Here’s a thought experiment. You’re a seasoned clean energy developer. You’ve got a pipeline of projects. You’ve navigated permitting, secured financing, refined your technology stack. Everything’s lined up, and you’re ready to build. There’s just one problem: interconnection.

To connect your projects, you have to go through a complex study process run by your utility, or your Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), or your Independent System Operator (ISO). They need to evaluate how your project impacts the grid, what upgrades are required, and how the costs get assigned. It’s a system built for a different grid era, and today, the system is completely overwhelmed.

For both developers and transmission providers, the interconnection queue has become a major obstacle. Developers depend on timely approvals to move projects forward. Transmission providers, meanwhile, are inundated with requests while also trying to maintain grid reliability, plan for future capacity, and, in many regions, meet aggressive decarbonization goals. And they’re doing all of that with legacy software that was never built to handle this kind of volume or complexity.

If you’ve been in the energy world for a while, you know this bottleneck well. But if you’re new, here’s the scale of the challenge: around 2.5 terawatts of renewable energy projects alone are currently stuck in interconnection queues across the U.S. At the same time, electricity demand is surging, driven by data centers, AI, EVs, and industrial electrification. The average wait time for grid interconnection in the U.S. is 6 years. 

Speeding up the interconnection study process could remove one of the most significant barriers to getting clean energy and storage projects online. But that requires smarter, modern tools. Our guest today, David Bromberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Pearl Street Technologies, has built those tools, and is helping transmission providers and developers navigate the interconnection process with unprecedented speed. 

Sponsors:

Watt it Takes is brought to you by Powerhouse Innovation. Powerhouse Innovation is a leading consulting firm connecting top-tier corporations and investors - including corporate innovation teams, CVCs, and pensions - with cutting-edge technologies and startups that meet their specific criteria for engagement. 

Are you seeking strategic startup partnership or investment opportunities? Get in touch to see how you can leverage Powerhouse Innovation’s expert team and vast network, including a database of over 13,000 startups, to help accelerate your innovation and investing goals. To learn more visit powerhouse.co.

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures 

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate. 

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. 

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

As a new year unfolds, 2025 has already brought devastating natural disasters. From blizzards to wildfires, climate chaos is impacting our neighbors and communities in real time. My heart goes out to the people of Los Angeles for the profound losses they suffered last month, and for the difficult path of rebuilding that lies ahead. This devastation brings to mind a tragedy that struck even closer to home in 2018.

I remember driving through Oakland that year, watching ash fall from the sky as the Camp Fire ravaged Paradise, California. That fire, still the deadliest and most destructive in California’s history, was sparked by vegetation coming into contact with power lines-- a common risk that, coupled with dry conditions, strong winds, and human activity, can ignite a wildfire. That same year, at least 17 additional wildfires in California were triggered by power lines.

Across the country and around the world, utilities face ongoing challenges from vegetation. The diversity of trees and their unique characteristics make it difficult to forecast where or when they might encroach on power lines. Traditional monitoring solutions like trucks, helicopters, and even drones cannot effectively or cost efficiently analyze the nearly 7 million line-miles of transmission and distribution that cover the US alone. 

In response, Indra Den Bakker and Anniek Schouten founded Overstory in 2018 — a software company that partners with utilities to predict and prevent wildfires caused by vegetation encroachment. Powerhouse Ventures is proud to be an early investor in Overstory, joining the team in 2020 via their seed round. It's been inspiring to watch the company grow, even in the face of immense loss.

Overstory’s founding CEO Indra tragically passed away in October of last year after a devastating battle with cancer, but his vision lives on. In a world where climate risks are increasing, Overstory's work is more critical than ever. Today, Overstory’s CEO Fiona Spruill and her team are continuing to manifest Indra and Anniek’s vision to reduce wildfire risks and make our grid resilient. This episode is a tribute to Indra, Anniek, and all that they’ve built together.

Sponsors:

Watt it Takes is brought to you by Powerhouse Innovation. Powerhouse Innovation is a leading consulting firm connecting top-tier corporations and investors - including corporate innovation teams, CVCs, and pensions - with cutting-edge climate technologies and startups that meet their specific criteria for engagement. 

Are you seeking strategic startup partnership or investment opportunities? Get in touch to see how you can leverage Powerhouse's expert team and vast network, including a database of over 13,000 climate tech startups, to help accelerate your innovation and investing goals. To learn more visit powerhouse.co. 

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures 

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate. 

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. 

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

2024 was a landmark year for the energy transition. With record-setting investments in climate infrastructure, we saw the price of renewables out-compete just about every electricity source worldwide, we saw advancements in industrial decarbonization (which we’ve featured prominently on this show), and we saw a breakout year for next generation energy storage just to name a few. While momentum is definitely on our side, with the electrification of everything, our industry will face new hurdles in the coming years, including unprecedented demand for critical minerals.  

From solar panels, to batteries, to EVs, critical minerals are needed to advance the energy transition. Specifically: copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt, to name a few. According to our guest today, the amount of newly discovered minerals needed to produce the anticipated number of EVs by midcentury will cost more than $10 trillion dollars. 

