Energy Empire

Factories and gas pipelines vent heat into the air every day. Captured, that heat can produce clean electricity around the clock.Today, the US gets less than 1 gigawatt of power from waste heat, but Department of Energy estimates put the potential at up to 15 gigawatts, enough to power more than 10 million homes. Other countries already put far more of their waste heat to work.On this episode, Jigar is joined by Janice Tran and Marisa Sweeney. Janice is CEO and co-founder of Kanin Energy, a developer of waste heat to power and other industrial efficiency projects. Marisa is a principal on the Structured Finance team at S2G Investments, which led Kanin’s latest funding round. Both worked with Jigar at Generate Capital.In this episode:How waste heat helped a university ride out a summer of sky-high power pricesWhy Europe has used its waste heat for decades while the US mostly vented itWhat kept American waste heat untapped long after the technology was provenWhy banks would rather finance the 12th waste heat plant than the firstThe high school job at Walmart that came full circle for Janice“We have a goal to be the largest waste heat to power developer in the entire world.”Links:Our website: https://www.energyempire.fm“Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?” by Amory Lovins (Foreign Affairs, 1976): https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1976-10-01/energy-strategy-road-not-takenS2G Investments Structured Finance: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/strategy/structured-financeS2G Investments report: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowdsOctopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faasOur merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

Gas is up more than a dollar a gallon since the Iran war began, and diesel set an all-time record in September. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) says the president’s donors are profiting while everyone else pays more.Smith explains what voters should listen for when a candidate promises to bring energy costs down, and why she voted against a data center bill Republicans are now campaigning on.Part of Energy on the Ballot, our series on energy and the 2026 midterms.In this episode:The heating aid program the White House wants to eliminate, and the St. Paul man it kept in his home“Don’t do data centers the dumb way,” and why nondisclosure agreements make neighbors so angryWhy a senator from a mining state fought a Chilean-owned copper-nickel mine near the Boundary WatersWhat former Fed Chair Jerome Powell predicted about getting a mortgage in 10 or 15 yearsThe campaign word Smith calls “a weird focus group word”Why Smith wants Democrats to show more “boldness” if they win back powerLinks:Our website: https://www.energyempire.fmSen. Smith’s request for a cost estimate of the 2025 tax law’s data center breaks: https://www.smith.senate.gov/u-s-senator-tina-smith-requests-cost-estimate-of-big-beautiful-bills-data-center-tax-incentives/Sen. Smith’s report on the home insurance crisis: https://www.smith.senate.gov/u-s-senator-tina-smith-releases-new-report-on-solutions-to-the-home-insurance-crisis/The Klobuchar-Smith letter on heating aid: https://www.smith.senate.gov/u-s-senators-amy-klobuchar-tina-smith-push-the-trump-administration-to-release-heating-assistance-funds-before-winter/Gov. Spanberger on Making Data Centers Pay Their Fair Share: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/gov-spanberger-on-making-data-centers-pay-their-fair-share-energy-on-the-ballot

In the first half of this year, 86% of U.S. venture money went to AI. Climate venture funds have raised less than $1 billion, down from more than $10 billion in 2021.This week’s guest, Andrew Beebe, is more optimistic than those numbers suggest. The generalist funds that piled into climate a few years ago drove up the price of startups, and now they’ve left. The investors and founders still here understand the market, and he thinks that makes this one of the best times yet to invest.Andrew is a managing director at Obvious Ventures, which Twitter co-founder Ev Williams helped start in 2014. The firm has raised more than $1.3 billion across five main funds. Before joining, Andrew spent more than a decade in solar: his team built the array at Google’s headquarters, and he went on to become chief commercial officer at Suntech, then the world’s largest solar manufacturer.In this episode:Andrew’s don’t-go-there list: battery chemistry, fusion, hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuelContainer ships that could cross the Pacific on battery alone, and how Maersk changed its mindWhy a $200 million business is too small for a venture fund like ObviousWhat Andrew would have told Sheldon Kimber about Google’s offer for IntersectSolar robots that take a four-person crew from 200 panels a day to 900The board that told Andrew he was doing great when he asked to be replaced as CEOLinksOur website: https://www.energyempire.fmSubmit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigarS2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowdsOctopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faasOur merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

