Volts

David Roberts
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Política
  • Semanales

Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!) www.volts.wtf

  1. hace 1 día

    The transformative potential of solid-state transformers

    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 Power electronics have taken over almost everything in our lives, with the exception, oddly, of the power grid itself — it is still held together by tens of millions of analog, iron-and-copper transformers, the design of which has barely changed in a century. Solid-state transformers replace the dumb gray box with something that can monitor and steer power or convert it from AC to DC and vice versa. In this episode, Enphase co-founder Raghu Belur, who built his company by dividing big solar inverters into thousands of small ones, explains how he’s trying the same thing with transformers, why AI data centers and big solar and battery projects are the first markets, and what it would take to put a smarter transformer on every pole. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:02 – What a transformer does 07:53 – What conventional transformers can’t do 11:43 – What makes a transformer solid state 15:27 – How much is software, how much is hardware 19:40 – Why power electronics hasn’t reached the grid 23:54 – Enphase’s distributed approach 31:23 – Building transformers from 5-kilowatt modules 34:58 – Copper, gallium nitride, and supply chains 43:44 – Cybersecurity 47:23 – Data centers and 800 volts DC 59:29 – Solar and battery storage 1:05:18 – The cost question 1:07:02 – Neighborhood transformers and the utilities 1:15:37 – Efficiency, lifespan, and heat 1:22:24 – Handling grid faults 1:25:27 – Standards, policy, and the next few years

  2. hace 6 días

    The (climate) case against (AI) data centers

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf Volts guests have argued that data centers can be good for the grid if they’re built right. Here I hear the case against, from Ketan Joshi, a former wind-industry analyst who now tracks Big Tech’s climate claims. He sees data centers as the wrong kind of demand growth: lumpy, concentrated, unwanted by neighbors, and largely met with gas. Underneath it all is the worry that the backlash against data centers will become a backlash against electrification itself. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:14 – How Ketan became a big tech critic 06:01 – The case against data centers 07:39 – What data centers add to emissions 11:57 – Isn’t more electricity demand good? 20:12 – Backlash and the NEXTDC power-pole protest 24:21 – AI claims 1: will AI help the climate? 27:53 – AI claims 2: machine learning vs. generative AI 33:47 – AI claims 3: inflated climate wins 36:51 – The gas rush: how much gets built? 44:49 – Would easier renewables fix it? 49:14 – Can data centers be flexible load? 55:41 – Do we actually want AI data centers? 59:39 – What should data centers do to plug in? 1:05:31 – Fake crackdowns and the risk to renewables 1:09:24 – What if AI is a bubble?

  3. 28 oct

    The PAC taking out clean energy opponents

    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 Clean energy is the cheapest, fastest-growing source of power in the country, yet politically it barely registers. Republicans gutted its tax credits last year without fearing any consequences. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, a super PAC backed by clean energy investors, is trying to change that the old-fashioned way: by punishing the industry’s enemies. It went six for six in this year’s primaries; it’s now spending at least $15 million against seven Republican House candidates in the midterms. Its chair, Tom Matzzie, makes the case for fear as a political asset, explains why the industry has been so slow to throw elbows, and describes what it would take for clean energy to become a lion instead of a gazelle. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:55 - How the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition started 06:23 - Why a super PAC, and the idea of mythic power 09:50 - Punishing opponents to send a message to Congress 12:55 - Proving impact, and the permitting bill 17:13 - How ITC picks its general election races 21:41 - Does knocking out extremists help Republicans? 24:53 - Free riders and barriers to industry politics 28:58 - Who funds ITC, and why the industry underinvests 32:44 - Why clean power stays politically weak 38:28 - Did the IRA’s red-state investments pay off? 40:35 - Fear of Trump’s retaliation 45:05 - Avoiding the Democratic PAC label 49:30 - Presidential primaries and the ethanol playbook 53:20 - Gas inside the clean power trade groups 58:37 - Where ITC goes after November

  4. 23 oct

    Building our piece of the electric stack

    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 Collectively, the electric stack (batteries, motors, chips, power electronics) has gotten about 99% cheaper since 1990. It is quietly remaking every machine that turns electricity into motion, heat, or work. Problem is, China makes most of it. Sam D’Amico, co-author of “The Electric Slide” and founder of Impulse Labs, is betting the US can still claim a piece of that stack. He’s starting with a battery-powered induction cooktop. We talk about why domestic manufacturing matters, what America would actually have to build to compete, and how Silicon Valley’s founder world really thinks about climate change, geoengineering included. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:52 – From VR headsets to kitchen appliances 07:07 – How a pizza oven inspired a battery stove 10:07 – Peak demand, at home and on the grid 13:25 – Which appliances could use a built-in battery 16:46 – Electric stack 1: the four technologies 20:28 – Electric stack 2: power electronics and motors 25:21 – China bets on hardware, the US bets on AI 30:08 – Why not just buy it all from China? 33:51 – Why engineers need to be near the factory 38:39 – How much does the US need to make at home? 45:19 – US EV policy and letting Chinese cars in 47:49 – Batteries in appliances vs. one home battery 52:04 – Impulse’s plan: its tech in other brands’ stoves 55:17 – What’s next after the stove 57:14 – Has Silicon Valley stopped caring about climate?

  5. 21 oct

    Can distributed energy work around American utilities?

