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Catalyst with Shayle Kann

Catalyst with Shayle Kann
Author: Latitude Media
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Investor Shayle Kann is asking big questions about how to decarbonize the planet: How cheap can clean energy get? Will artificial intelligence speed up climate solutions? Where is the smart money going into climate technologies? Every week on Catalyst, Shayle explains the world of climate tech with prominent experts, investors, researchers, and executives. Produced by Latitude Media.
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Yesterday, Base Power announced a $1 billion series C, giving the residential battery company an eye-popping $4 billion post-money valuation. Base manufactures, installs, owns, and operates residential batteries — a vertical integration strategy that CEO Zach Dell says is the “magic” to beating utility-scale batteries on CapEx. The company also acts as an electricity retailer and sells generation capacity.
So how does Base’s business model work? And what will it do with its new fundraise?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Zach about Base’s business model, the vertical integration strategy, and the challenges ahead. They cover topics like:
The customer value proposition: how customers pay for backup power and Base uses the batteries for grid services
Bases’s “gentailer” business model in ERCOT, earning revenue from monthly customer fees, retail electricity sales, and battery arbitrage
The regulated market approach, where Base sells capacity directly to utilities
Base’s vertical integration strategy: from ground-mounted designs to decoupled installation processes
Challenges like managing a fixed workforce amid fluctuating demand and the declining price volatility in ERCOT
Resources:
New York Times: Base Power, a Battery-Focused Power Company, Raises $1 Billion
Open Circuit: Is this moment for distributed energy different?
Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.
After the failure of federal climate legislation in 2010, clean energy advocates realized they had to look elsewhere for momentum. The result was a shift toward states and regional markets — and the creation of Advanced Energy United, a trade group built to make policy progress outside of Washington.
Today, that strategy is more important than ever. With the federal government rolling out new regulatory hurdles, load growth accelerating, and an affordability crisis growing, states have become critical for industry growth.
In this episode, Heather O’Neill, the CEO of Advanced Energy United, talks about a new playbook for scaling clean energy in this environment. The framework: build it, make it flexible, and make it affordable.
That means removing red tape for new projects, unlocking more value from existing infrastructure through tools like virtual power plants and advanced transmission technologies, and ensuring affordability as utilities make massive investment decisions.
“States are where some of our most forward-looking and politically resilient clean energy policies have been developed,” said O’Neill. “And that’s where the opportunities are today.”
This week, we feature an edited version of our recent Frontier Forum with Heather about how states are shaping the clean energy transition, and how companies can use United’s new playbook to grow the market.
You can download United’s new playbook guide here, and watch the full Frontier Forum conversation with live audience Q&A at Latitude Media.
Demand response was the original distributed energy resource. In its early days, it was surprisingly manual: a grid operator would call up a large load, like a factory, and request a few hours of reduced demand during peak times.
Fast forward to today and DERs look dramatically different. They’re automated, deployed frequently across the country, and include everything from EVs and thermostats to sophisticated management systems at paper mills and data centers.
So how did DERs evolve from phone calls to fully fledged virtual power plants? And what role do they play now as electricity demand surges?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of DER and VPP developer Voltus. She is also the former director of energy markets at EnerNOC, a pioneer in demand response. Shayle and Dana cover topics like:
The changing mix of customers and resources, as well as the evolving use cases
Voltus’ new “Bring Your Own Capacity” model, allowing large loads like data centers to fund regional VPPs
The barriers that hold DERs back, like access to data
The market forces shaping DER adoption, including load growth, declining system costs, and market structures
How DERs stack up against conventional power plants in meeting rising demand
Resources:
Open Circuit: The grid flexibility solutions staring us in the face
Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?
Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth
Catalyst: PJM and the capacity crunch
Latitude Media: Google expands demand response to target machine learning workloads
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.
Agricultural byproducts like corn stover, wood chips, and soybean husks typically get left to decompose and release carbon dioxide. Don’t call them “waste” though; some farmers use these byproducts as field cover to improve soil health. And industry uses a fraction of this biomass as feedstock for valuable products like ethanol, electricity, and heat. Theoretically, it’s a vastly underutilized resource.
