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Hardware to Save a Planet

Host Dylan Garrett explores the physical technologies being built to fight climate change, pairing one climate challenge with one emerging hardware solution each episode.

105 episodes · 77 hours · since 2022

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Hardware to Save a Planet is filed under climate & energy, product development, engineering and interviews. Its most recent episode published on , so it is still actively publishing. Listeners have left 46 ratings on Apple Podcasts, averaging 4.9 out of 5.

Latest episodes

The 10 newest episodes of Hardware to Save a Planet, each with a summary and chapters.

  • · 47m

    The Wildfire Suppression System Built to Fight Fire From the Ground | Gadi Benjamini

    Gadi Benjamini, Co-founder and CEO of FireDome, explains how his company builds autonomous wildfire suppression hardware inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome. He details the electromechanical launcher that fires 10-gallon 'smart capsules' filled with water or fire retardant up to 1,000 feet, and the AI-driven computer vision algorithms used to detect spot fires while avoiding humans and drones. Benjamini discusses the company's pivot from his previous methane mitigation startup, Carbon Twist, to resilience tech, and outlines their 'resilience as a service' business model targeting early adopters like wineries and HOAs in California. He also shares challenges in sourcing durable motors and manufacturing tolerances, and describes upcoming testing in Sacramento to validate performance against high winds.

    Mechanical engineeringAI & machine learning
    7 chapters

  • · 43m

    Why Electric Aviation Is Finally Becoming Possible | Anders Forslund

    Anders Forslund, Co-founder and CEO of Heart Aerospace, explains how the company is developing the ES-30, a 30-passenger hybrid-electric regional aircraft, to decarbonize short-haul flights. He details the economic viability of the project, noting that battery energy density hitting 400 watt-hours per kilogram and leveraging commoditized automotive supply chains have made unit economics favorable, with test flight energy costs under $10. Forslund discusses the technical challenges of certification, the importance of physical testing over simulation, and the strategic decision to build a clean-sheet airframe to avoid the 'lost generation' of engineering knowledge in legacy aerospace.

    Energy & climate techScaling production
    9 chapters

  • · 49m

    Smart Water Heaters Could Replace New Power Plants | Luke Winston-Almanzar

    Luke Winston-Almanzar, CEO and Co-founder of Reservoir, explains how his company’s intelligent heat pump water heater uses predictive software and industrial controls to optimize energy use and user comfort. He details the hardware integration, including multiple heating elements and leak detection sensors, which allows the device to act as a thermal battery for grid stabilization. Winston-Almanzar discusses the company's early-stage commercialization in the Boston metro area, focusing on direct installation and rapid customer feedback loops to refine the product and pricing strategy.

    Energy & climate techIndustrial & consumer product design
    7 chapters

  • · 48m

    Turning Cow Burps into Clean Energy with Griffin Cherry

    Griffin Cherry, Founder and CEO of Planet.Tech, explains how his company captures methane from cow respiration using a wearable halter and nose piece system that stores gas in a backpack for later extraction during milking. He details the engineering challenges of designing durable, cow-proof hardware for 1,600-pound animals and the business model of providing farmers with new revenue streams to offset chronic unprofitability. Cherry discusses the transition from roofing sales to climate tech, highlighting the importance of rapid prototyping with 3D printing and off-the-shelf components to achieve a functional MVP quickly. The episode covers the technical validation of capture efficiency, the economic potential of selling pipeline-quality renewable natural gas, and the company's vision to become a platform for solving planetary-scale climate problems.

    Prototyping & iterationIndustrial & consumer product design
    9 chapters

  • · 47m

    The Race to Replace Plastic: 2026 SF Climate Week

    Julia Marsh, CEO of Sway, and Molly Morse, CEO of Mango Materials, discuss replacing petroleum-based plastics with seaweed-derived polymers and methane-derived PHA bioplastics. They explain how these materials integrate into existing manufacturing infrastructure and address the complex lifecycle analysis (LCA) required to win over brands. Ryan Starling of frog Design adds that overcoming industry inertia requires proving performance and aligning sustainability with brand storytelling to bypass supply chain resistance.

    Materials & manufacturing processesDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    8 chapters

  • · 52m

    Climate-Driven Wildfires: Building Faster Fire Response Systems with Andrea Santy

    Andrea Santy, Executive Program Director of XPRIZE Wildfire, explains the competition's dual-track approach to detecting and suppressing wildfires within 10 minutes using satellite imagery and autonomous systems. She details the rigorous testing protocols in Australia and Alaska, the technical challenges of distinguishing destructive fires from false positives, and the regulatory hurdles for heavy-lift drones. Santy emphasizes that while technology is crucial, it must be part of a holistic strategy including land management and community action to mitigate climate-driven wildfire risks.

    AI & machine learningRobotics & autonomy
    6 chapters

  • · 40m

    Why Solar Deployment Speed Is the Real Climate Bottleneck with Deise Yumi Asami

    Deise Yumi Asami, founder of Maximo at AES Corporation, explains how her AI-powered field robot automates solar panel installation to address labor shortages and deployment bottlenecks. She details the engineering challenges of using computer vision in uncontrolled outdoor environments, the role of digital twins in accelerating development, and why EPCs prioritize delivery certainty over simple cost savings. The conversation covers scaling the robot fleet, recent project deployments, and the future of autonomous construction.

    Robotics & autonomySensors & measurement in products
    8 chapters

  • · 52m

    30% More Power, 20% Lower Costs: Scott Graybeal on Solar’s Step-Change Moment

    Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux, explains how the company is commercializing perovskite solar technology by depositing a thin 'active glass' layer onto conventional silicon modules to achieve 30–40% higher power output. He details the tandem cell architecture that splits the light spectrum to improve efficiency, the company's manufacturing roadmap scaling to 100 MW, and the strategic decision to partner with incumbent module manufacturers rather than building a full module factory. Graybeal also discusses the economic impact of lower levelized cost of energy, the shift away from China-centric manufacturing due to lower capital requirements, and the future potential of flexible, printed solar applications.

    Materials & manufacturing processesScaling production
    6 chapters

  • · 51m

    How AI Is Unlocking Geothermal Power at Scale with Joel Edwards

    Joel Edwards, CTO and co-founder of Zanskar, explains how the company uses AI and geoscience to locate hidden conventional geothermal reservoirs, reducing exploration costs by up to 90%. Edwards details Zanskar's 'flywheel' process of training physics-constrained models on satellite and field data to predict hotspot locations, avoiding the high subsurface risk that stalled the industry after oil majors exited in the 1980s. He highlights the success of their Lightning Dock project in New Mexico, where AI-driven reservoir modeling identified a highly productive well that maxed out the plant's capacity, and outlines Zanskar's goal to reach one gigawatt of installed capacity within ten years.

    Energy & climate techAI & machine learning
    9 chapters

  • · 51m

    Commercial Fusion Has Started: How Helion Is Bringing Power to the Grid by 2028

    Anthony Pancotti, co-founder and Head of R&D at Helion Energy, explains the company's mass-manufacturable approach to commercial fusion, targeting a 2028 grid connection via a landmark power purchase agreement with Microsoft. He details how Helion’s use of deuterium and helium-3 fuel, combined with direct energy recovery, eliminates the need for steam turbines, enabling an assembly-line production model for power plants like Orion. The conversation covers the engineering challenges of high-field pulsed magnets, the regulatory framework established with the Washington State Health Department, and the strategic supply chain decisions to avoid rare earth metals.

    Energy & climate techMechanical engineering
    9 chapters

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