According to the World Economic Forum, if we want to reach a carbon-neutral future, the world will depend on emerging markets to build energy systems that rely on clean energy instead of fossil fuels. However, only one fifth of global clean energy investments are being channeled into emerging markets. 

Financing the development of distributed renewable energy projects has been slow and challenging for interested investors and project developers. In order to facilitate the growth of distributed renewable energy in emerging markets, and connect financiers, equipment providers, and project developers who see the immense opportunity in decarbonizing growth in emerging markets, we need a platform where all stakeholders get what they need to finance, build, and track the performance of these projects.  

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions, is building. 

At Odyssey, Emily and her team are building a new kind of platform to make it possible for distributed renewable energy projects to launch in emerging markets, by connecting financiers, equipment providers, and project developers, and providing the remote monitoring and control needed to assess performance.

Emily joined the podcast to speak about her journey from Concord, Massachusetts, to working on Wall Street, to the lecture that would change her life, to founding Odyssey and building a platform that’s responsible for the deployment of ~ 2.5 million standalone solar systems and positively impacting the lives of 15 million people. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

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. 

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

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.

Residential energy use accounts for about 20% of greenhouse emissions in the U.S., making it one of the most important sectors to decarbonize. As the world electrifies and consumers become more climate-conscious, energy will become one of the next consumer engagement frontiers. 

The WattBuy platform connects clean energy providers with residential customers, helps consumers save money on their energy bills, and helps companies engage customers with insights and provide enhanced offerings and services.

In this episode, Emily Kirsch sits down with WattBuy Co-Founder & CEO Naman Trivedi to learn more about founding the company, WattBuy’s mission to decarbonize the grid, and building a platform that has generated 20 gigawatt hours of renewable energy for homeowners and renters, and helped them save upwards of $4M on their energy bills.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

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 microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

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.

Some experts are calling 2024 the “make or break year” for the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, which were rocked by a shaky 2023. To usher in a new era of effective and impactful carbon markets, the verification process needs a major tech update, and a serious credibility boost.

Marion Verles founded SustainCERT to be the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and Scope 3 emissions verification solution.

The team at SustainCERT is employing a novel approach to verify a project’s impact on the carbon cycle, and it starts with building a digital platform where project developers and suppliers can enter, track, and adjust their projects in accordance with valuable data insights.

SustainCERT has raised $47M, has a team of more than 100, and has developed what they describe as the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and, more recently, a Scope 3 emissions verification solution. I spoke to Marion about her journey, from her childhood in the south of France, to founding her first company in Cambodia after starting her career in finance, to launching and leading a digital-first verification platform.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

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 microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

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.

On November 17th, 2023 the average global temperature was temporarily 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrialization, an event with ominous climate implications. To slow global climate change, we need to find ways to supercharge natural carbon removal processes like ocean alkalization, and do it in a way that is good for the planet. 

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes Guest, Ben Tarbell, Co-Founder and CEO of Ebb Carbon, is doing.

The team at Ebb is approaching carbon removal in a way that is both novel and as ancient as the ocean itself; integrating with existing facilities that process seawater, they use electrochemistry to remove acidity, and return the alkaline seawater to the ocean where it can then absorb more carbon.

Ebb has raised $23M, has a team of 40, and is deploying their carbon removal system. I spoke to Ben about his journey, from his childhood spent obsessed with building and engineering, to his career in solar, to prototyping the Ebb System in a bathroom-less empty warehouse, to opening Ebb’s first site and starting to meaningfully remove carbon via the ocean. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

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 microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

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.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to return Earth’s atmosphere to 280 parts per million of CO2 for the health of human existence and that of the planet. To achieve that goal, industry experts believe we’ll need to be removing 10-20 billion tons of carbon per year by 2050. 

Removing carbon is exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Peter Reinhardt, Co-Founder and CEO of Charm Industrial, is doing. 

The team at Charm has developed a novel process for removing carbon using biomass that is converted to bio-oil via pyrolysis, and then injected into wells deep underground, where it is permanently stored for thousands of years if not millennia. Charm is also developing a process for fossil-free ironmaking.

Charm has raised $125M, has a team of 50, and is scaling their carbon removal operations. I spoke to Peter about Charm’s mission to turn the tide of global climate change with carbon removal; from his childhood as a self identified “hard core math nerd” with a passion for the environment, to his early career as a ridiculously successful tech entrepreneur, to switching gears and delivering a carbon removal process to a planet that needs it now more than ever. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

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.

According to researchers around the world, fusion could be a nearly waste-free, carbon-free, and all-geography answer to creating enough dispatchable power to get us through the energy transition. To achieve this, all components of a fusion power plant need to be built so that when fusion energy becomes a reality, we have the industry, infrastructure, and processes in place to distribute the power, and it has to be cost competitive. This is exactly what Bob Mumgaard, Co-Founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), is building. 