The problem is that agricultural residue is really hard to collect. The economics of gathering, sorting, processing, and refining are tough. On top of that, it makes for a crappy fuel. It’s low energy density and high carbon, compared to oil, for example.
So in what applications does agricultural residue make the most sense? And how do you economically collect the material at scale?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and CEO of Charm Industrial, a carbon removal startup that collects agricultural residue and refines it in the field into what it calls “bio-oil.” It then injects the bio-oil underground for sequestration. Together, Peter and Shayle discuss the use cases and collection of agricultural residue, covering topics like:
How the difficult economics of collecting and transporting biomass have killed centralized biomass projects, except in a few niche examples
Why Peter says the processing and densification are key to improving the economics
The tradeoffs between big, centralized processing facilities and Charm’s on-field mobile pyrolysis units
The case for using agricultural residue for applications where the carbon content matters, like iron-making, sustainable aviation fuel, and carbon removal
What’s driving carbon removal buyers and what it takes to build trust with them
Resources:
Catalyst: Fuzzy math and food competition: The pitfalls of sourcing biomass for carbon removal
Open Circuit: What we learned from the ethanol disaster
Catalyst: Shopify’s head of sustainability on the realities of the carbon removal market
Catalyst: From biowaste to ‘biogold’
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
A decade ago, DERs were hot. The hype was that things like batteries, smart devices, and other distributed energy technologies would offset the need for expanding traditional grid infrastructure.
But DERs never took off, at least not at the scale that many hoped for. They had high price tags and short track records compared to the existing substations, transmission lines, and generation options that utilities were familiar with. In short, the market didn’t need them yet.
Fast forward 10 years, and things have changed. Load growth is increasing while major grid bottlenecks — like in transmission, interconnection, and supply chains — may be opening up a new opportunity.
So is the time finally right for DERs?
In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research at Energy Impact Partners. Last week, Andy published a blog post making the case that DERs were a good idea that was just too early, but the market is ready now. Shayle and Andy cover topics like:
What held DERs back a decade ago
Why now is different, including falling system costs and growing grid bottlenecks
The difference between demand response and virtual power plants
The potential hurdles to scale, like supply chain bottlenecks, foreign entity of concern regulations, and fire codes
Resources:
Latitude Media: Can distributed energy answer AI’s power problem?
Open Circuit: The grid flexibility solutions staring us in the face
Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
The idea of colocating data centers with behind-the-meter generation is picking up steam, including large projects in Memphis, Texas, and Utah developing significant on-site capacity, mostly from combined-cycle gas plants. The main argument is speed to power. Building your own generation allows data centers to sidestep the challenges involved in grid upgrades, transmission, and permitting.
But when does a good idea jump the shark?
In this episode, Shayle brings Brian Janous back on the show to talk about why a data center might not want to colocate generation. Brian is co-founder and chief commercial officer at data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. He makes the case for relying on alternatives instead, like batteries, grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), advanced conductors, and a range of other non-generation options to take advantage of untapped capacity in the existing grid. Shayle and Brian cover topics like:
Whether 24/7 loads actually needs 24/7 power and why utilities solve for peaks, not 24/7 needs
The constraints of colocation, including gas constraints, added complexity and cost, and permitting challenges
The complexity of multiple-party solutions involving VPPs, GETs, and other alternatives vs. the relative simplicity of single-party generation
Why both Shayle and Brian are skeptical of on-site nuclear
Resources:
Catalyst: The case for colocating data centers and generation
Latitude Media: AEP, Dominion argue there’s no such thing as ‘isolated’ colocation for data centers
Catalyst: Explaining the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’
Catalyst: The potential for flexible data centers
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
You sent in great questions, and today we’re answering them. In this episode, Shayle hands it over to Lara Pierpoint, the managing director of Trellis Climate at the Prime Coalition and host of The Green Blueprint. Together they cover topics like:
Whether solar radiation management will remain the “black sheep” of climate technologies
What technologies will excel in a world of rising power prices
Whether the nuclear renaissance is finally here
Why Lara and Shayle are more bullish on vehicle-to-home than V2G
The thorny plastics problem – and whether it’s core to climate change
Resources:
Catalyst: Solar geoengineering: Is it worth the risk?