We’ve been extracting minerals for centuries, so you might assume we have it figured out. However, not only are there some serious ethical and environmental concerns, but mineral exploration has, in some ways, actually gotten worse, slower, and more expensive over time. What if there was a way to make critical mineral exploration drastically more efficient? Our guest today, Kurt House, Co-Founder and CEO of KoBold Metals wants to show the world how scientific computing can turn that idea into a reality.  

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $800M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures 

Powerhouse Innovation provides consulting services to help the world’s leading corporations and investors partner with the most innovative startups in climate tech.

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. 

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

As we touched on in our last episode with John O’Donnell of Rondo Energy, industry is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions, and it is only forecasted to get worse. According to a recent report from Rhodium Group, by 2050, the industrial sector could emit as much CO2 as the power, transportation, and building sectors combined. 

A term worth highlighting in this month’s episode is “Hard-to-abate”. This term refers to industrial sectors like cement, petrochemicals, and steel that people have continually categorized as too costly, slow, or lacking the necessary technology to decarbonize. 

For this episode, our focus is on steel. Carbon emissions, air, and water pollution from steel production can be largely attributed to their use of coal-fired blast furnaces, technology created in the 14th century. There are serious challenges to altering any centuries-long established production process, but as our guest today, Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Stegra (formerly H2 Green Steel) knows, when you replace coal with renewable energy, you can produce hydrogen, iron, and steel, with significantly lower emissions.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $800M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse Innovation and Powerhouse Ventures 

Powerhouse Innovation partners with leading corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in climate. 

Powerhouse Ventures backs entrepreneurs building the digital infrastructure for rapid decarbonization. 

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

In the same way that “Climate Change” and “Global Warming” went from scientific terms to colloquial ones, “Decarbonization” is slowly permeating modern discourse. Decarbonization is the process of significantly reducing or eliminating CO2 and other GHG emissions that result from human activity. 

“Human activity” encompasses a lot of different sectors. From agriculture and forestry, to transport and industry, we are emitting a lot of greenhouse gasses. And with the demand for industrial materials only projected to increase as more countries industrialize, emissions from industry are predicted to rise faster than any other emitting sector. 

When I say “industrial” or “industry”, I’m referring to processes used to extract and refine raw materials. These processes include mining, manufacturing, construction and waste processing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, the industrial sector is responsible for 24% of global carbon emissions and 1/3 of U.S. direct and indirect emissions. 

For many industrial processes, process heating is a critical component. Process heating is used to raise and maintain the temperature of materials in manufacturing processes. Heating materials above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit allows for the transformation of raw materials like limestone, metallic ore, and silica into materials we depend on everyday like cement, iron, and glass. But across the manufacturing sector, process heating is responsible for the largest energy demand and highest greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 30% of total industrial emissions. 

Most efforts to decarbonize the industrial sector have historically targeted non-heating operations, but if we could find a way to decarbonize process heat, we stand a chance to make a large dent on total global emissions. My guest today, John O’Donnell, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Rondo Energy is doing exactly that. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Humans produce a lot of trash. How much trash you ask? We produce 2.3 billion tons of trash per year. That’s enough to fill about 800,000 Olympic pools every year. So, what do we do with it all and how does it get managed? Some of it, depending on your municipality, can be composted, some of it gets recycled, but despite our best intentions, most of it ends up in our landfills. In an ideal world, the majority of our trash would be reused and recycled, but recycling, despite its promises, is actually a regressing industry. Counterintuitively, over the last 15 years, recycling rates in the United States have stagnated and even decreased. 

Recycling isn’t stagnating because people don’t want to recycle. In fact, people want to recycle so badly, waste management streams suffer from “wishcycling”, a phenomenon whereby people try to recycle items that not only aren’t recyclable, but actually end up contaminating and ruining potential batches of recyclables. 

At the heart of it, recycling and waste management systems as they exist today face a major incentive problem. Because recycled material is sold in a commodity market, prices for recycled materials like aluminum, paper, plastic, and glass fluctuate a lot. An unreliable market disincentivizes the waste management industry from investing in more efficient sorting systems that could increase overall recycling. 

While it might not seem obvious, recycling has an important role to play in global decarbonization. When materials like aluminum and plastic get recycled, the extraction of new raw materials to replace them is averted, as are the emissions that would have gone into their production. For example, for every ton of aluminum that gets reused, the carbon that would’ve been emitted into the atmosphere to produce more aluminum from new raw materials is never emitted. 

As it stands, society is not capturing the decarbonization potential of recycling. Too much waste is wasted because of human error, a lack of incentives, and waste management systems with inefficient infrastructure. What if AI could revolutionize the way we manage our trash? Instead of exposing human lives to toxic chemicals and other dangers that inevitably find themselves in trash, what if there were technological interventions that could automate sorting, have an outsized climate impact, and make waste assets more valuable all at the same time? Our guest this month, Matanya Horowitz, CEO and founder of AMP, believes all of this is possible. 

