The Green Blueprint

Up until six months ago, artificial intelligence might not have squeaked into the top five areas of climate tech for most people.But the Cambrian explosion of large language models – led by ChatGPT – has suddenly hooked hundreds of millions of users, offered mind-boggling creative capabilities that have surprised almost everyone, and kicked off an AI arms race in the tech world.What are the most compelling applications for AI in energy? This week, we feature a live conversation with Priya Donti, MIT professor and executive director of Climate Change AI; Amy Francetic, managing general partner at Buoyant Ventures; and Jesse Morris, CEO of the Energy Web Foundation. In this episode, recorded at Greentown Labs, we explore the wide range of applications for grid modeling, renewable energy integration, research & development, and product development. We also stretch beyond AI and talk about the wider digital layer that is fundamental to building and maintaining an increasingly electric, distributed energy system. You can also watch the conversation on video.This live episode is brought to you by Nexamp. Nexamp is leading the transformation to the new energy economy with proven solar and energy storage solutions that make clean energy more accessible for its customers and partners. Visit nexamp.com to learn more.

In five years, we've tripled the amount of solar capacity connected to America's grid. Wind capacity has grown 60% in the last 5 years. And in just the last year alone, battery capacity has doubled.But there’s also a surge in opposition to local projects. According to the Sabin Center for Climate Law at Columbia University, there are now 121 local policies that restrict or outright ban wind and solar in 31 states – a nearly 18% increase from 2021. What’s causing it?The opposition is coming in many different forms. In this episode, we'll focus on two of them: the coordinated spread of disinformation in local Facebook groups, and dark money going to news websites that are protecting utility political power.We’ll talk with Michael Thomas, author of the Distilled newsletter, who embedded himself with dozens of local Facebook groups devoted to fighting renewables. And we’ll also speak with Miranda Green, director of investigations at Floodlight, about the coordination of bad information spread on Facebook. Plus, she’ll tell the story of how her team uncovered a new method of influence peddling: utilities propping up news sites that cut down critics.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.

In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s supercomputer found that Los Angeles can hit 100% clean power within a decade and a half. But how will it be implemented in reality – in a way that benefits everyone?That’s the $86 billion question for the city. There are many other questions to answer: How will a utility serving four million residents phase out coal and gas, triple its yearly build-out of renewables and batteries, electrify 80% of homes and cars, build new transmission, and ramp up hydrogen and other forms of cutting-edge storage – all by 2035?This week, we dig into those challenges on stage with Marty Adams, general manager and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The conversation was recorded live at the Intersolar North America conference in Long Beach, California.Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

Silicon Valley Bank was a mid-sized bank that catered to entrepreneurs in the tech sector. The bank was an early supporter of the climate tech and sustainability space, with over 1,500 clients across the industry.But things quickly unraveled this month after SVB executives told investors they'd sold off a massive portfolio of mortgage bonds – creating a historic run on the bank and a government takeover.For a couple days, it looked like many climate startups would lose their cash. They narrowly avoided a complete financial catastrophe after the Federal Reserve stepped in, but now many are pondering the longer-term consequences.“They were early pioneers in cleantech, what became known as climate tech. They were here from the beginning. We're gonna be missing them for a long time,” explains Prelude Ventures’ Gabriel Kra.This week, the demise of SVB. What was the bank's role in the industry, and happens with it gone?We’ll talk with Gabriel Kra, managing director of Prelude Ventures. We’ll also profile two entrepreneurs with money tied up at SVB: Maria Intscher-Owrang, the CEO of Simplifyber; and Bryan Guido Hassin, the CEO of DEXMAT. Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

A few weeks ago, TIME Magazine staff writer Alejandro de la Garza found himself on the floor of a hotel room in Nevada with two guys trying to cook sulfur dioxide out of a tin can. Luke Iseman and Andrew Song are the co-founders of Make Sunsets, a startup claiming to be implementing solar geoengineering by launching weather balloons filled with SO2 into the stratosphere.Their first experimental launch in the Mexican state of Baja resulted in a swift regulatory response from the Mexican government. But when they ran another test launch a few weeks ago just outside of Reno, Nevada, Luke invited Alejandro to meet them. This week, we speak with Alejandro about his TIME profile of the risky startup. Plus, we talk with geoengineering experts, Dr. Holly Buck and Dr. Kevin Surprise.“Any single person you talk to in solar geoengineering research, whether they're bullish or against it, they all think that what makes Sunsets doing is a bad idea,” explains Alejandro.Make Sunsets represents a turning point for the field of geoengineering, when rogue actors are pushing it from academic debate into the real world. Is the company’s recent balloon launch an act of performance art – or an open door to an uncontrolled climate experiment?Click here for a full transcriptCome watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