Latitude Media: Google, Kairos, and TVA ink historic next-generation nuclear deal
Catalyst: The US power demand surge: The electricity gauntlet has arrived
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Adding flexibility to data center loads could ease strain on the grid and reduce the need for costly new generation. And, according to one study, shaving off just a few megawatts during peak hours could also unlock unused capacity —as many as 98 gigawatts in the U.S — if those facilities reduced load by just 0.5% each year.
The problem: data centers promise near-perfect reliability, often “five nines” (99.999% uptime) in service-level agreements with customers. That leaves little room to adjust something as critical to reliability as power.
But times are changing. The data center market is reckoning with the constraints of the power grid and growing concern about pushing up electricity prices to pay for new generation. In July, the Electric Power Resource Institute’s DCFlex demonstration at an Oracle data center in Phoenix, Arizona, reduced load 25% during peak demand. And this month Google expanded its demand response through two new agreements with Michigan Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
So what are the actual mechanics of data center flexibility?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO of Emerald AI. The startup’s data center flexibility platform powered EPRI’s DCFlex demonstration. Shayle and Varun cover topics like:
What people often misunderstand about how much of their nameplate capacity data centers actually use
The distinct load profiles of training, inference, and other workloads
How data centers can pause, slow, or shift workloads in time or space to reduce demand
What it will take for flexibility solutions like Emerald AI to earn operator trust
How much flexibility data centers can realistically achieve
Varun’s long-term vision for evolving from occasional demand response to weekly or even daily load shifting
Resources:
Latitude Media: Nvidia and Oracle tapped this startup to flex a Phoenix data center
Latitude Media: Google expands demand response to target machine learning workloads
Catalyst: The potential for flexible data centers
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Editor's note: With the Trump administration's efforts to roll back California's electric trucking rules, there's new attention on heavy duty transport right now. So we're bringing you a deep dive into the industry, an episode of The Green Blueprint on Terawatt Infrastructure's $1 billion strategy to build charging depots.
In 2021, Neha Palmer co-founced Terrawatt Infrastructure with a bold mission: create the backbone for America's electric trucking revolution.
Within its first year, Terrawatt secured a billion-dollar investment. But as the company developed plans for a nationwide charging network, it confronted the daunting challenge of building infrastructure for an electric truck market that barely existed.
High-profile bankruptcies like Nikola Motors cast long shadows over the sector's viability, raising questions about whether heavy-duty transport can truly be electrified.
In this episode, Lara talks with Neha about how Terrawatt aims to transform freight transport despite market skepticism. Neha explains Terawatt’s strategic approach to site selection, innovative charging designs for fully-loaded trucks, and the vision for a revolutionary California-to-Texas network.
Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Our first episode covering sodium-ion batteries featured a cautious take on the chemistry: Back in February Adrian Yao, founder of Stanford’s STEER program, explained the challenges of reaching competitive energy density and costs, especially given the falling price of LFP. Still, sodium-ion chemistries are picking up steam, thanks largely to growing deployments in stationary storage and small-scale mobility in China.
So what’s a more bullish take on sodium-ion?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Landon Mossburg, founder and CEO of sodium-ion battery manufacturer Peak Energy. He outlines a pathway to competitiveness and argues that, in the right applications, the advantages of sodium-ion chemistries outweigh their challenges. Shayle and Landon cover topics like:
Why almost all current deployments of sodium-ion capacity are in China — and why Korean battery giants are committed to LFP right now
The thermal advantages of sodium iron pyrophosphate (NFPP) vs. the higher energy densities of layered oxides
Sodium-ion's supply chain benefits and lower CapEx requirements
How NFPP’s system-level savings in cooling, safety, auxiliary power, and maintenance — plus strong cycle life — could offset its current cell cost premium
Resources:
Catalyst: The promise and perils of sodium-ion batteries
Latitude Media: Peak Energy’s quest to build US sodium-ion battery dominance
Latitude Media: Is it too late for the US to rival China on sodium-ion batteries?
Nature Energy: Critically assessing sodium-ion technology roadmaps and scenarios for techno-economic competitiveness against lithium-ion batteries
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Editor’s note: The uncertainties of data center construction — like when, where, and how much to build — are as pressing as ever. So we’re revisiting a conversation with Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer at data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. In this episode, he explains his theory of the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’, which offers insightful heuristics for understanding how data centers are driving change in the power sector.
