Since we stopped The Carbon Copy, some listeners had questions about what’s next. Here's a preview of our new podcast, the Transition-AI event in December, and a new newsletter called the AI-Energy Nexus. Stay tuned to the feed for our new show, dropping later this fall!

Dynamic pricing is everywhere – and impacts all of us. Whether it's the time of day, your location, or the amount of demand, so many of our decisions are driven by real-time pricing changes. But it's still a relatively new concept in electricity. This week, we're featuring a conversation with Scott Engstrom of GridX and Economist Ahmad Faruqui on the imperative for good rate design – and the consequences of getting it wrong. How do we create dynamic rates that are fair, transparent, and effective at valuing distributed resources? And how do we use technology to design and implement those rates – and perhaps eventually automate them on a real-time basis, as many hope? This episode was recorded live as part of our Frontier Forum series. Watch the full video here.

This week, we have a drop-in episode from our new podcast at Latitude Media: Political Climate. Since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in August 2022, we’ve asked ourselves a big question: could the government and the private sector actually get this sprawling set of climate programs up and running? So far, many would answer “yes.” The IRA has already created over 170,000 jobs and supported $110 billion in new clean energy manufacturing – with a majority of that investment headed to conservative-leaning states. Now, as we head toward November’s presidential election, many Americans are wondering whether a second Trump Administration could unravel much of the work that’s been done. In the first episode of the new season of Political Climate, hosts Julia Pyper, Brandon Hurlbut and Emily Domenech take stock of the IRA: they discuss how it’s been received politically, the roadblocks facing implementation, and look toward the different scenarios that could unfold after the election. The show wraps up with our brand-new segment, “The Mark-up.”  Subscribe to Latitude Media’s newsletter to get weekly updates on tech, markets, policy, and deals across clean energy and climate tech.

Heat pumps are the hot new thing in climate tech right now. The fastest way we can slash emissions out of the economy is to electrify as much as possible. And the fastest way to electrify is to deploy heat pumps. If we want to decarbonize our homes quickly, we need to start replacing existing HVAC systems. A good place to start: installing heat pumps instead of conventional central air conditioners. Turns out, the cost of making a two-way heat pump instead of an air conditioning unit is only a few hundred dollars per unit. What if the government incentivized manufacturers to make the switch? Every minute, 12 central air conditioning units are installed or swapped out at homes across America. That's 18,000 per week. Turning those one-way AC units into two-way heat pumps could help electrify millions of homes every year. A new federal bill could be the answer.  Guests: Nate “the house whisperer” Adams, CEO of HVAC 2.0.  Alexander Gard-Murray, a Political Economist at Brown University's Climate Solutions Lab.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

A version of this episode originally ran on Catalyst w/ Shayle Kann. Stock markets are in decline. Inflation is on the rise. Interest rates are up. Private tech companies are laying off workers. Is this the long-awaited market correction that never quite materialized during the bull market of the last 13 years? And what does it mean for climate tech? In this episode, Shayle talks to Saloni Multani, a partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions and former chief financial officer for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. Shayle and Saloni place the current moment in historical context. They cover the recent wave of low-cost capital that poured into climate tech and the low interest rates that gave renewables an advantage over fossil-fuel investments.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

We’re more than three months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and you don’t have to look far beyond your local gas station to see the global impact – the average price of a gallon of gasoline topped $5 this week.  The conflict has complicated the flow of energy at a time when supply chains were already jumbled up because of COVID. But it’s not just oil. The war is leaving its mark on all kinds of commodities – including the global supplies of minerals and metals. Geopolitical shifts are causing high spikes in prices of lithium and nickel, two key components of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars. But this supply mess could actually be boosting a positive trend in the battery space: Battery recycling.  This week: Batteries are a pillar of the zero-carbon economy. But are they sustainable? And will technical advancements and geopolitical shifts alter the battery-based economy for the better? Guests:  Julian Spector is a Senior Reporter with Canary Media. Check out his latest report on battery recycling. And you can access all of Canary’s recycling week coverage here.   The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

We're presenting a trailer for our newest show from Post Script Media, called Hot Buttons. The demand for sustainability has come for the fashion industry. Christina Binkley, Rachel Kibbe, and Shilla Kim-Parker are here to talk about it. Hot Buttons features weekly observations and lively debate about the future of the fashion industry as it reckons with its impact on the climate, natural resources, and worker rights. It's about the culture of fashion, the high-stakes decisions inside the industry, and how we rethink the very idea of growth. Subscribe to Hot Buttons on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. Episodes drop every Thursday starting June 16.

