Watt It Takes

Hydrostor Co-Founder and CEO Curtis VanWalleghem

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 20:14:21 +0000

On this episode of Watt It Takes, we explore another approach to long-duration energy storage: compressed air.

Curtis VanWalleghem, Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrostor, started the company in 2010 after confronting surplus power challenges at Bruce Power. Without a traditional founder background, he set out to build storage systems that use compressed air and underground hard rock caverns to deliver ten-plus hours of grid-scale power.

What began as experiments with underwater balloons evolved into large-scale rock cavern projects and a major business model shift. Hydrostor transitioned from a technology provider to an independent power producer, securing PPAs and financing billion-dollar infrastructure projects.

In this conversation, Curtis reflects on the realities of building something capital-intensive: raising early checks from friends and family, enduring more than 200 investor rejections, mortgaging his home, pivoting both technology and strategy, and learning how to finance projects at true infrastructure scale.

Today, Hydrostor has raised over $550 million in equity, secured roughly $8 billion in revenue contracts, and is advancing a multi-gigawatt pipeline across North America and Australia.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures
Powerhouse Ventures backs seed stage startups developing innovative software to advance clean energy, mobility, and industry. If you are thinking about building something in this space, get in touch with our team.

Powerhouse Innovation is a best in class consulting firm, powered by the strongest energy innovation network, data and team in our industry. We partner with world's leading corporations, investors, and utilities to source and evaluate disruptive startups shaping the future of energy and industry.

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Arc Co-Founder and CEO Mitch Lee

accounting@powerhouse.co (Mitch Lee, Emily Kirsch, Julia Ranney, Chris McGovern) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0000

If you spend any time on the water, you’ve probably heard the joke that the two best days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy the boat… and the day they sell it.

For today’s guest, that line isn’t just a joke. It’s a problem statement.

Mitch Lee grew up around boats. He loved being on the water, but he also experienced firsthand how loud, smelly, maintenance-heavy, and frustrating boat ownership can be. And once electric vehicles started proving what was possible on land, one idea kept coming back to him: if electrification makes sense in cars on the road, it might actually make even more sense in boats on the water.

Mitch is the co-founder and CEO of Arc, an electric boat company building both consumer and commercial vessels. Arc started in the premium wake sports market, selling directly to consumers and using those early boats to develop its electric propulsion technology. That platform is now being deployed in commercial applications, where electrification can improve reliability, lower costs, and support ports that want to electrify.

Founded in 2021, Arc has raised over $110 million through its Series B and has scaled from delivering its first customer boat, which took two years to build, to now producing multiple boats per week, while also landing major commercial partnerships at working ports.

In our conversation, Mitch walks me through his path that led to Arc, from a childhood fascination with stocks and compounding interest, to building and selling his first company in the personal finance space, to betting big on electric boats and what electrification can unlock on the water.

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Voltus Co-Founder and CEO Dana Guernsey

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +0000

As an aging grid faces rising demand, increasing complexity, and more frequent stress events, one thing has become clear: we don’t just need more power, we need power that can show up at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price. What’s far less settled is how we get there. Should large energy users build their own power? Should they treat the grid as something to work around rather than work with? Or is there a way for new load to actively strengthen the grid by contributing capacity when it’s needed most?

This moment is being shaped by real market signals. Just two weeks ago, PJM, the largest power market in the U.S., cleared its latest capacity auction at the market cap yet again, underscoring how tight supply has become and how quickly affordability pressures are building. As data center demand accelerates, those pressures are no longer abstract, they’re showing up in prices, planning decisions, and who ultimately pays.

These questions have been a throughline for us this year on Watt It Takes. We’ve talked with founders working across the grid, from storage and interconnection to transmission and large-scale development. Today’s conversation brings many of those threads together.
Dana Guernsey and her team at Voltus are tackling that challenge at the intersection of demand and supply, turning customer-side flexibility into dependable grid capacity. Voltus sits between energy users and grid operators, aggregating flexible demand from sources like demand response, EV charging, batteries, and onsite generation, and translating it into dispatchable capacity that markets value and pay for. Voltus’s business model is a value-share: the company monetizes that flexibility in energy markets and shares the resulting value with the customers providing it.

Voltus operates across all major North American power markets, even in an industry where each ISO and RTO plays by different rules. Today, the company manages more than eight gigawatts of flexible capacity and supports tens of thousands of customer sites, with resources dispatched thousands of times each year.

On this last episode of the year, I spoke with Dana Guernsey, Co-Founder and CEO of Voltus. We talked about her journey, from growing up in Queens, New York and coming of age around 9/11, to discovering energy markets during her time at EnerNOC, to founding Voltus while starting a family. That path shaped how Dana thinks about complexity, customers, and reliability, and ultimately led her to build Voltus into a platform designed to help make clean, affordable, and reliable power something we don’t have to trade off against growth.

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Tyba Co-Founder and CEO Michael Baker

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 20:55:00 +0000

As load growth pushes the grid to its limits, the energy transition increasingly depends on one technology: storage. Batteries are becoming the backbone of reliable, clean power, and according to a recent UBS analysis, AI-driven data centers are set to trigger a “boom cycle” for energy storage in the next five years.

As more clean energy comes online and global energy demand surges, batteries are proving essential to a flexible and resilient grid. But operating them is complex. Unlike wind or solar projects driven by long-term contracts, storage assets must constantly make decisions about when to charge and discharge, how to capture value across multiple markets, and how to stay profitable in an increasingly volatile energy system.

Michael Baker, Co-Founder and CEO of Tyba, is working at the center of this shift. His team builds the software that helps batteries make smarter decisions in real time, turning storage into a reliable and profitable part of the grid. Powerhouse Ventures is fortunate to be an early investor in Tyba, first backing them in their seed round in January 2023.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed stage startups developing innovative software to advance clean energy, mobility, and industry. If you are thinking about building something in this space, get in touch with our team.

To hear more stories of founders building our energy abundant future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Jennifer Granholm, Former Director, Department of Energy

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:00:00 +0000

At a moment when our country can feel deeply divided, and when progress on clean energy can feel uncertain, this month's guest — former U.S. Secretary of Energy and two-term Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm — couldn’t be timelier.

It was the perfect moment to take stock of where we are as an industry. After years of historic progress, we’re now facing growing uncertainty about what comes next. The optimism that followed the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act can feel harder to access — and yet gatherings like this live recording and New Dawn, our thousand-person sold-out annual party hosted the following evening, remind us how far we’ve come and how powerful it is when this community comes together.

Special thanks to this year’s New Dawn Terawatt sponsors, Silicon Valley Bank and Wilson Sonsini, for helping make gatherings like these possible.

For me, this interview was personal — and a bit of a full-circle moment. I’ve admired Governor Granholm for years. We first met over a decade ago, when she served as a judge for one of Powerhouse’s early hackathons, and even then, her conviction and optimism left a lasting impression.

Her legacy in public service is one of transformation — from rebuilding Michigan’s economy to reshaping the Department of Energy’s role in accelerating the clean energy transition. At DOE, Granholm led an unprecedented expansion of clean energy deployment and manufacturing, rebuilding supply chains, creating jobs, and helping position the United States as a global leader in the energy transition.

In a moment when federal leadership can feel disconnected from what our country truly needs for clean, abundant energy and lasting progress, Governor Granholm is a reminder of what grounded, forward-thinking, and empathetic leadership can achieve. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

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Cloverleaf Infrastructure Co-Founder and CCO Brian Janous

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000

As we’ve covered in other recent episodes, the growth of data centers and the massive amount of power they require is reshaping the energy landscape. Today, I want to zero in on a specific challenge at the heart of it all: the watt bit spread, a phrase coined by this month’s guest.

The Watt Bit Spread is the gap between the cost of electricity and the value of computing—computing meaning, the processing power behind AI, cloud services, and digital infrastructure. Bridging that gap is one of the keys to unlocking both data center growth and new power generation.

Despite countless developers' promises of abundant “powered land,” very few can deliver what data centers and other energy-intensive industries actually need. It’s not just certainty of power timelines but also land, utility agreements, capital, and community support — all critical to reducing the constraints that make the watt bit spread so persistent. Too often, there’s a disconnect between real estate and utilities. Some companies know how to acquire land. Others know how to work with utilities. But rarely both. And even when those pieces come together, projects can still be stalled without community support, labor, or equipment.

That’s where Brian Janous, Co-Founder and CCO of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, comes in—working to bridge the watt bit spread by aligning land, power, and communities to meet the surging demand for computing. Put simply, Cloverleaf buys land in dollars per acre and sells it in dollars per megawatt.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking who is proud to bank some of the most exciting companies pioneering the technologies of tomorrow.

With specialist financing support, deep understanding of the challenges, and a global network across more than 50 markets, they help clients scale breakthrough innovations and take them to the world. Infinium are a leader in ultra-low carbon synthetic eFuels and offer comprehensive energy system solutions to support the rapidly evolving energy industry. HSBC Innovation Banking have supported Infinium with project financing to scale their latest commercial-scale project, which on completion will be the largest eFuels project in the world.

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to FOAK, click the link in the call notes to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

HSBC Innovation Banking is a business division with services provided in the United States by HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Innovation is a leading consulting firm connecting top-tier corporations and investors, including corporate innovation teams, CVCs, and pensions with cutting-edge technologies and startups that meet their specific criteria for engagement.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. To hear more stories of founders building our energy abundant future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Intersect Power Co-Founder and CEO Sheldon Kimber

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:00:00 +0000

The U.S. power sector serves more than 160 million electricity customers—across homes, businesses, and factories in all 50 states. But the grid that supplies that electricity wasn’t designed for the world we live in now, let alone the one that’s coming.

Electrification is accelerating. Data centers—driven by the explosive growth of AI—are demanding more power than ever, often in places where the grid is already strained. And while decarbonization remains technically optional—for those serious about resilience, sustainability, and long term viability, it’s a necessity. These three forces—electrification, digitization, and decarbonization—are colliding, reshaping how our energy system works and who it’s built for.

The challenge isn’t just technical. It’s structural. We are moving towards a world of abundant clean electricity—but too often, it’s available at the wrong time, or in the wrong place. Permitting and interconnection can add years of delays. And even when approved, major transmission projects often take decades to complete, if they manage to get built at all. And many of the rules that govern our electricity markets weren’t built for flexibility, speed, or innovation.

So what if we didn’t wait for the system to catch up? What if we reimagined where clean power is built, who it serves, and how it’s delivered? What if gigawatt-scale clean energy projects were already breaking ground—designed to power data centers, industrial loads, and the digital infrastructure reshaping our world?

That’s exactly what Sheldon Kimber, Co‑Founder and CEO of Intersect Power, is doing: imagining a better energy future, and then building it—faster than anyone thought possible.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking who is proud to bank some of the most exciting companies pioneering the technologies of tomorrow.

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to FOAK, click the link in the call notes to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

HSBC Innovation Banking is a business division with services provided in the United States by HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Brimstone Co-Founder and CEO Cody Finke

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 04:00:00 +0000

If cement were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, behind only China and the United States. That’s because cement production alone accounts for about five and a half percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. And while that might seem really high, it actually makes sense. Just look around you: from roads to bridges, sidewalks to buildings, cement is everywhere. It’s a critical building block of modern infrastructure.

What’s striking about cement production is that most of the emissions actually come from the chemical reaction itself—not just from burning fuel to heat the kiln. Cement producers use limestone, a well-known carbon-storing rock we’ve highlighted in other episodes for its direct air capture potential. But when limestone is heated to make cement, the opposite happens: it releases carbon dioxide, accounting for about 60% of the sector’s total emissions. So even if you used 100% clean electricity to power the kilns, most of the emissions would still result from this chemical process.

