Energy Empire

Energy Empire
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Welcome to the Age of Energy Abundance A once-in-a-generation shift is underway in how the world is powered. Across the United States, clean energy now makes up more than 90% of new electricity added to the grid — not because of politics or ideology, but because these technologies simply work better. They’re cheaper to build, faster to deploy, and easier to scale than anything that came before. The technology is ready. Now the race is on to build it…everywhere. Energy Empire is a podcast about the people and ideas driving this transformation. We explore how abundant, affordable energy is reshaping the global economy, creating new industries, and unlocking what may be the greatest wealth-creation opportunity of our generation. Hosted by Jigar Shah — TIME100 honoree, serial entrepreneur, investor, and former U.S. Department of Energy leader — the show pulls back the curtain on the decisions, innovations, and power struggles shaping the future of energy. Whether you’re curious about where the economy is headed, how energy affects your daily life, or who’s really building the future behind the scenes, Energy Empire is your guide to what comes next.

  1. 2d ago

    Senator Whitehouse on Why Democrats Need a Climate Villain | Energy on the Ballot

    "Little Red Riding Hood is kind of a dumb story without the wolf." That's how Senator Sheldon Whitehouse thinks Democrats have been telling the climate story. His wolf is the fossil fuel industry, and it shows up on your electric bill. When the Trump administration blocks cheap clean power, the grid falls back on pricier fossil plants and families pay the difference. He calls it a "ginormous money pump." Whitehouse represents Rhode Island and is the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He is also one of four senators behind the bipartisan permitting bill released shortly after this conversation was recorded. Part of Energy on the Ballot, our series on energy and the 2026 midterms. In this episode: The half-price offshore wind power for Rhode Island that drew two federal stop-work orders "Have you ever seen anything go from zero to everybody hates you faster than data centers?" Why he hates, loathes, and despises one stage of federal review, and his fix for it What a plumber in Orlando loses when nobody will insure their home Russia as "a gas station run by gangsters who have an army," and the sanctions law he wants the president to use The dark money bill he wants Democrats to pass and dare the president to veto Learn more at energyempire.fm

    Senator Whitehouse on Why Democrats Need a Climate Villain | Energy on the Ballot

  2. 5d ago ·  Bonus

    NVIDIA on Whether AI Can Fix Its Own Power Problem | Recorded Live at Climate Week NYC

    AI data centers are straining the grid. NVIDIA and Phaidra say part of the fix is more AI: software that runs the cooling, data centers that ease off when demand peaks, and chips that do more with every watt. This episode was recorded live at The Nest Campus during Climate Week NYC. Jigar and Jamie talk with Josh Parker, head of sustainability at NVIDIA, and Jim Gao, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA-backed Phaidra. In this episode: An AI agent that predicts heat spikes on CoreWeave's NVIDIA chips and stops them before they hit Why NVIDIA is cooling its chips with 113°F coolant to cut water use Whether AI needs gigawatt-scale data centers, or GPUs on the side of a house How half a percent of flexibility could free up about 100 gigawatts on the US grid The cost of adding 12 hours of battery backup to a $125 million data center What it would take for a data center to lower its neighbors' power bills Learn more at energyempire.fm

    NVIDIA on Whether AI Can Fix Its Own Power Problem | Recorded Live at Climate Week NYC

  3. Sep 30

    The Permitting Bill Is Out. Senator Heinrich Walks Us Through It.

    Four senators introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act on September 30. One of them recorded this episode with Jigar the day before. The bill puts deadlines on federal environmental reviews, gives opponents 150 days to sue instead of five years, hands the federal government a backstop for interstate transmission, and, as Heinrich describes it, bars utilities from putting a data center's grid costs on anyone else's bill. Martin Heinrich is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and negotiated the deal with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican chairs Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee. In this episode: Why Heinrich didn't wait for a Democratic Senate: "why don't you just wait until you have the gavel?" The difference between a "sternly worded letter" and a law when a hyperscaler wants to plug in The one-year clock a state gets before a transmission route goes to FERC Why a geothermal well is harder to permit than an oil well on the same acre of federal land What got "a little rocky" with the White House the week before the deal "If you're calling people ratepayers, you're probably making some mistakes" Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas Our merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

    The Permitting Bill Is Out. Senator Heinrich Walks Us Through It.

