Energy & climate tech
Product design & engineering
682 episodes across 32 shows cover energy & climate tech. The shows that cover it most are Catalyst, Hardware to Save a Planet and The Amp Hour. The most recent, from 8 Oct 2026, is “The truth about data center water usage” from Catalyst.
Hardware for energy and climate: solar, batteries at grid or home scale, heat pumps, EVs, carbon removal, grid technology.
682 episodes from 32 shows, most relevant and most recent first.
682 episodes
ERCOT batteries: boom, bust, or rebound?
Shayle Kann interviews Brandt Vermillion, U.S. market lead at Modo Energy, about the Texas (ERCOT) grid-scale battery market, which has grown from 200 megawatts to 17 gigawatts, causing revenue to plummet by 84% due to ancillary service…
The rush for clean, on-site power [partner content]
Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer at Bloom Energy, explains how long interconnection queues and grid constraints are driving data centers and industrial customers to adopt permanent, on-site fuel cell power. He details why the…
AMA: Fuel cells, geopolitics, and the solar growth curve
Shayle Kann, host of Catalyst and investor at Energy Impact Partners, discusses the surprising bipartisan backlash to data center growth, noting that local community opposition has moved faster than expected. He highlights Bloom Energy's…
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…
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…
Bonus Episode: Robotics for Sustainability (ERF 2026)
Claire Asher interviews experts at the European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2026 about robotics for sustainability. Anna Gunker discusses bridging the gap between digitalization and green tech funding. Stafford Suznovsky presents Sea Clear 2, a…
Powering the AI Era Sustainably: Breakthrough Climate Hardware Tech from 8 Innovators
Host Dylan Garrett presents a year-end recap of eight innovators building climate hardware to support the massive energy demands of AI data centers. The episode features insights from Arch Rao of Span on managing grid capacity, Anders…
261: Energy Transition Explained: How Manufacturers Can Save Energy and Build a Sustainable Future featuring Veregy’s Eric Spink & Shiva Subramanya
Eric Spink and Shiva Subramanya from Veregy discuss how manufacturers can achieve energy transition goals by focusing on secondary utilities and leveraging performance contracting to bypass capital constraints. They highlight that…
232. Turbine Innovations For A Greener Future [Rerun]
Hosts discuss MIT research on optimizing wind farm output through software that coordinates turbine yaw to reduce wake interference, yielding a 1.2-3% efficiency gain. They then profile Natal Energy, a startup founded by siblings Gia and…
AI Is Getting Hot: Can Additive Manufacturing Help Cool It Down?
Professor PS Lee, founder of CoolestDC and head of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), explains how additive manufacturing (AM) enables complex unibody cold plates that reduce junction temperatures by…
The rise of metal fuels
Richard Wang, co-founder and CEO of Voya Energy, explains how his company is replacing diesel generators with electrochemical generators powered by aluminum pellets. Wang details why diesel remains dominant due to its high energy density…
The commercial battery comeback
Tim Hade, senior vice president at Voltus and founder of Brightfield Infrastructure, explains why commercial and industrial (C&I) battery storage has historically lagged behind residential and utility-scale markets due to unattractive…
Inside the AI power wars
Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros of SemiAnalysis explains that hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Meta are adopting divergent power strategies to address grid interconnection delays, with Google leading in sophistication and Meta pioneering…
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…
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…
Bonus Episode: Restoring marine ecosystems with robots
Niall McGrath, CEO of Robocean, explains how his company uses amphibious robots to restore seagrass meadows, addressing the critical need to scale restoration efforts to meet global climate and biodiversity goals. He details the…
The Geothermal Breakthrough: Heating Homes Smarter, Cheaper, and Cleaner with Dan Yates
Dan Yates, CEO of Dandelion Energy, explains how the company is scaling geothermal heat pumps by partnering with production homebuilders like Lennar to drive down installation costs and eliminate mobilization expenses. He details the…
Powering EVs: Microgrids & DC Charging Solutions
Antonio Di Vaira, Senior VP for Power Products at Schneider Electric, discusses the critical need for grid modernization driven by EV charging and AI data centers. He explains how microgrids and native DC distribution offer efficiency and…
