the business case for an Elixir migration Why technical leadership also requires effective storytelling Links Mentioned: GridVAR https://www.gridvar.com/ GridPoint https://www.gridpoint.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Iberian_Peninsula_blackout Demand Response: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response Virtual Power Plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_power_plant Microgrid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgrid Volts podcast: https://www.volts.wtf/

Send us Fan MailSAB members Mike Corso and Barrett Silver, Solar Energy experts, talk about Solar Canopies and Renewable Energy.

Send us Fan MailIsh Mawla ran a BCG case in front of a live audience. Real candidate, real pressure.The case: a solar company in an emerging market watching its revenue fall while the broader market keeps growing. Aditya has to figure out why – and what to do about it.Then Ish breaks down the whole thing – what Aditya did well and where he left points on the table.Here's what stood out:Why your framework can work against you – and the one thing most candidates build in that they shouldn'tHow to read an exhibit under time pressure without glossing over the math that's sitting right in front of youWhat it takes to brainstorm boldly when the ask is doubling revenue, not incremental growthCoaching:Want this kind of feedback on your own cases? Start with a free 15-minute call with Katie – she'll tell you where you stand and whether Black Belt is the right fitBlack Belt is how you get a dedicated advisor, a personalized prep plan, and coaching from experts like Ish who know what MBB is looking forResources:New to MC? Create a free account and get access to our Case Foundations course, market research, and job board – no credit card required.Free Consulting Prep Just Got a Whole Lot BetterCreate a free MC account for access to step-by-step learning pathways, a brand new case prep course, and more. Download the MC app to prep anywhere.Connect With Management ConsultedCreate a free MC account or download the MC app (Apple, Android) to start your prep todaySchedule a free 15min consultation with the MC TeamWatch the video version of the podcast on YouTubeFollow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTokJoin an upcoming live event – case interviews demos, expert panels, and more

A year ago the data centre conversation was about scale. Increasingly it is about what happens when the announcements meet the physical grid. New capacity is being announced at roughly 435 megawatts a month, enough to power a city of 400,000 people, but two-thirds of that committed load tends to disappear the moment utilities ask for a financial commitment behind it. AI training facilities create load profiles that drop 30% in five minutes, or 190 megawatts in three. The grid's mechanical inertia is retiring just as hyperscaler ambition accelerates, and regulation is lagging on both sides of the meter.In this episode, interim host Bridget van Dorsten returns the microphone to host Sylvia Leyva Martinez. The two recap six months of the show through clips from Chris Seiple (Wood Mackenzie), Tom Falcone (Large Public Power Council), Akeel Bhateja (Bloom Energy), Kay Aikin (Dynamic Grid), Kristina Carlquist and Christian Payerl (ABB), Shannon Miller (Mainspring Energy) and Nick Chaset (Octopus US), and map out the questions that will shape Sylvia's return.The central tension of the past six months: announcements are racing ahead, but utilities, regulators and the physical grid cannot move at hyperscaler speed. A data centre can be built in two years. New generation takes five to ten. That mismatch is why developers have stopped waiting on the grid: 35% of US data centre project capacity announced in 2025 was planned with around-the-meter generation, and 92% of bridge prime power deals are now struck before the end tenant is signed, inverting the usual logic of infrastructure development. But collocated power is still, in Bridget's framing, a science project. The load behaviour demands a coordinated portfolio: supercapacitors and UPS catching millisecond swings, synchronous condensers supplying inertia, fuel cells and linear generators offering modular, fuel-flexible bridging power as a hedge against demand risk. Nick Chaset's intervention cuts the other way: the UK already hosts the world's largest residential virtual power plant, and the cheapest megawatt is the one you don't build. The episode closes on duelling forward views, Tom Falcone's cooperative optimism against Kay Aikin's affordability death spiral, with the question of who ultimately holds the bag if the announcements don't materialise still unresolved.Sylvia sets out what she wants to explore next: the regulatory contradiction where utilities support bring-your-own-generation but cannot guarantee protection from curtailment; renewables supply constraints and the transformer and labour bottlenecks that affect every fuel source equally; the return of energy security as a framing now that "energy transition" has fallen out of political favour in the US; and the community opposition data centre developers are only beginning to grapple with.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's episode is a segment of Jonathan Wilson's "Go Green Podcast," where I recently got invited on as a guest. I'll be talking about the recent changes in the solar industry and what it takes in today's market to become a productive "solarpreneur."CLICK HERE: https://apply.solarpreneurs.com/ https://zendirect.com/ https://crmx.app/ https://zapier.com/ https://www.solarscout.app/taylor https://www.youtube.com/@solarpreneurs goals.solarpreneurs.com oneliners.solarpreneurs.com https://solciety.co/ - JOIN SOLCIETY NOW! SIRO APP - LEARN MORE

Methane is the second-most important greenhouse gas, after carbon dioxide. It has accounted for roughly 30% of human-induced global warming since the 19th century. But it is also a valued commodity, used to heat homes and cook food, provide raw materials for industry and keep the lights on. Every molecule leaked is energy wasted and money lost. The IEA estimates that about 200 billion cubic meters per year could be saved for productive uses by reducing leakage and flaring in the oil and gas industry. That is roughly one fifth of US supply, over a third of the global LNG trade, and nearly twice the volume exported through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025. Half of all abatement opportunities have a positive or zero net cost. The technology to cut emissions by 75% exists today. So why are methane emissions from oil and gas still so large?Host Ed Crooks is joined by TJ Conway, Principal at RMI's Climate Intelligence Program, to explore what it will take to tackle the problem. TJ walks through RMI's approach: first, better understanding where emissions are and how large they are, including the role of super emitters, sources above 100 kilograms per hour that can account for half of total leakage, and then driving change through market mechanisms, corporate engagement, finance, and capacity building. He then talks about the key issue for future methane emissions reductions: the demand side. Creating a functioning market for differentiated, lower-emissions gas requires that buyers, including utilities, industrial companies and hyperscales using gas-powered data centres, can credibly account for those purchases in their emissions inventories. That architecture is still being built.Ed and TJ also dig into the EU Methane Emissions Regulation, now entering its implementation phase ahead of methane intensity thresholds taking effect by 2030. The technical challenges are considerable: tracing emissions from source to importer through complex supply chains like the US pipeline network, where a single LNG cargo may blend gas from low-intensity offshore fields and high-intensity Permian basin production. RMI has proposed a hybrid traceability approach to solve those challenges. The episode also covers methane abatement finance. Financial institutions with climate goals are now often relucatant to invest in oil and gas operations, even for emissions reduction. RMI's Methane Finance Working Group, launched at COP28 alongside the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, has developed guidance for financing structures to overcome that obstacle. It aims to unlock financing to meet a need estimated at 100 to 200 billion dollars.TJ closes with an optimistic message: emissions remain stubbornly high, but the institutional infrastructure built over the past five years now provides the foundation for action. The goal remains a 75% reduction, and the tools exist to get there. Rocky Mountain Institute was founded during the energy crises of the 1970s, with a simple idea: better energy systems can deliver both economic and environmental benefits.Nearly 50 years later, that mission has never been more relevant. As businesses and governments navigate rising electricity demand, supply-chain uncertainty, and the push to decarbonize, RMI helps turn complex energy challenges into practical solutions.From grid modernization and industrial decarbonization to clean transportation and building efficiency, RMI works across sectors to accelerate the energy transition in ways that improve resilience, affordability, and energy security.Learn more at rmi.org.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stay informed on current events, visit www.NaturalNews.com  - Groundhog Day Analogy for Trump's Peace Deals (0:11) - Trump's Peace Deal Announcements and Reality (5:31) - Economic and Political Implications of Trump's Actions (16:15) - Glenn Greenwald's Analysis of Trump's Time Loop (16:34) - Impact of Trump's Actions on Gold and Silver Prices (19:17) - Decentralized Living and Energy Independence (27:42) - Interview with Dr. Chris Martinson on Energy Crisis (28:02) - Personal Preparedness and Resilience (31:01) - Off-Grid Energy Systems and Solar Panels (31:22) - Solar Power and Energy Independence (32:00) - Grid Reliability and Regional Differences (32:17) - Peak Prosperity and Community Resilience (32:38) - Off-Grid Systems and Energy Storage (2:07:15) - Education and Competence Building (2:09:16) - Decentralization and Self-Reliance (2:09:31) - Solar Energy and Local Production (2:09:49) - Water Scarcity and Agricultural Challenges (2:10:03) - Breaking the Chains 2026 and Personal Preparedness (2:17:29) - Financial Planning Activist AI Introduction (2:19:36) - Bonus Content and Consultation Offer (2:20:56) - Additional Bonus Items and Series Details (2:22:48) - Audience Engagement and Support (2:23:55) - Personal Anecdotes and Humor (2:25:19) - Future Plans and Guest Announcements (2:31:58) - Father's Day Sale Announcement (2:36:15) Watch more independent videos at http://www.brighteon.com/channel/hrreport  ▶️ Support our mission by shopping at the Health Ranger Store - https://www.healthrangerstore.com ▶️ Check out exclusive deals and special offers at https://rangerdeals.com ▶️ Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed: https://www.naturalnews.com/Readerregistration.html Watch more exclusive videos here:

