Leaders in Cleantech David Hunt

What’s it all about?

Addressing the heating issue through geothermal energy, even at a domestic level. I’ve seen Dandelion growing, and raising funds and thought it is a technology we haven’t yet covered on the podcast, so I was delighted when Michael agreed to join me and tell his, and their story, and how heat pumps are one more solution in our armoury.

About Michael Sachse: 

Michael Sachse is an experienced executive who has previously scaled start-ups through periods of rapid growth. Sachse was previously CEO of Stardog, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at NEA, and Chief Marketing Officer at Opower, where he helped to guide the company through its IPO and acquisition by Oracle.

About Dandelion Energy:

Dandelion Energy's mission is to enable the widespread adoption of geothermal. The company offers homeowners affordable geothermal heating & cooling systems as an alternative to gas, oil, propane, or electric heating. Originally conceived at X, Alphabet’s innovation lab, Dandelion is now an independent company offering geothermal heating and cooling systems to homeowners, starting in the Northeastern US. The team brings leadership experience from X and SolarCity, and shares a personal commitment to mitigate climate change by making renewable technologies more accessible.

Dandelion’s modern geothermal heat pump systems provide efficient heating, air conditioning, and warm water at significant savings over older fossil fuel burning devices. Dandelion systems eliminate the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, improve indoor air quality, and allow people to reduce their home’s #1 source of harmful carbon pollution.

Social links: 

Michael Sachse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-sachse/
Dandelion Energy Website: https://dandelionenergy.com/
Dandelion Energyon Twitter https://twitter.com/DandelionEnergy
Dandelion Energy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dandelion-geothermal/

About Hyperion Executive Search:

Hyperion are a specialist executive search firm working with some of the most innovative cleantech companies in the world, helping to find extraordinary talent to enable their growth and success. Partnering with leading cleantech VCs, as well as directly with founders and entrepreneurs in the sector. With our clients we are transforming business and growing a strong and prosperous cleantech economy.

If you want to grow your team, or move forward your career, visit www.hyperionsearch.com, or email info@hyperionsearch.com

EPISODE LINKS

David’s Fundraising page for Muscular Dystrophy - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-hunt42

Dandelion- How Geothermal works and installs - https://dandelionenergy.com/how-geothermal-works
The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weirdest-People-World-Psychologically-Particularly/dp/1846147964/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Joseph+Henrich&qid=1618934866&s=audible&sr=1-1-catcorr
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - https://open.spotify.com/show/72qiPaoDRf8HkGKEChvG5q

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If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

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What’s it all about?

Going Double Unicorn in 5 years, and still knowing you are still only at the beginning of the journey! I speak to tech founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Greg Jackson about how he used tech as the platform to disrupt one of the industries most resistant to, and in need of disruption- energy supply. With a focus on technology solving problems, and driving down costs, AND a focus on creating cultures which support and empower people to be their best and most creative. I hope you enjoy this slightly longer than usual episode.

About Greg Jackson: 

Greg is an experienced digital entrepreneur, passionate about making the green energy revolution affordable through technology.

He’s founded a number of successful businesses, including e-commerce company C360, built HomeServe’s innovation business and is an angel investor in a wide range of tech start-ups. He also
served as Director of several innovative businesses, including Zopa, the world’s first peer to peer lender, which has now lent almost £2bn fairly and responsibly whilst generating excellent interest rates for lenders.

Greg founded Octopus Energy in 2015. It uses technology to be highly efficient – empowering customers with a full digital experience, and then using the same systems to provide the highest standards of support to its customers by phone, email and chat. This technology allows Octopus to challenge normal energy models, bringing transparent, low pricing to new and loyal customers.

Octopus is a recognised innovator, delivering time-of-use tariffs at scale, driving EV adoption and helping make the smart grid a reality.