Limestone was originally selected as a main ingredient for cement largely because it was the cheapest option. But what if it wasn’t? What if there were other rocks we could use that didn’t emit greenhouse gases at all? Better yet, what if they could produce the ingredients for cement cleanly—and generate other products critical to industry?

That’s exactly what Cody Finke, CEO and Co-Founder of Brimstone, is aiming to deliver: a way to make cement without the emissions—and create other essential industrial materials along the way.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking who is proud to bank some of the most exciting companies pioneering the technologies of tomorrow.

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to FOAK, click the link in the call notes to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

HSBC Innovation Banking is a business division with services provided in the United States by HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Sage Geosystems CEO Cindy Taff

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 11:00:00 +0000

It’s been a few years since we last covered geothermal on Watt It Takes. Our 2021 episode with Tim Latimer, Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy, explored how next-generation geothermal was just beginning to emerge. Since then, the sector’s momentum has only grown.

Meanwhile, electricity demand is rising fast, driven by data centers, AI, and the broader push to electrify everything. That’s putting pressure on the grid and renewing interest in consistent, around-the-clock power, often referred to as baseload energy.

This is where next-gen geothermal comes in. It’s a new wave of technologies that could make it possible to harness the Earth’s heat in far more places. Instead of relying on rare natural conditions, these systems aim to tap into hot, dry rock deep underground—resources that could, in theory, be accessed across much of the country. And that’s what makes it so compelling: for the first time, we may be able to use this vast, untapped heat source almost anywhere to help power the grid.

Just last week, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that enhanced geothermal systems, one of the most promising next-gen approaches, could technically supply up to 10% of the country’s electricity needs from Nevada’s Great Basin alone.

Because some of these systems can also tap into existing oil and gas wells, geothermal is gaining support across the energy sector. It offers a way to reuse infrastructure, support local economies, and deliver reliable, affordable, and clean power. Other approaches show promise for energy storage and district heating, broadening geothermal’s role and offering new ways to complement renewables like wind and solar.

That broad potential has helped earn steady bipartisan support. But the recently passed House reconciliation bill threatens to slow momentum by phasing out key tax credits and eliminating credit transferability. These provisions have been critical to financing new projects.

Despite those headwinds, companies are continuing to push the boundaries of what geothermal can do. One of them is Sage Geosystems, led by CEO Cindy Taff. The company is advancing new applications of geothermal for energy storage, district heating, and dependable, clean electricity.

Sponsors

This live recording, and this next season of Watt It Takes, is brought to you by our lead sponsor, HSBC Innovation Banking who is proud to bank some of the most exciting companies pioneering the technologies of tomorrow.

With specialist financing support, deep understanding of the challenges, and a global network across more than 50 markets, they help clients scale breakthrough innovations, and take them to the world.

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to First-of-a-Kind, click the link in the show notes to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Jigar Shah, Former Director, Loan Programs Office (LPO)

Thu, 15 May 2025 16:15:00 +0000

You don’t meet many people like Jigar Shah.

He’s one of the rare leaders who has shaped the clean energy transition from every angle — as a founder, as an investor, and most recently, as a government leader.

If you know Jigar, you already know the headlines: He founded SunEdison, led Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room, co-hosted the Energy Gang podcast, co-founded Generate Capital, and most recently, ran the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, better known as LPO.

If you don’t know Jigar, but you’re listening to this, chances are you’ve felt his impact. In 2024, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

And fun fact, he’s also the very first guest to return to Watt It Takes for a second episode.

For more than two decades, Jigar has been behind the scenes — and sometimes out front — helping scale the technologies and financing models that define today’s energy economy.

But this episode isn’t about Jigar’s résumé; it’s about what it was like for him to join and lead LPO, what he learned in his four years in government, and what he’s carrying forward in this next chapter of his career.

Sponsors

This season of Watt It Takes is brought to you by our lead sponsor, HSBC Innovation Banking who is proud to bank some of the most exciting companies pioneering the technologies of tomorrow.

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to FOAK, follow the link below to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Shayle Kann, Managing Partner, Energy Impact Partners

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:00:00 +0000

There are a handful of people in the clean energy and infrastructure world whose knowledge and voices serve as guiding lights. Shayle Kann is one of those people. Known for his deep expertise, unique perspective, and distinct voice, Shayle has covered and shaped the energy transition for years.

While regular listeners will know, we typically feature startup founders. But Shayle’s long-standing influence—from GTM and The Interchange to EIP and Catalyst—made it a true pleasure to turn the mic around.

This episode, recorded in front of a live, sold-out audience at SF Climate Week, marked Shayle’s first time as our guest, though he's no stranger to the show. For the first few years of Watt It Takes, starting in 2017, when every episode was recorded in front of a live audience, Shayle would kick off each conversation by setting the industry context and introducing our guest.

In this episode, we trace Shayle’s journey, starting with his roots in Madison, Wisconsin, and share how his entrepreneurial spirit and compelling storytelling abilities have been instrumental in his rise as a leader.

On a personal note, I’ve known Shayle for nearly a decade. He has been a colleague and a friend, and I’m excited for him to tell his story.

Sponsors

So, if you’re looking for early-stage funding, or well on your way to FOAK, follow the link below to learn how HSBC Innovation Banking can help on the next stage of your journey.

https://www.business.us.hsbc.com/en/innovation-banking-powerhouse-innovation

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization.

To hear more stories of founders building our energy abundant future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Pearl Street Technologies Co-Founder and CEO David Bromberg

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:40:05 +0000

Here’s a thought experiment. You’re a seasoned clean energy developer. You’ve got a pipeline of projects. You’ve navigated permitting, secured financing, refined your technology stack. Everything’s lined up, and you’re ready to build. There’s just one problem: interconnection.

To connect your projects, you have to go through a complex study process run by your utility, or your Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), or your Independent System Operator (ISO). They need to evaluate how your project impacts the grid, what upgrades are required, and how the costs get assigned. It’s a system built for a different grid era, and today, the system is completely overwhelmed.

For both developers and transmission providers, the interconnection queue has become a major obstacle. Developers depend on timely approvals to move projects forward. Transmission providers, meanwhile, are inundated with requests while also trying to maintain grid reliability, plan for future capacity, and, in many regions, meet aggressive decarbonization goals. And they’re doing all of that with legacy software that was never built to handle this kind of volume or complexity.

If you’ve been in the energy world for a while, you know this bottleneck well. But if you’re new, here’s the scale of the challenge: around 2.5 terawatts of renewable energy projects alone are currently stuck in interconnection queues across the U.S. At the same time, electricity demand is surging, driven by data centers, AI, EVs, and industrial electrification. The average wait time for grid interconnection in the U.S. is 6 years.

Speeding up the interconnection study process could remove one of the most significant barriers to getting clean energy and storage projects online. But that requires smarter, modern tools. Our guest today, David Bromberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Pearl Street Technologies, has built those tools, and is helping transmission providers and developers navigate the interconnection process with unprecedented speed.

Sponsors:

Watt it Takes is brought to you by Powerhouse Innovation. Powerhouse Innovation is a leading consulting firm connecting top-tier corporations and investors - including corporate innovation teams, CVCs, and pensions - with cutting-edge technologies and startups that meet their specific criteria for engagement.

Are you seeking strategic startup partnership or investment opportunities? Get in touch to see how you can leverage Powerhouse Innovation’s expert team and vast network, including a database of over 13,000 startups, to help accelerate your innovation and investing goals. To learn more visit powerhouse.co.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization.

To hear more stories of founders building our energy abundant future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Overstory CEO Fiona Spruill

Mon, 3 Mar 2025 15:33:36 +0000

As a new year unfolds, 2025 has already brought devastating natural disasters. From blizzards to wildfires, climate chaos is impacting our neighbors and communities in real time. My heart goes out to the people of Los Angeles for the profound losses they suffered last month, and for the difficult path of rebuilding that lies ahead. This devastation brings to mind a tragedy that struck even closer to home in 2018.

I remember driving through Oakland that year, watching ash fall from the sky as the Camp Fire ravaged Paradise, California. That fire, still the deadliest and most destructive in California’s history, was sparked by vegetation coming into contact with power lines-- a common risk that, coupled with dry conditions, strong winds, and human activity, can ignite a wildfire. That same year, at least 17 additional wildfires in California were triggered by power lines.

Across the country and around the world, utilities face ongoing challenges from vegetation. The diversity of trees and their unique characteristics make it difficult to forecast where or when they might encroach on power lines. Traditional monitoring solutions like trucks, helicopters, and even drones cannot effectively or cost efficiently analyze the nearly 7 million line-miles of transmission and distribution that cover the US alone.

In response, Indra Den Bakker and Anniek Schouten founded Overstory in 2018 — a software company that partners with utilities to predict and prevent wildfires caused by vegetation encroachment. Powerhouse Ventures is proud to be an early investor in Overstory, joining the team in 2020 via their seed round. It's been inspiring to watch the company grow, even in the face of immense loss.

Overstory’s founding CEO Indra tragically passed away in October of last year after a devastating battle with cancer, but his vision lives on. In a world where climate risks are increasing, Overstory's work is more critical than ever. Today, Overstory’s CEO Fiona Spruill and her team are continuing to manifest Indra and Anniek’s vision to reduce wildfire risks and make our grid resilient. This episode is a tribute to Indra, Anniek, and all that they’ve built together.

Sponsors:

Watt it Takes is brought to you by Powerhouse Innovation. Powerhouse Innovation is a leading consulting firm connecting top-tier corporations and investors - including corporate innovation teams, CVCs, and pensions - with cutting-edge climate technologies and startups that meet their specific criteria for engagement.

Are you seeking strategic startup partnership or investment opportunities? Get in touch to see how you can leverage Powerhouse's expert team and vast network, including a database of over 13,000 climate tech startups, to help accelerate your innovation and investing goals. To learn more visit powerhouse.co.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization.

To hear more stories of founders building our energy abundant future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

KoBold Metals Co-Founder and CEO Kurt House

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 23:05:00 +0000

2024 was a landmark year for the energy transition. With record-setting investments in climate infrastructure, we saw the price of renewables out-compete just about every electricity source worldwide, we saw advancements in industrial decarbonization (which we’ve featured prominently on this show), and we saw a breakout year for next generation energy storage just to name a few. While momentum is definitely on our side, with the electrification of everything, our industry will face new hurdles in the coming years, including unprecedented demand for critical minerals.

From solar panels, to batteries, to EVs, critical minerals are needed to advance the energy transition. Specifically: copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt, to name a few. According to our guest today, the amount of newly discovered minerals needed to produce the anticipated number of EVs by midcentury will cost more than $10 trillion dollars.

We’ve been extracting minerals for centuries, so you might assume we have it figured out. However, not only are there some serious ethical and environmental concerns, but mineral exploration has, in some ways, actually gotten worse, slower, and more expensive over time. What if there was a way to make critical mineral exploration drastically more efficient? Our guest today, Kurt House, Co-Founder and CEO of KoBold Metals wants to show the world how scientific computing can turn that idea into a reality.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $800M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Innovation provides consulting services to help the world’s leading corporations and investors partner with the most innovative startups in climate tech.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Stegra CEO Henrik Henriksson

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000

As we touched on in our last episode with John O’Donnell of Rondo Energy, industry is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions, and it is only forecasted to get worse. According to a recent report from Rhodium Group, by 2050, the industrial sector could emit as much CO2 as the power, transportation, and building sectors combined.

A term worth highlighting in this month’s episode is “Hard-to-abate”. This term refers to industrial sectors like cement, petrochemicals, and steel that people have continually categorized as too costly, slow, or lacking the necessary technology to decarbonize.

For this episode, our focus is on steel. Carbon emissions, air, and water pollution from steel production can be largely attributed to their use of coal-fired blast furnaces, technology created in the 14th century. There are serious challenges to altering any centuries-long established production process, but as our guest today, Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Stegra (formerly H2 Green Steel) knows, when you replace coal with renewable energy, you can produce hydrogen, iron, and steel, with significantly lower emissions.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Rondo Energy Founder and Chief Innovation Officer John O'Donnell

Tue, 8 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0000

In the same way that “Climate Change” and “Global Warming” went from scientific terms to colloquial ones, “Decarbonization” is slowly permeating modern discourse. Decarbonization is the process of significantly reducing or eliminating CO2 and other GHG emissions that result from human activity.

“Human activity” encompasses a lot of different sectors. From agriculture and forestry, to transport and industry, we are emitting a lot of greenhouse gasses. And with the demand for industrial materials only projected to increase as more countries industrialize, emissions from industry are predicted to rise faster than any other emitting sector.

When I say “industrial” or “industry”, I’m referring to processes used to extract and refine raw materials. These processes include mining, manufacturing, construction and waste processing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, the industrial sector is responsible for 24% of global carbon emissions and 1/3 of U.S. direct and indirect emissions.

For many industrial processes, process heating is a critical component. Process heating is used to raise and maintain the temperature of materials in manufacturing processes. Heating materials above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit allows for the transformation of raw materials like limestone, metallic ore, and silica into materials we depend on everyday like cement, iron, and glass. But across the manufacturing sector, process heating is responsible for the largest energy demand and highest greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 30% of total industrial emissions.

Most efforts to decarbonize the industrial sector have historically targeted non-heating operations, but if we could find a way to decarbonize process heat, we stand a chance to make a large dent on total global emissions. My guest today, John O’Donnell, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Rondo Energy is doing exactly that.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

AMP Founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Humans produce a lot of trash. How much trash you ask? We produce 2.3 billion tons of trash per year. That’s enough to fill about 800,000 Olympic pools every year. So, what do we do with it all and how does it get managed? Some of it, depending on your municipality, can be composted, some of it gets recycled, but despite our best intentions, most of it ends up in our landfills. In an ideal world, the majority of our trash would be reused and recycled, but recycling, despite its promises, is actually a regressing industry. Counterintuitively, over the last 15 years, recycling rates in the United States have stagnated and even decreased.

Recycling isn’t stagnating because people don’t want to recycle. In fact, people want to recycle so badly, waste management streams suffer from “wishcycling”, a phenomenon whereby people try to recycle items that not only aren’t recyclable, but actually end up contaminating and ruining potential batches of recyclables.

At the heart of it, recycling and waste management systems as they exist today face a major incentive problem. Because recycled material is sold in a commodity market, prices for recycled materials like aluminum, paper, plastic, and glass fluctuate a lot. An unreliable market disincentivizes the waste management industry from investing in more efficient sorting systems that could increase overall recycling.

While it might not seem obvious, recycling has an important role to play in global decarbonization. When materials like aluminum and plastic get recycled, the extraction of new raw materials to replace them is averted, as are the emissions that would have gone into their production. For example, for every ton of aluminum that gets reused, the carbon that would’ve been emitted into the atmosphere to produce more aluminum from new raw materials is never emitted.

As it stands, society is not capturing the decarbonization potential of recycling. Too much waste is wasted because of human error, a lack of incentives, and waste management systems with inefficient infrastructure. What if AI could revolutionize the way we manage our trash? Instead of exposing human lives to toxic chemicals and other dangers that inevitably find themselves in trash, what if there were technological interventions that could automate sorting, have an outsized climate impact, and make waste assets more valuable all at the same time? Our guest this month, Matanya Horowitz, CEO and founder of AMP, believes all of this is possible.

*note: In the episode, Emily incorrectly says that AMP has recycled 20 million metric tons of material. The actual number is 2.5 million tons.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

This episode is also brought to you by JP Morgan.

J.P. Morgan is proud to serve companies that are advancing decarbonization across the globe through innovative business and technology solutions. With J.P. Morgan’s unmatched investment capacity, strong support model, and global scale, the Green Economy Banking team delivers the full suite of the firm’s financial products and advisory services to help fuel the growth of green businesses and the industry at large. No matter what stage you're in, you can rely on JP Morgan's expertise and connections to back your boldest pursuits. So take the right risks, while banking with confidence. J.P. Morgan: Let’s build your future together.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

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Amperon Co-Founder and CEO Sean Kelly

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common. In July, Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, causing 3 million Texans to lose power in the midst of a soaring heat wave, which killed 23 people.

Critics have raised questions about Houston’s power providers preparedness for a disaster like Beryl, and have raised concerns about the long delay in restoring power at a time where access to AC and power could have saved lives.

Ever increasing extreme weather events like Beryl require utilities, retail electricity providers (REPs), independent power producers (IPPs), and other energy traders and suppliers to rapidly forecast and adjust supply in order to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective electricity. Traditional electricity demand forecasts, which rely on sparse weather data, analog meter readings, and regression-based historical demand data, are insufficient in the face of such events.

In order to better respond to extreme weather events, and facilitate the energy transition, we need solutions that turn energy data into action and insights for power providers to prevent outages, provide reliable power, predict demand, and even provide carbon insights. And that is exactly what Sean Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Amperon, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Carbon is everywhere, not just in the air around us, but also in the materials we use everyday.

We talk a lot about reducing the overall amount of carbon in the atmosphere through approaches like avoided emissions or removal. But, what do we do in a world where GHG avoidance and removals are not at the scale required to tackle all of the emissions that come from heavy industry like agriculture and steel?

Research from the Ellen McArthur Foundation shows that switching our energy use to more efficient and renewable sources would only prevent 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In order to truly decarbonize, how do we tackle the other 45% of emissions?

Can we recycle carbon dioxide and monoxide? Instead of the linear fossil fuel based - make, use, waste life cycle, what if we could take CO and CO2, produced by heavy industry and turn it into the building blocks of our everyday lives, like the plastic container holding your cosmetics, your clothes, or the fuel powering your flight.

In a truly circular economy, we could produce many of the materials we need from greenhouse gasses, like carbon, thus eliminating waste and pollution, and reducing greenhouse gasses across the supply chain.

In order to achieve this vision, we need solutions that take emissions and byproducts of industries like agriculture and steel, and turn them into usable materials. And that is exactly what Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Lightship Co-Founder and CEO Toby Kraus

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:29:32 +0000

One in ten American families own a Recreational Vehicle, and yet, the RV industry hasn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades, due in part to extreme consolidation and lack of competition. Despite this, 300-500,000 RVs are sold in the US every year, 90% of which are towable.

Towing an RV can seriously affect the fuel economy of your car. Drivers can expect their gas mileage to decrease about 1-2% for every 100 pounds they tow. The average weight of a large travel trailer is about 6,700 pounds, which means a driver can expect between a 49-74% decrease in gas mileage.

This means more stops, more money spent on gas, and more emissions.

On top of that, most RVs use propane to fuel generators, which in turn power appliances or amenities, making what should be a peaceful experience outdoors noisier, and the cost of an RV trip even higher, both for a family’s wallet, and for the planet. If you drive an electric car, towing a RV means an extreme reduction in range and therefore an increase in charging stops, which is a challenge for people adventuring in areas without charging infrastructure.

As the US races towards electrification, more and more people are opting to buy hybrid or electric vehicles. But, for the one in 10 American families that own an RV and may be looking for a better, or even electric, RV experience, they are in serious need of options.

So, in order to electrify the RV industry, and bring automotive electrification to a new segment, we need a solution that is lightweight, super aerodynamic, and above all, fun. And that is exactly what Toby Kraus, and the team at Lightship, are building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Heirloom Co-Founder and CEO Shashank Samala

Tue, 7 May 2024 13:45:00 +0000

Even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere would take thousands of years to naturally dissipate through processes like photosynthesis, oceanic absorption, or mineralization. In addition to forests, soils, and the ocean, naturally occurring minerals are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks.

Over the span of hundreds or thousands of years, carbon dioxide in air and water binds to minerals, and eventually turns to stone, thus removing the carbon from the atmosphere. This process is called mineralization. One of the most abundant types of rocks on the planet is limestone, and it’s one of the unsung superstars of this carbon mineralization process.

Meanwhile, one of the most exciting advances in the carbon removal industry that has received a lot of attention - and scrutiny - is Direct Air Capture, often referred to as “DAC.” DAC is the process of separating carbon dioxide from ambient air. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specified funding for the deployment of DAC projects in the US, and DAC is getting more interest from companies looking to remove their carbon emissions. But, DAC technologies are typically expensive, energy and land intensive, and use materials that can be difficult to source.

In order to remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere, we need a DAC solution that is scalable, inexpensive, and designed to leverage natural processes like mineralization via limestone, which has millennia of carbon removal capabilities embedded in its chemistry. And that is exactly what Shashank Samala, Co-Founder and CEO of Heirloom, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Odyssey Energy Solutions Co-Founder and CEO Emily McAteer

Wed, 3 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000

According to the World Economic Forum, if we want to reach a carbon-neutral future, the world will depend on emerging markets to build energy systems that rely on clean energy instead of fossil fuels. However, only one fifth of global clean energy investments are being channeled into emerging markets.

Financing the development of distributed renewable energy projects has been slow and challenging for interested investors and project developers. In order to facilitate the growth of distributed renewable energy in emerging markets, and connect financiers, equipment providers, and project developers who see the immense opportunity in decarbonizing growth in emerging markets, we need a platform where all stakeholders get what they need to finance, build, and track the performance of these projects.

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions, is building.

At Odyssey, Emily and her team are building a new kind of platform to make it possible for distributed renewable energy projects to launch in emerging markets, by connecting financiers, equipment providers, and project developers, and providing the remote monitoring and control needed to assess performance.

Emily joined the podcast to speak about her journey from Concord, Massachusetts, to working on Wall Street, to the lecture that would change her life, to founding Odyssey and building a platform that’s responsible for the deployment of ~ 2.5 million standalone solar systems and positively impacting the lives of 15 million people.

WattBuy Co-Founder and CEO Naman Trivedi

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:24:22 +0000

Residential energy use accounts for about 20% of greenhouse emissions in the U.S., making it one of the most important sectors to decarbonize. As the world electrifies and consumers become more climate-conscious, energy will become one of the next consumer engagement frontiers.

The WattBuy platform connects clean energy providers with residential customers, helps consumers save money on their energy bills, and helps companies engage customers with insights and provide enhanced offerings and services.

In this episode, Emily Kirsch sits down with WattBuy Co-Founder & CEO Naman Trivedi to learn more about founding the company, WattBuy’s mission to decarbonize the grid, and building a platform that has generated 20 gigawatt hours of renewable energy for homeowners and renters, and helped them save upwards of $4M on their energy bills.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

SustainCERT Co-Founder and CEO Marion Verles

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 13:17:11 +0000

Some experts are calling 2024 the “make or break year” for the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, which were rocked by a shaky 2023. To usher in a new era of effective and impactful carbon markets, the verification process needs a major tech update, and a serious credibility boost.

Marion Verles founded SustainCERT to be the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and Scope 3 emissions verification solution.

The team at SustainCERT is employing a novel approach to verify a project’s impact on the carbon cycle, and it starts with building a digital platform where project developers and suppliers can enter, track, and adjust their projects in accordance with valuable data insights.