Every data center company is after one thing right now: power. Electricity used to be an afterthought in data center construction, but in the AI arms race access to power has become critical because more electrons means more powerful AI models.
But how and when these companies will get those electrons is unclear. Utilities have been inundated with new load requests, and it takes time to build new capacity.
Given these uncertainties, how do data center companies make the high-stakes decisions about how much to build? How sustainable is the rate of construction? And how much will these data center companies pay for electricity?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer at data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Brian recently explained how he thinks about these questions in a LinkedIn post titled “The Watt-Bit Spread,” which argues that the value of watts is incredibly high right now, and the cost of those watts is too low. Shayle and Brian cover topics like:
The unclear data center demand and high costs that are making data center companies hesitant to build
How the skills required for data center development have shifted from real estate and fiber to energy
Why higher power prices are needed to incentivize new generation
Potential solutions for better pricing electricity and speeding up the construction of new generation
Recommended resources
Latitude Media: AES exec on data center load: 'It's like nothing we’ve ever seen'
Latitude Media: Mapping the data center power demand problem, in three charts
Latitude Media: Are we thinking about the data center energy problem in the right ways?
Catalyst: Can chip efficiency slow AI's energy demand?
Catalyst: Under the hood of data center power demand
Sequoia Capital: AI’s $600B Question
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
The PJM capacity auction this month broke records with sky-high wholesale power prices — and that was by design. Under PJM’s auction rules, tight supply raises prices, incentivizing the development of new generation and encouraging existing generation to stay online. The big driver of that tight supply? Data-center driven load growth. The independent system operator covers Virginia, one of the densest and fastest-growing regions for data center development.
So will higher wholesale prices incentivize enough generation to meet load growth without provoking the public with higher bills?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Steve Piper, research director of North American power and renewables at S&P Global. Steve and Shayle cover topics like:
Why Steve says PJM and other stakeholders became concerned that low prices weren’t incentivizing enough generation to stay on the market
Why ISOs upping resource adequacy requirements across technologies, while raising targets for reserve margins
The bottlenecks slowing down the development of new generation
What’s holding back demand response in the auction
Resources:
Latitude Media: Will Pennsylvania be the nation’s AI-energy model?
PJM: PJM Auction Procures 134,311 MW of Generation Resources; Supply Responds to Price Signal
Utility Dive: PJM capacity prices set another record with 22% jump
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
The job of an EV battery is unforgiving. If its performance slips too far — say, lost acceleration or range — it's probably off to the recycling heap. That’s even though it may have plenty of usable life, if only for something less demanding than powering a vehicle.
Grid storage is theoretically a gentler job, involving slower discharging and more careful management. Still, repurposing isn’t easy. It requires dealing with a mishmash of various makes, models, and levels of quality. And it means competing against the falling price of new, purpose-built storage systems.
But a few companies have said they’ve figured it out, including Redwood Materials, which supplied a second-life data center microgrid this year.
So how does second-life storage on the grid actually work?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Colin Campbell, chief technology officer of battery recycler Redwood Materials. Colin explains how, in just the past year, the company has found cost-effective ways to repurpose batteries before recycling them. Shayle and Colin cover topics like:
What has changed to make repurposing profitable, including better software management and high-volume, low-cost supply
Why, for Redwood, second-life batteries only need a short lifespan to be worth it
Why second-life systems are especially well-suited for long-duration storage
What it takes to compete with the falling prices of new LFP systems
Resources:
Latitude Media: Crusoe and Redwood Materials are powering a data center with old EV batteries
Latitude Media: Millions of EV batteries could retire on solar farms
Latitude Media: The challenging economics of battery recycling
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) complicates things. Together with a related executive order, it dismantled key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, while also injecting uncertainty into tax credit eligibility. The uncertainty in particular throws a wrench into project planning and leaves big questions about the impact across climate tech.
So what do we know about the complexities of the new policy landscape? And what questions still need answers?
In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, partner at Energy Impact Partners and the firm’s head of research. They cover five topics:
The foreign entity of concern provision and why Andy calls it the biggest unresolved issue
Safe harbor and under construction guidance
Tax credit disparities in coming years — tax credits for nuclear, geothermal, and CCS, not solar and wind — and how that might alter the generation landscape
Hydrogen’s extended tax credit timeline, and how much will get built
EV tax credits and their impact on both personal and commercial vehicles
Resources:
Latitude Media: The GOP megabill will reshape the tax credit transferability market
Latitude Media: Congress just reshaped the solar industry. Here’s what comes next
Latitude Media: How OBBB will impact the power grid
Latitude Media: With help from Chris Wright, geothermal is spared in the budget bill
The New York Times: Ford Says Battery Plant’s Tax Break Survived Republican Attacks
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is supported by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Residential solar has had a rough couple of years. In 2024, the market contracted 31% and major companies like Sunpower and Titan went bankrupt. Now, only halfway through 2025, Sunnova and Mosaic have filed for bankruptcy, too. The market has suffered from low demand, high interest rates, and major policy changes like California’s cuts to net metering.
So now that the One Big Beautiful Bill phases out key tax credits, what’s next for the battered industry?
In this episode, Shayle talks with Julien Dumoulin-Smith, who leads equity research for power, utilities, and clean energy at Jefferies. Shayle and Julien cover topics like:
Why the IRA eased — but didn’t solve — the troubled market’s key challenges, like high interest rates, tax equity challenges, and intense competition
How debt prevented companies from weathering rising input costs
How the final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill avoided the worst case scenarios for residential solar
Whether the bill will impact utility or residential solar more
How the shift toward leasing will benefit larger companies over small, local installers
The impact of rising electricity prices
Resources:
Latitude Media: Sunnova’s debt problem
Latitude Media: Is residential solar poised for a comeback?
Open Circuit: Does residential solar have a bad product?
Catalyst: Could VPPs save rooftop solar?
Latitude Media: SunPower is bankrupt. Competitors see opportunity
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
You’ve probably heard about Nat Bullard’s massive decarbonization slide decks, filled with charts and insights into decarbonization drawn from climate and energy data.
This time he's waded through piles of utility regulatory filings — countless PDFs that hint at the inner workings of utilities and large customers — to find clues about everything from gas plant costs to new large-load tariffs.
In this episode, Shayle and Nat, cofounder of the climate tech market research firm Halcyon, cover topics like:
How utilities — especially small ones — are handling eye-popping interconnection requests
New tariff structures that utilities are developing for large-load customers like data centers
Historical precedents for this level of change on the power grid, like the 2000s Enron bubble and the 1930s buildout of the West
How factories and other large-load customers are battling against data centers for sites
Shayle’s greatest fear about energy in the next few years: That electricity rates will rise dramatically unless we tackle large-load requests and the cost of new infrastructure
What industries to bet on in a world of rising rates
What filings reveal about the cost of new gas generation
Resources:
Catalyst: The US power demand surge: The electricity gauntlet has arrived
Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth
Latitude Media: High costs, delays prompt withdrawal of five more Texas gas plants
Latitude Media: In Georgia, stakeholders still can’t agree on data center load growth numbers
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a solar and energy storage development and procurement platform helping clients make optimal decisions, saving significant time, money, and reducing risk. Subscribers instantly access pricing, product, and supplier data. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) batteries could offer a rare combination in energy storage: high energy density at lower costs. They swap much of the expensive nickel for abundant, affordable manganese. But technical hurdles — like poor cycle life, voltage decay, and long formation time — kept them on the sidelines.
Now GM says it’s solved these challenges. In May, it announced plans to mass produce LMR batteries starting in 2028. In energy density, the new chemistry would land between the two major alternative chemistries in the U.S., NMC and LFP.
So what does this new entrant mean for the U.S. battery market?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Kurt Kelty, VP of battery, propulsion, and sustainability — and a 30-year battery industry veteran who led Tesla’s battery development for over a decade. Shayle and Kurt cover topics like:
What parts of the U.S. battery supply chain to on-shore or near-shore
The tradeoffs between LFP, LMR, and high-nickel chemistries
The roles that Kurt sees for all three in the market
Shifting production lines and supply chains from NMC to LMR
Why LFP may still outcompete LMR in the stationary market
Resources:
General Motors: Why LMR batteries will change the outlook for the EV market
AutomotiveDive: GM, LG Energy target commercializing manganese-rich batteries for EVs
WSJ: An Ex-Tesla Engineer Is Turning EVs Into Affordable Family Cars
Catalyst: What happened at Northvolt?