    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 American homes are filling up with batteries, EVs, and smart thermostats that could be coordinated to make the grid cheaper and more reliable — but almost none of them are. To understand why, it helps to watch what happens when the company best in the world at this tries to do it here. In Britain, Octopus Energy has built a giant virtual power plant out of its customers' devices. In the US, it has spent six years running into walls. Now it’s bought Uplight, which runs customer programs for 85 utilities. I talked with Nick Chaset, who runs both, about what's in the way and whether distributed energy can ever scale with US utilities … the way they are. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:02 – Octopus’s past year and the Uplight investment 05:18 – What makes the UK market work for Octopus 11:12 – Texas: fast growth, flattened volatility 14:57 – Will flexibility put itself out of business? 19:16 – Why Octopus stays out of Pennsylvania and New York 22:17 – Does residential retail competition have a future? 24:41 – Why utility programs trail Octopus on participation 32:17 – The demand stack and what planners can count on 39:11 – Kraken, Uplight and the overlap 46:04 – Consumer protection and the aggregator model 51:17 – Data centers and the social license to operate 55:11 – Do we need dynamic pricing? 58:30 – Five years out

  6. 16 oct

    What’s up with Denmark?

    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 Denmark gets a large share of its power from wind and other renewables and has cut its emissions roughly in half since 1990, but independent analysts doubt it will hit its 70 percent target for 2030. Kristian Jensen, CEO of Green Power Denmark and a former Danish minister of taxation, foreign affairs, and finance, argues the next stage is electrifying how Denmark uses energy: heat, transport, and industry. I talk with him about district heating and heat pumps, EVs and vehicle-to-grid, municipally owned grid companies and hourly power prices, biomass, carbon capture, power-to-X, solar’s “fields of iron” backlash, a grid oversubscribed with data center requests (an October 1 agreement has since put most data centers at the back of the queue), and whether the country’s political consensus will hold. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction: Denmark and industrial symbiosis 02:44 – Is the 70% target for 2030 out of reach? 06:24 – Carbon capture and storage, and the peatlands lag 09:57 – Why electrification has lagged: biomass and wood pellets 14:45 – Few batteries, many interconnectors 16:48 – Data centers and the grid-connection prioritization bill 21:34 – Municipally owned grid companies 24:32 – Smart meters, hourly prices, and thermal batteries 28:40 – The solar backlash and local ownership 35:04 – Agrivoltaics and biodiversity 37:24 – District heating: heat pumps, geothermal, and finance 43:24 – The EV transition and vehicle-to-grid 47:45 – Road pricing and fiscal room 50:07 – Power-to-X and eSAF 54:21 – Can Denmark build enough clean power? 57:12 – Will the political consensus hold?

  7. 14 oct

    Checking back in with Greenlight America

    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 On this episode, recorded live at Climate Week NYC, I talk with Matt Traldi. He’s the founder and CEO of Greenlight America, which finds the local meetings where clean energy’s fate is being decided and recruits supporters to attend. Traldi argues that siting and permitting approvals turn on who shows up, and that local partners, conservative groups included, outperform outside advocates. We discuss how to measure impact, recent wins and losses, blue-state resistance, data center backlash, and Greenlight’s growth. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:09 – What Greenlight does and why Matt started it 04:41 – How Greenlight finds the decisions that matter 07:27 – Growth, and the tax credit deadline sprint 13:38 – Who shows up to local hearings 19:39 – Winning in conservative communities 22:35 – Bodies in the room, measuring impact, and win rates 27:46 – Losses, wins, and “there is no bag” 32:44 – Blue-state obstacles and organized opposition 36:31 – When data center backlash spills over onto clean energy 42:31 – Which projects Greenlight won’t back 45:38 – Lessons from housing and growing an organization 50:17 – Audience Q&A: disinformation and state permitting reform 54:39 – Audience Q&A: developers and elections 59:30 – Audience Q&A: funding local groups and designing community input

  8. 9 oct

    What’s up with the new federal permitting reform bill?

    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 The proposed bipartisan federal permitting bill is 417 pages filled with extremely consequential provisions that have left the climate community some mix of excited, infuriated, and confused. In an attempt to bring some clarity, I asked Daniel Palken of Arnold Ventures, a veteran of Senate permitting fights, to walk through what’s in it. We cover the blockbuster transmission reforms, the rule making data centers pay more than their share of grid costs, the wins for geothermal, and the fossil carve-outs. Then we get into NEPA reforms that render the act toothless, limits on state water permits, and the permit-certainty sections that have lawyers worried about “forever permits.” And finally: whether it restrains Trump, why Democrats shouldn’t wait for a better deal, what the modeling says about emissions impacts, and Daniel’s odds of passage. This is a long one, folks. Buckle up. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro: the bipartisan permitting bill 04:15 – Why permitting reform matters 12:23 – Agency staffing and capacity 16:59 – Past permitting attempts 20:26 – Transmission 1: planning and federal backstop 28:28 – Transmission 2: who pays and grid upgrades 38:17 – Data centers 1: paying more for grid access 43:20 – Distributed energy and geothermal 49:06 – Oil, gas, and mining provisions 57:06 – Data centers 2: will they go off-grid? 1:00:19 – NEPA 1: courts can’t halt projects 1:08:57 – NEPA 2: the main objections 1:17:10 – State water permits 1:23:35 – Endangered species 1:27:37 – Permit certainty 1: limits on revoking permits 1:36:43 – Permit certainty 2: lawsuits and damages 1:48:12 – Politics 1: Trump’s wind blockades 1:52:57 – Politics 2: why not wait for a better deal? 1:58:33 – Politics 3: elections, courts, and modeling 2:10:57 – Politics 4: next steps and odds of passage

Ver todo (464)

Anfitriones e invitados

Calificaciones y reseñas

5
de 5
2 calificaciones

Acerca de

Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!) www.volts.wtf

Información

  • Creador
    David Roberts
  • Años de actividad
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodios
    464
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © David Roberts
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Volts

También te podría interesar