About Octopus Energy

In the UK, Octopus now stands at 2 million customers, growing by 2500-3000 per day, and is the only energy supplier recommended by consumer champions Which?, for four years in a row. Following
significant investment from Tokyo Gas and Origin Energy in December 2020, Octopus became a tech ‘double unicorn’ valued at well over £2 billion. With operations in the US, Germany, Australia, New
Zealand and Japan, Octopus expects to expand its platform into many more markets over the next few years.

Social links

Craig Evans on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsjackson/
Octopus Energy Website: https://octopus.energy/
Octopus Energy on Twitter https://twitter.com/octopus_energy
Greg Jackson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/g__j
Octopus Energy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/octopusenergy/

About Hyperion Executive Search

Hyperion are a specialist executive search firm working with some of the most innovative cleantech companies in the world, helping to find extraordinary talent to enable their growth and success. Partnering with leading cleantech VCs, as well as directly with founders and entrepreneurs in the sector. With our clients we are transforming business and growing a strong and prosperous cleantech economy.

If you want to grow your team, or move forward your career, visit www.hyperionsearch.com, or email info@hyperionsearch.com

EPISODE LINKS

Planet Money Podcast - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money
Masters of Scale Podcast - https://mastersofscale.com/
How I Built This Podcast - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-Operation/dp/1441908765/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1617803663&refinements=p_27%3AFrank+O%27Brien&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Frank+O%27Brien

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What’s it all about?

Flow batteries have had their technical and commercial challenges over the years, so it’s good to see that the technology is really starting to get traction in that 6-12 hour storage category. It’s also good to hear a good traditional ‘started in my garage’ cleantech start-ups story, just watch for the EPA. This week I talk to Craig Evans about scaling a the flow battery technology and company of ESS Inc.

About Craig Evans: 

Craig Evans is the President and CEO, and a founder of ESS Inc. Having started ESS from his garage in 2011, he led the company to the commercialization of the Iron Flow Battery system in 2016. Prior to ESS, Craig was the Director of Design & Product Development at ClearEdge Power Inc. His team designed the ClearEdge5, a 5kW combine-heat-and-power fuel cell system, which was successfully commercialized in 2010. This product received both CSA International certification in North America and KNREC certification in Asia. Craig began his career at United Technologies Corporation (UTC) where he held technical leadership positions in their Fuel Cell business and, prior to that, as a project engineer in the Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine business. In 2006, He was awarded the distinguished George Mead Award, the highest honor for individual engineering achievement at UTC.
Craig Evans has authored over 15 patents and patent applications. He holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, an MS in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A from Carnegie Mellon University.

About ESS:

ESS’s mission is to bring to market the cleanest, lowest-cost long-duration energy storage systems. Which are the catalyst for a sustainable energy future.

Established in 2011, ESS Inc. manufactures low-cost, long-duration iron flow batteries for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications requiring 4+ hours of flexible energy capacity. Our long-duration energy storage platforms, the Energy Warehouse™ (EW) and Energy Center™(EC), use iron, salt, and water for the electrolyte, and deliver an environmentally safe, long-life energy storage solution for the world’s renewable energy infrastructure.

Based in Wilsonville, Oregon, ESS Inc. was founded by a team with deep experience in fuel cells, electrochemistry, advanced material science and renewable energy. After five years of intensive innovation, engineering development and rigorous testing and validation, with the backing of ARPA-E and others, the company began shipping turnkey energy storage solutions that allowed companies and municipalities to control their own energy future in 2015.

With its safe, earth-abundant, proven all-iron flow battery technology, ESS is helping project developers, utilities, and EPCs make the transition to more flexible non-lithium-ion storage that is better suited for the grid and the environment.

