Volts

In this episode, Dakota Gruener of Reflective walks me through her organization's new project, which maps the gaps in our scientific understanding of stratospheric aerosol injection — currently the leading candidate for directly cooling the planet. We get into what we don't know (including a factor-of-two disagreement on basic aerosol physics), who's already doing this without oversight, and the unsettling governance question of who controls the Earth's thermostat once humanity has grabbed it.


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The explosive energy demand from data centers is breaking our grid, pushing desperate developers to build their own on-site gas plants just to get online. To figure out how we avoid locking in decades of new fossil fuels, I’m joined by Camus CEO Astrid Atkinson and Princeton’s Jesse Jenkins to break down their proposed alternative. We dig into how adopting flexible grid interconnections and clean, battery-backed “power parks” can meet this massive load growth without abandoning our decarbonization goals.


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New York Governor Kathy Hochul is trying to delay or roll back the state’s landmark climate law in the name of affordability. I’m joined by activist Pete Sikora to discuss the governor’s claims, what would actually serve affordability, and the larger politics behind this puzzling own-goal of a fight.


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In this episode, I’m joined by Kunal Girotra, who helped start and run Tesla’s residential energy business before leaving to start his own company. With Lunar, he has tried to create the most consumer-friendly possible battery and software ecosystem, which can seamlessly plug into solar panels, other devices, or VPPs. We talk about lessons learned and the future of residential electrification.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe

I’m back with part two of my conversation with Jan Sramek, founder of California Forever, about his plan to build a brand-new city in Solano County. We get into the nuts and bolts of the urban design, discuss affordability and sustainability, get into governance issues, and look forward to what might happen next.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe