Catalyst with Shayle Kann
Episodes
Understanding SAF buyers
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Airlines are lining up to buy as much sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as they can, despite it costing two to three times more than conventional jet fu...
The news quiz episode!
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we have something a little different: a news quiz. We recently took the stage with four investors at the Prelude Climate Summit — armed...
CO2 utilization
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The IPCC says that we likely need to capture hundreds of gigatons of CO2 if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. So what are we goi...
Building a supply chain for rare earth elements
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential ingredients in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and many electronics. As with most critical minerals, China ...
How an obscure, 100-year old law is disrupting U.S. energy
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A little-known U.S. law called the Jones Act shapes climate tech in weird ways — like hindering offshore wind deployment and pushing up energy price...
The Big Switch: Are Batteries the New Oil?
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we’re bringing you a deep dive into battery supply chains — the season premier of The Big Switch, a show that Latitude Media makes in pa...
The world of battery recycling
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The lithium-ion battery business is taking off, and the battery recycling business is close behind. Financiers are pouring over a billion dollars int...
The electricity gauntlet has arrived
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The electricity gauntlet we covered last year has been having a moment in the national spotlight, with coverage of rising load growth in the New York ...
Digging into the SEC climate disclosure rules
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved new rules this month on what information companies must disclose about their greenhouse gas emiss...
Climate tech’s tough year in the public markets
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two major indicators of climate tech stocks – the S&P Clean Energy Index and the MAC Global Solar Index – are significantly trailing the overall m...
The early days of AI on the grid
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first wave of digital grid infrastructure in the U.S. didn’t quite deliver on its promises. More than 100 million smart meters have rolled out a...
The challenges of building a carbon removal portfolio
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The carbon removal market could reach $400 billion to $1.6 trillion by 2050, according to McKinsey. But it’s got a long way to go. Right now the mar...
The electric transformer shortage
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The list of things that depend on transformers is long: new housing, EV chargers, renewable projects, and more. That’s why skyrocketing lead times a...
Frontier Forum: Diving into the booming transferable tax credit market
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a year and a half since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. In that time, we've seen $110 billion in planned investments for factories t...
More 2024 trends: ESG, carbon certifications, curtailment, and AI
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There was so much to talk about in Nat Bullard’s 200-page slide deck on 2024’s biggest decarbonization trends that we broke the conversation into ...
2024 trends: batteries, transferable tax credits, and the cost of capital
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back for round two, with even more slides than last year. This year’s annual slide deck from Nat Bullard has 200 pages on the key trends sha...
What’s really happening in the U.S. EV market?
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A recent slew negative headlines about U.S. EVs makes it feel like the sky is falling on the market. Yet the data show robust growth. Combined battery...
Solving the cow burp problem
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Agriculture in the U.S. produces more methane than the American oil and gas industry, and the biggest share of that agricultural methane is from enter...
Sourcing biomass for carbon removal
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Plants capture hundreds of gigatons of carbon every year in timber, crops, and other forms of biomass. Much of that carbon gets released back into the...
2023 climate tech venture investment trends
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Venture and early-stage investment in climate tech in 2023 was down 30% from 2022, according to market intelligence firm Sightline Climate. But is tha...
Fixing the messy voluntary carbon market
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The voluntary carbon market is a mess. Oil majors, big tech, and many other industries purchase voluntary credits hoping to offset their carbon emissi...
Financing first-of-a-kind climate assets
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a hole in the finance world. Fighting climate change means scaling up lots of new technologies, but financing those first-of-a-kind (FOAK) p...
What do you do with a 100-hour battery?
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time to get specific. In the power industry “long-duration energy storage” could mean anything from 4 to 10 to 100 hours of energy. But For...
Update: What the new Treasury rules mean for EV supply chains
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. Treasury proposed guidance last Friday that would significantly restrict what battery parts and materials can qualify for incentives in the I...
EV charging on both sides of the pond
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For those of us in the U.S., Europe's strong electric vehicle market might offer a glimpse into the future of EV charging. In 2022 the electrification...
The cost of nuclear
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear construction costs in the U.S. are some of the highest in the world. Recent estimates put it at more than $6,000 per kilowatt, as measured by ...
Mailbag episode! Interest rates, carbon dioxide removal, load growth, and more
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s about that time again. You sent in great questions for Shayle, and in this episode we’re tackling them with the help of Sarah Golden, vice pr...
The Volts crossover episode
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some technologies grab the spotlight even beyond #energytwitter, and some fly under the radar. Which ones are getting more attention than they deserve...
The market for microgrids
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We want your climatetech questions for Shayle’s Ask Me Anything episode! Email questions to us at [email protected]. You can also tag us on...
The pace of home electrification
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Heat pumps in 140 million U.S. homes by 2050 — that’s the goal laid out in Rewiring America’s recent report on the pace of home electrification....
How is U.S. industrial policy affecting actual climatetech investment?
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In climatetech circles, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a big deal. The expectation was that, combined with other parts of U.S. industrial polic...
What electric forklifts teach us about creative policy [partner content]
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by DNV. Wes Whited and Angie Ziech-Malek work for DNV designing efficiency, electrification, and dec...
