Hardware Podcasts

The rise of permissionless DERs

Catalyst · 29 Jan 2026 · 35m

What this episode covers

James McGinniss, co-founder and CEO of David Energy, discusses the emerging category of 'plug-in' distributed energy resources (DERs), such as small residential batteries and balcony solar, which bypass traditional permitting and interconnection hurdles. He contrasts this permissionless model with large-scale systems like those from Base Power and Tesla, highlighting how eliminating soft costs (permitting, labor, customer acquisition) drives affordability. McGinniss points to Germany’s adoption of 4 million plug-in systems as a precedent for how high energy prices can accelerate uptake, and outlines the potential for these small devices to aggregate into significant grid capacity.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
David Energy, Base Power, Tesla, EnergyHub, Impulse Labs, Electric Era, Off Grid, Critical Loop, Pilo, Standard Potential, Uplight, Antenna Group
Products
EcoFlow

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