Watt It Takes

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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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, CAThis 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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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, CAThis 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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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, CAThis 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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

This episode was originally released on November 15, 2018In 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.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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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, CAThis 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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/

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, CAThis 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.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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/