224. Geothermal Could Save the Grid. So Why’s No One Talking About It?
The hosts discuss Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), a technology leveraging advanced oil and gas drilling techniques to generate baseload power from hot rock anywhere, potentially supplying 20% of US energy by 2050. They analyze specific…
Aligning Passion With Purpose: A Journey to Electrification and Sustainability
Dr. Mital Kanabar, Senior Director of Innovation at GE Vernova, discusses the 'energy trilemma' of security, affordability, and sustainability as power demand surges from EVs and AI data centers. He explains how GE Vernova's GridBeats…
Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering
Yanai Yedvab, CEO and co-founder of Stardust Solutions, explains the company's proprietary solar radiation management (SRM) technology, which uses biodegradable amorphous silica and calcite particles instead of toxic sulfuric acid to cool…
Enter the electric supercycle
Andy Lubershane, head of research at Energy Impact Partners, explains the 'electric supercycle'—a series of interlocking technological flywheels involving solar PV, lithium-ion batteries, EVs, and wide-bandgap power electronics that are…
Surprising trends in global electricity generation
Nic Fulghum, a senior energy and climate data analyst at Ember, discusses findings from Ember’s Global Electricity Review, highlighting that solar generation grew by 30% year-over-year in 2025, maintaining exponential growth despite market…
Onshore Wave Energy: 90% Availability, Transforming Renewable Power Generation
Inna Braverman, founder and CEO of Eco Wave Power, explains how her company is commercializing wave energy by attaching floaters to existing onshore coastal infrastructure like breakwaters and jetties, avoiding the high costs and…
Cryo-Compressed Hydrogen: Solving America’s 50 GW Diesel Generator Problem
Ted McKlveen, co-founder and CEO of Verne, explains how his company’s cryo-compressed hydrogen technology offers a cost-effective alternative to diesel generators for data centers and remote sites. He details the engineering challenges of…
Building a decarbonization army with Shashank Samala of Heirloom
Shashank Samala, co-founder and CEO of Heirloom, explains how his company built North America’s first operational direct air capture facility in Tracy, California, using a novel limestone-based process to remove CO2 from the atmosphere…
70% Emissions Cut by Electrifying Trailers: The Green Future of Trucking
Jason Chua, Chief Product Officer at Range Energy, explains how their Volton retrofit kit reduces Class 8 diesel truck emissions by 70% without replacing existing tractors. The system integrates a battery pack (2-300 kWh), an electric…
242: Industrial History and the Low-Carbon Economy of the Future with Ted Fertik, VP of Manufacturing & Industrial Policy at BlueGreen Alliance
Ted Fertik, VP of Manufacturing & Industrial Policy at the BlueGreen Alliance, discusses the intersection of industrial history, policy, and the low-carbon economy. He draws on his PhD in economic history to analyze past industrial…
Unlocking the renewable energy revolution with Ramya Swaminathan of Malta Inc.
Ramya Swaminathan, CEO of Malta Inc., explains how her company uses molten salt to provide low-cost, long-duration energy storage for the grid, spinning out of Google X in 2018. She details the technical advantages of thermal storage over…
197. This Smart Charger = More EVs
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a smart charging algorithm that optimizes EV charging times to reduce grid stress, lower costs, and prioritize renewable energy sources. The system considers grid load, electricity pricing, household…
A blueprint for scalable fusion power
Carrie von Muench, COO of Pacific Fusion, explains the company's strategy for scalable inertial fusion power using modular, commodity-based drivers to achieve net facility gain by 2030. She details the technical distinction between the…
Inside Google’s massive AI capex (live)
Amin Vahdat, Google’s chief technologist for AI infrastructure, explains how Google is shifting from training to inference, enabling smaller, distributed data centers and lowering reliability requirements to double compute capacity. He…
Building a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain
Scott Nolan, CEO of General Matter, explains the five-step nuclear fuel supply chain, highlighting enrichment as the critical bottleneck where the US relies heavily on European and Russian sources. He details the distinction between Low…
Decarbonizing Heavy Industry: Antora Energy’s 2400°C Thermal Batteries
Nehali Jain, Chief of Staff at Antora Energy, explains how the company uses thermal batteries to store renewable electricity as heat in carbon blocks reaching 2,400°C for decarbonizing heavy industry. She details the choice of abundant…
