Interchange Recharged

It’s taken decades for renewables to compete with fossil fuels. But we’re now entering the third phase of the clean energy transition, when new renewables are beating existing coal and gas plants on price alone. "We’re on the verge of a new, radically different point in history,” argues futurist and technologist Ramez Naam.This phase of the energy transition will bring change that is faster and more disruptive than at any point in history.But will it happen fast enough? This week, we’ll ask Ramez to outline the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for our energy future. We’ll look at how the energy transition may unfold, and what we can learn from other tech sectors.In the second half of the show, we’ll talk about long-duration storage, the system-wide benefits of cheap batteries, the future of small-modular nuclear, and artificial superintelligence.Ramez is chair of energy & environmental systems at Singularity University. He is a computer scientist who worked at Microsoft developing products like Outlook and Internet Explorer. And he’s also the author of the award-winning science fiction series, “Nexus.”Recommended reading from Ramez:The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be the Most Disruptive YetClean Technology is Disrupting Fossil Fuels Faster Than EverSupport for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.We're also sponsored by Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: we dig into the causes of PG&E’s latest bankruptcy: wildfires.PG&E’s restructuring is one of the biggest in U.S. history — and it could be considered the first climate bankruptcy. The utility faces tens of billions of dollars in liabilities after investigators pinned over a dozen wildfires on PG&E equipment. What does it tell us about the health of utility infrastructure and corporate preparedness for climate risk?The future structure of PG&E is still uncertain as it moves through bankruptcy proceedings. And California lawmakers are struggling with how to both protect and penalize utilities for wildfire damages.We are going to explain what wildfires mean for PG&E and other California utilities. We’ll speak with Katherine Blunt of the Wall Street Journal about what her reporting has uncovered.Our current Interchange sponsor is PG&E. Please note: our sponsors have no influence on our editorial content in our podcasts. Read some of Katherine Blunt’s reporting:California Governor Proposes Fixes to State’s Wildfire CrisisPG&E Delayed Safety Work on Power Line That Is Prime Suspect in California WildfireJudge Moves to Curtail PG&E’s Dividends Until it Reduces Wildfire RisksSupport for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.We're also sponsored by Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Global energy giants have been on a distributed energy acquisition spree over the last few years. With the formation of its New Energies unit in 2016, Shell is leading the oil & gas majors in investment and vision.Shell New Energies plans to invest $2 billion dollars in renewables, microgrids, batteries, electric vehicle charging, and other emerging tech every year. That number is just a tiny sliver of Shell’s fossil fuel and chemical businesses, but it’s enough money to start re-arranging the competitive landscape for clean electrification. Most recently, the company acquired sonnen, a leading behind-the-meter battery company, and First Utility, a UK retail supplier and smart home service provider. Shell is developing smart home offerings through both companies.This week, Brian Davis, the VP of energy solutions at Shell, joins us to discuss the company’s strategy.His job: to help reshape the strategy of Shell and build up new businesses around biofuels and electrification. What does the New Energies strategy tell us about where Shell thinks the world is headed?We’ll cover the following topics:Shell’s acquisitions over the past two years: why those companies? How do we fit those puzzle pieces together?To what degree do they optimize for near-term profit vs. land-grabs in key areas?How will shell integrate all these businesses, both strategically and culturally?What are the biggest risks to Shell's strategy? What's the long-term profitability of the new energies business? How does it become more profitable?Will all supermajors eventually follow in Shell's footsteps?The most recent acquisition of First Utility provides snapshot of Shell’s customer strategy: “We’re offering a suite of smart home solutions, starting from smart thermostats that control your heating remotely. And then clearly over time we can offer an electric vehicle charger…we can come in and offer the benefits of energy storage if you have onsite solar. So we’re offering all of that as packages to meet the needs of our customers under the Shell brand in the UK,” says Davis.Recommended reading/listening:Reuters: Shell Goes Green as It Rebrands UK Household Power SupplierGTM: Shell New Energies Director on Investing in Clean Energy: ‘It’s About Survival’The Interchange: Solar Dwarfs