Elon Musk has called lithium “the new oil.” Demand for critical minerals is booming alongside the surge in global battery production. And countries are racing to control as much mining and processing of lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite quickly as possible.
There’s also a race among companies that are exploring artificial intelligence to disco ... Show More
Feb 2025
More 2025 trends: DeepSeek, plug-in hybrids, and curtailment
Didn’t catch last week’s episode on Nat Bullard’s mega slide deck on energy transition? Start there. This is the second half of our extended conversation with Nat, the former chief content officer at BloombergNEF and current co-founder at data insights company Halcyon. In this ep ... Show More
49m 45s
Oct 2024
Why climate tech startups get this one thing wrong
This might be our wonkiest topic yet: Techno-economic analysis, or TEA. Before a startup proves its technology is commercially viable, it models how a technology would work. These TEAs include things like assumptions about inputs, prices, and market landscape. They help investors ... Show More
49m 38s
Apr 2025
Serving data center load with carbon capture
Big tech’s data center construction boom is fueling a flurry of natural gas development, despite the fuel’s challenges, and it’s complicating big tech’s climate goals. But carbon capture and storage (CCS) could mitigate emissions from those new plants, and hyperscalers could secu ... Show More
39m 7s
Mar 2025
Flexible, fast-responding and reliable – the growth of energy storage seems unstoppable. What could possibly go wrong?
Charge when it’s cheap, when energy is abundant, and discharge when the energy is needed. The role of energy storage will be critical to the transition to low-carbon technologies. It’s an exciting time in the industry, with spectacular growth in battery storage markets in the US ... Show More
57 m
Apr 2025
The geopolitics of rare earth elements
China’s new export controls on rare earth elements (REEs) are a problem for EVs, renewables, and other industries that rely on the minerals, especially the permanent magnets they’re used in. The vast majority of the global supply chain is in China. Plus, Chinese companies control ... Show More
34m 24s
Apr 2025
What’s next for the battery storage boom? [partner content]
The U.S. storage market is experiencing hockey-stick growth, with multiple gigawatts being installed quarterly. But new policy uncertainties around tariffs and the Inflation Reduction Act are threatening this momentum. But Jeff Waters, the CEO of Powin, remains optimistic. "This ... Show More
20m 4s