Five years ago, Puerto Rico's grid was decimated by Hurricane Maria. Out of the destruction, many hoped that Puerto Rico's new grid could be built around solar and batteries – replacing centralized gas, coal, and oil plants connected with remote transmission lines. That’s not how the recovery played out. Today, Puerto Rico still relies heavily on centralized fossil fuels. And the island’s utility is still facing long blackouts and accusations of mismanagement. But a bottom-up movement has emerged supporting tens of thousands of rooftop solar and battery installations. These systems are being installed with minimal support from the government.  Will this distributed energy help make Puerto Rico more resilient? Or will the island lock in more fossil fuels? We'll speak with Canary Media reporter Maria Gallucci, who just got back from a reporting trip there. Read her feature. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

In December 2021, Senator Joe Manchin appeared on Fox News to announce that he would not vote for Joe Biden’s signature climate plan, Build Back Better. The reason he cited? A score given by the Congressional Budget Office. The Congressional Budget Office – or CBO for short – is the most important government agency you’ve never heard of. It acts as a budget referee, giving legislation a score on how it will impact the economy and the federal budget. Senator Chuck Grassley once called the CBO “God” on Capitol Hill. Its scores determine which legislation passes and which legislation dies.  But there’s one big catch. The CBO is systematically leaving out the impacts of climate change and carbon pollution on the economy – and stacking the deck against climate legislation. Lawmakers have the power to change it. Will they? Guests:  Dr. Mark Paul is an assistant professor of economics and environmental studies at New College of Florida. You can read his article about the CBO in Noema.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

In early May, a leaked draft opinion showed that the Supreme Court could soon overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. So what does abortion access have to do with climate change? This week, we explore the link between heat, pollution, and reproductive justice. In recent years, a strong and growing body of research shows that exposure to pollution and extreme heat increases the risk of stillbirth and preterm birth, particularly among Black parents. And restricted abortion access in a post-Roe America could further increase health risks and potential for criminalization. We spoke to one of the pioneering researchers in this field to understand the link between exposure to heat and pollution and adverse birth outcomes – and what can be done to solve it.  Guests:  Alexandria Herr is a producer on our show. You can find her Atmos article on climate change and high risk pregnancy here. Eve Andrews is a staff writer at Grist. You can find her article with Naveena Sadasivam on pregnancy in pollution hot spots here. Dr. Rupa Basu is the chief of the air and climate epidemiology section at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

We have a bonus episode from our friends at Drilled.  The sixth season of Drilled is all about the natural gas industry. In the last decade, the climate movement has begun to reject the idea of natural gas as a "bridge fuel.” As that story has become tougher to sell, the gas industry has shifted from greenwashing to all-out war with environmentalists.  The latest season of Drilled traces that shift, starting with the first gas ban proposed in Southern California and ending with the industry leveraging Russia's invasion of Ukraine to its benefit.  In this episode, we head to the college town of San Luis Obispo, California, where in April 2020 mayor Heidi Hartman announced a plan to become the first city in Southern California to ban gas in new buildings. The region's utility SoCal Gas – the largest gas utility in the country – sprung into action, threatening among other things to bus in large numbers of protestors to crowd the town and city hall, just as the pandemic was taking hold in the U.S. Listen to Drilled anywhere you get podcasts.

Across California, oil wells pepper residential neighborhoods – often directly next to homes, schools, and businesses.  These residential wells have been linked to a host of health problems, from asthma to cancer. And these problems disproportionately affect California’s communities of color.  This week, producer Alexandria Herr goes on a crusade to prove that California is not the green state that everybody thinks it is.  We’ll explore hidden oil wells, the history of redlining, and the oil boom during World War II, to understand why residential drilling in California looks the way it does today.  Guests: Dr. David Gonzalez is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.  Dr. Sarah Elkind is the president of the American Society for Environmental History.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

A couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk offered around $44 billion to buy Twitter. A few days later, the CEO of the world’s biggest electric car company became the owner of one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.  When news of the deal hit, investors got a little spooked. The share price of Tesla dropped by nearly 20% over the following week. Many industry observers began to wonder whether this was going to pose a major problem for the company. Among them was climate reporter David Ferris. Although many may regard these dramatic moves as simply part of the cost of investing in Musk’s company, David thinks this latest gambit unleashes a whole new set of financial, reputational and strategic risks. This week on The Carbon Copy: Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has alarmed investors and consumers. Will his new shiny toy distract from Tesla’s mission-critical work? Guest: David Ferris is an energy and environment reporter at E&E News. You can read his recent reporting on Musk’s purchase here. We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world — with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nex​track​er​.com/​s​u​s​t​a​i​n​a​b​ility to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scale​cap​i​tal​so​lu​tions​.com to learn more.

AI is suddenly in use everywhere – and it’s headed for the power sector.  New research from Latitude Intelligence and Indigo Advisory Group shows a coming wave of AI integration, inside and outside of utilities.  Distributed energy companies are increasingly integrating AI into their products, and many power companies are building teams to take advantage of automation for operational efficiency and grid monitoring.  But adoption will be uneven – and an autonomous superbrain for the electric grid may never fully materialize.  In this episode, we’ll break down the pathways for AI on the electric grid, and test the market knowledge of a few leaders in this space. We’re joined by David Groarke, who led the research for Latitude Intelligence on AI adoption; Sadia Raveendran, VP of industry solutions at Uplight; and Apoorv Bhargava, CEO and co-founder of WeaveGrid. We’ll look at the influx of EVs, the rise of virtual power plants, and the growth in peak demand and ask: where is artificial intelligence and machine learning helping? Are growing concerns over AI’s power demand justified? Join us for our upcoming Transition-AI event featuring three experts with a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this live, virtual event on May 8.

