CleanTech Talk — EVs, Solar, Batteries, AI, Tesla

In this episode, RK Equity cofounder Howard Klein talks with CleanTechnica CEO Zach Shahan about what's new in the EV battery market, current & future supply chain concerns, Tesla's battery progress, and more.

Convergent Energy + Storage is a North American firm installing electricity storage in front of and behind the meter for commercial and industrial clients, for utilities and for municipalities. A long conversation between the CEO and Mariko McDonagah-Meier finally found fertile ground for her to join the firm as Chief Strategy Officer due to, of all things, COVID. Mariko talks about pockets of the future where storage is already valuable and valued, and the interesting models under which Convergent shares risk and revenue with its clients.

Convergent Energy + Storage is a North American firm installing electricity storage in front of and behind the meter for commercial and industrial clients, for utilities and for municipalities. A long conversation between the CEO and Mariko McDonagah-Meier finally found fertile ground for her to join the firm as Chief Strategy Officer due to, of all things, COVID. Mariko talks about pockets of the future where storage is already valuable and valued, and the interesting models under which Convergent shares risk and revenue with its clients.

In the second part of this interview with Assaad Razzouk, CEO of Gurin Energy and host of The Angry Clean Energy Guy podcast, CleanTechnica CEO Zach Shahan asks about stranded assets and discusses three more greenwashing topics.

Assaad Razzouk, CEO of Gurin Energy and host of The Angry Clean Energy Guy podcast, sits down with CleanTechnica CEO Zach Shahan and runs through his list of some top greenwashing topics.

In this episode of CleanTech Talks, Michael Barnard talks with Anders Forslund, PhD, founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. Heart is building a 19 seat, hence easier to certify, regional passenger plane, with a target for certification in 2026. Anders shares his journey to electrifying aviation, his passion for climate solutions, and the pragmatic way in which he and his team have approached designing a plane that airlines will buy. And that’s paying off. Heart just closed a $35 million USD Series A funding round, and has pre-orders for more than 200 planes.

In this episode of CleanTech Talks, Michael Barnard talks with Anders Forslund, PhD, founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace. Heart is building a 19 seat, hence easier to certify, regional passenger plane, with a target for certification in 2026. Anders shares his journey to electrifying aviation, his passion for climate solutions, and the pragmatic way in which he and his team have approached designing a plane that airlines will buy. And that’s paying off. Heart just closed a $35 million USD Series A funding round, and has pre-orders for more than 200 planes.

Grant Canary is the CEO of DroneSeed, a drone-based integrated tree-planting company. It’s the only company the US FAA has certified to fly 120 lb loaded, 8’ diameter, hexacopter in swarms out of line of sight of the operator. We talk about his lifelong obsession with things with wings, from insects to wind turbines to drones, and his time in Italy, Colombia and China that led him to his current successful venture.

Grant Canary is the CEO of DroneSeed, a drone-based integrated tree-planting company. It’s the only company the US FAA has certified to fly 120 lb loaded, 8’ diameter, hexacopter in swarms out of line of sight of the operator. We talk about his lifelong obsession with things with wings, from insects to wind turbines to drones, and his time in Italy, Colombia and China that led him to his current successful venture.

In the second part of my two-part interview with Bill McKibben, we spent a lot of time talking about Elon Musk, Tesla, and social trust. That included getting into the topic of unions, the UAW itself, cryptocurrency, and whether or not people with nefarious — or at least selfish and greedy — motives have intentionally split the "climate solutions community." This is surely a topic I will come back to repeatedly, and I'm almost considering writing a book on it, but it was good to get into it a bit with someone as notable, influential, and intelligent as Bill McKibben.