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Addison Stark thinks waste heat is a waste of time. The real opportunity, he argues, is decarbonizing industrial steam, which accounts for roughly 30% of industrial heat in the U.S. But doing that means deploying alternatives to the fossil fuel boilers industry currently relies on.
So how do you clean up steam? And why does Addison think waste heat is overhyped?
In this episode, Shayle talks with Addison Stark, the CEO — or as he likes to call himself, chief boiler maker — of industrial heat pump startup AtmosZero. They dive into topics like:
The difference between saturated and superheated steam — and why it matters
Why fuel dominates OpEx in steam generation, and how fuel types vary across regions
How the cost of steam affects overall cost of delivered products
Why resistive boilers reached maturity ahead of heat pumps
Why standardized, air-source heat pumps are emerging as an attractive alternative to resistive boilers
The role of thermal storage combined with renewable PPAs
Why Addison thinks waste heat is a distraction for decarbonization
Resources:
Joule: To decarbonize industry, we must decarbonize heat
The Green Blueprint: Rondo Energy’s complicated path to building heat batteries
Catalyst: Solving the conundrum of industrial heat
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
The future of the grid increasingly hinges on where and how data centers get built. To forecast the kind of power infrastructure we need to meet AI’s growing appetite, we first need to understand a laundry list of variables: data center size, workload type, latency, reliability — even the variety of a data center’s coolant system.
So what’s the state of play in data center development today — and how are the trends shaping grid needs?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Chris Sharp, chief technology officer of Digital Realty, a developer, owner and operator of data centers. They cover topics like:
How AI inference workloads are clustering in existing regions, driven by latency and throughput requirements
“Data gravity” and “data oceans”: how large concentrations of data attract more compute infrastructure
What’s driving longer lead times: interconnection delays, equipment bottlenecks, or both?
Large-scale builds vs. incremental additions and densification of existing infrastructure
“Braggawatts” vs. real demand: separating hype from reality
The diverging power needs of training vs. inference, and whether any workloads work with intermittent power
The evolving role of “bridge power” and why diesel and gas are still in the mix
Resources:
Latitude Media: Google’s new data center model signals a massive market shift
Latitude Media: The future of energy-first data centers takes shape
Latitude Media: Can a new coalition turn data centers into grid assets?
Latitude Media: Do microgrids make sense for data centers?
The New York Times: Wall St. Is All In on A.I. Data Centers. But Are They the Next Bubble?
Catalyst: The case for colocating data centers and generation
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Demand for turbines is growing fast, but so are lead times — causing serious headaches for developers. In Texas, one of six projects that pulled proposals from consideration for a valuable financing program cited “equipment procurement constraints” as the reasons for its withdrawal.
Lead times are stretching to four years and sometimes more. Costs are climbing. So what’s behind the bottleneck?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Anthony Brough, founder and CEO of Dora Partners, a consulting firm focused on the turbine market. Shayle and Anthony cover topics like:
Why previous boom-bust cycles in turbine manufacturing have left the industry skittish — and why Anthony says leaders are approaching this new peak with “guarded optimism”
The competing demands on the turbine supply chain, including from power, oil and gas, and aerospace industries
How lead times have ballooned to four years and, in some cases, even longer
Factors affecting the market beyond load growth, like renewables, storage, affordable gas, and coal retirements
How investment in tech innovation has raised turbine efficiency
How the industry is preparing for hydrogen — if hydrogen scales up
Resources:
Latitude Media: Engie’s pulled project highlights the worsening economics of gas
Latitude Media: High costs, delays prompt withdrawal of five more Texas gas plants
Power Magazine: Gas Power's Boom Sparks a Turbine Supply Crunch
Marketplace: Will we have enough natural gas turbines to power AI data centers?
CTVC: 🌎 Gas turbine gridlock #236
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
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