A couple weeks ago, Canary Media’s Eric Wesoff found himself in the parking lot of a company called Auxin Solar.  Auxin is a small American solar panel maker based in California. It manufacturers 150 megawatts of solar panels a year – 100 times less than the biggest solar manufacturers. Despite its size, Auxin Solar just filed a petition with the U.S. government that could shake up the solar industry in a big way. Auxin claims China is dodging U.S. tariffs by funneling products through other Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. And it wants the government to step in. And the complaint is already derailing large-scale solar projects. This week: how a solar trade war spanning three presidents is causing problems for a domestic solar market that relies heavily on overseas panels.  Guest: Eric Wesoff is the editorial director for Canary Media. You can read his piece about Auxin Solar’s petition here. We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

Bitcoin mining today uses a half percent of the world's electricity. Every year, as more shipping containers and warehouses full of high-powered computers are deployed to unlock more bitcoin, energy use grows by double digits. As bitcoin mining operations scramble to find new power sources, they’re often turning to aging coal or fossil gas plants that offer cheap electricity. This week, we’ll take you to Seneca Lake, upstate New York, where a group of unlikely activists is fighting back against a “zombie” power plant that is now fueling a Bitcoin mine.  What’s happening in Seneca Lake is not a one-off story. Across the nation, the companies that own dying, dirty power plants see cryptocurrency as a chance to extend their lives. Bitcoin mining is locking in fossil fuels – so what can we do about it? Guests: Brian Kahn is the climate editor at Protocol. You can read his piece about the Greenidge power plant here. We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

In 1973, when Arab countries cut off petroleum exports to the US, the price of oil quadrupled. People couldn't get access to gasoline. The economy shrunk.  The Arab oil embargo was framed almost entirely as a supply problem. But a few years later, a 28-year-old physicist named Amory Lovins published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine that completely shifted how we framed the issue.  Nearly a half century later, we revisit Amory’s writing in the face of another global energy security crisis. Fossil fuel prices have spiked to record highs as a result of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. Countries are now racing to stop buying Russian oil & gas as quickly as possible. This week: Amory Lovins explains the profound changes taking place in the global energy system – and how Russia's war will accelerate them. Guests: Amory Lovins, co-founder and chairman emeritus at RMI. Read his latest piece on how Russia’s war could accelerate the clean energy transition. We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more. The Carbon Copy is supported by Scale Microgrid Solutions, your comprehensive source for all distributed energy financing. Distributed generation can be complex. Scale makes financing it easy. Visit scalecapitalsolutions.com to learn more.

Support strong climate journalism! Donate to Canary Media to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Public companies have a legal obligation to report a wide range of information on financial performance and competitive risks. One risk they are not required to mention in corporate America: climate risk. But that changed last week when America’s top financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, released a new proposal requiring companies to disclose their financial vulnerabilities to climate change.  This move toward greater corporate climate accountability in the U.S. builds on years of momentum. It’s the culmination of voluntary task forces, initiatives and mandatory disclosure regulations passed in other countries.  This week: How a historic proposal mandating climate transparency could change corporate America – and how it will face political and legal backlash. Guests: Kathleen Brophy, U.S. climate finance senior strategist with The Sunrise Project.  We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Nextracker. Nextracker’s technology platform has delivered more than 50 gigawatts of zero-emission solar power plants across the globe. Nextracker is developing a data-driven framework to become the most sustainable solar tracker company in the world – with a focus on a truly transparent supply chain. Visit nextracker.com/sustainability to learn more.

We want to hear from you! Take our quick survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. This will help us bring you more relevant content. In January, fire tore through a major affordable housing development in the Bronx, killing 19 people. Officials were quick to blame the Twin Parks North West fire on a space heater and broken fire door. But the root cause of the fire runs much deeper.  America has an energy insecurity crisis. A third of U.S. households have trouble paying their energy bills, with energy costs falling most heavily on communities of color. Black households, in particular, spend 43 percent more on energy than white households; Hispanic households spend 20 percent more. These inequities stem from a long history of racist housing policies and disinvestment in public housing.  When people struggle to make ends meet, they resort to stopgap measures to get by. For residents of affordable housing developments like Twin Parks North West, that often means turning to space heaters to keep warm in the winter.  This week: The deadly consequences of America’s energy divide, and how we can solve it.  Guests: Dr. Diana Hernández is an associate professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. You can read her op-ed on the fire’s root causes here.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a branded episode, produced in collaboration with Intersect Power. Sheldon Kimber has spent the last 20 years developing energy projects. He’s overseen the build-out of billions of dollars worth of large-scale solar plants. Getting those solar projects in the ground wasn't easy. Abrupt national policy shifts, international trade wars, and local regulatory hurdles made every megawatt a fight. The stunning price drops in wind and solar weren't inevitable. But they were predictable – partly because people like Sheldon were building renewable power plants at a consistent pace.  Today, all that cheap renewable power is opening up opportunities in other areas of the economy. And as CEO of Intersect Power, Sheldon is building a portfolio of massive solar and battery projects that can enable predictable cost drops for other low-carbon solutions. In this episode, produced in collaboration with Intersect Power, Stephen Lacey talks with Sheldon Kimber about his vision for the inevitable industries that will arise from low-cost clean electricity. Read Sheldon’s article on the “nexus of deep decarbonization.” Intersect Power is a clean energy company bringing innovative and scalable low-carbon solutions to customers in retail and wholesale energy markets. Learn more about Intersect's projects and business model.

