Energy Lab Mike Keyser

Sparked by a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled, "Biden's Climate Plans are Unsustainable," Mike invites author and professor Stuart Gottlieb onto the program to talk about the economic, political and geostrategic implications to the United States of the net zero transition. 
Mr. Gottlieb is a professor of foreign policy and international security at both NYU and Columbia, and has also served as a policy advisor to Senators Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd.

It's called Agrivoltaics - simultaneously using land for both agriculture and solar photovoltaic power - and it's growing in interest amongst the sustainable farming community.  Why can't a farmer graze cattle, grow crops AND generate solar energy all from the same plot of land?  Architect and inventor Lawrence Kearns joins Mike to talk about the SunFarmor, a low-impact, easy-to-construct mobile solar array that could change the way solar energy is generated and consumed on the farm of the future.  

You can't talk about the renewable transition without talking about "net zero."  The concept of achieving net zero is the ultimate intersection of energy and climate policy. Governments, corporations and electric utilities are all promising to eliminate or 'net to zero' their carbon footprints, most of them by about the year 2050.  How did this movement begin?  How do we get there?  In this episode, Mike talks with Paul Simons, a senior fellow at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University and former Ambassador to Chile.  Join Mike on a journey through Paul's distinguished career at the highest levels of climate and energy policy. 

It might be the coolest renewable energy out there.  We've all seen pictures of those massive wind turbines rising out in the ocean.  Maybe you even saw them in the movie Tenet.  Offshore wind farms are common in Europe, but here in the United States we are just barely getting started.  Several large companies are betting big on the future of the industry as it undoubtedly will play a role in our net zero future.  But how big of a role will it play?  How do you get the rights to build an offshore wind farm?  And how do you even build one?
In this episode, Mike talks with Becky Gallagher, Director of New Business, Offshore Wind, for Avangrid Renewables, one of the companies betting big on offshore wind in the U.S.  It's everything you've ever wanted to know about offshore wind!

On May 8, 2022, California set a record when renewable generation exceeded the demand for energy.  It was a milestone that the California Independent System Operator, or Cal-ISO, called "a preview of a modern, carbon-free, reliable power grid."  
In this episode, Mike talks with two of California grid operators, Brian Stockdale and Joe Binstein, to talk about what happened that day, how they managed it, and what it means for the power grid of the future.