There are two great forces reshaping the world of energy today. The AI boom and the wave of investment in new data centres have sent power producers scrambling for generation capacity to meet soaring electricity demand. At the same time, the severe disruption to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has put security of supply at the top of every importer's agenda. In this special episode, recorded at Wood Mackenzie's Gas, LNG and the Future of Energy Conference in London, host Ed Crooks speaks with three guests about what these twin pressures mean for gas. They discuss demand for gas for power, the sources of supply that could provide energy security in volatile times, and plans for tackling the increased greenhouse gas emissions that could result from increased consumption.First, Ed sits down with Neal Kalita, senior director of global energy management at NTT Global Data Centers, one of the world's largest data center developers. Neal explains why "speed to power" is a priority, and why gas plays such a key role in providing the reliable 24/7 firm capacity hyperscaler clients require.Relying on gas as a key component of the power generation mix means managing a complex set of issues around supply security, demand management and long-term investment. Neal explains how NTT thinks about commodity risk, the trade-offs involved in power supply agreements, and why on-site gas generation may be not just a bridge solution but long-term infrastructure for the electricity system. He highlights the key drivers that are changing the data centre industry, including rising GPU power density, AI-driven volatility in load, and climate-related grid reliability concerns. He also discusses NTT's participation in a demand response programme run by Voltus, which helped stabilise the grid when Winter Storm Fern hit Virginia in January.Next, Ed hears from Keith Shoemaker, Chief Commercial Officer at Coastal Bend, which is developing a new LNG liquefaction project at Corpus Christi, Texas. Coastal Bend is aiming to have the first project in the US to integrate carbon capture and sequestration into its design. Combined with the procurement of upstream gas with low methane leakage and flaring, that should make for the lowest carbon-intensity LNG in the world, Keith says. Crucially, the project can match competitor prices without charging a green premium. The US 45Q tax credit will cover the operational spending (Opex) for the transport and sequestration of the carbon, and costs will be kept down by using brownfield maritime infrastructure that is already in place. Regulation will still be essential in creating a market for lower-emissions LNG. Keith sets out an idea for making that work in the EU: linking the new Methane Emissions Regulation with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to create an "avoided carbon" currency that LNG importers could use to offset CBAM fees on other products such as cement, steel and fertiliser. That way, the methane regulation would change from a stick to a carrot for the LNG industry.Kristy Kramer, Head of LNG at Wood Mackenzie, closes the episode by assessing how the three trends of AI demand, energy security and decarbonisation fit together. She discusses the big question: has the conflict on the Middle East changed the world completely, forever. It may play out like the Covid pandemic. Huge changes were predicted, and although there were some permanent impacts, in other areas the world has gone back to the way it was before. Politics will change from week to week, or even from hour to hour, but geology and economics don't, and over time the fundamentals will reassert themselves. Kristy and Ed reflect on what that means for the future of energy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Story of the Week (DR):SuperBroIpoDystopia: Some key facts: MMa record-breaking $135 per share with$1.8T valuationTo make that math make sense, analysts estimate the company needs to grow its sales by 50% every single year for the next decadeSpaceX lost $4.9B last yearWall Street is Being Treated Like Order-Takers: Musk pre-set the IPO price strictly at $135 and dictating exactly which investors got allocations. This forced major investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to act as glorified order-takers without even knowing their exact compensation beforehandSaudi Aramco $1.7T; Alibaba: $237B; Facebook $118BNasdaq aggressively pushed through "fast-entry" rule changes specifically to allow mega-caps like SpaceX to bypass the traditional year of seasoning and enter the Nasdaq-100 in just 15 trading days. This forces passive index funds to buy in blindly to avoid tracking errorsMeme stocker bros: $100B in share orders30% of $75B offering is earmarked for individual retail investors. This effectively shifts late-stage, hyper-inflated valuation risk away from institutions and onto the public.BlackRock $5BInstitutional investors admitted that when they bought into SpaceX privately, they were given high-level revenue figures but were denied a copy of the actual balance sheet—an unprecedented lack of transparency for a company raising tens of billionsUniversity of Washington more than 10% of its $17B in assetsUNC about 10%SpaceX will make $75B in proceedsSaudi Aramco $26B; Alibaba $22BElon Musk's Absolute Voting Tyranny (80% of voting power)personal net worth has officially skyrocketed past $1.1TSpaceX's foundational scale was built on the back of the American public, securing over $20 billion in U.S. federal government contracts to fund its rocket developmentAntonio Gracias: personally lent Musk $1M to keep him afloat; his PE firm Valor gave $76MThat $1M lifeline and early institutional backing from 2008 have compounded into what analysts are calling the most lucrative return on a personal favor in business history.The Second-Largest Shareholder: Through various Valor entities, Gracias controls roughly 7.3% of SpaceX's Class A stock (more than 500 million shares)Gracias's stake is officially worth anywhere from $91B to over $140BThis single corporate listing instantly catapults Gracias into the ranks of the world's 50 richest people.The big party: combined valuation of $3.6TAnthropic ($965B) filed confidentially on June 1OpenAI ($1T) filed confidentially on June 8"We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it's a complicated set of tradeoffs, and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."What does it all amount to? 4 horrible objectives:Funding a Sci-Fi Passion Project with Public CashBecoming the Pentagon's Irreplaceable War MachineForget the folksy narrative that Starlink is just for connecting rural schools or isolated communities: SpaceX is systematically turning itself into the ultimate military contractorProject Starshield: Those satellites are the foundation for a highly classified, militarized version of the network designed for government surveillance, secure communications, and real-time battlefield tracking.Too Big to Regulate: By launching the vast majority of the world's payloads and controlling the dominant orbital communications network, SpaceX is making the U.S. military entirely dependent on its hardware. The ultimate point is to become so deeply embedded in national defense that the government can never afford to regulate, penalize, or dismantle Musk's empireAn Orbital Real Estate Land GrabBuilding a Borderless, Lawless EmpireSpaceX is attempting to build a tech infrastructure that exists entirely outside the jurisdiction of EarthUltimately, SpaceX isn't trying to save humanity from a dying Earth; it's trying to ensure that whoever controls Earth's future has to pay rent to Elon MuskIran threatens Elon Musk's companies in Middle East: Iranian state mediaAll of Elon Musk's companies in the Middle East are military targets for Iran as it retaliates against the U.S., Iranian state media outlet Fars reported.The targets include a regional Starlink ground station, according to Fars.Sen. Warren calls on SEC to delay SpaceX IPO, flagging concerns about valuation and governanceThe letter to the heads of the Nasdaq, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell and Morningstar Indexes sent on Thursday asked the companies whether they had made or considered rule changes based on lobbying from Elon Musk, other SpaceX officials or officials from OpenAI or Anthropic, and asked for any communications between the companies and the indexesLSEG, which owns the FTSE Russell, and Nasdaq declined to comment. Morningstar did not respond to a request from CNBC for comment.S&P Dow Jones Indices didn't comment on the letter, but the company noted it had decided not to change its rules regarding indexes: “S&P DJI determined that exceptions to these requirements should not be granted solely based on market capitalization,” it said in a statement to CNBC. “The decision not to adopt the proposed exceptions preserves core index principles by maintaining consistent application of these key requirements.”Democrats ask Goldman Sachs CEO why he's keeping lawyer who said she'd resign over ties to EpsteinGoldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is facing new scrutiny from congressional Democrats over his reported effort to retain the bank's top lawyer months after she said she would resign over revelations about her ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey EpsteinIn a letter sent Wednesday:U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs CommitteeRepresentative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services on the House Oversight Committee“Ruemmler ‘educated (Epstein) on how the law differentiates between underage victims of sex crimes and adult prostitutes…'”In February, Ruemmler announced her resignation from Goldman Sachs, effective June 30, 2026: “At the time, you stated that you “reluctantly” accepted Ruemmler's resignation. While Goldman Sachs has declined to comment on this matter, new reporting suggests that you ‘pressed' her to reconsider her resignation and instead move to a new position within the firm.”Teardown of Trump Phone Reveals Incredibly Embarrassing SecretA recent teardown by repair company iFixit confirmed that the T1 is an almost entirely unmodified HTC U24 Pro, a two-year-old and mid-tier Android phone, with a cheap coat of gold colorationTrump is selling an entirely Chinese smartphone, despite waging an economic war against the country.Apart from minuscule changes to the speaker grille and a lengthened flex cable, iFixit concluded that “everything is the same, except the pattern of holes in the case.”Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Google and Meta denied new trial in youth social media addiction caseMM: In the United States, Solar Energy is Outpacing Coal for the First Time EverAssholiest of the Week - SPEED ROUND (MM):BP's useless, reactionary board of directors: BP drops net zero division in wake of boardroom turmoil; BP's new CEO Meg O'Neill rips up the energy giant's playbook—and the ‘green' era with it - 10Ryanair blowhard CEO Michael O'Leary: Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with children - 5EV killing GM and Mary Barra: GM is pivoting its battery expertise toward powering AI data centers and the grid - 10Every company that fired employees and replaced them with AI: Unfortunate Company Accidentally Blows Half a Billion Dollars on Claude in One Month; AI sticker shock hits corporate America - 10Everything out of Alex Karp's fat mouth: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says executives who brag about their AI cuts might as well ‘sign up for the Bernie Sanders manifesto'; Palantir CEO says AI companies 'don't understand how unlikeable they are'; - 10Sorry Liz, this is investors job: Sen. Warren calls on SEC to delay SpaceX IPO, flagging concerns about valuation and governance - 0Every investor in SpaceX IPO: Franklin Templeton to participate in SpaceX IPO, CEO Johnson tells CNBC; SpaceX IPO demand is approaching four times oversubscribed, source says; Wall Street's undignified SpaceX mania; SpaceX's president hints at a Tesla merger: 'That might make Elon's life a little easier' - 10Billionaires: Billionaires' Billions Are Increasing Faster Than Ever - 10Beef (not Ebola): Elon Musk Faces Backlash as a Horrific Texas Screwworm Outbreak Follows Brutal DOGE Budget Cuts - 10Mark: Meta Furious Over Bombshell Smart Glasses Revelation“Last week, Wired reported that Meta discreetly moved to infuse facial recognition tech into its popular smart glasses, as evidenced by a piece of code discovered in the Meta AI app by the magazine's journalists.” - 10Headliniest of the WeekDR: UBS CEO [Sergio] Ermotti hopes to step down before 2030MM: You Can Now Get a Religious Exemption From Using AI at Work“The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that ‘sincerely held religious belief' under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse,” tweeted San Francisco-based startup founder Corey Quinn. (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination and retaliation based on race, color, national origin, religion, and sex.)MM: Furious Judge Cancels Entire Trial After Finding Out Lawyers on Both Sides Used AIWho Won the Week?DR: HTC U24 Pro, a two-year-old and mid-tier Android phone. Or maybe it was the cheap gold paint?MM: Everyone religious - what CAN'T you opt out of using a religious exemption? PredictionsDR: Attacking dictator-run companies (i.e., Iran/Tesla) starts to enter the realm of normalcyMM: Atheists adopt a religion to opt out of tech bro oligarchies