Climate researchers are increasingly using the term “maladaptation” to describe adaptation measures that bring unforeseen negative consequences to local communities. From building levees that inadvertently increased flood risk in Bangladesh to a hydroelectric dam that cut off land access in Vietnam, examples of maladaptation are popping up all over the world.  In the U.S., Miami has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in stormwater pumps and elevated roads to combat flooding from rising seas. And it will need to invest billions more to save the city from chronic flooding. But the UN report says those early investments might have caused unintended impacts.  This week: the story of how Miami’s flood investments might be leading to maladaptation – and what other cities around the world can learn from it.  Guests: Alex Harris, climate change reporter for the Miami Herald; and Lisa Schipper, IPPC report author, and an environmental social science research fellow at the University of Oxford. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

President Biden entered the White House promising to use climate solutions as his main tool for raising wages, revitalizing infrastructure, and tackling inequality. But almost overnight, that framing changed from transforming the American economy to protecting consumers. Gasoline prices are at their highest levels in US history because of supply disruptions caused by Russia's attack on Ukraine. And Biden’s latest decision to ban Russian oil reflects the shifting mood in Washington. A geopolitical crisis is transforming the domestic conversation around energy in Washington. Security is the new lens.  How will it impact Biden's narrow chance to do something ambitious on climate change? Guest: Maxine Joselow, a Washington Post journalist who anchors the Climate 202 Newsletter. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The civilian and military death toll from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is growing daily. More than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries in the fastest refugee migration since WWII.   But the effects of this war aren’t just humanitarian; they’re economic. That’s because so much of it is tied up in global energy flows. Russia is one of the biggest fossil fuel producers in the world. Europe depends on Russia for 40% of its gas for heating and one quarter of its oil.  And since Russia is such a major exporter of oil and gas, its military actions are putting new pressures on a global supply chain already hurt by tight energy supplies driven by COVID-19 disruptions.  Europe, along with the rest of the world, is being forced to consider what a future without Russia’s fossil fuels could look like. This week: a conversation with two experts watching the energy market’s impacts around the world.  Guests: Pierre Noël, Global Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy and Amy Myers Jaffe, Research Professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Six out of seven car commercials during this year’s Superbowl touted electric vehicles (EVs). That’s up from zero EV ads just four years ago.  Ford, Chevy, GMC and Toyota are all betting big on electric, and they’re hoping electric models of their most popular light-duty trucks will entice a whole new class of drivers. It’s led many car manufacturers and analysts to call 2022 “The Year of the Electric Truck.” The question remains: will this big push toward electric overcome infrastructure shortcomings, battery range concerns and a deeply-ingrained diesel car culture, especially in rural areas?  This week: a conversation with a driver and a dealer about how the electric truck revolution might play out.  Guests: Christopher Preston, Professor of Environmental Philosophy at the University Of Montana; and Whitney Olson, Vice President of Bison Ford in Great Falls, Montana. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

John O’Donnell co-founded and ran two solar thermal companies. He watched as the technology shifted from being the most promising utility-scale solar technology, to getting out-competed by photovoltaics everywhere. But he stayed passionate about heat. Today, he’s CEO of Rondo Energy, which makes a “heat battery” for industrial applications using bricks, heating coils, and cheap, intermittent renewables. And that cheap PV that made solar thermal so difficult is now a critical input for decarbonizing factories and processing plants. John distills his decade and a half in the solar thermal business to a simple lesson: don't be too innovative. In this episode, we talk with John O’Donnell about the different methods for decarbonizing industrial heat, the use cases for heat batteries, and lessons learned from his days in solar thermal.  Are growing concerns over AI’s power demand justified? Join us for our upcoming Transition-AI event featuring three experts with a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this live, virtual event on May 8.

Climate change is impacting people’s lives across the globe – from mass migrations to resource conflicts. For the US military, it’s become one of the nation’s top security risks.  After years of risk assessments, the military is now talking about how it intends to address those risks. It all culminated in the military’s most ambitious plan to date: A new, comprehensive climate agenda that envisions microgrids on all Army bases, all-electric tactical vehicles, and a net-zero military by 2050.  This week: What does the Army's new net-zero plan reveal about how climate will influence America's national security strategy? Guest: Erin Sikorsky, Director, The Center for Climate and Security. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Note: this is a crossover episode between The Carbon Copy and Columbia Energy Exchange. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is intensifying. President Biden says that Putin could send troops into Ukraine any day. Some NATO countries, including the US, are sending military equipment to Ukraine. But Germany is holding back. And that is partly because of fears over gas supply. Jason Bordoff has been watching the diplomatic dance. And it is closely tied to the geopolitics of energy. It reveals the tricky dynamics between Russia and the rest of Europe. Countries like Germany have invested vast amounts of money in renewables in the hopes of cutting dependence on imported fossil fuels. But they’re still deeply tied to Russia’s gas.  This week on The Carbon Copy: how a clean energy transition might actually strengthen petrostates like Russia, before finally changing who wields the power. Guest: Jason Bordoff, Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy and host of Columbia Energy Exchange.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate-positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