Today, CFS has more than 600 employees, has raised $2B, and is executing on their plan to make the “holy grail” of fusion energy possible. 

Guest host Lara Pierpoint sat down with Bob to learn more about his journey, the CFS story, and the work being advanced by his team.

Sponsors 

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

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 carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and vulnerable transmission infrastructure have defined some of the worst natural disasters of the past decade, including the 2020 wildfires in California. It’s clearer than ever that in high-risk areas, above-ground transmission lines need to be dug underground to protect communities from fires and to ensure their access to electricity in the face of increasing natural disasters. And that’s exactly why this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Kim Abrams, founder and CEO of Petra, is building a trenchless digging platform to make undergrounding utilities easier and more cost-effective. 

Today, Petra has 72 employees across multiple continents, has raised $45M, and is winning contracts to underground transmission in the US and Colombia.

Guest host Lara Pierpoint sat down with Kim to learn how they're enabling utility undergrounding, more about their trenchless technology making it all possible, and the story behind how she founded Petra.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by SPAN.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations 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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

From induction cooktops and heat pumps to the rooftop solar needed to power it all and the batteries to store excess energy for use during blackouts, we’ve had incredible success building the tools we need to decarbonize our homes. But to the regular consumer, the universe of electrified solutions can be overwhelming. What we need is a home battery system and an integrated ecosystem of all electric products to make it easier than ever for homes to switch from gas to electricity, alongside software solutions to help manage residential energy production, storage, and usage. And that’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Kunal Girotra, Founder and CEO of Lunar Energy, is building.

Lunar emerged from stealth last year with $300M in funding from SK Group and Sunrun, now has 250 employees, and publicly unveiled their integrated residential energy product last week.

Emily sat down with Kunal to learn about how they're building the future of residential electrification, his journey from growing up in India to leading energy at Tesla, and the story behind the growth of Lunar Energy.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations 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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

If the world is going to make the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, we’re going to need lots of energy storage, and a lot of lithium. The global transition to clean energy is expected to trigger a 40-fold increase in the demand for lithium by 2040. 

Lithium is in high demand, but current methods for lithium extraction make it difficult and expensive to source. Conventional extraction methods take up lots of land, use lots of water and energy, and often have devastating environmental impacts. 

Traditional lithium extraction uses massive evaporation ponds, where lithium-rich-brine, (meaning saline groundwater that is rich in lithium) is pumped to the surface and evaporated until it can be processed and extracted. 

These projects often require as much as 10,000 acres of land, and only recover 40% of the lithium available in the brine. 

To make the lithium ion batteries we need to power our electrified world, and more specifically to power the electrification of transportation, we’ll need to source lithium in a way that doesn’t harm the environment, yields tons of high purity lithium concentrate, and uses as little land as possible. And that’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Dave Syndacker, Founder and CEO of Lilac Solutions, is building. 

Lilac Solutions created superior ion exchange beads using ceramic materials that absorb lithium from brine. Lithium rich brine is pumped into a vessel containing the ion exchange beads, which absorb the lithium. Then, hydrochloric or sulfuric acid is used to flush out the lithium to produce lithium chloride or sulfate. Those intermediate forms of lithium are then converted to lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide which get used to make batteries.

Emily spoke to Dave about his journey to becoming a founder, from his childhood on the beach in Rhode Island, to leading seminars about battery technology at Northwestern where a few provocative questions from fellow students put Dave on the path to create Lilac.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations 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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.

As we speak, there are 600 million people in Africa who lack access to even basic electricity. That’s driven in part by low levels of domestic and foreign investment into electricity infrastructure across the continent: over the last decade, just 3% of capital invested into energy infrastructure worldwide went to Africa. 

To enable universal energy access in Africa, we’ll need innovative climate financing solutions that get the right kind of capital to the right kind of projects at the right time. 

And that’s exactly what Kate Steel, Co-Founder and CEO of Nithio, is doing. Nithio uses AI-powered analytics to help investors, local banks, and grant-makers understand payment patterns, credit risk, and portfolio quality in the distributed energy space. They also operate a financing vehicle called Nithio FI that provides loans to distributors that need capital to reach the millions of households with no or unreliable energy access.

In this episode, Emily sits down with Kate to hear about the high school ditch day that introduced her to engineering, her journey in energy access, and the work Nithio is doing financing electricity access across Africa.

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Shell Ventures and SPAN.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

SPAN are the makers of the award-winning SPAN Panel—a smart electrical panel that enhances how homeowners interact with their energy. Interested in advancing your career at one of the premier companies in Climate Technology or getting SPAN installed in your home? Visit www.span.io to learn more.

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations 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 https://www.powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our carbon-free future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review on Apple podcasts.