The Green Blueprint

This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by South32.Pat Risner spent 25 years as an engineer, general manager, and executive at one of the largest mining companies in the world, BHP. Today, he's the president of the Hermosa Project, a mining development in Arizona run by the global mining firm, South32. That mine is the only advanced project in America that could produce manganese and zinc – two critical minerals that are essential to batteries and renewables.In this episode, produced in partnership with South32, Pat Risner talks with Stephen Lacey about the importance of the Hermosa project for America's clean energy supply chain – and what it means to run a next-generation mine.To learn more about how Hermosa can help power the nation’s clean energy future and strengthen the domestic supply chain of critical minerals, go to south32hermosa.com.

The Inflation Reduction Act is reshaping the energy and automotive industries in the US with over $70 billion in new investments. Debates and uncertainties around implementation, subsidies, and supply chains still persist. The impact of the IRA on clean energy development across the states is discussed. The potential benefits and challenges of receiving tax credits for clean energy projects are explored. Foreign direct investment in the clean energy ecosystem is analyzed. The potential emergence of a carbon capture market in heavy industries is explored. Shifting the conversation around fighting climate change highlights the importance of lowering energy bills and improving lives.

The podcast discusses the upcoming US standards for hydrogen tax credits and the debate over matching renewables with hydrogen production. It explores the influence of ad campaigns, the role of Europe's rules, and the need for green hydrogen. The renewed interest in hydrogen and its various production methods and applications are also discussed. The sponsors Fish Tank PR and Savant are mentioned, along with the challenges and considerations for transitioning to a hydrogen economy.

For years, rooftop solar was overlooked as a reliability solution in New England. But in a very sudden reversal, the region's grid operator says it’s critical to keeping the lights on across the region.New England doesn't have its own fossil resources, so the region is dependent on oil and natural gas imported from other regions of the country. Over the last decade and a half, aging coal, nuclear, and oil-fired units have been retired there. Because of interconnection constraints and lots of NIMBYism, gas has mostly filled in the gap – not utility-scale renewables. But distributed solar is suddenly providing a benefit for the New England system operator that will help it close an aging, expensive gas power plant remains open for reliability reasons. This week, we'll talk with reporter Ben Storrow about his reporting on the value of solar. First, we'll look at what's changed in New England. Then we'll turn our attention to Texas, where renewables have been critical for managing the grid during a sweltering summer that has brought record-breaking power demand.This podcast is brought to you by KORE Power, an American manufacturer of battery cells for electric vehicles and stationary storage. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a conversation with KORE CEO Lindsay Gorrill about how America can slash its dependence on imported critical minerals and batteries.Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Savant Power. Savant’s end-to-end power systems provide energy generation, inverter and battery storage, generator control, flexible load management for every circuit, and level two EV charging. Learn more about the only company that can deliver an integrated smart home and energy solution controlled via a single award-winning app at Savant.com.

For decades, we have wildly underestimated the growth of renewables. Now that cost curves and deployments have exceeded all expectations, what’s next for the clean energy industry?This week, we feature a conversation between journalist David Roberts and futurist Ramez Naam about what's ahead for tech trends – from renewables and batteries, to grid management, to space-based solar power and geoengineering.This conversation was recorded in Seattle at a recent Canary Media Live event. Be sure to get your tickets to the Bay Area event in October. Thanks to our sponsors: This podcast is brought to you by KORE Power, an American manufacturer of battery cells for electric vehicles and stationary storage. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a conversation with KORE CEO Lindsay Gorrill about how America can slash its dependence on imported critical minerals and batteries. Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.  The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Savant Power. Savant’s end-to-end power systems provide energy generation, inverter and battery storage, generator control, flexible load management for every circuit, and level two EV charging. Learn more about the only company that can deliver an integrated smart home and energy solution controlled via a single award-winning app at Savant.com.

Mateo Jaramillo is the co-founder and CEO of the long-duration storage company Form Energy. Mateo has spent the last two decades building battery storage companies, with home base being California. But he just moved from Silicon Valley to the Rust Belt, where Form is scaling production of its iron-air batteries at an old steel mill in West Virginia.The location sits at the intersection of major highways, rail lines, and waterways. And Form’s batteries sit at the intersection of the old energy economy and the new energy economy.“We are making a type of battery which is based on iron and air. It means that we're moving a lot of iron in and very heavy things out. And so you think about sort of the core infrastructure that's needed to do that – it maps very nicely over the steel infrastructure of the country.”America is working to build back its industrial capacity with clean energy. Armed with lessons from the past and a lot more government support, companies are planning $70 billion in new factories for electric cars, solar and wind components, and batteries – including very large batteries like the ones that Form is making. This week: we talked with Mateo Jaramillo about Form Energy's transition from an R&D and engineering company to a high-volume manufacturer. Is it a sign of what's to come for the US industrial base?This podcast is brought to you by KORE Power, an American manufacturer of battery cells for electric vehicles and stationary storage. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a conversation with KORE CEO Lindsay Gorrill about how America can slash its dependence on imported critical minerals and batteries.Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a specialized climatetech PR firm dedicated to bringing meaningful results for companies in sectors spanning grid edge, solar, energy storage, battery, EVs, alternative fuels, VC and green building. FischTank helps clients stand out in an increasingly competitive and noisy space. Visit FischTank PR to learn more.The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Savant Power. Savant’s end-to-end power systems provide energy generation, inverter and battery storage, generator control, flexible load management for every circuit, and level two EV charging. Learn more about the only company that can deliver an integrated smart home and energy solution controlled via a single award-winning app at Savant.com.

