The Energy Gang

With America now a climate pariah on the global stage, cities around the country are stepping up their commitments to action. But are they just cheerleading, rather than actually leading? This week, guest Sam Brooks tells the hard truth about why cities are not living up to their bold pronouncements -- not yet, anyway. Brooks is the former director of the District of Columbia's sustainability division. He recently penned a piece for GTM on why cities are not leading on climate in the way they claim. We'll talk to him about the data behind his argument and his experience working in city government. Then, we'll discuss a couple big business moves. NRG is selling off its renewable energy assets as part of a major restructuring plan. We’ll tell you why. And AES creates a joint venture with Siemens to scale up utility-scale storage. We’ll take a look at the global storage arms race. This podcast is sponsored by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Visit Mission Solar at the upcoming Solar Power International conference at Booth 3975. You can find out more about Mission’s American-made, high-power modules at missionsolar.com. Read Sam Brooks' piece: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hard-truths-about-city-failures-with-clean-energy

This week, we're coming to you live from Grid Edge World Forum. We kick off the show with a look at oil majors. Oil companies have toyed with renewables over the decades with mixed success -- but is it time to take them seriously in the era of electrification? Then, the latest experience with distributed renewables as grid assets. We’re all awaiting the release of a DOE report ordered by Energy Secretary Perry on how wind and solar are threatening baseload power and the health of the grid. We will go beyond the politics, and look to real-world applications as a guide for what’s really going on. In our last segment, we quickly flow through the most talked-about current events, including blockchain, artificial intelligence and the role of consumer tech giants in energy. This podcast is brought to you by Kaco New Energy.

A bitter dispute. A clash. A battle royale. Those are just a few descriptions of a new study countering Mark Jacobson's 2015 report showing that we can source 100 percent of America's energy from wind, solar and water. Jacobson's study is controversial. Celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Bernie Sanders have lauded his work. Other experts have long questioned his assumptions. Jacobson himself has called it the "only moral choice." This week, Twitter erupted with debate over Jacobson's assumptions -- resulting in personal attacks, a litany of tweet storms and wide press coverage. In this episode, we're going to dig into the dispute over 100 percent renewables that has spilled out of academia and into the mosh pit of Twitter and politics. In the second half of the show, we'll focus on reliability and renewables. Does Europe’s better outage record tell us anything about variable wind and solar and the health of the grid? Finally, America just got 10 percent of its electricity from non-hydro renewables. What does that tell us about where we are headed? This podcast is sponsored by KACO New Energy, a leading solar inverter company with superior engineering and unmatched customer service.

Utility executives poured into Boston from across the country this week for the Edison Electric Institute’s annual conference. They talked about everything from crazy national politics to rate design to artificial intelligence and the future of workers. We brought our recording gear and tracked down some top names in the industry. In this episode, we hear what's on the minds of utility executives. Here are some highlights from the interviews: Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, on why decarbonization will continue under Trump: "We don't chase fads. Our business approach, our strategies, our models, have a much longer life than any political party or any particular administration." Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM Resources CEO, on automation and the future of work: "We're not thinking about that enough yet." Julia Hamm, the CEO of SEPA, on how distributed energy is wrapped up in smart cities and artificial intelligence: "Utility executives are really starting to think about how does that suite of distributed energy resources fit into an even bigger picture." David Owens, retiring VP of regulatory affairs at EEI, on the new priorities for investor-owned utilities: We've gotten very aggressive in the industry's vision. And that vision is focused around cleaner energy, a smarter energy infrastructure, and providing customized or individualized solutions so we can respond to customer needs." And here's our reading list mentioned at the top of the show: R Street Institute report on why baseload retirements don't necessarily mean unreliability: bit.ly/2sA7uAH Rocky Mountain Institute piece on outdated notions of baseload power: bit.ly/2swyRdY Researchers debunk the premise of Rick Perry's baseload report in The Conversation: http://bit.ly/2rnBH1k GTM article summarizing a report on why ARPA-E is a success so far: http://bit.ly/2sGFevU Wall Street Journal article on oil giants shifting their focus to electricity: http://on.wsj.com/2tuE2bL The Interchange is brought to you by AES Energy Storage. AES is helping utilities harness the power of battery-based energy storage to make the electric power system cleaner, more flexible, and more reliable. Find out more: http://bit.ly/2oxZ5dT Make sure to subscribe to The Interchange podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher, or integrate our RSS feed into the podcast app of your choice.