  4. Sep 28

    Energy on the Ballot: Who Do You Blame for Your Electric Bill?

    Electricity bills are rising across America, and for the first time in years, they're a campaign issue. Candidates on the left and the right are promising to cut your power bill. But are they even the ones in charge? What gets decided in Washington, and what gets decided in your state capital? And how do you tell a real promise from an empty one? Those questions are what Energy on the Ballot is for: a new series from Energy Empire, released every Monday until Election Day. To kick it off, Jigar and Jamie sit down with Arnab Pal, co-founder and executive director of Deploy Action, who spends his days in state capitals pushing laws that make utilities use the grid they already have before they build more and bill you for it. Together they walk through the basics: what really makes a power bill go up, who signs off on it, and which of this year's promises to lower it can be kept. Recorded in person at the new Energy Empire studio in New York. In this episode: Why the backlash against data centers is really a backlash against AI, and why the tech companies didn't see it coming The extra $5.77 a month on Arkansas power bills after the local utility refused to let Google pay for its own grid upgrades Promises made: Trump's pledge to halve energy bills in 12 months, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's rate freeze that became a $25 credit, and a Big Tech pledge nobody can point a dollar to Paying people to use less power at peak times is 80% cheaper than building a new gas plant, so why aren't more utilities offering it? Why your state legislator matters more than your member of Congress when it comes to your power bill Learn more at energyempire.fm

    Energy on the Ballot: Who Do You Blame for Your Electric Bill?

  5. Sep 24

    Balcony Solar Costs $285. Why Is It Still So Hard to Get?

    In Germany you pick up a solar panel at IKEA or the grocery store and plug it in at home. Here you order online, the cheapest kits can take four months to arrive, and in most states you still technically need your utility's permission to install it. Cora Stryker co-founded Bright Saver, a nonprofit that sells the kits at cost, $285 for a 180 watt system. They helped draft Utah's balcony solar bill, the first in the country, and have since worked with legislators in 35 states and DC. Nine have passed laws so far. In this episode: Why some states make you hire an electrician to plug in an appliance What a $285 panel takes off a monthly bill, and how fast it pays for itself The emails from PG&E that killed Bright Saver's first business model The for-profit company that rewrote one state's bill so only its own product would be legal Why balcony solar has bipartisan support When Cora thinks you'll be able to buy one at Walmart Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas Our merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

    Balcony Solar Costs $285. Why Is It Still So Hard to Get?

  6. Sep 17

    Power Prices Have Barely Moved in 10 Years. So Why Is Your Bill Going Up?

    In most of America, the cost of generating electricity has barely moved since 2015. But, over the same 10 years, residential rates are up 37% (EIA). Lee Taylor has spent 13 years pricing power in every corner of the country. He joins Energy Empire to explain what you're actually paying for, and why a windy day in Oklahoma never shows up on your bill. Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Resurety. He funded the company in 2013 by selling shares in his own future income. Last year he got federal approval for CleanTrade, the first regulated exchange for wind and solar power, which now has 60 participants and $50 billion in bids. In this episode: The three buckets on your bill, and why the one that keeps growing has nothing to do with generating power Oklahoma gets 45% of its power from wind and prices haven't moved in a decade. West Virginia has almost none, and prices are up 50% California has some of the cheapest electricity in the country and the most expensive bills. Both are true The $5,000 electricity bills from the Texas freeze, and why cheap power always comes with a catch A 1,000-page application, DOGE, and 4 of 5 commissioners gone: getting a first-of-its-kind market through Washington "Tax credits were always a really blunt force way to get around the fact that we don't actually charge for carbon" Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas Our merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

    Power Prices Have Barely Moved in 10 Years. So Why Is Your Bill Going Up?