For the first time ever, the Winter Olympic games will rely entirely on artificial snow.  It’s a reality that could become more common as the planet warms. And it has environmental experts concerned.  Nearly 50 million gallons of water are being piped in to serve the Beijing games, possibly setting reserves in this water-stressed region back by hundreds of years. Meanwhile, China says this year's event is the most environmentally-sound winter games ever. But there's no system to track those claims – and some researchers say the Olympic games are actually getting worse for the environment over time. This week on The Carbon Copy: why claims about the sustainability of the Olympics are often greenwashing.  Guest: Christian Shepherd, China Correspondent for The Washington Post. Read his article about the winter games here.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is supported by Atmos Financial. Atmos offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts that only invest in climate-positive assets like renewables, green construction and regenerative agriculture. Modern banking for climate-conscious people. Get an account in minutes at joinatmos.com. The Carbon Copy is also supported by Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Batteries are everywhere. In our electronics, our power tools, our electric grid, and in our cars. And almost all those batteries use a lithium-ion chemistry. To make an all-electric world possible, we're going to need a lot of lithium. Prices are up 400 percent over 2021. And demand is expected to increase fivefold over the next decade. The Imperial Valley in southern California is home to the Salton Sea, a land-locked body of water that contains vast reserves of lithium. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the region the "Saudi Arabia of Lithium." If mined, it could completely reshape the global supply chain. But locals who live near the Salton Sea – a region plagued by unemployment and pollution – worry that the rush to extract the resource won't benefit the people living there.  This week on The Carbon Copy: California has ambitious plans to fuel the global EV boom with the Salton Sea’s lithium. But will the people who need it most get left behind? Guests: Independent reporter Aaron Cantú, who wrote about the Salton Sea’s Lithium industry here. And Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comité Cívico del Valle. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Support for Carbon Copy comes from Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Note: this is a crossover episode between The Big Switch and The Carbon Copy. If you like what you hear, consider subscribing to both. When Covid disrupted the economy and shifted energy use, it sharply brought down economy-wide carbon emissions. Many wondered: would the pandemic-related changes to our energy system help or hurt the path to a net-zero carbon economy? Two years later, we have clearer data: a new report from the Rhodium Group on how emissions from fossil fuels have shifted since the pandemic started. In some cases, they've roared back faster than expected. This week on The Carbon Copy: what the latest emissions data tells us about what has shifted -- and what hasn't -- across America's carbon-dependent economy. Guest: Melissa Lott, Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University and host of The Big Switch.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Support for Carbon Copy comes from Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Note: this is a crossover episode between Volts and The Carbon Copy. If you like what you hear, consider subscribing to both. Pop culture is increasingly grappling with climate change themes. And some of it is appealing to wide audiences. But Hollywood films with climate themes are often dystopic and heavy-handed. They fail to consider the forces causing it right now in nuanced ways. So when David Roberts heard about a new Netflix film last December called Don't Look Up, he figured it would be more of the same. But he was delighted when screenwriter and director Adam McKay flipped the disaster-movie premise. It worked. Don’t Look Up became one of the most popular movies ever on Netflix. And it sparked an overwhelming online response among climate scientists, culture writers, and audiences responding to the angst. This week on The Carbon Copy: a conversation between David Roberts and Adam McKay about the inspiration, themes, and impact of the film. Will it convince Hollywood to approach climate differently?  Guest: David Roberts, founder of the Volts Newsletter & Podcast. Read his review of the film. Listen to the extended version of his interview with Adam McKay. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Support for Carbon Copy comes from Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hawaii wants a carbon-free electric grid by 2045. First, the island of Oahu must replace a major coal plant later this year. But will there be enough renewable energy to fill the gap? This week on The Carbon Copy: we examine the delays that are causing complications with Hawaii’s transition away from coal.  We’re joined by Canary Senior Reporter Julian Spector, who recently traveled to Oahu to investigate the story. Hawaii has long been a nationwide leader in solar development. In 2015, lawmakers crafted a law mandating an all-renewable grid within a few decades. And last year, they passed a bill that would end coal production. As large-scale solar and battery projects like the Kapolei Energy Storage facility break ground, Hawaii is inching closer to a fossil-free grid. But impediments to projects are causing concern that the grid will get dirtier – and maybe less reliable – when the AES coal plant shuts down.  “If things don't go smoothly, it certainly could give fodder to people who say that, it's dangerous to move too fast. That would be an unforced error for the energy transition because, technically there's no reason that this shouldn't work,” explains Julian. Guest: Julian Spector, senior reporter at Canary Media.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Support for Carbon Copy comes from Climate Positive, a podcast from Hannon Armstrong, the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investing in climate solutions. Climate Positive podcast features candid conversations with the leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving our climate positive future. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

President Biden wants to slash America’s carbon emissions by half in a decade. He can’t achieve that goal without passing Build Back Better, a massive social-spending bill that devotes half a trillion dollars to clean energy. Build Back Better would be the biggest American investment in climate technologies and programs ever. The stakes couldn’t be higher. But with a slim Democratic majority in the Senate, a single dissenting vote legislator threatens to derail the bill. And right before Christmas, Senator Joe Manchin declared that he will not vote for it. So are Biden’s climate ambitions dead? Not quite. There’s still hope that Senator Manchin will come around – even if it means another period of intense negotiations. This week: an insider gives an optimistic assessment of how we move ahead with America's most ambitious piece of climate legislation. Guest: Katherine Hamilton, chair of 38 North Solutions. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