*note: In the episode, Emily incorrectly says that AMP has recycled 20 million metric tons of material. The actual number is 2.5 million tons.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

This episode is also brought to you by JP Morgan.

J.P. Morgan is proud to serve companies that are advancing decarbonization across the globe through innovative business and technology solutions. With J.P. Morgan’s unmatched investment capacity, strong support model, and global scale, the Green Economy Banking team delivers the full suite of the firm’s financial products and advisory services to help fuel the growth of green businesses and the industry at large. No matter what stage you're in, you can rely on JP Morgan's expertise and connections to back your boldest pursuits. So take the right risks, while banking with confidence. J.P. Morgan: Let’s build your future together.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common. In July, Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, causing 3 million Texans to lose power in the midst of a soaring heat wave, which killed 23 people. 

Critics have raised questions about Houston’s power providers preparedness for a disaster like Beryl, and have raised concerns about the long delay in restoring power at a time where access to AC and power could have saved lives. 

Ever increasing extreme weather events like Beryl require utilities, retail electricity providers (REPs), independent power producers (IPPs), and other energy traders and suppliers to rapidly forecast and adjust supply in order to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective electricity. Traditional electricity demand forecasts, which rely on sparse weather data, analog meter readings, and regression-based historical demand data, are insufficient in the face of such events. 

In order to better respond to extreme weather events, and facilitate the energy transition, we need solutions that turn energy data into action and insights for power providers to prevent outages, provide reliable power, predict demand, and even provide carbon insights. And that is exactly what  Sean Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Amperon, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Carbon is everywhere, not just in the air around us, but also in the materials we use everyday.

We talk a lot about reducing the overall amount of carbon in the atmosphere through approaches like avoided emissions or removal. But, what do we do in a world where GHG avoidance and removals are not at the scale required to tackle all of the emissions that come from heavy industry like agriculture and steel?

Research from the Ellen McArthur Foundation shows that switching our energy use to more efficient and renewable sources would only prevent 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In order to truly decarbonize, how do we tackle the other 45% of emissions?

Can we recycle carbon dioxide and monoxide? Instead of the linear fossil fuel based - make, use, waste life cycle, what if we could take CO and CO2, produced by heavy industry and turn it into the building blocks of our everyday lives, like the plastic container holding your cosmetics, your clothes, or the fuel powering your flight. 

In a truly circular economy, we could produce many of the materials we need from greenhouse gasses, like carbon, thus eliminating waste and pollution, and reducing greenhouse gasses across the supply chain. 

In order to achieve this vision, we need solutions that take emissions and byproducts of industries like agriculture and steel, and turn them into usable materials. And that is exactly what Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, is building.  

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

One in ten American families own a Recreational Vehicle, and yet, the RV industry hasn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades, due in part to extreme consolidation and lack of competition. Despite this, 300-500,000 RVs are sold in the US every year, 90% of which are towable. 

Towing an RV can seriously affect the fuel economy of your car. Drivers can expect their gas mileage to decrease about 1-2% for every 100 pounds they tow. The average weight of a large travel trailer is about 6,700 pounds, which means a driver can expect between a 49-74% decrease in gas mileage. 

This means more stops, more money spent on gas, and more emissions.

On top of that, most RVs use propane to fuel generators, which in turn power appliances or amenities, making what should be a peaceful experience outdoors noisier, and the cost of an RV trip even higher, both for a family’s wallet, and for the planet. If you drive an electric car, towing a RV means an extreme reduction in range and therefore an increase in charging stops, which is a challenge for people adventuring in areas without charging infrastructure. 

As the US races towards electrification, more and more people are opting to buy hybrid or electric vehicles. But, for the one in 10 American families that own an RV and may be looking for a better, or even electric, RV experience, they are in serious need of options. 

So, in order to electrify the RV industry, and bring automotive electrification to a new segment, we need a solution that is lightweight, super aerodynamic, and above all, fun. And that is exactly what Toby Kraus, and the team at Lightship, are building. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere would take thousands of years to naturally dissipate through processes like photosynthesis, oceanic absorption, or mineralization. In addition to forests, soils, and the ocean, naturally occurring minerals are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks. 

Over the span of hundreds or thousands of years, carbon dioxide in air and water binds to minerals, and eventually turns to stone, thus removing the carbon from the atmosphere. This process is called mineralization. One of the most abundant types of rocks on the planet is limestone, and it’s one of the unsung superstars of this carbon mineralization process. 

Meanwhile, one of the most exciting advances in the carbon removal industry that has received a lot of attention - and scrutiny - is Direct Air Capture, often referred to as “DAC.” DAC is the process of separating carbon dioxide from ambient air. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specified funding for the deployment of DAC projects in the US, and DAC is getting more interest from companies looking to remove their carbon emissions. But, DAC technologies are typically expensive, energy and land intensive, and use materials that can be difficult to source. 

In order to remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere, we need a DAC solution that is scalable, inexpensive, and designed to leverage natural processes like mineralization via limestone, which has millennia of carbon removal capabilities embedded in its chemistry. And that is exactly what Shashank Samala, Co-Founder and CEO of Heirloom, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.