SustainCERT has raised $47M, has a team of more than 100, and has developed what they describe as the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and, more recently, a Scope 3 emissions verification solution. I spoke to Marion about her journey, from her childhood in the south of France, to founding her first company in Cambodia after starting her career in finance, to launching and leading a digital-first verification platform.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Ebb Carbon Co-Founder and CEO Ben Tarbell

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 13:39:51 +0000

On November 17th, 2023 the average global temperature was temporarily 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrialization, an event with ominous climate implications. To slow global climate change, we need to find ways to supercharge natural carbon removal processes like ocean alkalization, and do it in a way that is good for the planet.

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes Guest, Ben Tarbell, Co-Founder and CEO of Ebb Carbon, is doing.

The team at Ebb is approaching carbon removal in a way that is both novel and as ancient as the ocean itself; integrating with existing facilities that process seawater, they use electrochemistry to remove acidity, and return the alkaline seawater to the ocean where it can then absorb more carbon.

Ebb has raised $23M, has a team of 40, and is deploying their carbon removal system. I spoke to Ben about his journey, from his childhood spent obsessed with building and engineering, to his career in solar, to prototyping the Ebb System in a bathroom-less empty warehouse, to opening Ebb’s first site and starting to meaningfully remove carbon via the ocean.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Charm Industrial Co-Founder and CEO Peter Reinhardt

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:06:17 +0000

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to return Earth’s atmosphere to 280 parts per million of CO2 for the health of human existence and that of the planet. To achieve that goal, industry experts believe we’ll need to be removing 10-20 billion tons of carbon per year by 2050.

Removing carbon is exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Peter Reinhardt, Co-Founder and CEO of Charm Industrial, is doing.

The team at Charm has developed a novel process for removing carbon using biomass that is converted to bio-oil via pyrolysis, and then injected into wells deep underground, where it is permanently stored for thousands of years if not millennia. Charm is also developing a process for fossil-free ironmaking.

Charm has raised $125M, has a team of 50, and is scaling their carbon removal operations. I spoke to Peter about Charm’s mission to turn the tide of global climate change with carbon removal; from his childhood as a self identified “hard core math nerd” with a passion for the environment, to his early career as a ridiculously successful tech entrepreneur, to switching gears and delivering a carbon removal process to a planet that needs it now more than ever.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Co-Founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 02:31:45 +0000

According to researchers around the world, fusion could be a nearly waste-free, carbon-free, and all-geography answer to creating enough dispatchable power to get us through the energy transition. To achieve this, all components of a fusion power plant need to be built so that when fusion energy becomes a reality, we have the industry, infrastructure, and processes in place to distribute the power, and it has to be cost competitive. This is exactly what Bob Mumgaard, Co-Founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), is building.

Today, CFS has more than 600 employees, has raised $2B, and is executing on their plan to make the “holy grail” of fusion energy possible.

Guest host Lara Pierpoint sat down with Bob to learn more about his journey, the CFS story, and the work being advanced by his team.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Petra Co-Founder and CEO Kim Abrams

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 18:27:31 +0000

Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and vulnerable transmission infrastructure have defined some of the worst natural disasters of the past decade, including the 2020 wildfires in California. It’s clearer than ever that in high-risk areas, above-ground transmission lines need to be dug underground to protect communities from fires and to ensure their access to electricity in the face of increasing natural disasters. And that’s exactly why this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Kim Abrams, founder and CEO of Petra, is building a trenchless digging platform to make undergrounding utilities easier and more cost-effective.

Today, Petra has 72 employees across multiple continents, has raised $45M, and is winning contracts to underground transmission in the US and Colombia.

Guest host Lara Pierpoint sat down with Kim to learn how they're enabling utility undergrounding, more about their trenchless technology making it all possible, and the story behind how she founded Petra.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by SPAN.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Lunar Energy Founder and CEO Kunal Girotra

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:40:52 +0000

From induction cooktops and heat pumps to the rooftop solar needed to power it all and the batteries to store excess energy for use during blackouts, we’ve had incredible success building the tools we need to decarbonize our homes. But to the regular consumer, the universe of electrified solutions can be overwhelming. What we need is a home battery system and an integrated ecosystem of all electric products to make it easier than ever for homes to switch from gas to electricity, alongside software solutions to help manage residential energy production, storage, and usage. And that’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Kunal Girotra, Founder and CEO of Lunar Energy, is building.

Lunar emerged from stealth last year with $300M in funding from SK Group and Sunrun, now has 250 employees, and publicly unveiled their integrated residential energy product last week.

Emily sat down with Kunal to learn about how they're building the future of residential electrification, his journey from growing up in India to leading energy at Tesla, and the story behind the growth of Lunar Energy.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Lilac Solutions Founder and CEO Dave Snydacker

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 16:25:11 +0000

If the world is going to make the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, we’re going to need lots of energy storage, and a lot of lithium. The global transition to clean energy is expected to trigger a 40-fold increase in the demand for lithium by 2040.

Lithium is in high demand, but current methods for lithium extraction make it difficult and expensive to source. Conventional extraction methods take up lots of land, use lots of water and energy, and often have devastating environmental impacts.

Traditional lithium extraction uses massive evaporation ponds, where lithium-rich-brine, (meaning saline groundwater that is rich in lithium) is pumped to the surface and evaporated until it can be processed and extracted.

These projects often require as much as 10,000 acres of land, and only recover 40% of the lithium available in the brine.

To make the lithium ion batteries we need to power our electrified world, and more specifically to power the electrification of transportation, we’ll need to source lithium in a way that doesn’t harm the environment, yields tons of high purity lithium concentrate, and uses as little land as possible. And that’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Dave Syndacker, Founder and CEO of Lilac Solutions, is building.

Lilac Solutions created superior ion exchange beads using ceramic materials that absorb lithium from brine. Lithium rich brine is pumped into a vessel containing the ion exchange beads, which absorb the lithium. Then, hydrochloric or sulfuric acid is used to flush out the lithium to produce lithium chloride or sulfate. Those intermediate forms of lithium are then converted to lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide which get used to make batteries.

Emily spoke to Dave about his journey to becoming a founder, from his childhood on the beach in Rhode Island, to leading seminars about battery technology at Northwestern where a few provocative questions from fellow students put Dave on the path to create Lilac.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Nithio Co-Founder and CEO Kate Steel

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 31 May 2023 17:48:54 +0000

As we speak, there are 600 million people in Africa who lack access to even basic electricity. That’s driven in part by low levels of domestic and foreign investment into electricity infrastructure across the continent: over the last decade, just 3% of capital invested into energy infrastructure worldwide went to Africa.

To enable universal energy access in Africa, we’ll need innovative climate financing solutions that get the right kind of capital to the right kind of projects at the right time.

And that’s exactly what Kate Steel, Co-Founder and CEO of Nithio, is doing. Nithio uses AI-powered analytics to help investors, local banks, and grant-makers understand payment patterns, credit risk, and portfolio quality in the distributed energy space. They also operate a financing vehicle called Nithio FI that provides loans to distributors that need capital to reach the millions of households with no or unreliable energy access.

In this episode, Emily sits down with Kate to hear about the high school ditch day that introduced her to engineering, her journey in energy access, and the work Nithio is doing financing electricity access across Africa.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Sublime Systems CEO and Co-Founder Leah Ellis

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 15:25:00 +0000

Concrete is the second most-used material in the world, right behind water. It’s everywhere – in our bridges, our buildings, our homes, our roads. It’s the literal foundation for much of our lives.

And cement is a key ingredient in that foundation. It acts as the glue that binds together the water and aggregate to make concrete. Globally, we produced more than four billion tons of cement in 2021, and demand is expected to grow.

But for each ton of cement produced, a ton of carbon is emitted due to the fossil fuel-powered heat and reactions needed to produce it. Altogether, the cement industry accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions. To build our net-zero future, we'll need even more concrete for new and existing infrastructure, but we'll also need to clean up cement production to prevent ever increasing emissions.

And that's what this month's Watt it Takes guest, Sublime Systems CEO and co-founder Leah Ellis, is doing.

Leah and her colleagues at Sublime Systems are decarbonizing the cement industry by creating a process that produces cement with electricity instead of fossil fuels.

Emily spoke with Leah about developing the science behind low carbon cement. They also talked about the importance of getting experience in the industry while she was still an academic, and Sublime's ultimate goal of launching a plant capable of producing a million tons of cement a year.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures. Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Leap CEO and Co-Founder Thomas Folker

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:15:00 +0000

The U.S. is on track to deploy 550 gigawatts of new renewables on the grid by 2030. That's a massive amount of solar, wind, and other renewables powering buildings, EVs, appliances, and industrial processes in our increasingly electrified world.

Last year electric vehicles (EVs) hit a massive milestone by making up 5% of all new car sales in the U.S. And Bloomberg estimated that more than half of new car sales could be EVs by 2030.

That future looks bright, but to keep the headlights on and the wheels turning, the grid will have to be prepared to provide power at triple its current capacity by 2050. Fossil fuel peaker plants have been filling in the gaps left by renewables during times of peak demand. But to reach net-zero by 2050, the U.S. will need more sources of firm power that don't come from coal or natural gas.

Thomas Folker, CEO and co-founder of Leap, a Powerhouse Ventures portfolio company, is working to solve that problem.

Leap has built the platform needed to turn all of our various grid-connected devices into virtual power plants that can be called upon during times of high demand. Thomas and the team at Leap are helping to prevent the use of fossil fuel power plants called peaker plants, many of which only run during times of high energy and don't actually run on a daily basis.

Virtual power plants, or VPPs, aggregate the combined power of EVs, rooftop solar, residential and commercial batteries and other distributed energy resources, or DERs, and make that energy available to areas of high demand. Leap's API makes it simple for these smart, grid-connected devices to collectively act as virtual power plants, and their platform allows their customers to sell that energy to buyers.

I spoke with Thomas about leveraging software solutions to solve hard, real-world problems on the grid. We also talked about how his early roles helping build energy projects both big and small gave him a realistic view on what it takes to make lasting change.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Vibrant Planet CEO and Co-Founder Allison Wolff

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Forests make up a third of all land on Earth, and they're one of our major defenses against a warming world. 45% of the carbon stored in land exists in forests.

Today, our forests are struggling to adapt to human activity and a rapidly changing climate. Deforestation and wildfires continue to ravage habitats like the Amazon. In the U.S.destructive wildfires have increasingly ravaged the West. To protect these valuable ecosystems and carbon sinks, we need to radically change the way we restore, conserve and expand these landscapes.

And that's exactly what Vibrant Planet CEO and co-founder Allison Wolff is doing.

Allison and the Vibrant Planet team are modernizing forest conservation and restoration with a product called Land Tender, a digital platform that leverages data to help Forest Services, municipalities and tribal lands better manage their conservation and restoration efforts. Allison describes it as the operating system for forest restoration.

By digitizing forest conservation and restoration, Land Tender makes it easy for municipal fire districts, conservations districts, nonprofits, and NGOs to coordinate and plan with each other.

Different interventions like removing vegetation and prescribed burns can be mapped over time using machine learning and AI to adjust treatments accordingly.

Emily spoke with Allison about the process of merging nature-based climate solutions with cutting edge technology, how she developed Land Tender, and Allison’s long career pushing big tech companies to make positive choices for people and the planet.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Via Separations CEO and Co-Founder Shreya Dave

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:25:00 +0000

Industrial processes are one of the hardest sectors of the economy to decarbonize. Fossil fuels have been the go-to way of powering the facilities that make paper, plastics, food, beverages, and chemicals.

Slashing greenhouse gas emissions from industry means changing the way companies produce their raw materials.

The problem: sometimes the hardest sectors to decarbonize are the ones that may not believe in climate change at all, and thus don’t feel the need to change their practices.

And that's what Shreya Dave, CEO and co-founder of Via Separations, is changing.

Shreya and the team at Via Separations are making it attractive for their customers to decarbonize by providing a cheaper alternative to an often overlooked source of emissions: chemical separations and purification.

The traditional way of separating desirable materials is very resource-intensive. Shreya likens the whole process to separating pasta from water in a pot. The water, which is the waste product, is boiled off using heat from fossil fuels to get to just the cooked pasta, or the desirable material, at the bottom of the pot.

Via Separations is changing the way separations are done by developing and deploying filtration systems that act like a pasta strainer, filtering out the waste product using less energy and producing less emissions.

The energy savings can't be understated. Chemical separations and purification make up a whopping 12 percent of the country's yearly energy consumption. That's on par with all the energy used in gasoline powered cars and trucks in the U.S. every year.

Emily spoke with Shreya about the work needed to scale the tech, the importance of speaking to customers about their needs, and the industries Via Separations is going after first.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Electric Hydrogen CEO Raffi Garabedian

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 11:07:58 +0000

Large swaths of the global economy are very hard to decarbonize with renewables and batteries alone. Steel, cement, aviation – these industries are run on the high heat and explosive force of burning fossil fuels.

Together, these activities make up the industrial basement of society; the often overlooked and essential sectors of the economy that can only be made possible, in part, by burning liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.

Cleaning up these sectors requires an energy-dense alternative that can go the distance.

And that's exactly what today's guest, Electric Hydrogen CEO and co-founder Raffi Garabedian, is building.

Raffi and the team at Electric Hydrogen are building the electrolyzers and supporting infrastructure that can produce the clean, green hydrogen needed to fuel our net-zero future.

Hydrogen has the potential to replace the role of petrochemicals altogether. Burning hydrogen could generate the high temperatures that heavy industry requires – without any added carbon emissions. And it could also be used for synthetic fuels in aviation or shipping. But in order to do so, hydrogen production has to clean up its act.

And that's what Raffi and Electric Hydrogen are doing by building massive electrolyzers – tractor trailer-sized machines that run electricity through water, splitting it into its basic elements: oxygen and hydrogen.

Commercial electrolyzers today are typically 5-10 megawatts. But Electric Hydrogen is aiming for 100 megawatts to drive down costs. By building larger and more efficient electrolyzers with much higher energy inputs, the company aims to produce greater amounts of hydrogen at a price that would make it competitive with natural gas.

Emily spoke to Raffi about what it takes to move fast and break bonds in their journey to get green hydrogen down to fossil fuel price parity. They also talked about the balance between being a technologist and entrepreneur, and the infrastructure and innovation we'll need for widespread green hydrogen use in tough to decarbonize industries.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by our exclusive sponsor, Google Nest. Want to do more to address climate change? Nest Renew offers a simple place to start. To learn more about Nest Renew, visit nestrenew.google.com.

Raptor Maps CEO and Co-Founder Nikhil Vadhavkar

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Nikhil Vadhavkar) — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 13:00:00 +0000

Over the last decade, solar growth has exploded. Just last year, the U.S. added a record 13 gigawatts of utility-scale solar to the grid. And despite supply chain disruptions and inflation, the average solar panel cost still dropped by 11%.

New solar plants are now cheaper to build than new gas or coal-fired power plants. But according to the Department of Energy, for the country to achieve a zero-carbon grid by 2050, we'll need 1,600 gigawatts of solar compared to the 13 we added last year. This means solar will have to break through its current single digit share on the grid. And doing that means drastically rethinking the way developers, owners, and operators keep tabs on new and existing solar projects. That's exactly what Nikhil Vadhavkar, CEO and co-founder of Raptor Maps, is doing.

Raptor Maps help utility scale solar owners and operators to build, monitor, maintain, and expand their solar plants. Before Raptor Maps, each solar farm operated in its own silo, essentially disconnected from other solar plants, and relied on old school paper, spreadsheets, and emails to record and track important information.

By introducing cutting edge software, Raptor Maps’ took an inefficient process and streamlined it.

Emily spoke to Nikhil about what it takes to bring new innovation to the now well-established solar industry. They also talked about Raptor Maps' early transition from potato farms to solar farms and the work it took to build their reputation as an industry standard.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Nth Cycle CEO and Co-Founder Megan O'Connor

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Megan O'Connor) — Tue, 6 Dec 2022 13:00:00 +0000

To deploy enough solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries needed to decarbonize the grid, we'll need more of the critical minerals that make these technologies possible.

Growing demand for clean technology means an even bigger need for lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and other minerals. Right now the world is on track to double its overall mineral requirements for clean technology by 2040. Yet our domestic mining capacity for these materials is a fraction of what exists overseas.

And with the Inflation Reduction Act requiring EV manufacturers to source at least 40% of their critical materials for EV batteries domestically by 2024, demand has already quickly surpassed supply. Battery recycling could help us make up the difference, but today the U.S. recycles less than 5% of its lithium-ion batteries.

And that's exactly what Megan O'Connor, CEO and co-founder of Nth Cycle, is changing.

Megan and the Nth Cycle team believe they can cut through tons of electronic waste generated each year while shoring up the country's supply of the critical minerals needed to get us to net-zero emissions. Nth Cycle's device, dubbed the OYSTER, uses electro-extraction to selectively filter out individual minerals from e-waste.

But recycling batteries is just the beginning. In the near future, the Nth Cycle system can be adapted to refine and process ore coming directly from mining sites - enabling 92% less emissions than traditional processes.

Emily spoke with Megan about what it takes to build an entirely new mineral supply chain from the ground up. They also talked about developing Nth Cycle's technology from the lab to the field, and the challenges of building hardware.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Sealed CEO and Co-Founder Lauren Salz

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 1 Nov 2022 13:00:00 +0000

The energy we use in our homes remains one of the largest sources of emissions in the country. About 20 percent of our energy-related GHG emissions comes from the fossil fuels used to power gas furnaces, stoves, water heaters, and AC units.

With the U.S. predicted to add more than 62 million new homes by 2050, getting fossil fuels out of our houses, apartments and condos is crucial. And we have the tools to do it.

Weatherization, insulation, and heat pumps can drastically reduce emissions. But we need to increase consumer awareness and decrease upfront costs for the improvements and technologies needed to decarbonize our homes.

Getting there means incentivizing homeowners to view residential energy solutions not as a financial risk, but as a comfort and savings reward. And that's exactly what Lauren Salz, CEO and co-founder of Sealed, is doing.

Sealed takes the guesswork out of decarbonizing homes by pairing homeowners with contractors and footing the initial bill themselves. By tying Sealed’s financial performance to homeowners’ energy savings, Sealed provides a massive incentive for homeowners who otherwise might be leery of making their homes more energy efficient.

And by monitoring real time energy consumption for their customers, Sealed is able to show up at the end of the day with clear proof of savings. That's real dollars saved and up to 60% less in energy used for Sealed homeowners.

Emily spoke with Lauren about what it takes to encourage new growth in the residential efficiency and electrification market. They also talked about her experience as a young founder and CEO.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Terabase Energy CEO and Co-Founder Matt Campbell

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 7 Sep 2022 17:12:33 +0000

Earlier this year, solar reached a historic milestone: 1 terawatt of capacity around the world. One trillion watts is a huge achievement. But solar still only makes up 3 percent of the world's electricity.

To deploy dozens of terrawatts in the coming years, we'll need to do something about the bottlenecks holding back the planning, design, and construction of the massive solar farms that will make up a renewable-powered grid.

Enabling dozens of terawatts of solar development is exactly what this month’s guest, Terabase Energy CEO and co-founder Matt Campbell, is doing.

Terabase's mission is to accelerate the build out of utility-scale solar by combining new modeling and design tools with robotics and automation. This combination of modeling software and automation robots is already bringing strong results.

Today, Terabase has over 500 engineering, procurement and construction companies, developers, and independent power producers using their platform. Ten gigawatts worth of solar projects have been supported by Terabese across 30 countries.

Emily spoke with Matt about what it takes to automate the buildout of utility-scale solar. They also talked about his decade-and-a-half career expanding solar worldwide at SunPower, and what the solar industry's early years taught him about pushing the technology forward.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by our exclusive sponsor, Google Nest. Want to do more to address climate change? Nest Renew offers a simple place to start. To learn more about Nest Renew, visit nestrenew.google.com.

SPAN CEO Arch Rao

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Arch Rao) — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Our homes account for 20 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. The fastest way to cut those emissions is to electrify the systems that heat, cool, and power our homes with heat pumps, solar, batteries, and EVs.

These technologies are the pillars of residential electrification. But, as more and more homeowners seek to electrify, they’re discovering that a key piece of antiquated technology in their homes is holding them back from their all-electric dream: their electrical panel.

That's why our guest, SPAN founder and CEO Arch Rao, is building the electrical panel of the future.

Arch and the team at SPAN decided it's time to reimagine the circuit breaker as an enabler of decarbonization. The Span panel gives detailed data on energy use from every device through a companion app – making it easy for homeowners to see how they're saving the most energy, how efficiently each appliance is running, and how to control distributed energy resources.

Emily sat down with Arch to talk about what it takes to turn the electrical panel into a product that people will actually care about – and love. They talked about the valuable lessons he learned during his first time as a co-founder of a startup, and how SPAN is making its mark in smart home electrification.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Antora Energy CEO Andrew Ponec

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Andrew Ponec) — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 10:00:00 +0000

Heavy industries like manufacturing, food processing, mining, and construction require a staggering amount of energy, often in the form of heat.

But until recently, there hasn’t been a good way to generate that amount of heat using electricity. As a result, we burn fossil fuels to make these essential materials and products. About a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from these industrial processes.

Learning how to generate these high temperatures without burning fossil fuels is a really difficult problem, but it’s a necessary step in cleaning up some of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors of our economy.

That’s the challenge our guest, Antora Energy CEO and Co-founder Andrew Ponec, is tackling.

Antora's thermal energy storage solution takes the electricity generated from renewables and stores it in the form of heat using carbon blocks – at a cost and efficiency comparable to traditional battery technology. The radiating light emitted by the carbon can also be captured by the company's modified photovoltaic cells and converted back into electricity.

Emily sat down with Andrew to talk about what it takes to roll out an entirely new kind of thermal energy storage technology. They talked about lessons that Andrew learned from his first climate tech startup, and discussed the role Antora’s technology will play in cleaning up heavy industry.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

We’re finally bringing back Powerhouse's annual summer party, New Dawn, happening on Thursday, September 15th from 5-10pm at the Double Standard (which is mostly outdoors) in Oakland. We're bringing together hundreds of entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and investors for the best climate tech party in the country. Check out the 2-minute video from our last New Dawn in 2019 to see what the event is all about. Unlike other work events, at New Dawn, there's no agenda, no pitches, no drawn out speeches; just good drinks, good food, and an excellent night with those who have built this industry, and those that are taking it to the next level. Tickets are $10 off, and with prices going up on July 15th, get yours today.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Baker Botts. Founders and leaders of clean energy companies around the world turn to Baker Botts for legal advice at every stage of their journey, from incorporation to exit. To scale your clean energy business faster, visit bakerbotts.com.

TeraWatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Neha Palmer) — Wed, 1 Jun 2022 10:00:00 +0000

Tens of millions of delivery vans and semi trucks move around the clock to keep supply chains humming. These medium- and heavy-duty vehicles make up more than 25 percent of transportation emissions in the US — even though they only make up 10 percent of all vehicles on the road.

We need to electrify medium and heavy-duty vehicles to meet our climate goals. But, how do we build and operate the charging infrastructure to power them?

That charging network is exactly what our guest, TeraWatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer, is building.

TeraWatt develops, owns, and manages charging infrastructure for these large vehicles. The company integrates hardware, software, and grid services along with on-site chargers. TeraWatt has a growing portfolio of land in strategic locations across the country that enables it to build and operate that charging infrastructure.