Every December, TIME magazine picks an individual or group of people to be the "person of the year."  This year, TIME picked a guy who equally inspires and infuriates: Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk is a culture-shifting CEO who brought the business of climate solutions into the zeitgeist in surprising – and sometimes weird – ways He became the wealthiest person in the world partly because he sold his mission to make climate-positive technologies a reality – even when incumbents and skeptical investors never thought it could happen. But Tesla's history is also filled with failed or missing products – or even outright lies. This week: a brief history of Tesla. Has it lived up to Musk's original vision of building a sustainable energy company to vanquish fossil fuels? Guest: Eric Wesoff, Editorial Director at Canary Media.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

The term “carbon footprint” is everywhere. But it’s not rooted in the environmental movement. It’s rooted in a two-decade corporate marketing campaign created by an oil giant. Mashable Reporter Mark Kaufman recently dug into the backstory of the term. He looked at the history of how companies have used advertising to shift the burden of responsibility for industry pollution away from them, and onto us.  And that brought him to BP, which launched a highly successful marketing campaign around “beyond petroleum” -- and put the carbon footprint at the center.  This week: The story of how that campaign is still fooling us about the real solutions to climate change. Guest: Mark Kaufman, a climate reporter for Mashable. You can read his article about the history behind the carbon footprint here.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

Mark Gurman has been covering Apple since 2009. His reporting career is full of scoops about new products or strategic decisions from inside the company.  His latest scoop in February: Apple is finally shutting down its efforts to build an autonomous electric car. Apple first started exploring an electric car in 2014. At that point, cars had already become computers on wheels, Tesla was scaling mass-market production, and vehicle autonomy was the hottest thing in the tech industry. “It made sense that Apple, which has a massive prowess in manufacturing, an incredible design ethos and a high standard for safety…would try to take a crack at that market,” said Gurman, a chief correspondent at Bloomberg. But after a decade of internal disputes, redesigns, and leadership changes, Apple is officially moving on from cars. “This was a clear admission of failure and admission of a need to disperse some of the resources from that program to other projects at the company,” explained Gurman. In March, Gurman co-authored a piece detailing exactly what happened over the last 10 years of secretive work. This week, we talk with him about the vision, the technological challenges, and ask: what if Apple had just acquired Tesla from the start? This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we’re digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

At the start of the year, a city councilman in Tampa, Florida crafted a resolution for 100% clean energy by 2030. The resolution was non-binding and quite common. Nearly 200 cities around America have vowed to get 100% of their electricity from zero-carbon resources.  But it also included language that would set off a political chain reaction in the state: an aspiration to phase out fossil fuels. It scared the local gas and power utility, Tampa Electric, which used its lobbying power and money to launch a more aggressive counter-strike. And it spawned new Republican legislation that will restrict what cities can do about climate change. This week: what Florida tells us about the new front in the conflict over climate policy across America.  Guest: Grist Reporter Emily Pontecorvo, who co-authored a story about the gas industry’s influence on Florida’s new laws.  The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

In 2019, the Green New Deal became a mobilizing force. Even without federal action, organizers started pushing cities across America to craft their own versions.  One of those cities was Ithaca, New York. Ithaca is making a bold promise: to eliminate all emissions from buildings by 2030.  To make the program a reality, the city needs to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Ithaca's budget is $80 million.  In stepped Luis Aguirre-Torres, the director of sustainability for Ithaca. He found a way to tap private dollars in an unprecedented way to overhaul buildings.  This week: where the money is coming from, and how it could make the Green New Deal a reality in cities across the country. Guests: Ithaca Climate Czar Luis Aguirre-Torres; 38 North Solutions Chair Katherine Hamilton. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

COP26 ended in Glasgow, Scotland last week with a final deal. It established a framework for reporting emissions and trading carbon credits, called on countries to step up their targets next year, and included a mention of fossil fuels for the first time. That mention of a “phase out” of fossil fuels almost killed the deal altogether. In the final moments of the conference, India lobbied to weaken the phrase. Behind the scenes, China and the US supported the change. That created a showdown over the final language that could have prevented passage of the final agreement. This week: what the conflict says about how power is wielded in global climate talks. Guest: Akshat Rathi, a London-based reporter for Bloomberg News. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

When the pandemic shut down the global economy in March of 2020, demand for oil and gas collapsed. It raised questions about whether we'd hit peak demand for petroleum. But things look very different at the end of 2021. Oil and gas prices are now at multi-year highs. And as world leaders gathered for climate talks in Scotland to discuss lowering fossil fuel use, there were calls to increase oil production to stabilize prices -- including from President Joe Biden. This week: why oil is complicating global climate goals and threatening the pandemic recovery.  Guest: Deborah Gordon, a senior principal in the Climate Intelligence Program at RMI. Deborah’s new book is “No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World. The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. The Carbon Copy is brought to you by Oracle. Oracle unlocks the energy of everyone. With the most comprehensive technology solutions and a deep understanding of human behavior, Oracle is putting people at the center of the energy transition. Learn more about Oracle’s vision of making the distributed, people-centered grid a reality: go.oracle.com/energyofeveryone.