Discarded is a series from Lemonada Media. If you like The Carbon Copy, then we think you’re going to enjoy Discarded.The shadow of Goliath is looming over St. James Parish, Louisiana, and it’s called The Sunshine Project. This $9.4 billion proposed petrochemical plant would sprawl across 2,400 acres, pushing up against the community that has lived and died there for generations. Our David is lifelong resident Sharon Lavigne. After teaching special education at the local school for over 30 years, Sharon becomes an accidental activist trying to save her community and its history.This series is presented in partnership with Only One, the action platform for the planet. Only One is on a mission to restore ocean health and tackle the climate crisis in this generation — with your help. Visit only.one to learn more and get involved.

Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.In 2020, the top five Western oil & gas supermajors – ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and Total – saw combined losses of $76 billion. That was caused by the radical drop in energy consumption when Covid shut down the global economy.That year, BP CEO Bernard Looney called for a 40% cut in oil & gas production in a decade, and promised to invest billions of dollars each year into renewables.Two years later, thanks to a war waged by Russia that disrupted supply and a bounceback in global oil demand, high prices brought $200 billion in profits for those companies.BP just decided that it would invest billions more in oil & gas production, rather than make the drastic cuts it initially proposed. Shell is doing the same, expanding fossil fuel extraction while keeping clean energy investments flat. And even with windfall profits, clean energy only accounts for 5% of oil company capital expenditures globally.At one point, it seemed like there was a real shift happening in the sector. And now, with the global appetite for oil still growing, the allure of high profits is shifting investments back into extraction. This week: how will this new boom time for oil and gas companies impact investments in clean energy?Plus, we’ll take stock of some of the hottest emerging sectors, like hydrogen, virtual power plants, and critical minerals recycling.Jigar Shah and Katherine Hamilton are back on the show this week to dissect all of it.Click here for a full transcript.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.Batteries are everywhere. In our electronics, our power tools, our electric grid, and in our cars. And almost all those batteries use a lithium-ion chemistry.To make an all-electric world possible, we're going to need a lot of lithium. Prices are up 400 percent over 2021. And demand is expected to increase fivefold over the next decade.The Imperial Valley in southern California is home to the Salton Sea, a land-locked body of water that contains vast reserves of lithium. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the region the "Saudi Arabia of Lithium." If mined, it could completely reshape the global supply chain.But locals who live near the Salton Sea – a region plagued by unemployment and pollution – worry that the rush to extract the resource won't benefit the people living there.This week on The Carbon Copy: California has ambitious plans to fuel the global EV boom with the Salton Sea’s lithium. But will the people who need it most get left behind?Guests: Independent reporter Aaron Cantú, who wrote about the Salton Sea’s Lithium industry here. And Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comité Cívico del Valle.The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

For the last 12 years, coal generation in America has been in steady decline. In 2022, wind, solar, and hydro collectively generated more electricity than coal plants. There's no escaping it: the coal fleet is getting creaky.Despite this, hundreds of coal plants are still in operation nationwide. A team of analysts at Energy Innovation and the University of California, Berkeley, wanted to know how many of those aging coal plants are more expensive to run than wind and solar. The results were stunning.Only one coal plant in America is cheaper to operate than building new renewables. So with 99 percent of coal plants being the more expensive option, it begs the question: why haven’t utilities ditched coal?This week, we'll speak with Mike O’Boyle, senior director for electricity policy at Energy Innovation, about the nuances of the transition away from coal – and why economics alone aren't enough to push the oldest, dirtiest plants into retirement.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.

Last month, new research showing that 12 percent of childhood asthma can be linked to gas stoves took over the news cycle. Suddenly, gas stoves were a hot topic on nightly news programs across America.The study ignited backlash from conservative pundits, especially after a commissioner from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said stricter regulation of gas stoves was on the table.But there’s nothing new about the connection between gas stoves and health. The latest findings build off decades of public health research, which most people have never heard of – in part due to a powerful marketing effort by the gas industry.This week, we dive beyond the outrage cycle and into the data. Guest Brady Seals talks about what 50 years of research tells us about the impact of gas stoves, and how the latest findings will influence the policy push to get gas out of buildings.Click here for a full transcript.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 supported by Scale Microgrids, the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes it easy. Learn more: scalemicrogrids.com.