TeraWatt brings together a team of experts from data centers, transportation logistics, and electric cars. The more complex the high-powered charging needs, the better suited TeraWatt is for the task.

Emily sat down with Neha to learn what it takes to electrify a sector with such massive energy demand. They talked about founding TeraWatt after Neha left Google, where she was a key figure in that company's ambitious renewable energy strategy. And they discuss the unique demands of heavy-duty transportation.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Our Friends from The Big Switch

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Dr. Melissa Lott) — Tue, 10 May 2022 18:15:00 +0000

Normally, we’d be bringing you an episode featuring an entrepreneur who’s making our climate-positive future a reality. But behind every founder with a big idea are scientists, engineers and policymakers working hard to turn those big ideas into reality. And right now, a lot of them are tackling one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis – carbon

So today, we have something new for you. As a bonus, we’re bringing you an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, The Big Switch.

It’s hosted by the amazing Dr. Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. In this episode of The Big Switch, we learn how pervasive carbon is in our lives. And how embedded carbon, in particular, hides inside our phones, our computers, our cars and even - our kitchen appliances.

Enjoy the show and we’ll be back with a new episode of Watt It Takes at the end of the month.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

bakerbotts.com

Watershed Co-Founder Taylor Francis

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Taylor Francis) — Wed, 4 May 2022 10:00:00 +0000

With 93 Fortune 500 companies committing to net-zero targets, and with the SEC preparing to require public companies to disclose climate risks, corporations are beginning to think deeply about how to track and manage their emissions.

That’s why Watershed Co-Founder and CEO Taylor Francis and his team built a platform to simplify the process — and help companies to decarbonize faster.

From his co-founder’s guest bedroom, Taylor and his friends used their tech experience and climate passion to create Watershed, a carbon accounting company that helps corporations measure, reduce, and report their emissions. It gives companies the capability to monitor emissions -- and the tools to actually cut them.

Emily sat down with Taylor to learn how Watershed got started, how they got their first customers, and to dig into the nuances of the carbon management space.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Mainspring Energy CEO & Co-Founder Shannon Miller

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Shannon Miller) — Tue, 5 Apr 2022 10:00:00 +0000

We’re running a contest! Through April 19, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a limited-edition Watt It Takes crewneck — and enable more people to hear inspiring stories about entrepreneurs making our climate-positive future a reality.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly, we need to electrify large swaths of the economy. But that requires a steady supply of renewable power. And that's where things get tricky.

Historically, we’ve turned to natural gas or batteries for backup power when resources like wind and solar can’t meet demand. But today’s batteries aren’t always cost-effective, especially at an industrial scale. Plus, they only provide energy for short periods of time.

The other option: Generators.

Generators can provide power whenever it’s needed and ensure that essential sites like grocery stores and hospitals always have access to reliable electricity. But today’s generators burn lots of oil and gas — including some of the dirtiest types of fuels available.

Our guest, CEO and co-founder of Mainspring Energy Shannon Miller, has designed a generator for the 21st century – making it cleaner, more efficient and capable of being powered by nearly any fuel.

Emily sat down with Shannon to learn what it takes to redesign a generator from scratch. They also talked about how Mainspring convinced its first investors to take a bet on an unproven technology, how Mainspring landed its first customers, and how they’re making the grid more reliable and resilient.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Monolith Co-Founder & CEO Rob Hanson

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Rob Hanson) — Wed, 2 Mar 2022 10:00:00 +0000

We’re running a contest! Through March 15th, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a limited-edition Watt It Takes crewneck — and enable more people to hear inspiring stories about entrepreneurs making our climate-positive future a reality.

Heavy industry is one of the hardest parts of the economy to decarbonize. Making steel, cement, and chemicals takes a lot of heat, a lot of electricity, and a lot of expensive equipment.

Take hydrogen: a gas used to produce ammonia for fertilizer or refine petroleum. Hydrogen is also a promising fuel source for transportation and electricity that's attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in global investment.

Every year, the world produces millions of tons of hydrogen through a dirty process where steam and natural gas react – creating lots of CO2 and carbon monoxide.

For hydrogen to be a truly clean fuel, we have to change how it's made.

Our guest, Monolith co-founder and CEO Rob Hanson, is doing exactly that – and creating new industrial materials in the process.

Monolith bills itself as a clean hydrogen and clean materials company. It uses methane pyrolysis to create hydrogen, and plans to use renewable methane to create carbon-negative hydrogen.

And with the method that Monolith is perfecting, there's an added bonus: carbon black, a key ingredient in inks, plastics, makeup, and rubber tires.

Emily sat down with Rob to learn how he tackles hard technical problems as an entrepreneur. Rob also discussed his early startup ideas that never got off the ground, and his hope that Monolith will change the way people look at carbon.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate. Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

ChargerHelp! Co-Founder Kameale Terry

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 9 Feb 2022 15:12:43 +0000

There are 46,000 public EV charging stations across the United States. But with 32% of charging stations down at any given time, maintaining them is a big challenge for the industry.

Minimizing charger downtime isn’t easy – differences in manufacturers, network providers, and utilities can mean wide variation in hardware or software between stations. That complexity can make fixing technical problems a challenge.

And that's exactly what our guest, ChargerHelp! Co-founder and CEO Kameale Terry, is working to solve.

ChargerHelp's purpose is to give EV drivers the best experience possible. It analyzes operational data about chargers across the US – and then sends skilled personnel to fix them when they're down.

Since the company's founding in 2020, ChargerHelp! has raised $2.75 million and racked up a powerful list of customers. But the mission isn't just technical – it's also human. ChargerHelp! hires local technicians, pays them a living wage, and works with partner groups to train new talent from underserved communities.

Emily sat down with Kameale to hear about how ChargerHelp! is building equity into an industry from the ground up, about Kameale’s unexpected detour into electric vehicles from nonprofits and banking, and how she and her co-founder Evette Ellis built ChargerHelp! into what it is today.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Remix Co-Founder Tiffany Chu

accounting@powerhouse.co (emily kirsch, tiffany chu) — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 11:00:00 +0000

Electrifying cars and trucks is an essential part of decarbonizing mobility. But there's another vital piece in the race to zero-emissions transportation: public transit.

Transit tech is emerging as one of the most exciting areas in the climate space. It's made up of companies using technology to get people out of their cars and onto shared vehicles like vans, buses, and trains. And the need has never been greater.

When the pandemic threw public transportation systems around the world into turmoil, transit tech companies stepped in – reshaping routes overnight, enabling essential workers to get to their jobs. These same technologies can also be used to decarbonize transportation.

That's where our guest, Remix co-founder Tiffany Chu, focuses her energy.

Tiffany co-founded Remix, starting as COO before becoming CEO in 2019. She stayed in that role until March of 2021, when Remix was acquired by Via, a public transit networking company, for $100 million.

Today she's the senior vice president of Remix at Via.

So what made Remix an acquisition target worth $100 million?

Emily sat down with Tiffany to talk about her early struggles as an architecture graduate who couldn't find a job, and how a viral tweet set her and her company on a path to change public transportation. We also talked about why transit tech is getting so much attention right now – and its role in our zero-carbon future.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Google. Google is pioneering the electricity systems of the future with its effort to source 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 — so that everyone can have round-the-clock, carbon-free energy everywhere they operate, in every hour of the day. Learn more.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Fervo Energy Co-Founder & CEO Tim Latimer

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Tim Latimer) — Tue, 7 Dec 2021 11:41:28 +0000

Starting in the 1960s, the United States became a world leader in building large-scale geothermal power plants.

That changed in the mid-2000s with the fracking boom. Drillers turned their attention to oil and gas. And as wind, solar and batteries got cheaper, bankers and developers put their money into those resources.

Today, geothermal development around the world has flatlined.

But a small legion of clean energy entrepreneurs is working quietly in the background on innovations that could catalyze the geothermal industry once again.

One of those entrepreneurs is Tim Latimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy.

Fervo Energy is a geothermal developer using advanced drilling techniques from fracking in the oil and gas industry to make it easier to find and harness heat underground.

Tim calls the 2020s "the geothermal decade." We can't transition to a zero-carbon grid without round-the-clock clean energy resources to supplement wind and solar - and geothermal offers that always-on feature.

Tim believes a combination of technology innovation and public attention are setting up a new phase of growth.

Emily spoke with Tim about how he's combining his expertise in oil & gas drilling with a dedication to solving the climate crisis -- and using his experience to break open an overlooked renewable resource.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Alex Blumberg, Host of ‘How to Save a Planet’

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 10:29:42 +0000

There are a lot of nuances to the way people perceive our warming planet. But media coverage of the issue is often catastrophic, scientifically dense, or framed exclusively around politics.

So how do we talk about climate in a way that resonates across diverse groups of people?

That's what our guest, Alex Blumberg, kept asking himself.

Alex is an acclaimed audio journalist. He’s the co-founder of Gimlet Media and host of the Spotify climate solutions podcast How to Save a Planet.

Alex has pushed the boundaries of audio storytelling. His startup-turned-podcast-empire, Gimlet Media, was one of the first breakthrough podcast companies, focusing on ambitious explanatory journalism and rich narratives. In 2019, Gimlet was acquired by Spotify for $230 million.

Alex is known for a very specific brand of storytelling -- blending rigorous reporting with a casual, conversational delivery. He does it with a very deliberate purpose: to make complex topics accessible.

So what does Alex think the future of climate storytelling looks like?

From co-creating Planet Money to Startup to How to Save a Planet, Alex has been a major source of information and inspiration for host Emily Kirsch. Alex sat down with Emily to talk about his entrepreneurial story, how it led him to climate change, and how he thinks we can save the planet.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Aurora Solar Co-Founder Samuel Adeyemo

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +0000

The United States recently surpassed 100 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, enough to power nearly 20 million homes.

But to decarbonize the power grid by 2035 and meet growing demand, the Department of Energy estimates that we'll need 1,000 gigawatts of solar capacity, providing 40% of the nation's electricity in just 15 years.

That means, on average, we'll need to install solar at quadruple the rate we did in 2020.

We can't achieve that growth without creative new ways to install solar in as many places as possible.

That’s where our guest, Aurora Solar Co-Founder & CRO Samuel Adeyemo, comes in.

Aurora is tackling one of the biggest problems in the rooftop solar industry: "soft costs."

The cost of solar panels has fallen 99 percent since 1980. But the cost of everything else involved in installing those panels — the paperwork, the design, the sales process — is now higher than the hardware itself.

Aurora makes software designed to tackle them all together.

Over the last decade, Aurora has raised $321 million to help digitize the solar design and installation process.

We talked with Sam about how he turned a challenging experience with a solar installation in Kenya into a company valued at $2 billion.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Arcadia Founder & CEO Kiran Bhatraju

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Kiran Bhatraju) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 11:12:07 +0000

Ninety percent of Americans want to see more renewable energy on the grid. But two-thirds of them can't directly access wind and solar — because they don't own their rooftop, can't afford the upfront cost, or can't get it from their monopoly utility.

That’s where our guest, Arcadia Founder & CEO Kiran Bhatraju, comes in.

“We started Arcadia to give everyone access to clean energy. It was as simple as that,” says Bhatraju. “This is a very closed, balkanized industry. And so the core idea was to build technology to make it incredibly simple for anyone that pays a power bill to access clean energy.”

Arcadia is a service that connects people across the country to solar and other renewable energy projects. Virtually anywhere in the country, customers can sign onto the platform and subscribe to community solar, or buy zero-carbon power.

The company's mission is to make these subscriptions as simple, transparent, and equitable as possible. And to decarbonize grids as quickly as possible.