Oil and Gas as World’s Primary Source of Energy in Shell’s Sky ScenarioSupport for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.We're also sponsored by Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Within the next decade, automakers will invest up to $300 billion in electric models, according to a recent tally from Reuters. These automakers are also spending billions more on autonomy to compliment those investments. It could result in 21 million new electric cars, trucks and SUVs on the roads.A lot of that activity is happening in China. But we’re also starting to see new investments in EV manufacturing in the U.S. For example, VW, Ford and Chevy are collectively putting over $2 billion into new or upgraded factories to produce EVs with autonomous functions.So with all this money sloshing around, who’s doing what? And are any definitive leaders emerging?On this week's Interchange podcast, we'll look at the competitive landscape for EV manufacturing.Additional resources:GTM Squared: Major Auto Brands Unveil Their New Year’s EV ResolutionsGTM Squared: The Rise of China’s World-Leading EV MarketReuters: Analysis of 29 Global Automakers’ EV SpendingBloomberg: Ford Invests $900 Million to Build Electric Vehicles in MichiganCNBC: VW Boosts Electric Vehicle Production by 50%Quartz: Are Automakers Overestimating Consumer Demand for EVs?Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.We're also sponsored by Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We asked on a recent Interchange episode: how are we going to manage all this distributed energy on the grid?This week, we’re asking: how to we manage all this centralized renewable energy hitting the grid?The answer is both simpler and more complex. We need to build a lot more transmission, yes. But getting that transmission in place is one of the hardest and most controversial pieces of decarbonizing the electric grid.There’s plenty of disagreement about how exactly we clean up the grid. Whatever your preferred plan, it probably needs to include way more transmission infrastructure -- like $600 billion worth by 2050.This week, we’re going to look at why lots of transmission is needed, how much is actually needed, and if we can even build it. What are the current models telling us?Recommended reading:New York Times: Missouri Regulators Approve Midwest Wind Energy Power LineUtility Dive: Electrification could drive $600B in transmission spending by 2050GTM: Siemens Buys Transmission Line to Take Iowa Wind to the Eastern GridSupport for this podcast comes from Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're on spring break this week. So we're offering a replay of an earlier episode -- it's all about pivots.Did you know that Nokia started out as a paper mill in Finland? Or that Nintendo once made instant rice? Many of the world's leading companies start out in radically different markets.Cleantech is the same. Sales cycles are often slow, technologies don't work as planned, and customer needs are constantly evolving. In the tumultuous world of energy, companies pivot all the time.On this week's episode of The Interchange, we celebrate the pivot.We'll look back throughout history and choose the most successful and unsuccessful pivots of all time. What do they tell us about how to succeed in this market?Recommended reading:Forbes: 14 Famous Business PivotsWall Street Journal: How a Florida Utility Became the Global King of Green PowerLA Times: How SunEdison Went From Wall Street Star to BankruptcyVestas: The History of Vestas Wind TurbinesGTM: Hard Lessons From the Algae Biofuel BubbleSubscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, the history and future of Tesla Energy.Back in 2006, Elon Musk posted a manifesto outlining his vision for a high-end sports car that would push unit volume and lower costs. It also included hints about an integrated company that will sell solar and batteries alongside cars.More than a dozen years later, that vision is being put to the test. After launching a distributed and grid-scale battery business, acquiring SolarCity and then launching a half-baked solar roof, Tesla’s energy services division faces a questionable future.Battery delays are a problem, the company is no longer a major solar player, solar roof production is feeble, and Tesla is moving entirely to online sales.So what exactly is Tesla Energy?We’re going to revisit the chronology and explore where it’s all headed.Recommended reading:Bloomberg: Did Elon Musk Forget About Buffalo?Listen to our earlier episode with Tesla’s grid storage architect, Mateo Jaramillo.Fast Company: The Real Story Behind Elon Musk’s $2.6 Billion Acquisition Of SolarCity GTM: What Happens to Tesla’s Solar Business as Retail Stores Close and Sales Go Online?The Interchange is supported by Wunder Capital. Listen to our careers episode produced with Wunder Capital. We talked with Wunder CTO Dave Riess about the framework he used to completely change his career path into solar — eventually co-founding a successful company. Listen to that episode in the Interchange feed or find it here.Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Distributed energy resources (DERs) are going to double on the U.S. grid by 2023, according to our researchers at Wood Mackenzie. By then, we’ll likely have somewhere around 100 gigawatts of flexible capacity — made up of distributed solar, combined heat and power, electric vehicles, smart thermostats, and battery storage. Those technologies alone could amount to the current bulk power system in Texas.Today, utilities are less likely to see those DERs purely as a threat. But figuring out how to manage all those resources is still a monumental challenge.Now that we’re squarely in the middle of this doubling of DERs, how do we get markets right? This is an age-old question that many are working to answer — and we think it’s a good time revisit it.We’re joined by Andy Lubershane, senior director of research at Energy Impact Partners, for a wide-ranging discussion about DERs from the utility perspective: the state of DERs, how they fit into utility operations, and whether better pricing can actually help.This conversation was adapted from Andy’s article on the subject. Read his analysis here.The Interchange is supported by Wunder Capital. Don’t forget to listen to our careers episode produced with Wunder Capital. We talked with Wunder CTO Dave Riess about the framework he used to completely change his career path into solar — eventually co-founding a successful company. Listen to that episode in the Interchange feed or find it here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Shayle and Stephen stumble into career counseling. There are now 3.4 million people in America working in clean energy, spanning across transportation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental services and many other related areas.It’s a big number. But it also means there are tens of millions of others with the right skills or the desire who haven’t yet joined the advanced energy economy.We’ve gotten numerous career questions from listeners — some starting careers, some later in careers, and some in consumer tech looking to find a more meaningful job addressing climate change. This week, we’re going to address some of them, using our own experience and drawing from others.We’ll hear from Nicole, an anonymous manager in tech who is looking for a way into the field.We’ll hear from Astrid Atkinson, a former senior Google engineer who quit her job to start an energy software company.We’ll hear from Mark Hughes, an engineer at Sila Nanotechnologies, who offers some advice on finding your unique voice.And we’ll speak with Liz Dalton, executive director of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, about the many pathways into the industry.Looking for some more resources? Here are a few we mentioned on the show:Greentech Media’s newslettersThe Clean Energy Leadership InstituteJobs With ImpactWomen in Cleantech and SustainabilityYoung Professionals in EnergyA list of renewable energy trade groupsDon’t forget to listen to our careers episode produced with Wunder Capital. We talked with Wunder CTO Dave Riess about the framework he used to completely change his career path into solar — eventually co-founding a successful company. Listen to that episode in the Interchange feed or find it here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we present an original podcast episode, brought to you by Wunder Capital. This is the third part of our three-part series produced with Wunder.In this episode, we’ll hear the story of Dave Riess, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Wunder.Well before co-founding Wunder, Dave found himself in a tricky spot. Even after building a successful career in software development, he was uninspired: “I’m working really hard solving these problems and fundamentally I'm helping big brands spend money more effectively on Facebook. And, nobody cares about that, including me.”So Dave created a framework for evaluating his career path. And it took him in an entirely new direction into solar.“The framework is quite simple. If I’m going to characterize myself by the work that I do, then why would I not work on the most important problem?”Dave eventually landed on energy, education and health care as the main problems to solve. “Energy, in my opinion, is the obvious winner of those three. You can have a fantastic education system and a fantastic health care system, but if you don’t have a planet to live on it’s not a very bright future.”So how did he establish the framework? And how did he make the decisions that ultimately led him to co-found Wunder? This week, we present an episode about first principles: we cover the value of the beginner’s mind; 10x problem solving; and how to design a career, a product, and a startup team with intention.Listen to our other episodes produced with Wunder:Meet the Women Doing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Solar DealsHow a Solar Bromance Cracked the Code for Commercial SolarWunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.