Social links: 

Craig Evans on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigeevans/
ESS Website: https://essinc.com/
ESS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESS_info
ESS on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-storage-systems/

EPISODE LINKS

‘All-iron’ flow battery maker ESS Inc launches ‘configurable’ megawatt-scale product https://www.energy-storage.news/news/all-iron-flow-battery-maker-ess-inc-launches-configurable-megawatt-scale-pr
The Unknown Universe: A New Exploration of Time, Space, and Modern Cosmology- Stuart Clark https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1681774461/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i8

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I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell yo

One of the biggest challenges I face is trying to keep up with all the great books my guests recommend as part of the show. One that I absolutely loved and found incredibly useful was The Grid: The fraying wires between Americans and our energy future. After the recent black outs in Texas I thought it a great time to speak with the author Gretchen Bakke, and ask why that happened, what needs to change, and what opportunities that creates for cleantech start-ups, scale-ups and VCs. I’m delighted that Gretchen accepted my request and joins me on the podcast this week.

About Gretchen Bakke: 

Gretchen is interested in what people do when the systems they rely upon stop working. Whether speaking of the end of political systems like communism, infrastructural systems like the electric grid, economic systems like whaling, energetic systems like fossil fuels, or cultural systems like the contemporary university what unites my work is an abiding concern for both the inventive creativity and the normative impulses that systemic collapse begets. What is the nature of renewal, she asks, and what do people, diversely, make of things when all that is solid fades unexpectedly into air.

About Grid- The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future:

“A remarkable achievement. Bakke deftly shows us how a system most of us are happy to ignore–the electrical grid–is both inseparable from everything we think of as civilization and on the verge of complete failure.” Paul Roberts, author of The End Of Oil and The Impulse Society.
“This book, about our aging electrical grid, fits in one of my favorite genres: ‘Books About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating.’ … even if you have never given a moment’s thought to how electricity reaches your outlets, I think this book would convince you that the electrical grid is one of the greatest engineering wonders of the modern world. I think you would also come to see why modernizing the grid is so complex and so critical for building our clean-energy future.” - Bill Gates, “My Favorite Books of 2016

Social links: 

Gretchen Bakke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchen-bakke-485067135/
Gretchen Bakke Website: http://bakkeconsolidated.org/about.php

About Hyperion Executive Search:

Hyperion are a specialist executive search firm working with some of the most innovative cleantech companies in the world, helping to find extraordinary talent to enable their growth and success. Partnering with leading cleantech VCs, as well as directly with founders and entrepreneurs in the sector. With our clients we are transforming business and growing a strong and prosperous cleantech economy.

If you want to grow your team, or move forward your career, visit www.hyperionsearch.com, or email info@hyperionsearch.com

EPISODE LINKS

How to Access Venture Capital – eBook - https://hyperionsearch.co.uk/download-guide-to-access-venture-capital/
The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future - https://www.powells.com/book/the-grid-9781608196104
Mission is Possible- Guidehouse podcast - https://missionispossible.podbean.com/

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe
I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

Twitter https://twitter.com/Cleantechleader
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DavidHuntCleantechGuide
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Green Hydrogen! It’s hard to do or read anything in the sustainable technology sector without hearing about Green Hydrogen at present. What part does hydrogen have to play in the clean energy and mobility transitions? I’ve been working recently with hydrogen founders and entrepreneurs and I’m really intrigued as to where and how we could or should utilise hydrogen in the decarbonisation mission we share in the sector. Having had CEOs of fuel cell and hydrogen flight companies on the podcast recently, this week we hear from a hydrogen electrolyser start up founder about her opinion and her areas of focus, as well as her journey and experience as a leading woman in the cleantech sector.

About Vaitea Cowan

Vaitea Cowan believes green hydrogen is the future of energy. After being named "Women Leader" in the World Bank Intern Program, and winning case competitions in University, she moved to Thailand. She met her cofounders in Chiang Mai and helped make the Phi Suea House a communication and collaboration platform for hydrogen in Southeast Asia. Shortly after, they cofounded Enapter, which scales the production of hydrogen generators. The team has grown from 11 to over 130 in 3 years. She has the clear intention of inspiring and hiring more women. She is on the Forbes Under 30 in Energy 2020 list and has won several awards for Enapter. Today, she spearheads the communications efforts from Berlin. As a Pacific Islander, her personal mission is to provide clean energy independence to Polynesia.