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

The robotaxi company Waymo has announced new capabilities that provide benefits completely distinct from its primary business model.Waymo says that the large, heavy, power-intensive batteries that power its fleet will no longer go to a recycling center at the end of their lives. Instead, they have a new use: supporting the power grid.Through a new partnership with B2U Storage Solutions, Waymo's batteries will be repurposed in order to store clean energy. But rather than in one-off implementations, the goal for this effort is to establish grid-scale storage systems. Adam Lenz, head of Sustainability & Environment at Waymo, “Our shared fleet of EVs provide a massive opportunity to support the growth of clean energy on the electricity grid while expanding the circular economy,” adding it was important to the company that the batteries continue to provide “economic and environmental value” after they were retired from the road.The plan goes hand in hand with solar power, according to Waymo, who contends that the batteries will primarily be used to store the surplus energy produced during peak hours – namely the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest point. The batteries will then distribute that power during peak demand in the evenings.They say the process is largely plug-and-play, with batteries coming from cars and capable of being online in this power storage capacity within a matter of days.The first deployments derived from the partnership will take place in Texas and California – two states who not only have a significant need for electrical grid support but who also happen to already host Waymo fleets.Fellow automaker GM also recently revealed that it was expanding into different battery cell chemistries for varied uses – notably to increase its vehicle-to-grid capabilities. The automaker hopes to take advantage of the growth in AI data center development and use its batteries to help offset the strain on the nation's utilities.#Waymo, #Robotaxi, #AutonomousVehicles, #EV, #ElectricVehicles, #BatteryStorage, #EnergyStorage, #RenewableEnergy, #SolarEnergy, #CleanEnergy, #PowerGrid, #BatteryTechnology, #Sustainability, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews

First, we speak to The Indian Express' Atri Mitra about the deepening rebellion within the Trinamool Congress, where a large group of MLAs and MPs have challenged the leadership of Abhishek Banerjee, raising questions about the party's future after its electoral defeat in West Bengal.Next, we talk to The Indian Express' Amitabh Sinha about India's solar power transition, the progress of flagship schemes like PM Surya Ghar and PM-KUSUM, and the challenges that continue to limit their implementation on the ground. (10:25)And in the end, we look at an SFIO report that alleges Veena T., daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, received Rs 2.78 crore in consultancy payments for work investigators say was never carried out, a finding that is now central to an ongoing money laundering probe. (24:15)Hosted by Ichha SharmaProduced and written by Shashank Bhargava, Niharika Nanda and Ichha SharmaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

BC Hydro's transition to Net Billing is now official, with the new program launching July 1. In this episode, we sit down with Steve Unger, Lead, Microgrid Development at Shift, to recap the journey to get here, explain how Net Billing works, why BC Hydro made the change, and tackle the question many solar homeowners are asking: Should you keep the $5,000 rebate or pay it back to stay on Net Metering? Steve shares his perspective after reviewing a wide range of customer scenarios. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The conflict in the Middle East has created severe disruption to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, taking roughly 20% of global supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) off the market. It has been a reminder that hundreds of millions of people rely on the international gas trade to heat our homes, fuel our industries and keep our lights on. And that trade is highly vulnerable to sudden shocks. In this special episode, recorded at Wood Mackenzie's Gas, LNG and the Future of Energy Conference in London, host Ed Crooks speaks with industry leaders and experts about the forces that are changing the gas business. Security of supply and affordability are now the top priorities for policymakers and business leaders around the world. But climate change has not gone away, and greenhouse gas emissions are going to be an increasingly significant issue in the future. Balancing those three imperatives is the trilemma that the energy industry has to solve.First, Ed talks to Anita Odedra, of the LNG platform MidOcean Energy, to discuss the critical role of geography. When energy supplies from the Middle East are disrupted, assets elsewhere in the world take on a greater importance. Joining Anita is Dr Valentina Kretzschmar, of Wood Mackenzie, who puts the shock from the Iran war into the context of a decelerating energy transition in the West. She walks through the EU Methane Emissions Regulation and why it is so hard to work out exactly how much escaped methane is associated with a cargo of imported LNG. And she talks about how the real threat to fossil fuels is cheap Chinese clean energy technology. Arturo Gallego, of Centrica Energy, is another industry leader who is attempting to balance consumers' immediate demands for reliable, affordable energy with long-term climate goals. He warns that if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, Europe will struggle to find the gas it needs next winter, and high prices may be necessary to destroy demand. He makes the case for LNG as a transition fuel and for tackling greenhouse gas emissions step by step.TJ Conway, of the think-tank RMI, closes on a practical note. His work has focused on the technical solutions that make the EU methane regulation workable. He argues that his proposed framework could allow the EU to continue importing US gas, while still sending a signal that methane performance matters.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The energy transition conversation focuses on what connects to the grid. Far less attention goes to whether anyone is coordinating what those assets do once connected. AI training runs swing hundreds of megawatts in seconds as GPUs checkpoint and restart a profile that looks like a generator tripping offline. At distribution level, millions of inverter-based resources create localised variability that overwhelms individual circuits even when aggregate models look healthy. The planning tools in use today were designed for neither problem.Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Kay Aikin, CEO and Founder of Dynamic Grid, energy engineer, grid architecture advisor to the DOE-supported GridWise Architecture Council, and contributor to the UN Environmental Program's building decarbonisation work. Kay unpacks what an AI training facility actually does to the grid with full GPU load for hours or days, then a drop to ten percent in seconds during checkpointing. She talks about how at the scale now planned, the Stargate project in Texas alone could represent ten percent of ERCOT disappearing in four seconds. The behaviour is stochastic and cannot be modelled with traditional statistical tools. At distribution level, virtual power plants responding to wholesale signals without circuit-level visibility can create competing oscillations, the kind of emergent dynamics that contributed to the Spanish grid failure.The proposed fix is an AI controller at the substation, sending price-based signals and flexible operating envelopes to large assets and VPP operators, giving them twenty-four-hour forecasts and real-time circuit visibility. Total cost: under a hundred thousand dollars installed. The reason it isn't everywhere is cost-of-service regulation. Utilities earn returns on deployed capital, so a million-dollar transformer replacement is more profitable than software that eliminates the need for it.Without new approaches, rebuilding the US distribution grid could cost up to ten trillion dollars by 2040. Kay is developing grid utilisation metrics with regulators in Maine, Virginia, and Maryland to incentivise extracting more from existing infrastructure. The episode closes on the need for distribution system operators and the affordability death spiral that looms if the structural incentives don't shift. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stay informed on current events, visit www.NaturalNews.com  - Strait of Hormuz and Peak Oil (0:10) - Advancements in Solar Energy and Cold Fusion (2:17) - Impact of Oil Demand and Middle East Dependence (3:58) - Logistical Challenges and Diesel Shortages (6:25) - Preparation for Energy Shortages and Maintenance (9:51) - Nocebo Effect and Medical Fear Campaigns (20:35) - Critique of Modern Medicine and Vaccines (44:05) - Microplastics and Clothing Choices (1:00:35) - Interview with David Dubeyne on Food Shortages (1:12:47) - Impact of Fuel Shortages and Economic Implications (1:15:38) - Psychological Operations and Energy Lockdowns (1:19:47) - Plastic Shortages and Food Packaging Issues (1:21:41) - El Nino and Its Impact on Crop Production (1:26:11) - Global Water Shortages and Data Center Competition (1:31:34) - African and Middle Eastern Food Production (1:39:10) - Changes in Global Agricultural Hubs (1:41:33) - Preparation for Food Shortages and Economic Changes (1:51:16) - Historical Analogies and Economic Predictions (1:58:38) - Final Thoughts and Call to Action (1:59:53) Watch more independent videos at http://www.brighteon.com/channel/hrreport  ▶️ Support our mission by shopping at the Health Ranger Store - https://www.healthrangerstore.com ▶️ Check out exclusive deals and special offers at https://rangerdeals.com ▶️ Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed: https://www.naturalnews.com/Readerregistration.html Watch more exclusive videos here:

America is facing an energy supply crisis created by surging demand for electricity from data centres. A transition to a lower-carbon system requires massive investment in new clean energy infrastructure. But legal and regulatory structures mean that developing projects in the US is often an uncertain, drawn-out and expensive process.To take just one example, new transmission infrastructure is vital for connecting renewable generation to concentrations of electricity demand. But the last time the US added more than 1,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in a year was 2016.In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Representative Scott Peters to discuss what Congress can do to help fix that. Scott is a Democratic member of the House of Representatives and a co-sponsor of the bipartisan CERTAIN Act, a new bill that attempts to take some of the risk and unpredictability out of the legal procedures for project development.Along with regular contributor Melissa Lott, Partner for Energy Technologies at Microsoft, they discuss whether reform of the permitting system can really help expedite investment in new energy projects. And they assess how likely it is that Congress will be able to make a deal and get a more streamlined system passed into law. The conversation starts with NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. Passed in 1970, it is the bedrock for environmental permitting for infrastructure projects. It is also the most litigated environmental statute in the US. A major project can take four years to prepare an environmental impact statement, with another four years of litigation to follow. As Scott points out, when NEPA was written there were few other environmental protections. Now there are dozens, yet the review process has only grown more burdensome.Melissa frames the core tension: NEPA was designed to inform decisions, not make them. But open-ended review processes have effectively become the decision, determining which projects live or die.Scott explains the current state of the legislative landscape. There are three key elements of a potential bipartisan agreement on reform. The CERTAIN act sets regular permitting milestones and protects issued permits from arbitrary revocation. The SPEED Act, which has already passed in the House, limits the need for environmental reviews, shortens timetables, and restricts the scope for subsequent challenges in the courts. And there are moves for new legislation specifically to support development of electricity transmission. A final deal in Congress is likely to include all three elements. Melissa discusses whether federal reform alone can transform the pace of delivery. Ed raises the question of whether the legal rights and political authorities enshrined in the US system mean that infrastructure development must always be a costly and protracted business. He cites Wood Mackenzie data showing US solar costs are more than double those in China. Scott counters with Texas, where a free-market approach has driven rapid renewable deployment, not because of climate concerns but because the market demanded it.The politics of permitting reform have shifted. Republicans wanted to limit the federal government's ability to block oil and gas projects. Now many Democrats support curbs on the executive's power to obstruct renewable energy development. The issue has risen up the political agenda after the Trump administration moved to block offshore wind projects already under construction, and delayed permits for onshore wind.Scott closes by arguing that this is the best opportunity for lasting permitting reform that he has seen in his 14 years in Congress. This episode is sponsored by Bechtel.Nuclear is back — and Bechtel is helping build what comes next. For more than 70 years, Bechtel has helped shape the nuclear industry, from work on the world's first commercial nuclear reactor to designing, constructing, and servicing more than 150 nuclear plants worldwide. Bechtel has helped bring more than 76,000 megawatts of nuclear power online globally. Today, Bechtel is helping deliver the next generation of nuclear energy — from large-scale plants to small modular and advanced reactors — using the company's decades of mega-project delivery experience to bring new nuclear online safely, reliably, and at scale. Learn more at bechtel.com/nuclear See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The sun is high, the herbs are humming, and the witches are opening the curtains wide for an episode all about sun magick.This week on Back on the Broomstick, Laylla and Chelle bask in the golden glow of solar witchcraft, exploring how witches can work with the energy of the sun for confidence, clarity, protection, healing, abundance, and good old-fashioned get-it-done power. From sunrise intentions to noon-day charging rituals, from solar water and candle spells to herbs, crystals, colors, and deities linked with the sun, this episode is a warm little spell for anyone who needs more fire in their practice.The witches will talk about the difference between moon magick and sun magick, why solar energy is not just “masculine” energy, thank you very much, and how to build a sun-based practice that feels joyful, grounded, and alive. Expect practical tips, personal stories, seasonal wisdom, and probably at least one tangent about forgetting something outside to charge until three days later. You know, witch life.So grab your citrine, pour some sun tea, open a window, and let the light in. Whether you're looking to boost your courage, cleanse your space, bless your garden, or simply remember that you are allowed to take up space and shine, this episode will help you bring a little more solar sparkle into your craft.Got a question? Send the witches a message here!Support the showWant to send us a letter? Witchy things to review?Our mailing address is:Back on the BroomstickPO Box 21Tioga, PA 16946Email: backonthebroomstick@gmail.comYoutube FacebookInstagramBack on the Broomstick Website