Putin’s assault on Ukraine triggered an energy crisis that sent Europe’s economies into a tailspin and put the European energy transition to the test. But how did the European Union, a leader in climate action, become so dependent on Russian oil and gas to begin with? This week, we're posting the first episode in a new five-part series for The Big Switch. The show is a collaboration between Post Script Media and the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.The series looks at the energy systems of Germany and Poland. Both have very different energy economies, but both became dependent on Russian energy for heating homes, firing power plants, and fueling businesses.In this episode, we look at the immediate impact of the Ukraine invasion and the historical influences behind the dependence – from Germany’s pursuit of natural gas to Poland’s centuries-long relationship with coal.Then we ask whether Europe's initial response to the crisis will accelerate or slow down the region's push toward green energy.You can subscribe to The Big Switch anywhere you get your podcasts.

Last week, we started the show with a simple question: what do we want from the artificial intelligence systems advancing so quickly? Inevitably, when we start grappling with that question, we have to talk about ethics and data quality.This week, we feature two conversations about the ethics and implementation of AI across the energy economy. We'll talk with Pamela Isom, an AI ethicist and former director of the DOE’s artificial intelligence and technology office, about the “happy path” of implementation that avoids racial, gender, and economic bias.Then we’ll feature a roundtable of experts about building AI systems on the grid. The participants include: David Groarke, managing partner at Indigo Advisory Group; Elizabeth Cook, the director of advanced grid systems at Duquesne Light Company; Titiaan Palazzi, head of power utilities at Snowflake; and Jess Melanson, the chief operating officer at Utilidata.For all these experts, the deployment of effective and fair AI systems is all about the quality of the data.The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a public relations, strategic messaging, and social media agency dedicated to elevating the work of climate and clean energy companies. Learn more about FischTank’s approach to cleantech and their services: fischtankpr.com.The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Sungrow. Now in more than 150 countries, Sungrow’s solutions include inverters for utility-scale, commercial & industrial solar, plus energy storage systems. Learn more at us.sungrowpower.com.

We are at the start of a commercial arms race in artificial intelligence that has thrilled some, and alarmed others. For many, it's both.There's no shortage of heady proclamations about where the technology is headed. Google CEO Sundar Pachai calls AI “more profound than fire or electricity.”We are in the middle of a period of exuberance in AI, which will inevitably lead to some kind of market correction. But the technology will be transformative. There are dozens of use cases for AI in energy already in operation today across the grid, mobility, and industry.The emergence of AI will have an enormous impact on creativity, corporate structures, and economic productivity – and on the engine that drives our economy, energy. Will we use it in the right way?This week, we feature two conversations from our recent Transition-AI conference in Boston. Priya Donti, the executive director of Climate Change AI, describes the best-case and worst-case scenarios for an AI-infused energy sector. And Savannah Goodman, a data and software climate solutions lead at Google, describes the role for machine learning in optimizing renewables and data centers.The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a public relations, strategic messaging, and social media agency dedicated to elevating the work of climate and clean energy companies. Learn more about FischTank’s approach to cleantech and their services: fischtankpr.com.The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Sungrow. Now in more than 150 countries, Sungrow’s solutions include inverters for utility-scale, commercial & industrial solar, plus energy storage systems. Learn more at us.sungrowpower.com.

As we evaluate the Biden team's approach to building back domestic manufacturing and climate-positive infrastructure, we keep coming back to the question: what makes the current push different from the Obama era one? You can’t answer the question without exploring the factors behind the demise of some companies of the cleantech 1.0 era – in particular, the story of A123 Systems.This week, we’re talking with Gabrielle Coppola, a Bloomberg auto journalist, about her new magazine feature about America’s tortured journey to build EV batteries.A123 Systems was supposed to represent the next generation of domestic manufacturing. Instead, it showed how America excels at inventing new energy technologies, but not building them.The Carbon Copy is supported by FischTank PR, a public relations, strategic messaging, and social media agency dedicated to elevating the work of climate and clean energy companies. Learn more about FischTank’s approach to cleantech and their services: fischtankpr.com.The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Sungrow. Now in more than 150 countries, Sungrow’s solutions include inverters for utility-scale, commercial & industrial solar, plus energy storage systems. Learn more at us.sungrowpower.com.