Climate change is not a distant science story. It's a story about how everything in our carbon-based economy works -- and how it's getting re-worked. The Carbon Copy is a weekly news analysis show that explains the changing planet through the lens of current events. In each episode, we talk to a journalist, executive, subject expert, practitioner or newsmaker to understand what their story tells us about how the planet is transforming. The show is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

The US green hydrogen industry is at a critical juncture.  After months of input and debate, the government put out draft rules for tax credits at the end of last year – setting strict requirements for matching new, local renewables to hydrogen production. It was hailed by many as a really important step for ensuring that green hydrogen actually lives up to its name. But across the industry, the reaction has been mixed – even among those who want to make the industry as clean as possible.  Maeve Allsup, one of our reporters at Latitude Media, started asking around the industry: how are these rules impacting projects? This week, we have a crossover episode with The Latitude, a podcast that brings you stories from our journalists and columnists reporting at the commercial edge of energy tech, markets, and deals. Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents two features from the pages of Latitude Media on how the US green hydrogen industry is responding to new rules and canceling some projects. Like what you hear? For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter. This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we’re digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

There are many forces that could hold back AI in the power system: computing infrastructure, power availability, regulation, and corporate inertia. The biggest one? Good data.  Utilities and grid operators are awash in data. But getting access to it – or making sense of it – is very difficult.  For a better understanding of how to change that, we turn to someone who spends a lot of his time in the so-called data cloud: Tititaan Palazzi, the head of power and utilities at Snowflake. “Data naturally ends up in different boxes, in different silos. And when you then want to ask questions of the data, it becomes really hard. You can't ask questions across the enterprise,” he explained. In 2018, Palazzi co-founded Myst AI with Pieter Verhoeven, an engineer who built critical demand response applications for the Nest Thermostat. Myst was focused on AI-driven time-series forecasting for the grid.  “In the energy industry, there is a lot of time-series data coming from the grid. At the same time, using AI for forecasting is quite challenging because every time you need to create a new prediction, you need to have the latest data. And so from an engineering perspective, it was quite complicated to do,” said Palazzi. Palazzi and Verhoeven arrived at Snowflake after Myst was acquired by the company last year.  This week, we feature a conversation with Snowflake's Titiaan Palazzi on busting data silos, some early wins for AI in the power sector, and what phase of the transition we're in.  This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we’re digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

Early in her career, Amanda Li worked on many deals in solar and storage as part of a billion-dollar sustainable infrastructure fund. And she discovered a problem that often hinders deployment: the underwriting process is cumbersome and slow. “All of it was in spreadsheets, word documents, emails. When you look at a solar deal, there's a lot of documentation, a lot of counterparties to deal with, and that information needs to be processed somehow. It felt like we were spending a lot of time just trying to process the information,” explained Li. This problem has only grown over time as more distributed assets need financing, and policies like the Inflation Reduction Act support smaller clean energy projects at the community level. These small- to mid-sized projects often require as much diligence and paperwork as much larger deals. So in 2018, Amanda co-founded Banyan Infrastructure, a software platform that simplifies transactions for a wide range of sustainable infrastructure projects – replacing spreadsheets, email, and PDFs with digitized loans and workflows. The company has raised more than $42 million and works with green banks, Wall Street firms, and local lenders to make deals simpler.  “If at every single layer there aren't standards, there aren't connected processes, it's going to move really slowly,” said Li. In this episode, produced in partnership with Banyan Infrastructure, we explore the shifting world of sustainable finance.  Stephen Lacey talks with Banyan COO Amanda Li about solving financial bottlenecks, how the IRA is bringing in new players to the market, and what it will take to unlock trillions of new dollars per year for the energy transition. Banyan Infrastructure is simplifying and accelerating the financing of sustainable infrastructure. Read the company’s white paper on unlocking the full potential of sustainable finance, or request a demo to learn how the software works.

When Brian Janous took charge of Microsoft’s clean energy strategy in 2011, the company’s data center demand was modest. He was measuring new demand in the tens of megawatts. Over the years, that grew to hundreds of megawatts of new demand as hyperscale computing expanded. And then everything changed in the spring of 2023, with the public launch of ChatGPT 3.5, which ran on Microsoft’s data centers. “That was the moment that I realized we were going to need a bigger boat. This is a massive leap in a period of like six months – and the amount of time that it takes to actually build infrastructure was measured in years,” said Janous. Projections show data center energy demand could double in the next couple of years, driven by artificial intelligence. Janous saw the hockey stick growth coming, and he realized the disconnect between how fast AI is moving and how the core input to data centers – electricity supply – is struggling to keep pace. After decades of flat demand, load forecasts are doubling because of data centers, expanding ports, new manufacturing plants supported by the IRA, and electric cars.  Janous recently co-founded a company, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, to help utilities unlock grid capacity with grid-enhancing technologies, batteries, and other flexible resources to meet the onslaught of new demand. He also advises LineVision, a dynamic line rating company that is helping expand transmission capacity. This week: we talk with Janous about why we don't need energy miracles – we need to think creatively about planning, and squeezing more out of the system. This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we’re digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

In the early 2000s, Steve Cotton ran a company serving the fast-growing data center industry with backup battery systems. And when those systems reached the end of their lives, the company monetized kilotons of lead-acid batteries by sending them to recycling facilities – industrial plants that break down and burn the components. “It's very dangerous. You've got lead dust all over the floor. You've got a bunch of people wearing hot suits, literally chucking batteries into high temperature furnaces. And it is not a healthy environment,” said Cotton. Two decades later, the technology has shifted – and lithium-ion batteries are now the dominant form of storage. But recycling hasn't changed a lot. Today, there are two types of dominant battery recycling methods. One is using high heat, similar to the process that Steve witnessed at the lead-acid facilities. The other is giving batteries a chemical bath, in a process known as hydrometallurgy. Both create a lot of waste. Steve saw how big the battery recycling waste problem could become. And in 2015, he invested in a company called Aqua Metals. And he became so convinced by Aqua Metals' novel approach to recycling, he became the CEO. “We're using electricity to drive the process and the electricity itself comes from renewable resources. And that can produce this metal supply chain with a true opportunity to have a net zero environmental impact,” said Cotton. The battery recycling industry is experiencing rapid growth, as companies and countries look to build secure, circular supply chains for critical minerals. In this episode, produced in partnership with Aqua Metals, Steve Cotton sits down with Stephen Lacey to talk about the growing battery waste problem, and the urgency to invest in recycling techniques that don't lock in new sources of waste. This is a partner episode, brought to you by AquaMetals. Aqua Metals is pioneering cleaner and safer battery metals recycling through innovation. The company is building the first sustainable battery recycling operation in North America in Tahoe-Reno. Watch a tour of the company’s pilot facility, and learn more by reading the company’s recyclopedia.

Can a couple trillion dollars feel small? Global investments in the energy transition – from the buildout of factories and power projects to project finance and government debt – hit nearly $1.8 trillion last year.  That’s almost as big as the GDP of South Korea. It’s nearly 20% more than the year before, and nearly eight times more than a decade ago. But even with those record levels of spending, we are astonishingly behind what’s needed to stay on a net-zero trajectory this decade.  This week, we’ll talk about what’s growing, what’s lagging, and what the trillion-dollar scale means at the ground level. Then, geoengineering is nudging closer to the mainstream of scientific and environmental discourse. Are we giving up, or just being realistic? Katherine Hamilton of 38 North and Shalini Ramanathan of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners join us this week to sift through these trends. For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

Some news: this will be our final installment of The Carbon Copy. But don’t go anywhere! Later this fall, the feed will be transformed into a new show that will profile the people architecting the clean energy economy. We promise it will be a valuable part of your media diet. For our last episode, we brought back some old friends: Jigar Shah, director of the DOE’s loan programs office, and Katherine Hamilton, chair of 38 North.  Jigar, Katherine, and Stephen dissect some of the biggest storylines of the year in clean energy business and policy. They’ll tackle AI energy demand, grid constraints, geothermal, nuclear, the demise of California's rooftop solar industry, and America’s green bank. Which trends are overrated, which ones are underrated, and what does it all mean for mass deployment?  The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will provide $27 billion for clean energy projects nationwide, potentially mobilizing up to $150 billion in public and private capital. Join Latitude Media and Banyan Infrastructure on July 18th for an in-depth discussion on how we can deploy these billions with the highest impact. Register for free here.  Make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider’s view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If we want any chance of affordably and reliably building a grid powered 100% by zero-carbon resources, we need to triple the capacity of virtual power plants.  That’s the conclusion of a report released last fall by the Department of Energy, which examined the different business models and integration approaches for tying solar, batteries, thermostats, electric cars, water heaters, and other distributed assets into dispatchable power plants. The US already has tens of gigawatts of VPP capacity, mostly in the form of “bring your own device” programs that harness thermostats or water heaters for demand response services. But there are new models emerging that harness rooftop solar, batteries, and EV charging to enable bigger, longer-lasting load shifts. “I like to say that the term VPP is kind of like the term sandwich. There are lots of different kinds, they're full of different ingredients, and they serve lots of different purposes,” said Jen Downing, an engagement officer at the DOE, who leads the agency’s work on the space.  The concept of VPPs has been around for nearly 30 years. But as the US faces a dramatic increase in peak demand by 2030 – and with distributed resource capacity set to double – the urgency for deploying them has increased. “We're going to need clean, firm [power]. We're going to need more transmission capacity to transport that electricity. But one way to address that increase in peak is to use distributed energy resources to either serve that peak locally or to shift that peak outside of peak hours. And so that's where VPPs come in,” said Downing. This week on The Carbon Copy, we spoke with DOE’s Jen Downing about the different ways that virtual power plants are getting built – and the need to build many more. Read our show notes and all our industry coverage at Latitudemedia.com.

The storage market is full of surprises. Last year, global storage installations were a third higher than expected, driven mostly by Chinese policy to attach batteries to renewables.  Meanwhile, a ramp-up in manufacturing is causing oversupply – and a potential shakeout for smaller battery makers. By 2030, the world could see 1.8 terawatt-hours of storage capacity installed, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  Rapid manufacturing expansion, a shift in chemistries and designs, and increases in duration for grid-connected systems are making battery storage one of the most dynamic sectors of the clean energy economy. “We do have to constantly be reconsidering our assumptions,” said Yayoi Sekine, head of energy storage at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “I think now we're currently in an environment where the industry is actually able to sustain itself in terms of its own battery manufacturing and supply chains. That's a pretty big shift and that's happened very recently.” This week on The Carbon Copy, we feature a conversation with Yayoi Sekine pricing, tech, manufacturing, and deployment trends that are shaping battery storage. Subscribe to Latitude Media’s newsletter to get weekly updates on tech, markets, and deals across clean energy and climate tech.