The era of stagnant electricity demand in the US is over. Data centres, electrification, and reshoring of manufacturing are driving a surge in demand that is stronger that anything that anyone currently working in the industry has yet seen in their professional lifetimes. The question of which market and regulatory structures are needed to respond to this new and fast-changing world is now at the centre of the policy debate.Host Ed Crooks is joined by Drew Maloney, President and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade body representing America's investor-owned utilities, which together serve more than 70 per cent of the US population. Drew argues that the current moment is exposing a fundamental divide in the US power system: vertically integrated, regulated utilities can plan generation, transmission, and distribution over 20-year horizons, while competitive markets like PJM are struggling to send the investment signals needed to get new power plants built.The conversation starts with one of the hottest topics in US politics: affordability and household electricity bills. There are some misconceptions about electricity bills that have gained traction with the American public. Drew points to EEI research showing that 34 states have kept increases in electricity rates below general consumer price inflation over the past five years. And he adds that the states where prices are rising fastest tend to be in deregulated markets, where capacity costs are climbing but no new generation is being built.Ed draws on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2025 study of electricity bills and data centres (You can read that study here.). That study found that demand growth alone did not explain rising bills, and that the drivers vary significantly by region, from wildfire mitigation costs in California to capacity market dynamics in PJM and New England.They move on to another hot topic in the industry today: whether data centres and other large loads should go “off grid” and rely entirely on local on-site generation. Drew pushes back against the narrative that this model is now becoming widespread, arguing there is more talk than action. Building duplicative generation to create “five nines” reliability for a data centre is expensive, and can still be unreliable without grid backup. It also pulls investment and workforce away from the shared infrastructure that benefits all customers. Most data centres want grid access, even if some are pursuing hybrid approaches in the interim until their hook-ups to the network can be connected.The episode also covers FERC Chairman Laura Swett's emerging approach to market intervention, the prospects for bipartisan permitting reform in Congress, and the ratepayer protection plan brokered between the White House and the major hyperscalers. Drew closes with an optimistic long view: the current moment, though it needs careful management, could be an opportunity to transform the US grid for the better.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As coal and gas plants retire, the energy transition conversation focuses on replacing their generation capacity. What gets far less attention is the loss of the physical properties those machines provided for free: inertia that stabilises frequency, fault current that supports voltage during disturbances, and reactive power that regulates voltage across the network. These services come from the physics of enormous spinning rotors synchronised to the grid, responding instantaneously, without sensors, software or control loops. As inverter-based resources replace them, that mechanical immune system disappears, and a new, extreme stress test is arriving at the same time in the form of AI data centres whose loads can swing by hundreds of megawatts in a fraction of a second.Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Kristina Carlquist, General Manager of Synchronous Condensers at ABB, and Christian Payerl, Sales Manager of Synchronous Condensers at ABB, to unpack why a technology that has existed for as long as the grid itself is now experiencing a revival.Christian explains the three ancillary services the grid is losing, inertia, short-circuit current and reactive power, and why inverter-based generation does not replace them. Grid-forming batteries can be programmed to simulate inertia, but each charge-discharge cycle degrades lifetime, overload capacity is limited to microseconds, and the models needed for accurate grid simulation are often tied up in manufacturer IP. Synchronous condensers respond on physics alone, in both directions, with no degradation and no modelling uncertainty. The recent blackout in Spain illustrates what happens when that gap is left unfilled.Kristina walks through the commercial traction. ABB's partnership with VoltaGrid on isolated data center microgrids has grown from an unexpected inbound enquiry in late 2024 to dozens of synchronous condensers delivered. On the grid-connected side, the Faroe Islands have deployed four units with a fifth on the way as part of their push toward 100% renewables, already achieving multi-day periods of fully renewable operation. ABB is also working with Korea's Jeju Island on its first flywheel-equipped deployment. The demand pattern is widening: islands integrating renewables, TSOs managing weak grid regions, mines electrifying operations, and now data centre developers who had never considered grid stability equipment before.The episode closes on regulation and standards. Christian, who participates in international standards work through CIGRE, notes that there is still no international standard for flywheel safety and that the treatment of inertia as a paid service varies dramatically by country. While inertia is compensated as a paid service in the UK, in Sweden it is treated as free – rotating machines providing it receive no income stream for doing so. As data center load grows faster than regulation can respond, both guests argue that the answer is not one technology but a combination, provided the industry, utilities and policymakers can align on what the grid actually needs to remain stable.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

The war with Iran has put a spotlight on the security and resilience of energy and supply chains around the world. In this second special episode from the ACORE Finance Forum in New York, host Ed Crooks explores what that means for the US power industry, at a moment when rising electricity demand was already putting the grid under strain.Lori Ann LaRocco, a trade and supply chain expert and author of Trade War: Containers Don't Lie, explains the global impacts from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. She tells us that there are 70,000 products made from petrochemicals, including the components that go into solar panels, the chips for data centers, and your cell phone. Supplies of those products are being crunched because of the disruption to exports from the Gulf. Some are already in short supply. Even if the strait reopened tomorrow, the physical realities of repositioning tankers, clearing mines and restoring export infrastructure would mean supply chains would take at least a year to normalise. Her advice: know your supply chain not just to the first tier, but to the fifth, sixth and seventh.José Antonio Miranda, chief executive of Avangrid, talks about the opportunities and challenges created by rising electricity demand. He says investment needs to start now and keep going. His one word advice for policymakers: certainty. Investors have the capital and the expertise to deliver the new grid and generation capacity that policymakers want, he says. What the private sector cannot work with is retroactive rule changes and unpredictable permitting outcomes.Harry Krejsa, director of studies at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology, is a former official in both the Trump and Biden administrations who is focused on the relationship between energy and national security. He argues that worries about depending on China for clean energy technology often conflate two issues: cybersecurity risk, and supply chain dependency. His principle is guard the smart stuff, buy the dumb stuff, and build the future.Kara McNutt, Wood Mackenzie's head of power and renewables consulting for the Americas, shares her concerns about grid reliability. The share of dispatchable generation on the US grid is declining as coal-fired power plants shut down and new wind and solar capacity is added. Nuclear is genuinely exciting, with the global SMR pipeline nearly doubling in the past year, but it is a 2030s story rather than a solution for today.Benoy Thanjan, founder of Reneu Energy and host of the Solar Maverick podcast, is a solar developer. He is seeing surging interest in behind-the-meter storage, driven in part by concerns about energy security and resilience brought to the surface by the Iran war. The FEOC (Foreign Entities of Concern) rules, intended to stop unfriendly countries benefiting from US tax credits, remain a real point of friction. Customers want US-manufactured equipment, but the price gap between compliant and non-compliant products is still very large.Ray Long, president and chief executive of ACORE, closes by sharing his key takeaways from the forum. He says three things need to change to remove obstacles to investment: federal permitting reform, clear FEOC guidance from the Treasury, and faster approvals from the Departments of Interior, War and Energy for new projects. Follow the show wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode. Let us know what you think. We're on X, at @theenergygang.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hanging by a thread. An investigation uncovers troubling ties between a professor at Germany's Federal Police Academy and the far right. And Eurovision returns, amid fresh controversy. Plus: a former pilot calls for a ban on private jets as Cannes gets underway, and how Ukraine is transforming its energy system under fire.++ https://shorturl.at/nAuU4 ++?maca=en-podcast_inside-europe-949-xml-mrss

Neil Aquino explains Houston's AI surveillance and District C runoff as Trump's Iran war and Spirit Airlines collapse hurt MAGA communities while a congressman exposes ignorance about solar energy.Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://politicsdoneright.com/newsletterPurchase our Books: As I See It: https://amzn.to/3XpvW5o How To Make AmericaUtopia: https://amzn.to/3VKVFnG It's Worth It: https://amzn.to/3VFByXP Lose Weight And BeFit Now: https://amzn.to/3xiQK3K Tribulations of anAfro-Latino Caribbean man: https://amzn.to/4c09rbE

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The numbers are staggering. The “magnificent seven” Big Tech companies are expected to have combined capital spending of about $800 billion this year. Data centres' electricity demand is soaring, and hundreds of billions of dollars more are being mobilised to invest in power infrastructure to meet that demand. In this special episode, recorded at the ACORE Finance Forum in New York, host Ed Crooks speaks with five guests at the heart of the revolution in energy finance: bankers, a deal lawyer, a data centre operator and a head of policy. James Wright, Managing Director and Head of US Corporate Banking at CIBC Capital Markets, explains the connection between power, data centres and AI with an analogy borrowed from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Think of AI as a layer cake, with power as the base, data centre infrastructure above it, then hardware, then AI models, and the applications as the icing on top. For banks like CIBC, it is those bottom two layers that matter most. James explains how power developers and data centre builders are increasingly converging. Gas, solar and battery storage are driving the bulk of activity in new power generation, though gas turbine supply chains remain severely stretched. “Powered land” projects, created as sites to attract data centre developers, are a popular idea at the moment. But many of them are highly speculative. James estimates that for every twenty conversations, perhaps a couple result in a financeable transaction. Another hot topic is of behind-the-meter generation and co-located power. James sees it happening, but only at the margin. Grid connections are still the ultimate goal.  Adam Altenhofen, Senior Vice President for Impact Finance at US Bank, brings a different perspective on energy finance. US Bank has deployed more than $33 billion in renewable energy since 2008, primarily through the tax credit programmes for solar, wind and battery storage. The wind and solar tax credits are winding down, but projects that start construction before 4 July this year can still be placed in service through to the end of 2030. The storage tax credit was preserved through to 2036. Behind-the-meter generation, Adam argues, presents a fundamental challenge to the project finance model. If the load disappears, so does the revenue. And unlike for a grid-connected project, there will be no readily available alternative revenue streams to fall back on. Guarantees covering the full duration of the power supply contract are the floor, not the ceiling, for what lenders would need to get comfortable, Adam says.  Mona Dajani, Global Co-Chair of Infrastructure, Energy and Real Estate at the law firm Cooley, sees something structural changing. Hyperscalers are now behaving like utilities, she says. They assess data centre locations based on access to power, reliability and duration of supply. Meanwhile, some utilities are becoming more like infrastructure platforms, building unregulated arms and investing in new technologies to serve growing demand. A cultural gulf used to separate the tech and energy industries. But as they have come to understand their mutual interdependence over the past few years, more constructive collaborations have emerged. Jon Edwards, Executive Vice President and Head of Capital Markets at the data centre developer Switch, offers the operator's perspective. Switch currently consumes roughly one third of Nevada's total power supply and operates at 100% green power. Jon explains how the company decoupled from the utility grid for generation purposes back in 2015, buying its own generation while still using the utility for transmission and distribution, and how that model helped reduce Nevada consumer electricity prices by double digits in 2025. He is another sceptic about behind-the-meter power: it is useful as a bridge in some circumstances, but grid-connected utility power remains the primary and preferred solution for serious, long-duration data centre operations. On the financing side, Jon discusses Switch's recent $2.6 billion letter of credit facility, designed to give utilities the financial certainty they need to invest in new infrastructure, knowing they can be confident the data centre load will be there.  The episode closes with Lesley Hunter, Senior Vice President for Policy at ACORE, who sets the policy backdrop against which all of this activity is playing out. ACORE's latest investor survey makes for sobering reading: 69% of capital providers who replied to the survey said they thought the US industry had in the past year lost attractiveness compared to clean energy sectors in other countries. The same proportion, 69%, expect a further relative decline over the next three years. Lesley identifies two main pain points: the still-unresolved foreign entity of concern rules (FEOC) for tax credit eligibility, and the Department of Defense slow-walking agreements needed for wind development that has held up more than 160 projects. Her message for policy-makers is that regulatory stability is vital. “The core ask of the industry right now is to ensure that players have the rules of the road,” she says. “That those rules won't change mid-stream, and they are able to deploy capital, and trust the federal government when making these long-term investments in US infrastructure.”  Follow the show wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Get in touch - leave me a messageStreetlights sound boring. Until the grid fails and they're the only lights left on.In this episode of Climate Confident, I'm joined by Liam Ryan, CEO of Streetleaf, a climate tech company rethinking one of the most overlooked pieces of public infrastructure: the streetlight. And yes, I know. Streetlights. Hardly the sexiest corner of the energy transition. But this conversation quickly becomes about something much bigger: resilience, decarbonisation, public safety, emissions reduction, and how we build communities that keep functioning as extreme weather puts more pressure on the grid.You'll hear why the real cost of streetlighting often isn't the electricity at all. It's trenching, wiring, maintenance, utility control, copper theft, repair delays, and infrastructure that can take far too long to fix. Liam explains how solar-plus-battery streetlights can avoid much of that mess while helping cities, developers, and communities move closer to net zero.We dig into how Streetleaf's lights performed during hurricanes, why three to five days of battery backup matters, how monitoring changes maintenance, and why policy can help but won't replace cost and performance. You might be shocked to learn that in some cases, utilities can delay streetlight repairs for months while the customer keeps paying. Delightful system design, if your goal is public frustration.This is a practical episode about climate tech that works in the real world: faster installs, fewer wires, lower emissions, better uptime, and infrastructure that earns its keep when conditions get ugly.