About Enapter

Enapter is an award-winning company manufacturing highly efficient, modular hydrogen generators based on Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolysis technology. Its patent-protected core technology has a 10-year proven track record and allows for the creation of unique, low-cost, and compact electrolysers. They are used in more than 30 countries, in industries like energy, mobility, telecommunications, heating and more. Enapter has offices in Italy, Germany, Thailand and Russia.

Social links

Vaitea Cowan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaiteacowan/
Enapter Website: https://www.enapter.com/
Enapter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Enapter_
Enapter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enapter/

About Hyperion Executive Search:

Hyperion are a specialist executive search firm working with some of the most innovative cleantech companies in the world, helping to find extraordinary talent to enable their growth and success. Partnering with leading cleantech VCs, as well as directly with founders and entrepreneurs in the sector. With our clients we are transforming business and growing a strong and prosperous cleantech economy.

If you want to grow your team, or move forward your career, visit www.hyperionsearch.com, or email info@hyperionsearch.com

EPISODE LINKS

Generation Hydrogen - https://www.generationhydrogen.com/
Principles: Life and Work – Ray Dalio - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1501124021/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i0
An Economist Walks Into A Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FLK37HC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ICS9VI4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

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Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DavidHuntCleantechGuide
Instagram https://

I first spoke to Christian about joining on the podcast over two years ago, we planned to do so at the Hyperion office in Munich, time and pandemics conspired against us. But with so much happening in the space, and so much need for long duration energy storage, I didn’t want to wait any longer, seeing the progress they are making as a company, so I’m delighted to return to one of a few favourite topics, long duration energy storage. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Dr. Christian Thiel: 

Christian has been CEO of EnergyNest since 2014. He holds over 20 years’ experience in product development and executing market entries in the international tech sector in Europe, USA, Japan, China, India and UAE.

Christian has dedicated much of his career to decarbonisation and has gained experience in this field in the mobility and renewable energy sector before now focusing on industrial energy storage solutions that benefit both businesses and the environment. Prior to joining EnergyNest, Christian worked at Senvion, McKinsey, UBS Investment Bank and BMW Group. Christian holds a PhD in Marketing and a master’s degree in Business Administration. Prior to university, he completed his military service and participated in NATO’s peace-keeping mission in former Yugoslavia.

About EnergyNest:

EnergyNest is an award-winning Norwegian technology company that helps customers across the entire energy system to decarbonize heat. The company offers Thermal Battery solutions. EnergyNest has a strong partner ecosystem including Siemens Energy, TSK and AC Boilers among others. The company has contracts signed and first commercially produced Thermal Batteries have been handed over to customers. EnergyNest’s HQ is in Oslo (Norway) and has further regional offices in Hamburg (Germany) and Seville (Spain).

Social links: 

Dr. Christian Thiel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-thiel-ab488267/
EnergyNest Website: https://energy-nest.com/
EnergyNest on Twitter: https://twitter.com/energy_nest
EnergyNest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energynest/

About Hyperion Executive Search

Hyperion are a specialist executive search firm working with some of the most innovative cleantech companies in the world, helping to find extraordinary talent to enable their growth and success. E partner with leading cleantech VCs, as well as directly with founders and entrepreneurs in the sector. With our clients we are transforming business and growing a strong and prosperous cleantech economy.

If you want to grow your team, or move forward your career, visit www.hyperionsearch.com, or email info@hyperionsearch.com

EPISODE LINKS

Jocko Willink Podcast
https://jockopodcast.com/
Thor Heyerdahl
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl
Alexander von Humbold
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Humboldt
..and not mentioned on the podcast but a BIG inspiration for Christian
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

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