About one in three homes and businesses in Australia have solar on the roof. The state governments there made it simple, with incentives, certified installers, and quick approvals. In the U.S., permits and inspections can add weeks or months before a system is switched on.This episode’s guest, Audrey Zibelman, has held top energy jobs in both countries. She chaired New York’s Public Service Commission, then ran Australia’s power grid as CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator.Now she’s back in New York as its energy czar, chairing the board of NYSERDA, the state energy authority. The job comes with some of the highest home electricity prices in the country and a freeze on the biggest new data centers.In this episode:The conservative prime minister who backed Australia’s grid plan with three words: “Electrons don’t vote”How Australia got homeowners to trust a government website to find a solar installerThe adoption rate at which Australia’s government could stop pushing solarWhat Texas figured out about grid connections while other states keep running pilotsWhy utilities build the grid around its 25 worst hours a yearThe case for data centers small enough to fit on the gridLinks:Our website: https://www.energyempire.fmPew’s distributed energy playbook: https://www.pew.org/-/media/assets/2026/04/distributed-energy-can-unleash-the-resilient-affordable-grid-of-the-future.pdfNew York’s data center Community Investment Framework: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-strongest-community-investment-framework-nation-protect-communitiesGov. Spanberger on Making Data Centers Pay Their Fair Share: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/gov-spanberger-on-making-data-centers-pay-their-fair-share-energy-on-the-ballotBalcony Solar Costs $285. Why Is It Still So Hard to Get?: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/balcony-solar-costs-285-why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-get

Demand on ComEd’s grid barely moved from 2009 to 2022. Now the utility expects about 10 gigawatts of data centers to connect by around 2030, against an all-time peak of 23 gigawatts.ComEd’s CEO, Gil Quiniones, wants to connect those data centers without raising everyone else’s bills. Rooftop solar and batteries, which many utilities have fought, are part of his plan.Gil spent 16 years at Con Edison and more than a decade running the New York Power Authority. While he ran the Power Authority, he and Jigar worked on the state’s push to build the grid around energy that customers make and store at home.In Chicago, he’s starting with the families who can least afford their bills. A pilot this winter will put solar and batteries in about 50 of their homes with no money down.Gil thinks the setup could take about $70 off a monthly bill that typically runs $100 to $120.Recorded live at Future Currence during Climate Week NYC.In this episode:How deposits and letters of credit shrank ComEd’s list of serious data center requests from about 18 gigawatts to 10Why Jigar says a data center’s voluntary promise to power down in an emergency isn’t good enoughWhat ComEd has to prove to regulators before it can build a new substationThe 100 hours a year the grid is built for, and what using the rest of the year could do for billsWhether other utilities need a new state law to do what ComEd is doingLinks:Future Currence: https://future.currence.aiComEd: https://www.comed.comThe Untapped Grid (Brattle Group): https://www.brattle.com/the-untapped-grid/Illinois Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act: https://gov-pritzker-newsroom.prezly.com/gov-pritzker-signs-historic-clean-and-reliable-grid-affordability-actMore from Energy Empire:The Cheapest Grid Is the One We Already Paid For: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-cheapest-grid-is-the-one-we-already-paid-forInside California’s Plan to Fix the Utility Business Model with Senator Josh Becker: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/inside-california-s-plan-to-fix-the-utility-business-model-with-senator-josh-beckerNVIDIA on Whether AI Can Fix Its Own Power Problem: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/nvidia-on-whether-ai-can-fix-its-own-power-problem-recorded-live-at-climate-week-nycOur merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products