Ten weeks into the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The ceasefire is officially holding, but occasional attacks on ships and installations continue. A difficult question is coming into focus: what if the strait never fully reopens?Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of the Global Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab at NYU, alongside two guests. Edward (Eddie) Fishman is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Choke Points, a history of economic warfare. Christopher Aversano is Wood Mackenzie's Director of Maritime Partnerships, returning to give the view from the shipping industry.Chris reports that the number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz had risen from around 10 a day at the low point to roughly 25 a day, but then dropped off again as tensions escalated and the threat of renewed fighting rose. Even at their best, the number of transits has been just a fraction of the 150-170 a day that was normal before the war began at the end of February.Some ships are still making it through the strait. Some LNG carriers have “gone dark”, shutting off their transponders, later reappearing weeks later on the other side of the world. Ship owners are pragmatic, Chris says, and high commodity prices create a strong financial incentive for tankers to pass through the strait when they can. But questions of insurance, crew safety, and freedom of navigation through the strait remain unresolved.Eddie says the US decision on what to do next is like a choice between two doors . Door one would be a negotiated deal that leaves Iran as gatekeeper of the Strait of Hormuz. Door two would be full-scale military intervention, which seems politically impossible. With neither option palatable, the result is drift. His base case is that Iran retains permanent control. A toll of $2 million per ship passing through the strait could generate $30-100 billion a year for Tehran, potentially exceeding its oil export earnings. The drones needed to enforce the closure can cost as little as $20,000 each.Amy argues the full impact of closing the strait has not yet hit. Emergency releases of oil from reserves, shadow cargoes from sanction ed countries that were already on the water, and seasonal refinery maintenance have all cushioned the blow. The real test comes in the weeks ahead, as those buffers run out. Ed argues that if the strait stays closed for six more months, oil at $150-$200 a barrel may be needed to balance the market, with a global recession as the likely consequence.The conversation broadens into the geopolitics of the dollar. Eddie explains why the US currency remains the backbone of global trade, involved in 90 per cent of all foreign exchange transactions, and why that gives the US government powerful strategic leverage. Amy suggests that China may see US entanglement in the strait as strategically useful, draining American resources without it lifting a finger.The episode closes with a warning. Eddie argues the weaponisation of American economic power against allies as well as adversaries risks fragmenting the global trading system further, with potentially disastrous consequences. History shows that when states cannot secure resources through open exchange, they tend to be tempted into conquest.‘Chokepoints : American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare' by Edward Fishman, published by Penguin, is available from bookstores now. This episode is sponsored by Bechtel. Nuclear is back — and Bechtel is helping build what comes next.For more than 70 years, Bechtel has helped shape the nuclear industry, from work on the world's first commercial nuclear reactor to designing, constructing, and servicing more than 150 nuclear plants worldwide. Bechtel has helped bring more than 76,000 megawatts of nuclear power online globally. Today, Bechtel is helping deliver the next generation of nuclear energy — from large-scale plants to small modular and advanced reactors — using the company's decades of mega-project delivery experience to bring new nuclear online safely, reliably, and at scale.Learn more at bechtel.com/nuclear See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

Utilities are under pressure to deliver generation that is dispatchable, affordable, and clean enough to satisfy increasingly stringent environmental rules, notoriously hard to do in one asset. As renewables grow, the gas turbines and engines that have historically filled the gap come with a NOx problem, a CO2 problem, or both. Hydrogen offers a path through, but the supply isn't there yet. So what do you build today?Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Shannon Miller, CEO of Mainspring Energy, and Will Hazelip of National Grid Ventures, to dig into a technology most listeners haven't heard of and the first commercial hydrogen-powered deployment of it. Mainspring's 250-kilowatt linear generator is being installed at National Grid's 1,500 MW North Port facility on Long Island, in partnership with NYSERDA, the Long Island Power Authority, and Stony Brook University.Shannon explains how Mainspring redesigned the generator using the power electronics that drive solar inverters, batteries and EVs, replacing mechanical systems with software, eliminating the flame, and operating at temperatures low enough to take NOx out of the equation. An adaptive pressure cycle, software-controlled in real time, runs the same hardware on hydrogen, compressed natural gas, biogas, propane or blends, with no hardware change. The 250 kW form factor matters too: efficiency holds across the full load range, fleet redundancy replaces single-asset reliability risk, and deployment is a concrete pad plus electrical and fuel hookups rather than a multi-year build.Will frames the project against the regulatory backdrop. Long Island sits in a non-attainment zone for NOx, and New York's path to a carbon-free grid requires what the state calls a dispatchable emissions-free resource. The unit will run for 12 months on green hydrogen and on compressed natural gas, with Stony Brook measuring emissions and efficiency, NYSERDA watching for regulatory design, and National Grid building operational experience for the rest of its ageing fleet.The economic case rests on the alternative. New-build hydrogen-capable gas turbines run $3,500–$4,000/kW on capex (per Wood Mackenzie), with delivered power costs reaching $300–$900/MWh once hydrogen is layered in. Shannon's point is that committing to a single-fuel turbine only pays off if the fuel actually arrives at the scale and price you assumed. With hydrogen supply uncertain, that's a stranded-asset risk linear generators avoid by running on whatever fuel is available today. Will adds the carbon-market angle saying that as carbon pricing develops, real-time fuel switching becomes an optimisation lever, not just a hedge.Then there's the supply reality. Total US hydrogen production today isn't enough to fuel a single 500 MW power plant, and with 45V tax credit requirements tightening and federal climate policy in flux, the gap between hydrogen ambition and supply isn't closing fast. Will's suggests starting with the fuels that exist today and scale into hydrogen as supply grows.The episode closes on demand. Mainspring's factory produces 325 MW a year today and can roughly double in 12–15 months, with pull from industrial customers, data centres and AI infrastructure, and utilities at once, driven by the same problem: nobody can get power fast enough.This episode is sponsored by GridBeyond. Energy asset owners face a critical challenge: how to optimize performance and drive new revenue in competitive, fast-moving markets. GridBeyond solves this through AI-powered forecasting, energy trading and optimization. GridBeyond's platform delivers: Precision forecasting to anticipate market opportunities Intelligent market access across multiple revenue streams Real-time control that responds instantly to market conditions Optimization that combines AI insights with expert oversight Whether you're managing batteries, gas peakers, hybrid sites, or complex multi-asset portfolios, GridBeyond helps you turn assets into high-performance revenue machines. The proven platform has helped businesses across the energy sector maximize returns and accelerate their energy transition. Want to learn more? Visit go.gridbeyond.com/recharged https://go.gridbeyond.com/recharged See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

The energy crisis caused by the Iran war has been a wake-up call and prompted governments to try to speed up a shift to electric cars. Could solar cars be next? Although they have been around for decades, solar-powered vehicles have largely remained experimental due to technical challenges. FRANCE 24's Yuka Royer speaks with Steve Fambro, co-CEO of Aptera Motors, a US startup that is preparing to start delivering its solar cars to customers as early as this year. 