Today, Arcadia has hundreds of thousands of customers in every corner of the country. And in mid-September, the company closed a $100 million Series D funding round. It will use that capital to expand community solar options, and help people save money while buying clean energy.

Emily spoke with Kiran about his upbringing in Kentucky coal country, his early career in politics and as an author, and the anxieties and exhilaration of raising over $180 million for his entrepreneurial vision.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

Powerhouse partners with leading corporations to help them lead the next century of clean technology innovation. Powerhouse Ventures backs founding teams building innovative software to rapidly transform our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more about Powerhouse at powerhouse.fund.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Tesla Co-Founder & Founding CEO Martin Eberhard

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Martin Eberhard) — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 10:00:00 +0000

When it comes to climate tech companies, there's only one name that's known around the world: Tesla.

Tesla has arguably been the defining climate tech success story of the 21st century, driving demand for electric vehicles and becoming one of the world's most valuable companies.

When people think of the person behind Tesla, they think of Elon Musk. But Musk wasn't there from the very beginning — he was an early investor in the company, and didn't become CEO until five years after its founding.

Martin Eberhard was there from the start. And as co-founder and founding CEO, he'd already spent years building a new kind of electric car that people would actually want to drive.

Martin started Tesla with his co-founder Marc Tarpenning in 2003 during the dark ages of electric cars. Automakers had lobbied against policies promoting EVs in the 90s, and then killed their own battery-powered models. It took years of trial and error before Tesla hit the scene with the first Roadster.

Martin’s time as CEO came to an end in 2007, when he was unceremoniously kicked out of the position by Tesla’s board. But he left his mark on the EV world.

Emily Kirsch spoke with Martin about his long history as an entrepreneur, the origins of Tesla, cobbling together the parts for Tesla’s first EV prototype, and blowing up batteries in his yard.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Malta CEO Ramya Swaminathan

accounting@powerhouse.co (Ramya Swaminathan, Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 10:00:00 +0000

There's a race going on to build the next generation of energy storage technologies using gravity, chemicals, or heat to store clean electricity for long periods of time.

And that's where our guest, Ramya Swaminathan, comes in.

Ramya is the CEO of a company called Malta. Malta is building an electro-chemical battery that converts renewable electricity into heat. It's like a giant version of the heat pump in your air conditioner, using commercially-available, off-the-shelf parts.

Malta's heat-pump battery could provide energy to the grid for half a day -- and potentially, multiple days.

In 2018, Malta was spun out of X, the moonshot factory established by Google's parent company. Since then, Malta has raised more than $76 million to commercialize its storage system. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a firm started by Bill Gates; Dustin Moskowitz, a Facebook founder; and Alfa Laval, a Swedish company that makes heating and cooling equipment for heavy industry.

Malta aims to have power-plant sized facilities serving the grid by 2024.

Emily Kirsch talked with Ramya about how her background in investment banking and hydropower development prepared her for scaling an energy storage business.

Watt It Takes isbrought to you by Google. Google is pioneering the electricity systems of the future with its effort to source 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 -- so that everyone can have round-the-clock, carbon-free energy everywhere they operate, in every hour of the day. Learn more.

Watt It Takes is also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Powerhouse Founder & CEO Emily Kirsch

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 10:00:00 +0000

Over the past four years, we’ve interviewed 40 incredible founders and CEOs on Watt It Takes.

Our guests have inspired emerging and established leaders across the industry. And each one of these conversations has helped Emily on her own founder journey.

With that in mind, in this episode of Watt It Takes, we’re turning the mic around to tell Emily’s story and the story of Powerhouse.

Today, Powerhouse is an innovation firm and venture fund — working with the world’s leading companies to help connect them to hundreds of climate tech startups every year, and investing directly in software-focused clean energy and mobility startups through Powerhouse Ventures. Emily’s path to start Powerhouse was anything but conventional.

We’re brought to you by Google. Google is pioneering the electricity systems of the future with its effort to source 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 -- so that everyone can have round-the-clock, carbon-free energy everywhere they operate, in every hour of the day. Learn more.

We’re also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

‘Clean Energy Yoda’ Andy Karsner

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch, Andy Karsner) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:20:21 +0000

Andy Karsner is a highly influential entrepreneur, investor, diplomat, and strategist working to transform the world’s energy systems.

In June, he was voted onto ExxonMobil’s board by activist shareholders as a way to hold the oil giant accountable on climate change.

Back in the 90s, Andy was developing large gas and diesel power plants. But then he found the wind business. Andy started a company called Enercorp, which developed some of the earliest large-scale wind farms around the world.

In 2005, Andy was chosen by President George W. Bush to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. That meant directing R&D and deployment efforts across wind solar, fuel cells, biofuels and other up-and-coming technologies.

Today, he’s a Senior Strategist and Space Cowboy X, the innovation lab run by Google's parent company Alphabet. He also co-founded a non-profit investment group called Elemental Excelerator, which has invested $43 million into climate tech startups.

Emily sat down with Andy at the 2021 MIT Energy Conference earlier this year, just after the Texas blackouts. They talked about his early days in renewables, the massive tech and market changes he oversaw in government, and the new challenges for entrepreneurs in today's maturing industry.

We’re also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

Powerhouse partners with leading corporations and investors to help them lead the next century of clean technology innovation. Our fund, Powerhouse Ventures, invests in founding teams building innovative software to rapidly transform our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more about Powerhouse at powerhouse.fund

SHYFT Co-Founder Ugwem Eneyo

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Tue, 18 May 2021 13:40:52 +0000

Africa is becoming a dynamic market for clean, distributed energy. All across the continent, solar, batteries, generators, and microgrids are giving people energy cheaply — and providing greater reliability in a region where many central grids remain unreliable.

But that dynamism can come at a cost. Systems are often complex. They lack standards. And it’s often difficult for buildings and businesses to manage and integrate them in concert with an incomplete grid.

And that's where our guest, Ugwem Eneyo, comes in.

Ugwem is the Co-Founder and CEO of a company called SHYFT Power Solutions. SHYFT has built a platform that makes it simple to optimize distributed energy resources and integrate them with centralized power grids in Sub-Saharan Africa.

SHYFT has raised nearly $4 million in seed funding to expand its platform across Nigeria—a country where the majority of citizens still don't have a reliable grid connection.

SHYFT has won the MIT Clean Energy Prize, the California Climate Cup, and a host of other recognitions. Ugwem also landed herself on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Energy.

Emily spoke with Ugwem about how she took an unexpected turn from academia to entrepreneurship, how she raised money for a concept that is not well understood by investors, and how she's scaling the company.

We’re also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

Executive Producer Stephen Lacey

accounting@powerhouse.co (Stephen Lacey, Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 10:25:00 +0000

This episode was first aired on February 25, 2021.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Stephen Lacey, the founder of Post Script Audio.

Stephen has been the creative force behind many of the top podcasts about climate change and clean energy. And, he also happens to be our executive producer. He’s been making podcasts about the energy transition since 2006. This was the dawn of on-demand audio and the modern clean energy industry—and he had a front-row seat to both.

The conversation was recorded in front of a live, remote audience in December 2020.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

OhmConnect Co-Founder Matt Duesterberg

accounting@powerhouse.co (Matt Duesterberg, emily kirsch) — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 10:12:00 +0000

Power plants are massive, complicated pieces of machinery. Gears. Pipes. Boilers. Generators. Instruments.

But a new kind of model is taking shape: one that combines smartphones, software, and smart devices in homes. It’s called a virtual power plant. And it’s what our guest, Matt Duesterberg, is working to build every day.

Matt is the co-founder of a company called Ohmconnect. It was founded in 2014 to make it easy for individuals to help clean up the grid.

In December 2020, OhmConnect picked up a $100 million investment from Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners. The money will help the company build a 550-megawatt virtual power plant made up of hundreds of thousands of households across California -- the largest project of its kind.

In 2013, Matt joined a Powerhouse hackathon to start working on the idea. It’s come a long way since then. So, we invited him to a live conversation to hear about the sacrifices, close calls, and conflicts that he’s dealt with while building OhmConnect.

We’re also brought to you by Nextracker. Nextracker is advancing the connected power plant of the future across five continents.

BlocPower Founder Donnel Baird

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:26:00 +0000

This episode was originally released on January 15, 2021.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Donnel Baird, the founder and CEO of BlocPower.

BlocPower is a Brooklyn, New York startup electrifying and weatherizing buildings in underserved communities — slashing pollution and saving money. This includes housing units, churches, community centers.

BlocPower was founded in 2012. It has raised venture capital from Kapor Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. But that process was not easy for a company with a mostly Black leadership team. As a black founder, Donnel was turned down 200 times before any venture firms were willing to back his vision.

The mission for Donnel isn’t about just about hitting milestones for investors. It’s about changing the fabric of underserved communities that are plagued by pollution and energy poverty. That’s because Donnel has lived it himself.

The conversation was recorded in front of a live, remote audience at the end of 2020.

We’re brought to you by Google. Google is pioneering the electricity systems of the future with its effort to source 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 — so that everyone can have round-the-clock, carbon-free energy everywhere they operate, every hour of the day. Learn more.

EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 2 Dec 2020 10:25:00 +0000

This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Cathy Zoi, the CEO of EVgo — one of the country’s largest electric vehicle charging networks.

Cathy has seen it all. She’s studied and worked in oil, gas and clean energy since the Reagan Era. Now at the helm of EVgo, she’s convinced the future of mobility is coming fast.

Cathy was on the team that developed the original Energy Star rating when she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. She was chief of staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore Administration.

The conversation was recorded in front of a live, remote audience at the end of 2020.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Solstice CEO Steph Speirs

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 09:26:00 +0000

This episode was originally released on October 23, 2020.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Steph Speirs, the CEO of Solstice.

Solstice is a community-solar company with a mission to bring clean electricity to underserved communities.

Steph Speirs grew up as one of three kids, a first generation immigrant, in Hawaii. She knows what poverty can feel like, or how a poor credit score can sink a human being.

Steph wanted to use her seat at the table to make room for others. Solstice’s motto is “Solar for every American.”

This conversation was recorded in front of a remote, live audience in the fall of 2020.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance Founder Michael Liebreich

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:25:00 +0000

This episode was first released on September 22, 2020.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Michael had been many things, from entry-level analyst to Olympic skier to a crestfallen dot-com entrepreneur. And then in the mid-2000s, he found his home in the clean energy economy.

Unemployed, he used a team of interns to begin compiling data on clean energy investment. And that turned into a 140-employee business that Bloomberg LP purchased in 2009.

This conversation was recorded in front of a live remote audience in the fall of 2020.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Green Jobs Pioneer Van Jones

accounting@powerhouse.co (Van Jones, Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 3 Sep 2020 09:26:00 +0000

This episode was originally published on September 4, 2020

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with CNN host and green-jobs pioneer Van Jones.

Van may be best known for “The Van Jones Show” and “The Redemption Project,” which both air on CNN. He is also the author of three best-selling books, including “The Green Collar Economy.”

But long before his high-profile career, Van was a powerful voice for bringing clean energy jobs to black and brown communities. He helped spearhead the Green Jobs Act of 2007, the first time the country deliberately trained workers for the future clean economy.

This conversation was recorded in front of a remote live audience in the fall of 2020.

Opower Co-Founder Dan Yates

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:25:00 +0000

This episode originally aired August 16, 2021.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dan Yates, the co-founder and former CEO of Opower.

Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. And if people saw they were doing poorly, they’d make changes. It worked.

Over time, Opower inked deals with the world’s biggest power companies and started processing vast amounts of smart meter data -- making it arguably the biggest energy efficiency success story in business. The company went public in 2014 and was sold to Oracle in 2016.

