Watt It Takes

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.  

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.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.

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.

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.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.

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 – carbonSo 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.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

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.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.

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.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.

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. 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.

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

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