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on a toxic side effect to Africa's solar energy boom.

The past year has been challenging for electric vehicles. In the first quarter of 2026, US EV sales were about 27 per cent below their level in the first quarter of last year. But the ride-hailing industry still sees a future that is electric, autonomous, and shared, and is placing a multi-billion dollar bet on it. Ride-hailing services such as Uber could be one of the key sectors supporting the electrification of road transport in the years to come.In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers Jaffe, director of NYU's Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, and two guests from Uber. Andrew Cornelia is the company's global head of electrification and sustainability, and Samarth Kedrawal is its global head of fleet and autonomous vehicles. Andrew and Samarth make the case for why the shift away from the internal combustion engine as the dominant technology for road transport is a question of when, not if. And the fuel price shock resulting from the conflict in the Middle East may be shortening the timeline.Uber's EV strategy is about more than just going green, Andrew says. In markets where the economics work, including London, Paris, and São Paulo, EV drivers are earning more and spending less, and riders are consistently rating the electric experience among the best of Uber's services. Charging remains the biggest barrier, partly because the infrastructure has been chronically underbuilt. Finding a free public charger can be a problem, especially for the drivers who need them most because they live in urban centres without access to home charging. It can also be expensive: public charging can account for up to 40% of the total cost of ownership of an EV.Uber is now signing agreements with charging network operators to underwrite new infrastructure in exchange for preferential pricing for its drivers. The company is also helping drivers spread the upfront cost of home charger installation, and reports that the switch is saving some drivers close to $8,000 a year.Autonomous vehicles (Avs) are even more capital-intensive. Samarth describes an AV operation that in power demand terms looks like a series of small data centres: sites drawing three to eight megawatts, using tightly sequenced charging algorithms to maximise utilisation.Like hyperscalers waiting on grid connections for their data centres, Uber is in some markets using gas to provide a temporary power supply, bridging the gap while it waits for the utility to wire it up. The utilities have been willing partners, Samarth says, but the demand for charging infrastructure is significant. The conversations are becoming more complex, as EV charging lines up alongside data centres to queue for connections to the same distribution networks.The conversation also opens up a longer-term question: could a large enough fleet of parked autonomous vehicles one day act as a virtual power plant, selling stored energy back to the grid during peak demand? The answer is yes, eventually. But the immediate priority is more basic: making sure there are enough chargers available so the cars can actually turn a profit today.The episode closes with a discussion of Chinese EVs and what trade barriers are really costing consumers. Andrew says that EV adoption among Uber drivers is moving fastest in markets where low-cost Chinese vehicles are available. Latin America, Brazil in particular, is the next major frontier. In the US, the lack of those low-cost EVs is a barrier to making the economics work for Uber drivers.Both guests believe the industry will be bigger, the cost per mile lower, and the share of electric miles far higher. The direction is not in doubt, they say. The question is how fast the infrastructure, the policy environment, and the economics can move to meet it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are all the galaxies orbiting a superstructure in the middle of the universe? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are reaching into the grab bag to cover questions from absolute zero to the nature of gravity, and much much more.  NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here:  https://startalkmedia.com/show/cosmic-queries-total-darkness/ Thanks to our Patrons RY, The Kilted Bard, Istvan Leel-Össy, Matthew, lrs.2010, Devin Caldwell, Shaneeb Kamran, Leondre Dow, Cool, Greenhornet658ky, Nikola Lacković, Steve Shirley, Lani Lum, Paulis, John Bower, Purp, Josh S, Craig Booth, wrae, Richard Francisco, Mike, Subhransu Mishra, Jaden R Peters, Andreas, Raimund Stock jr, Brian Banks, robert margerum, Amiri Mouhab, Alan Moylan, Marianne sperry, William Benjamin Broes, Paul Sanchez, Mark Evans, Fiona Rawls, Nick L, Shaun H, Marcin Majdanski, Justin Satterwhite, Rolando Cosme, Darkphoenix, Praxis, Vexonar, User Profile Name, twon, V-Thrax, Oymilius The Great, DFH, Senad Bajramovic, Joe Kava, Lucas Harlan, Ty Jayne Breathe, Malcom, Muttey, Ana i Vinko, Lewis Alley, Layee Chau, Zachary Lang, Dave, Sweet T, Rich Wolf, c l, MyCatSaysHi!, Apoorv Lathey, Sondre Hellingsrud, Robert Steenberge, naveen v, Dennis L. Friedman, Dr Mark, Karsten Schäfer, Tim Thomas, Joe Messer, andrew nathan, Darayat Chowdhury, Dan Gillespie, NK, Anthony Sclafani, Nicholas Flores, Murphstein, justin thomas, Valerie, Alexis, Lior Gross, Melissa Harrison, Elizabeth Engelhardt, T, Makayla, 9000 H.A.L.s, Brian Maurer, Shahar Avenstein, Robert, O P, RDH, Paul Hill, Annie Saenz, Mike Mohler, Peter Petrov, Kyle, Isaac Hach, W Pops, Brittney Jacobs, and BRambo for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Empty gigawatt factories, product recalls, participation rates that never materialised, and a policy environment that has now stripped the green premium entirely. The electrolyzer industry has had a brutal few years and most of the companies that raised hundreds of millions on the back of the hydrogen hype cycle are now sitting with fixed costs they cannot sustain and field deployments they are not proud of. Host Bridget van Dorsten speaks with Raveel Afzaal, CEO of Next Hydrogen, one of the few electrolyzer manufacturers that chose to watch from the sidelines while competitors scaled into the storm. Raveel describes the decision in blunt terms: in 2021, when cost of capital went to near zero and capital discipline evaporated, Next Hydrogen looked at the macro signals; rising inflation, rising interest rates, a market telling them their Hyundai partnership was worth a 5% share price drop, and chose to extend their runway from 18 months to five years. That meant hard capital allocation decisions, and the answer was to invest in the product, not the factory. The conversation goes deep into a problem that rarely gets discussed publicly: the commercialisation valley of death. Getting to a working prototype is celebrated, but the productisation phase, technology readiness levels five through seven, is where the funding gap is most severe and the cost shock is greatest. Costs typically rise three to five times from prototype stage, revenues do not yet exist, and neither government programmes nor conventional investors are structured to bridge it. Raveel explains why so many companies that made it to prototype stage never made it to commercial deployment and what surviving that valley actually required. Raveel also pushes back on a common framing around Chinese versus Western electrolyzers. His argument is that the quality question is not a national origin question , it is a materials question. What membranes, what bipolar plates, what catalyst, what functional safety architecture? Next Hydrogen's own answer to those questions is unusual: replacing nickel bipolar plates with large injection-moulded specialty engineered plastics, eliminating corrosion risk entirely and reducing cost through higher material utilisation rather than lower-grade materials. The company holds 40 patents on a cell architecture designed from the outset for direct connection to variable renewables, a design decision made in 2008, when the rest of the industry was still building for baseload. The episode closes on what the next two to three years look like for electrolyzer manufacturers. Raveel's view is that consolidation is coming, but many companies won't survive long enough to be part of it, their fixed costs are too high and their runway too short. The companies that survive will be those with variable cost models, disciplined project selection, and a genuine answer to three questions: Can you access excess electrons? Can you deliver containerised, plug-and-play solutions that control total installed cost? Can you reliably handle the intermittent operations that direct renewable connection demands? Next Hydrogen is betting the answer starts with getting the cell design right first. Today's episode is sponsored by GridBeyond. Energy asset owners face a critical challenge: how to optimize performance and drive new revenue in competitive, fast-moving markets. GridBeyond solves this through AI-powered forecasting, energy trading and optimization. GridBeyond's platform delivers: Precision forecasting to anticipate market opportunities Intelligent market access across multiple revenue streams Real-time control that responds instantly to market conditions Optimization that combines AI insights with expert oversight Whether you're managing batteries, gas peakers, hybrid sites, or complex multi-asset portfolios, GridBeyond helps you turn assets into high-performance revenue machines. The proven platform has helped businesses across the energy sector maximize returns and accelerate their energy transition. Want to learn more? Visit go.gridbeyond.com/recharged https://go.gridbeyond.com/recharged See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When the workings of an electricity market come to the attention of the White House, it's usually a sign that something's wrong. Back in January, 13 state governors went to the White House to agree plans for PJM, the largest electricity market in the US. The market is scrambling to find more energy supply to keep up with the boom in data centers, while holding down ratepayers' bills. Managing the PJM grid is one of the toughest jobs in the US power industry. And these days it is being carried out in the full glare of political and public scrutiny.If you want to understand the pressures bearing