Climate tech startups need strong techno-economic analysis (TEA)
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We have a flash sale for Transition-AI: New York through October 9th. Use the code FLASH30 to get 30% off your ticket price to our event on AI + ene...
Reviving the stagnant plant based meat market
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was 2020 and plant-based meats were hot. Sales were up 45% that year and expectations were high. The industry set its sights on performing as well ...
Fixing interconnection
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everything's bigger in Texas—the hats, the boots, the convenience stores. But its interconnection times? They’re surprisingly short. In the U.S. i...
Stopping geoengineering, by accident
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Solar geoengineering is a hot (er, cool?) topic these days. One method involves injecting a form of sulfur into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiat...
The food-energy nexus
08 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last time we talked to Dr. Michael Webber, we dug into the nexus between water and energy. This episode we’re diving into food. The connections are ...
Can the V2X dream become reality?
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s the dream: Millions of EVs plugged into their charging docks, working in concert to relieve stress on the world’s power grids. They reduce ...
Seeking the holy grail of batteries (Rerun)
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If there were a holy grail of electric vehicle batteries, it would be low-weight, long-range, and fast-charging. It would last a million miles and cos...
Navigating the electricity gauntlet
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Electrification should be a field day for utilities. As we electrify the economy, adding gigafactories, charging stations, and green hydrogen hubs to ...
Beaming 24/7 solar… from space
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the highest-intensity solar power you can get. It’s available 24/7. And you can send it anywhere on earth. All you need to do is launch a ten...
With Great Power: What other industries can teach utilities about innovation
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week we’re bringing you a special crossover episode from With Great Power. It’s a show about one of the most complex machines ever built – ...
Mining the deep sea
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The good news: The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) contains more nickel and cobalt than the rest of the world’s land-based reserves combined. It also ...
The good and bad of carbon capture
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Carbon capture and storage. It’s a controversial tool in the energy transition that we don’t want to use, but probably have to. Most of the scenar...
The early days of transoceanic hydrogen transport
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before hydrogen makes it big, we have to overcome a massive, ocean-sized challenge: Transporting the fuel between continents. The places that will b...
The fungus among us
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
More than a third of the world’s current greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels go through underground networks of fungi, according to a new pee...
Building out a U.S. solar supply chain
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everything, everywhere, all at once—that’s the state of the U.S. solar industry right now. Suppliers are rushing to take advantage of the Inflatio...
AI for climate: a real world test
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The list of potential uses for AI in climatetech is growing fast: developing better materials, optimizing solar farms, integrating renewables and micr...
The carbon market’s quality problem
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Voluntary carbon credits are a lot like used cars; you really have no idea what their quality might be. Or maybe they’re more like expensive bottles...
Keeping copper from limiting the energy transition
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The energy transition is fueling skyrocketing demand for copper, an essential metal for renewables, batteries, and other climatetech. But supply isn’...
Four ways to store sunlight
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are you a utility or climatetech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transit...
Unpacking EPA’s newly proposed power emissions rule
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are you a utility or climate tech startup looking to understand how artificial intelligence will shape your company? Come to our one-day event, Transi...
The great Bitcoin energy debate
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Depending on who you talk to, Bitcoin mines are either great for the grid or the worst thing that’s ever happened to it. These warehouses of compute...
Understanding the transmission bottleneck
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. power grid is clogged, and it’s holding back the energy transition. Solar and wind farms are waiting four or more years to connect to the...
The Carbon Copy: A rogue geoengineering startup sparks worry
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re bringing you a special crossover episode this week from Catalyst’s sister podcast, The Carbon Copy. It’s about a rogue startup that was tr...
How to build more hydropower
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hydropower is the world’s largest source of renewable electricity today, according to the IEA. Like gas peaker plants, it’s highly dispatchable, m...
What the new Treasury rules mean for EV supply chains
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The battery manufacturing announcements have been coming one after another—a VW cathode facility in Canada; a Tesla factory in Mexico; a Ford batte...
SVB, the banking crisis and climatetech
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The run on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) earlier this month was a hair-raising experience for anyone in climatetech. The bank catered to entrepreneurs in ...
Betting big on renewable natural gas
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Landfills, dairy farms and wastewater plants all emit methane, the potent greenhouse gas produced when organic material decomposes in the absence of o...
The greenhouse gas you don’t know about
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nitrous oxide or N2O is the third largest source of GHG emissions behind carbon dioxide and methane. Also known as laughing gas, it’s long-lived lik...
The Carbon Copy: The great electrician shortage
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on Apri...
A theory of change for climate investing [partner content]
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last year’s surge in oil prices brought record windfall profits for oil majors, and a boon for investors. But historic trends don’t favor fossil f...
More 2023 trends: EVs, onshoring, and the three ages of decarbonization
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachuset...
2023 trends: biomass, ESG, batteries and more
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the first year of what we hope is an annual event: Nat Bullard has released his first climate trends report. He was the chief content officer a...
Strong opinions on SMRs
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recent announcements in the world of nuclear power might make you think that new nuclear technologies are close to deployment in North America. But lo...