  7. Sep 10

    Will Sustainable Aviation Fuel Ever Take Off?

    The jet fuel that could replace kerosene is made from used cooking oil. It costs two to six times more, and there isn't enough of it. This week's guest is Lauren Riley, Chief Sustainability Officer at United Airlines, which buys more sustainable aviation fuel than any other airline in America and still only gets 0.7% of its fuel that way. She calls that a pacing problem: we know how to make the fuel, the money and the policy just move too slowly. The harder limit is the cooking oil itself. The world is not going to fry more food to fill jet tanks, and the three other ways of making the fuel are years from scale. The policy is not helping either. America cut its credit just as producers needed certainty, Europe mandated the fuel without doing anything to make more of it, and the banks Riley talks to want ten years of durability and are being offered two. So the question in the title stays open. Riley expects the economics to arrive eventually. Jigar is putting his chips on hybrid planes instead. In this episode: The four ways to make jet fuel without oil Why a refinery that could make this fuel today makes diesel instead What the banks told Lauren they need before they will finance a plant, and why nobody is offering it Europe's rule where you miss the blend, pay the fine, and still owe the fuel Oscar the Grouch, United's first Chief Trash Officer, has retired Jigar's case for skipping ahead to hybrid planes Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas Our merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

    Will Sustainable Aviation Fuel Ever Take Off?

  8. Sep 3

    1 in 50 American Sheep Now Works in the Energy Industry

    Sheep are replacing lawnmowers on solar farms across America. They're quieter, cleaner, and in many cases cheaper. More than 113,000 of them now graze over 500 US solar sites — and for the farmers who run the flocks, the contracts are a new income that keeps their land and their business in agriculture. Today's guest is Rebekah Pierce, who runs a 300-sheep flock on 9 solar sites across upstate New York. Rebekah is a first-generation farmer, solar grazier, and author of Agri-Energy: Growing Power, Growing Food (Island Press). With Jigar on vacation, Jamie is joined by guest co-host Lauren Glickman, VP of policy and communications at solar developer Encore Renewable Energy and a lifelong solar and agriculture enthusiast. In this episode: Why Encore ditched its diesel mowing crews and committed its entire portfolio to grazing The business model almost nobody knows exists, and how it turned a money-losing hobby farm into a real livestock operation The two stubborn brothers who sold Rebekah her hay, leased their land for solar, and changed her family's life The prime-farmland myth: "Farmland isn't really useful if there's nobody who can afford to cultivate it" Why tomatoes, of all things, might grow better inside a solar array Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar S2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds Octopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faas Our merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

    1 in 50 American Sheep Now Works in the Energy Industry
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About

Welcome to the Age of Energy Abundance A once-in-a-generation shift is underway in how the world is powered. Across the United States, clean energy now makes up more than 90% of new electricity added to the grid — not because of politics or ideology, but because these technologies simply work better. They’re cheaper to build, faster to deploy, and easier to scale than anything that came before. The technology is ready. Now the race is on to build it…everywhere. Energy Empire is a podcast about the people and ideas driving this transformation. We explore how abundant, affordable energy is reshaping the global economy, creating new industries, and unlocking what may be the greatest wealth-creation opportunity of our generation. Hosted by Jigar Shah — TIME100 honoree, serial entrepreneur, investor, and former U.S. Department of Energy leader — the show pulls back the curtain on the decisions, innovations, and power struggles shaping the future of energy. Whether you’re curious about where the economy is headed, how energy affects your daily life, or who’s really building the future behind the scenes, Energy Empire is your guide to what comes next.

Information

  • Creator
    Energy Empire
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Energy Empire
  • Show Website
    Energy Empire

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