We’ve had a week to let the media digest Trump’s climate trolling. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has been all over the airwaves defending the decision to withdraw from Paris, and journalists have been all over the administration for its loose relationship with the facts. We’ll look at how Paris has played out in the press. Then, after killing net metering, Nevada is suddenly back on the table as one of the most important solar markets –- and now one of the most important storage markets. We'll have an overview of the stunning reversal in the Silver State. And finally, we’ll talk about a new report warning of a coming auto-industry death spiral. This podcast is brought to you by Kaco New Energy: http://kaco-newenergy.com/

We all just became actors in Donald Trump’s reality TV show. After an elaborate tease over the Paris climate deal in recent weeks, the president finally revealed that he’s walking away from the historic agreement. Soon after Trump’s speech, world leaders issued bold statements: It’s not going to happen. There is no renegotiation process. The deal is the deal. Then local officials spoke up. It didn’t take long for dozens of U.S. mayors and governors to adopt the targets set by the climate accord. And then the corporate fallout started. Already, Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Iger have quit Trump’s business advisory council. Many more executives have publicly rebuked the president. The international and domestic consequences of this decision are still playing out. In this episode of the Energy Gang, we grapple with in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s speech. What should we take seriously? This episode is sponsored by KACO New Energy: kaco-newenergy.com

California released a white paper last week documenting the stunning decline of the customer base for investor-owned utilities in the state. Meanwhile, the state is facing more and more curtailments, negative electricity pricing, and, on top of it all, a looming solar eclipse. What can we learn about market design from the nation’s solar leader? Then, getting to terawatt-scale PV. Researchers and policymakers are getting serious about thousands and thousands of gigawatts of solar in the coming decades. And they’re asking some hard questions about market design. What does the world look like under that scenario? Finally, we'll end with a fast cycle through some of the top news stories. How worried should you be? This week's podcast was recorded live at GTM's Solar Summit. For access to videos of all our sessions -- featuring First Solar, Sunpower, Sunshot, Google, SEIA, Sunrun and more -- sign up for GTM Squared. This podcast is sponsored by KACO New Energy, a leading solar inverter company with superior engineering and unmatched customer service.

Now that Tesla has unveiled pricing details for its solar roof, everyone is trying to figure out if it's a good deal. Depending on what your assumptions are -- what kind of roof you're replacing, what kind of market you live in, how much in subsidies you're earning, and what kind of solar system you're competing with -- the value can vary wildly. Some say it's a surprisingly good deal. Others say it's far more expensive than Tesla claims. In this week's podcast, we'll discuss the economic viability of the Tesla solar roof. We'll also look at growth prospects, potential barriers to adoption, and where the product might fit into Tesla's long-term solar strategy. Then, Walmart’s Project Gigaton: A look at the mega-retailer’s new plan to slash emissions deep in its supply chain. Finally, FERC nominees: After 4 months, we have some candidates for America’s top energy regulatory body. We’ll talk about how they could shape the country’s energy landscape over the next few years. This podcast is sponsored by KACO New Energy, a leading solar inverter company with superior engineering and unmatched customer service: kaco-newenergy.com

In this show, sponsored by Itron, we discuss the emergence of the smart city. Itron has been at the forefront of developing smart city infrastructure. We speak with Sharelynn Moore, the VP of Marketing at Itron, about how the company is using sensors and software to make the smart city come alive. Learn more about Itron's smart cities work: http://www.itron.com/na/industries/smart-cities

Since the day Tesla was founded, executives saw stationary storage as a compliment to the electric car business. That was Martin Eberhard's plan when he co-founded the company and envisioned the Tesla Energy Group. Years later, after launching the Powerwall, CEO Elon Musk said the storage business could soon eclipse automobiles. Today, storage is an integral part of Tesla's package of offerings for consumers, and its development plans for utilities. In 2009, Mateo Jaramillo was hired to execute Tesla's storage strategy. Well, eventually. First, he was responsible for developing the company's powertrain. Over time, he became more heavily involved in stationary storage -- eventually building Tesla's in-house storage development arm and the team that designed the Powerwall and Powerpack. He drew on his years of experience at Gaia Power Technologies, where he worked on some of the earliest behind-the-meter battery systems in New York. Last December, Jaramillo left Tesla to focus on his next career move in storage. The LinkedIn description of his new job job reads: "The Next Thing." This week, we caught up with Jaramillo to talk about what that "next thing" might be. We talked about the history of behind-the-meter storage, the evolution of Tesla's approach to the market, and where storage business models and applications are headed. Thanks to our launch sponsor, AES Energy Storage. The grid is changing. Fast. And AES Energy Storage is helping utilities harness the power of battery-based energy storage to make the electric power system cleaner, more flexible, and more reliable. Find out more. Big thanks to our launch sponsor, AES Energy Storage: http://aesenergystorage.com/interchange Make sure to subscribe to the Interchange: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-interchange/id1221460035?mt=2 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/theinterchangepodcast Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-interchange Our RSS Feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:298570872/sounds.rss Bookmark our Interchange web page: https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-interchange