Catalyst with Shayle Kann

• Calibrating hype with Akshat Rathi

  In the climate space, every idea sits somewhere along the hype continuum. Some command outsize attention. Others fly under the radar despite big potential. And a rare few hit the sweet spot, earning exactly the buzz they deserve. But how do you tell which is which? In this episode, Shayle teams up with Akshat Rathi, senior reporter for climate at Bloomberg News and host of the Zero podcast, to sort it out. Akshat and Shayle run through a list of hot topics and place each one on the hype continuum. They cover topics like: Using DERs to meet load growth Co-locating generation with data centers Infrastructure bottlenecks like generation, transmission, and transformers The roles of venture capital and the Paris Agreement in shaping markets A grab-bag of other topics like sodium-ion, advanced geothermal, and advanced nuclear Resources: Catalyst: The new wave of DERs  Catalyst: When to colocate data centers with generation   Zero: The Device Throttling Our Electrified Future Zero: The Gas Turbine Shortage Might Be a Climate Problem   Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.  Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com. Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.

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• How insurance can narrow the valley of death [partner content]

  Jamie Daggett started his career as a mechanical engineer working for cleantech startups in Silicon Valley. But after five startups and three buyouts, Daggett saw the same story repeat itself: good technologies that worked in the lab often died before reaching commercial scale.  And often they didn’t fail because the science was wrong; they failed because investors couldn’t trust that the performance would hold up over time. That realization eventually led him to an unexpected place: insurance.  Today, Daggett is the energy storage and fuel cell lead at Ariel Green, a Lloyd’s of London syndicate that provides a wide range of insurance for clean-energy projects.  “Insurance is another tool that we can use to help grow the clean-energy market,” says Daggett. “I do feel like it plays an unsung role behind the scenes.” In this episode, produced in collaboration with Ariel Green, Daggett talks with Stephen Lacey about how insurance is helping the energy storage sector mature.  They discuss how the bankruptcy of Powin Energy exposed the fragility of supplier warranties, what the Moss Landing fire revealed about chemistry and safety risk, and how new markets for long-duration and non-lithium storage are testing the boundaries of what can be insured.  Daggett explains how technology performance insurance now allows lenders, developers, and manufacturers to move faster by transferring risk from young suppliers to a creditworthy insurer. This is a partner episode, produced in collaboration with Ariel Green. Ariel Green helps clients reduce uncertainty by providing investment-grade insurance for clean-energy projects — protecting the technologies that protect the environment. To learn more, visit arielgreen.com.

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• How Base Power plans to use its fresh $1B

  Yesterday, Base Power announced a $1 billion series C, giving the residential battery company an eye-popping $4 billion post-money valuation. Base manufactures, installs, owns, and operates residential batteries — a vertical integration strategy that CEO Zach Dell says is the “magic” to beating utility-scale batteries on CapEx. The company also acts as an electricity retailer and sells generation capacity. So how does Base’s business model work? And what will it do with its new fundraise?  In this episode, Shayle talks to Zach about Base’s business model, the vertical integration strategy, and the challenges ahead. They cover topics like: The customer value proposition: how customers pay for backup power and Base uses the batteries for grid services Bases’s “gentailer” business model in ERCOT, earning revenue from monthly customer fees, retail electricity sales, and battery arbitrage The regulated market approach, where Base sells capacity directly to utilities Base’s vertical integration strategy: from ground-mounted designs to decoupled installation processes Challenges like managing a fixed workforce amid fluctuating demand and the declining price volatility in ERCOT Resources: New York Times: Base Power, a Battery-Focused Power Company, Raises $1 Billion Open Circuit: Is this moment for distributed energy different?   Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?  Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.  Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com. Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.

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• Frontier Forum: A new playbook for clean energy growth

  After the failure of federal climate legislation in 2010, clean energy advocates realized they had to look elsewhere for momentum. The result was a shift toward states and regional markets — and the creation of Advanced Energy United, a trade group built to make policy progress outside of Washington. Today, that strategy is more important than ever. With the federal government rolling out new regulatory hurdles, load growth accelerating, and an affordability crisis growing, states have become critical for industry growth. In this episode, Heather O’Neill, the CEO of Advanced Energy United, talks about a new playbook for scaling clean energy in this environment. The framework: build it, make it flexible, and make it affordable. That means removing red tape for new projects, unlocking more value from existing infrastructure through tools like virtual power plants and advanced transmission technologies, and ensuring affordability as utilities make massive investment decisions. “States are where some of our most forward-looking and politically resilient clean energy policies have been developed,” said O’Neill. “And that’s where the opportunities are today.” This week, we feature an edited version of our recent Frontier Forum with Heather about how states are shaping the clean energy transition, and how companies can use United’s new playbook to grow the market. You can download United’s new playbook guide here, and watch the full Frontier Forum conversation with live audience Q&A at Latitude Media.

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• The new wave of DERs

  Demand response was the original distributed energy resource. In its early days, it was surprisingly manual: a grid operator would call up a large load, like a factory, and request a few hours of reduced demand during peak times. Fast forward to today and DERs look dramatically different. They’re automated, deployed frequently across the country, and include everything from EVs and thermostats to sophisticated management systems at paper mills and data centers.  So how did DERs evolve from phone calls to fully fledged virtual power plants? And what role do they play now as electricity demand surges? In this episode, Shayle talks to Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of DER and VPP developer Voltus. She is also the former director of energy markets at EnerNOC, a pioneer in demand response. Shayle and Dana cover topics like: The changing mix of customers and resources, as well as the evolving use cases Voltus’ new “Bring Your Own Capacity” model, allowing large loads like data centers to fund regional VPPs The barriers that hold DERs back, like access to data The market forces shaping DER adoption, including load growth, declining system costs, and market structures How DERs stack up against conventional power plants in meeting rising demand Resources: Open Circuit: The grid flexibility solutions staring us in the face Catalyst: Is now the time for DERs to scale?   Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth   Catalyst: PJM and the capacity crunch   Latitude Media: Google expands demand response to target machine learning workloads Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.  Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com. Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. AI data centers can’t wait years for grid power—and with Bloom Energy’s fuel cells, they don’t have to. Bloom Energy delivers affordable, always-on, ultra-reliable onsite power, built for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and data center leaders looking to power their operations at AI speed. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.

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