down on the US electricity, PJM is the place to look. It is the largest grid in the country, serving 67 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia. And it is some of the world's most intense hotspots for new data center development, including the famous “data center alley” of northern Virginia, which takes roughly 90% of the country's internet traffic . When things get complicated for PJM, they get complicated for everyone.On this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Asim Haque, Senior Vice President for Governmental and Member Services at PJM, and by regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University. Together, they unpack how PJM got itself noticed by the White House, and how its problems can be tackled.Asim explains the organization he works for. PJM is a nonprofit that operates the grid, runs the electricity market, and plans the transmission system. It is regulated by FERC, but also accountable to a thousand-plus members across 13 states, each with its own energy policies, its own governor, and its own politics. That structural complexity is central to why running PJM is so challenging.Those problems converged from two directions: decarbonization and data centers. The result has been soaring prices in the PJM capacity market. And when those prices were capped, the alarms about a future reliability crisis started flashing red.The White House responded by convening all 13 governors of the states covered by PJM, and produced a statement of principles for bringing new generation capacity into the market. As Asim explains, these principles lie behind the plan for a backstop reliability procurement, designed as a one-time mechanism to bring new electricity supply onto the system quickly.There is also an expectation that data centres will bring their own generation; and a "connect and manage" framework for those that don't. The key feature of that: data centers can have their supply curtailed before residential customers lose power. The White House and the governors agreed that the bill for grid and generation improvements to meet rising demand should be paid by the data centers. It sounds straightforward, but is it really? Asim explains his perspective.The episode also examines the deeper design questions about PJM's capacity market: whether a three-year forward procurement window can send the right signals for the long-term investment the grid now needs. Amy brings the consumer and policy lens throughout. Are the complexities of cost allocation and market design inherent to the electricity system, or are they manufactured and even sometimes exaggerated? And can they sometimes militate against lower-cost solutions such as renewables and batteries?Asim ends by offering some advice for other grid operators. If you are not going to gate demand, you need a connect-and-manage approach; if you are not going to gate demand, it will get expensive; and if it is going to get expensive, you need to decide who pays. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if a microscopic alien lifeform was slowly eating our sun? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice sit down with Andy Weir, the bestselling author of Project Hail Mary, for a deep dive into designing aliens, science fiction, and science behind the book (and the movie.) NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here:  https://startalkmedia.com/show/project-hail-mary-with-andy-weir/ Thanks to our Patrons RT, Matthew Wessel, Tyler Walker, nuclear_detergent, Ryan Buchanan, The Lord of the Ganja, Tyrone Morgan, Ciara Steinert, Fabian De Rossi, Travis Anders, Dee El Dee, Lazzarous, Moshe Sedero, Sebastian Heineberg, David, Casey Sizeland, Anna, Simon Franklin, Chris Carley, ohhdontdoit, hilde, Jim Niemann, Jesse Lee, Sri Harsha Chennavajjala, grbac6800, Mike, Aviad Pineles, salima makitina, Gero Finke, Nick Charles, David Shapiro, Diyako Kochar Taymur, David Kunz, Bob, Doug, Aviral Bhatnagar, Matthew Sims, Squibb Thompson, Theta544, D00gster x702, Kyle Sullivan, John Hermansen, April Stearns, Brian Eastwood, jassim tazi, Kassious, Gustavo Rincon, Reloadown, Tom Kavanaugh, Kay 1, George Grimes, Barbara Lewis, Davey Maclaren, Blake Muccini, Sydney, MISFIT, Mohammed Nadeem Amin, JB, rasma, Chris, Glenn Whelan, Elizabeth Grey, Eli Hadden, Elias Holguin, Darrell Thayer, Jason, Shayla Hamady, Bradley Martin, jamie jarrard, Robert Douglas Brown, Michael Johnston, Kristine Nixon, VirusJTG, Briana Bartlett, Tim Rea, Leo Carrasco, Christopher Friedline, belle g, Carver Nevling, Emily Winter, Draxontheyeen, Leslie, Bombed Blonde, Shadow, Brian, Sam Smith, Brianna Smith, Evan Q, Anzhr, Jolo, Austin Applegate, Bryan Smarkola, Steven Patterson, Femke Seynaeve, Bee, Jeffrey Macris, Stan Ginsel, Bob M, Eric, and Yet Another Patron for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Millions of enrolled devices, 60 utilities, and the participation rate gap that's been embarrassing the US market for a decade. US residential virtual power plants have been a promising idea that's consistently underdelivered — participation rates below 5%, fragmented apps, siloed programmes, and utilities that have simply never had to compete for a customer's attention. Meanwhile, Octopus Energy has built the world's largest residential VPP in the UK, with EV driver participation rates of 50 to 70%. The question has always been whether that model can travel to a market where most customers have no supplier choice at all. Bridget van Dorsten speaks with Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, about the acquisition that represents Octopus's biggest bet on answering that question: a majority stake in Uplight alongside Schneider Electric, giving Octopus access to established relationships with more than 60 US utilities — including eight of the ten largest. Nick argues the participation gap isn't really a cultural problem or a technology problem. It's a regulatory design problem. US flexibility programmes have been built device by device, forcing consumers to juggle multiple apps and enrolments — and in some cases prohibiting them from combining assets across programmes. Octopus's answer is one app, a 30-second sign-up, and a value proposition framed entirely around what consumers actually care about: lower bills. Can that translate through a utility partnership channel rather than a direct retail relationship?The conversation also tackles the data centre dimension. Nick makes the case that residential flexibility isn't a separate story from the large load interconnection challenge — it's part of the solution. If utilities can statistically guarantee load reductions from tens of thousands of enrolled homes during peak hours, they may be able to connect larger data centre loads at smaller interconnection points. And in many hours when a data centre might otherwise ramp down, it could simply be cheaper to pay consumers to flex instead. Octopus's model is built on trust earned through direct consumer relationships. Can that translate through a utility intermediary at scale, across 60 different utility cultures without losing what makes it work?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The world changed forever on February 28th, 2026. The consequences of the Iran war will take many years to play out. But one fact already seems clear: we are not going back to the world that existed before the conflict began.To assess what the war means for the future of oil, gas and power, host Ed Crooks is joined by three of the most experienced voices in the geopolitics of energy. Regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe is the Director of NYU's Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab. Samantha Gross, returning to the show, is the Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. And Amos Hochstein, appearing for the first time, is a Managing Partner at TWG Global and former senior energy advisor to President Biden and the US State Department.Their conclusion is stark: this is the worst energy crisis the world has ever seen. The shared view is that the disruption we are seeing now is more serious than the oil shocks of the 1970s, and broader in its reach than anything markets have had to price in living memory. The loss of global oil supply from the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz is bad enough, but the effects do not end there. As well as 10-12 million barrels a day of crude supply, the world has lost 20% of its LNG supply and about 30% of its urea, used for fertilizer. We are seeing cascading shortages of products that you might never have connected to the Gulf region, from hospital gloves to semiconductor-grade helium.So why haven't prices yet reflected the full scale of the shock? Amos Hochstein draws a distinction between a risk environment and a disruption environment. Markets know how to price risk, he says, but they do not know how to price physical shortages. Meanwhile, the belief that President Trump can end the war on his own timeline is creating a dangerous feedback loop: markets stay calm because they think the president will intervene; the president sees calm markets and feels no urgency to act. But Samantha Gross argues that President Trump doesn't get to decide when this ends. The Iranians do.The disruption is already hitting unevenly. Sri Lanka has moved to a four-day working week. Thailand has asked workers to stay home. Airports across Asia are shutting down, not because jet fuel is expensive, but because they don't have any. As Amos Hochstein warns, the impact isn't growing in a straight line: it's exponential. Poorer nations are absorbing it first, but the consequences will continue to spread.The episode also looks beyond the immediate crisis to the longer-term implications. Amy Myers Jaffe predicts an acceleration of investment in new energy technologies, including nuclear fusion. Amos Hochstein maps out the infrastructure changes that he thinks will be needed, including investment in new pipelines so that oil and gas exports from the Gulf can bypass the Strait of Hormuz completely. Building all that new infrastructure would be a massive undertaking, but he thinks the world will come together to back it, because it relies on energy from the Gulf for so much. A fundamental rethinking of supply security is under way.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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