This conversation was recorded in front of a remote live audience in the summer of 2020.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Natel Energy Co-Founder Gia Schneider

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 28 May 2020 09:25:00 +0000

This episode was originally published on May 28, 2020.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Gia Schneider, the co-founder and CEO of Natel Energy.

Natel is commercializing a turbine for low-head hydro applications—at locations like old dams, irrigation canals and run-of-river projects. And it’s designed to protect wildlife and drastically cut the ecological impact of hydropower.

Gia has a long history in energy. She worked at Constellation Energy and in Accenture’s utility practice. She started the energy and carbon trading desks at Credit Suisse. And in 2009, she launched Natel with her brother Abe.

This conversation was recorded in front of a remote live audience in the spring of 2020.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Otherlab Founder Saul Griffith

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 09:25:00 +0000

This episode was originally published on April 30, 2020.

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Saul Griffith, the founder and chief scientist at Otherlab.

Otherlab is an R&D incubator and accelerator that helps pair startups in robotics and renewable energy with government labs and corporate investors. It has partnered with NASA, the Navy, the Department of Energy, Google, Facebook, GE and Ford to help build and fund projects in energy, automation, and robotics in service of 100% decarbonization.

Saul has a PhD in materials science and information theory. He’s co-founded over a dozen companies.

This conversation was recorded in February, 2020 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA. It was our last in-person recording before the pandemic.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

https://www.powerhouse.fund/

Blueprint Power Co-Founder Robyn Beavers

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 09:25:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Robyn Beavers, the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Power.

Blueprint works with real estate companies to turn their buildings into power plants. It has a piece of software that helps building owners optimize their use of co-generation, fuel cells, solar or batteries.

Robin has a long history in the tech, real estate, and the energy world.

This conversation was recorded in January 2020 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Imprint Energy Co-Founder Dr. Christine Ho

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Sat, 8 Feb 2020 10:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dr. Christine Ho, the co-founder and CEO of Imprint Energy.

Imprint is the company created to commercialize Christine’s invention: a tiny, zinc-based solid-state battery that can be screen printed. It’s being integrated into sensors and other tiny devices, helping power the internet-of-things.

Today, Imprint is licensing its technology to multiple manufacturers, and it’s printed hundreds of thousands of batteries.

This conversation was recorded in 2020 at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Opus 12 Co-Founder Dr. Etosha Cave

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 10:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dr. Etosha Cave, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Opus 12.

Opus 12 is a team of engineers, electrochemists and materials scientists working on a technology that converts carbon dioxide into usable products.

If the tech works at commercial scale, it would be a vital solution for slashing CO2 from industrial sources. The company has brought in about $20 million in funding.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Sunrun Co-Founder Lynn Jurich

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 14:27:00 +0000

This episode was originally released on November 15, 2018

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Lynn Jurich, the co-founder and CEO of Sunrun.

Sunrun was a pioneer in the early days of residential solar. Today, it’s the biggest installer of home solar systems in America -- and one of the industry’s biggest success stories.

Sunrun also partners with utilities on using batteries and rooftop systems to create virtual power plants. Lynn talks about how she convinced homeowners and banks to invest millions during the great recession in a new kind of solar service — kicking off the residential solar boom.

Form Energy Co-Founder Mateo Jaramillo

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 8 Nov 2019 10:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Mateo Jaramillo, the co-founder and CEO of Form Energy.

Form is working on a new kind of long-duration battery that could change the power sector.

In the early 2000s, Mateo deployed some of the first battery systems in New York for demand response — seeing the grid services potential well before anyone else did. He went on to start the storage unit at Tesla, launching and building the Powerwall business.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at the Prelude Venture Low Carbon Forum in Sonoma, CA.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Zola Electric Co-Founder Xavier Helgesen

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 2 Oct 2019 09:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Xavier Helgesen, the co-founder and former CEO of Zola Electric.

Zola is a provider of solar and storage systems in Africa. Since its founding in 2012 as Off-Grid Electric, the company has served over a million people with clean power in five countries.

Over the years, Zola has evolved from a small, scrappy startup that offered basic energy packages into a hardware software company that installs sleek, scalable power systems that rival the grid in performance.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

StreetLight Data Founder Laura Schewel

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 5 Sep 2019 09:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Laura Schewel, the founder and CEO of StreetLight Data.

While at UC Berkeley, Laura got interested giving EV owners more information about how they were driving their cars. She ended up uncovering a data gold mine in the process.

Laura built a company that now processes over 100 billion data points and provides transportation and urban planners with a granular view of how roads, bike lanes and sidewalks are being used.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 2 Aug 2019 09:26:00 +0000

This episode was originally published on August 2, 2019

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Matt Rogers, the co-founder of Nest.

Nest is best known for its elegant learning thermostat, the first major breakout hit in the smart home space. Google later acquired the company for $3.2 billion.

Matt is a former Apple engineer who applied design principles from the iPod and the iPad to smart thermostats — jolting an industry badly in need of change.

This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters in 2019.

Sila Nanotechnologies Co-Founder Gene Berdichevsky

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 09:24:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Gene Berdichevsky, the co-founder and CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies.

Sila is developing a new lithium-ion battery chemistry that uses silicon in place of graphite, leading to an improvement in battery density by 20 percent.

Gene was the seventh employee at Tesla, where he developed the Roadster’s battery. For the last nine years, his team at Sila has been working on a drop-in replacement for today’s lithium-ion batteries.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Dandelion Co-Founder Kathy Hannun

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 09:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Kathy Hannun, the co-founder and president of Dandelion.

Dandelion is a company reinventing home geothermal systems. The company uses a proprietary drilling technique, simple product design, and financing to cut the cost of ground-source heating and cooling.

For seven years, Kathy was on a team at Alphabet X — formerly Google X — evaluating technology moonshots. That’s where she stumbled upon the opportunity in home geothermal.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Solar Technology Veteran Terry Jester

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 7 Mar 2019 10:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Terry Jester, a solar technology veteran.

Terry has seen it all in her four-decade career in solar and electronics. As both an engineer and an executive, she’s learned that timing is everything in the energy business.

Terry started her solar career in the late 1970s. She’s since held operations and engineering positions at Shell, Siemens, SunPower, and Solaria — witnessing the initial evolution and eventual explosion of solar firsthand.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at the Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy forum in Denver, CO.

This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs.

It’s also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.

Former NRG CEO David Crane

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 10:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with David Crane, the former CEO of NRG.

Today, David is a clean energy investor. Back in 2015, he was CEO of NRG, one of the biggest power producers in America. And he was fired by his board for his ambitious plan to make the company a renewable energy titan.

This conversation was recorded in 2019 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

https://www.powerhouse.fund/

Wunder Capital Co-Founder Bryan Birsic

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 6 Dec 2018 10:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Bryan Birsic, the co-founder and former CEO of Wunder Capital.

Since its launch in 2014, Wunder has exploded onto the solar scene. It quickly became the top financier in commercial solar—which is a big deal, because commercial solar is extremely hard to finance. But Wunder cracked the code.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Solar Impulse Co-Pilot Bertrand Piccard

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 09:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Bertrand Piccard, the co-pilot of Solar Impulse, the first solar-electric plane to circumnavigate the globe.

Bertrand is a Swiss aviator who spent 15 years of his life obsessed with flying a solar airplane across the world. He didn’t just see it as a novel technical feat—he wanted to prove the extraordinary capabilities of renewable energy.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Sunnova Founder John Berger

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 09:23:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with John Berger, the Founder and CEO of Sunnova.

Sunnova is a Texas-based company putting hybrid solar-battery systems on homes across the country. The company is backed by players you wouldn’t expect: oil & gas investors who are looking for the next big thing in energy.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Proterra Co-Founder Ryan Popple

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 09:22:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Ryan Popple, co-founder and executive director of Proterra.

Proterra is one of the largest makers of electric buses and chargers in the world. Electric buses are quickly gaining market share—and Proterra has a pipeline of sales that covers 10% of the U.S. transit fleet. But it took many years to reach that stage. Proterra has faced numerous technical redesigns and lumpy consumer adoption over the years.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Advanced Microgrid Solutions Founder Susan Kennedy

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 09:22:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Susan Kennedy, the founder of Advanced Microgrid Solutions.

AMS created a platform for managing battery storage across buildings, turning them into virtual power plants. The company raised $34 million from a “who’s who” of strategic investors—and was eventually acquired by the battery developer Fluence.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Sunfolding Founder Leila Madrone

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 09:22:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Leila Madrone, the founder and chief technology officer of Sunfolding.

Leila is a former NASA engineer who used her expertise to create a new kind of tracking system that eliminates expensive components and reduces the installed cost of solar.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Mosaic Co-Founder Billy Parish

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Wed, 9 May 2018 09:22:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Billy Parish, the co-founder and CEO of Mosaic.

Mosaic is the top underwriter of home solar loans in America. It is creating the financial tools for homeowners to easily get solar on their roofs. Billy didn’t start in finance: he actually dropped out of Yale to pursue a career in activism.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Generate Capital Co-Founder Jigar Shah

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 09:22:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Jigar Shah, the co-founder of Generate Capital.

Jigar is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs and investors in the world of climate tech. He helped pioneer a financial model that allowed solar to scale massively in the US. He’s been responsible for financing billions of dollars in clean energy projects.

Today, he runs the loan programs office at the Department of Energy — directing the power of the government to finance zero-carbon energy.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Sungage Financial Co-Founder Sara Ross

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 2 Mar 2018 10:21:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Sara Ross, the co-founder of Sungage Financial.

Sungage is a company that makes it easy for homeowners to finance solar or energy efficiency projects. In 2009, Sara turned her Massachusetts farmhouse into a net-zero home -- but it was expensive and difficult. She became obsessed with improving the process.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

DBL Partners Founder Nancy Pfund

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Fri, 9 Feb 2018 10:21:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Partners.

Nancy is one of the most recognizable VCs in the clean energy space. DBL made early investments in companies like Tesla, PowerLight, and Nextracker. Nancy has been featured by Forbes and Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business.

This conversation was recorded in 2018 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Greentech Media Co-Founder Scott Clavenna

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 2 Jan 2018 10:21:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Scott Clavenna, the co-founder of Greentech Media.

Launched in 2007, Greentech Media quickly became the premiere brand in cleantech journalism and research. The company took a forward-thinking and sometimes-edgy approach to covering the emerging world of cleantech and climatetech.

This conversation was recorded in 2017 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

Nextracker Founder Dan Shugar

accounting@powerhouse.co (Powerhouse) — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 10:21:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dan Shugar, the founder and CEO of Nextracker.

Dan lives, breaths and bleeds solar. Some call him the "King Midas" of solar, because he's turned so many ventures into gold. He’s been responsible for some of the biggest and most consequential solar projects and companies ever built.

This conversation was recorded in 2017 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

https://www.powerhouse.fund/

Sungevity Co-Founder Andrew Birch

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Tue, 7 Nov 2017 10:20:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Andrew Birch, the co-founder of Sungevity.

Sungevity was an early success story in residential solar. But after 10 years in business, it went bankrupt in 2017.

In this interview, recorded five months after the company’s collapse, Birchy joined us on stage to talk about what happened. His story tells us a lot about the turbulence that defines the solar industry.

This conversation was recorded in 2017 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.

SunPower Founder Dick Swanson

accounting@powerhouse.co (Emily Kirsch) — Mon, 9 Oct 2017 09:20:00 +0000

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dick Swanson, the founder of SunPower, one of the most successful solar companies of all time.

Dick is a solar legend, who has been working to make solar cheaper and better since the 1970s.

This conversation was recorded in 2017 in front of a live audience at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, CA.