Igniting the Future: Fusion Power and the Road to Clean Energy with Scott Mercer
Scott Mercer, Founder and CEO of Focused Energy, explains how his company is commercializing laser-driven nuclear fusion by leveraging the scientific proof of ignition achieved at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition…
Managing Energy At The Edge: Navigating The Modern Grid With Itron
Nick Tumilowicz, Director of Product Management at Itron, discusses the challenges of managing the aging electrical grid amid the energy transition, focusing on transformer capacity limits and the shift to underground infrastructure. He…
Stratospheric Mirrors from Aerosol Injections: Make Sunsets' Approach to Cooling Earth
Luke Iseman, founder of Make Sunsets, explains his company's approach to stratospheric aerosol injection by launching biodegradable balloons filled with sulfur dioxide to reflect sunlight and cool the planet. He details the hardware…
Powering the World: Unlocking Grid Capacity with Heimdall Power
Jorgen Festervoll, CEO of Heimdall Power, explains how his company uses dynamic line rating technology to unlock 30-40% more capacity on existing power grids by monitoring line temperature and sag in real-time. He details the deployment of…
187. Turning Scrap Soda Cans & Coffee To Sustainable Car Fuel
Hosts Daniel and Forbode discuss a breakthrough by MIT engineers who developed a method to produce hydrogen fuel using recycled aluminum from soda cans, seawater, and caffeine from coffee grounds. They explain how this process overcomes…
ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, explains how his company is building the world's largest direct air capture facility, the Orca plant in Iceland, which removes 4,000 tons of CO2 annually. He details the technology's…
The state and future of nuclear waste
Dr. Jen Shafer, a former ARPA-E director and professor at the Colorado School of Mines, explains the composition of spent nuclear fuel, noting that 95% is unreacted uranium dioxide while the remaining 5% contains long-lived actinides and…
AI scaling pathways: on grid, on edge, off grid, off planet
Jake Elder, Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation at Energy Impact Partners, joins host Shayle Kann to evaluate four pathways for scaling AI compute infrastructure: grid-connected, edge, off-grid, and orbital. They analyze the…
Digging deep for super hot geothermal
Carlos Araque, founder and CEO of Quaise Energy, explains the company's approach to super hot geothermal energy using millimeter-wave drilling technology to reach depths of up to 12 miles and temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit. He…
Storing Clean Energy with Air & Water: Hydrostor’s Game-Changing Tech
Curtis VanWalleghem, Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrostor, explains how his company uses compressed air energy storage in underground caverns to provide long-duration grid stability. He details the engineering of the system, including thermal…
11 Climate Hardware Companies Saving Our Planet in 2025
Host Dylan Garrett reviews 11 climate hardware companies scaling their solutions, featuring Alan Adams of Aquatic Labs on ocean carbon measurement, Scott of Focused Energy on nuclear fusion, and Luke of Make Sunsets on solar radiation…
S5E13 Paul Lee | Cities of the Future & Renewable Energy
Paul Lee, a renewable energy engineer transitioning from the City of Los Angeles to the US Department of Energy, discusses his role in the ASCE documentary 'Cities of the Future.' He details emerging technologies featured in the film…
The Deep Tech Revolution: Solving Climate Change with Five Industry Leaders
Host Dylan Garrett moderates a panel at New York Climate Week featuring Colin Campbell of Cambridge Consultants, Trudy Wang of Hala Technologies, Lisa Hansmann of Engine Ventures, Kate Kelly of Avalanche Energy, and Catherine Mizrahi…
167. How Hydrogen Will Replace Batteries
Daniel and Forbode discuss research from EPFL on using ammonia as a stable carrier for hydrogen, addressing the storage and transport challenges of pure hydrogen. They highlight a new catalyst developed by an EPFL researcher that reduces…
A Brief History of Nuclear Energy: From Destruction To Powering AI #23
The host of the Hard Tech Podcast outlines the history of nuclear energy, starting with Eisenhower's 1953 Atoms for Peace program and the 1957 operation of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station. He details the 1979 Three Mile Island…
HIBT Lab! Universal Hydrogen: Paul Eremenko
Paul Eremenko, co-founder and CEO of Universal Hydrogen, explains his company's strategy to decarbonize aviation by replacing jet fuel with green hydrogen. He details the technical and logistical challenges of hydrogen, including its low…