What hydrogen leakage means for the climate
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recent research has raised questions about the global-warming impact of uncombusted hydrogen. When it leaks from storage, pipes and other infrastructu...
Mailbag episode! Biotech, layoffs, battery recycling and more
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s that time of year when we reach into our listener mailbag and answer your questions. And you had some good ones. In this episode, Shayle once a...
The journey to monetizing DERs
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s the dream: millions of controllable devices—from EV chargers to thermostats, fridges, and batteries—working together to inject power back...
This episode is trash
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the U.S. alone, food waste is responsible for the equivalent emissions from 42 coal power plants. Globally it accounts for 10% of greenhouse gases,...
Introducing: With Great Power, a show about the people building the future grid
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus episode, we present With Great Power, a podcast from GridX about the people building the future grid, today. The grid is no longer the b...
Natural gas whiplash
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The natural gas market has been through a wild ride, especially in Europe. The pandemic first pushed the prices way down. Then a resurgent economy and...
Ammonia: the beer of decarbonization
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Haber-Bosch process, which turns nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia, produces an essential ingredient in fertilizers and explosives. But it’s re...
Why methane matters
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re talking about two climate blind spots: methane and short-term warming. Most of us think of global warming as a long game. How do we reac...
Advance market commitments to decarbonize heavy industry
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A coalition of companies organized by the U.S. government is promising to purchase low-carbon versions of commodities from “hard to abate” heavy i...
The trends shaping the energy transition [partner content]
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are headed into an uncertain future for the climate – but the range of possible scenarios is getting clearer. We’ve likely avoided the worst-ca...
Solving the conundrum of industrial heat
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To make products like cement, cereal and even baby food, you need heat—and lots of it. Industrial heat consumes about one-fifth of all energy used i...
Unpopular solar opinions, 2022 edition
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card. In a funny twist of fate, solar’s success has ma...
Fixing cement’s carbon problem
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We want your feedback! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win a $100 Patagonia gift card. Join us on November 30 for a live, virtual episode...
Unleashing the magic of heat pumps
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What’s not to love about heat pumps? Well… a few things, actually. Don’t take this the wrong way: Heat pumps are magic. They heat. They cool. ...
Getting more energy on the wires
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Want to build a power plant in the U.S.? Here are three things to know. First, connecting a wind farm, utility-scale battery, or other big source o...
Climatetech for developing economies
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Utilities in developing countries are juggling a complex set of problems: How to extend electricity to those who don’t have it; how to deploy large...
How the US climate bill will finance the energy transition [partner content]
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, produced in partnership with CohnReznick, we explore the market implications of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction ...
What’s holding up hydrogen in Europe?
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Europe’s hydrogen economy is so close to becoming a reality. Billions in public and private dollars are lining up to invest in a wave of newly plann...
What climatetech can learn from the oceans
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So you want to build an offshore wind farm. Are you prepared to manage the marine ecosystem impacts of construction? What about monitoring and protect...
How well does soil actually store carbon?
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in c...
Is the Inflation Reduction Act a win for EVs and batteries?
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in c...
Columbia Energy Exchange: Will Putin’s Energy Strategy Backfire?
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in c...
Averting water wars as we decarbonize
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in c...
Could geothermal become a major zero-emissions player?
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drill down far enough anywhere in the world and you reach temperatures hot enough to generate firm, reliable zero-emission electricity. That’s the h...
The dirt on soil carbon credits
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Soil is a massive carbon sink that’s stored away emissions for centuries. But years of destructive farming practices have released much of this carb...
Booking your first zero-emissions flight
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In aviation, there’s a crowd of low-carbon technologies vying for a slice of the market. On one hand, the long-haul portion of the market will likel...
Will charging infrastructure be a bottleneck for electric vehicles?
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Electric vehicles (EVs) are moving quickly toward mass adoption. So how do we make sure that charging infrastructure keeps up? The people who own, ope...
What the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would mean for climatetech
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The $369 billion climate and tax bill from Sen. Joe Manchin III and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer caught everyone by surprise. Democrats had ab...
Watt It Takes: TeraWatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're bringing you something different today. It's an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, called Watt It Takes hosted by Emily Kirsch of Powerhou...
Seeking the holy grail of batteries
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If there were a holy grail of electric vehicle batteries, it would be low-weight, long-range, and fast-charging. It would last a million miles and cos...
Crossing the valley of death
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In climatetech, the ‘valley of death’ describes the lack of capital for newer solutions, especially those that mainstream investors view as unprov...
The Carbon Copy: Get ready for the battery recycling boom
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the Carbon Copy podcast this week: It’s been over three months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves into global oil markets, caus...
How to Save a Planet: Spark Tank! How Do We Solve the Energy Storage Problem?
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s shark week! Or ‘spark’ week? Today we’re bringing you an episode of How to Save a Planet, in which Shayle steps into the shoes of a Shark...
Which tech is overhyped, underhyped and just right?
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Within the climate tech world, technology hype is all over the map. In this episode, Lara Pierpoint, director of climate at Actuate, and Stephen Lacey...
Making sense of solar engineering
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In some climate circles, solar geoengineering is akin to a swear word. Also known as solar radiation modification (SRM), it means deliberately modifyi...