The Green Blueprint
Episodes
Sage Geosystems' bet on underground energy storage
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
About 90% of global energy storage is pumped storage hydropower – which requires a mountain, a lake, and a whole lot of permitting. While lithium ba...
Inside Microsoft’s plan to remove 50 years of carbon emissions
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2020, Microsoft announced a major goal: by 2050 the company aims to remove from the atmosphere all the carbon emissions it has produced since its f...
Captura's high-stakes gamble
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Back in January, Captura CEO Steve Oldham was sitting in a conference room in Hawaii, entertaining reps from the company’s first potential customer....
Boston Metal’s path to carbon-free steel
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year in the U.S., steel manufacturers will produce more than 71 million tons of steel – enough to build nearly 200 Empire State buildings. It's...
The thermal battery transforming cold storage for India’s dairy farmers
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2007 Sam White, co-founder of Promethean Power Systems, was traveling through India looking for a rural electrification problem to solve. He and hi...
This VC wants climate tech to play hardball in Washington
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Clean energy founders love to talk about technology, capital, and scale. But few are prepared for the fourth pillar of success: government. Shomik Du...
Shortening the nuclear development cycle from decades to years
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, nuclear has struggled with cost overruns and delays — Georgia’s Vogtle plant being the latest example. Kairos Power co-founder and CE...
The sunk cost dilemma
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deep into engineering studies for Project Cormorant, 8 Rivers' massive low-carbon ammonia facility, the team discovered new efficiencies that would cr...
John Hickenlooper’s optimism in the face of opposition
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Three years ago this month, the Inflation Reduction Act passed, marking the largest investment in climate policy in U.S. history. It included over $30...
The rogue idea that saved a hydrogen startup
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, Zach Jones learned that his technical team at Graphitic Energy was secretly working nights and weekends on an unsanctioned approach to produc...
The tape that led to a fusion breakthrough
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, Commonwealth Fusion Systems proved it had built the most powerful magnet in the world. The breakthrough was based on a specific material - a ...
Frontier Forum: Fixing distributed energy's finance gap
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Clean energy attracts nearly $3 trillion in investment annually, but most of that capital flows to massive utility-scale projects through the world's ...
FOAK tales
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we're bringing you a special episode of Catalyst with Shayle Kann, a show about how to decarbonize the planet. In this episode: what it tak...
Building Fervo's geothermal giant
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2023, Sarah Jewett was on her honeymoon in France when she received a life-changing text: steam was flowing from Fervo Energy's first commercial ...
Terawatt Infrastructure’s billion-dollar strategy
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, Neha Palmer co-founced Terawatt Infrastructure with a bold mission: create the backbone for America's electric trucking revolution. Within i...
The scrappy beginning of Tesla’s energy business
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, Drew Baglino was helping build Tesla's energy division with a passionate, scrappy team. Using parts from Tesla's vehicles, they created the f...
LineVision's quest to win over utilities
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, LineVision was a young company with revolutionary technology for electric transmission lines. Its dynamic line rating sensors and software co...
Nextracker's blueprint for 100 gigawatts of solar trackers
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Shugar has been trying to move solar panels around since the 1980s. What started with a few experiments as a young engineer has turned into one of...
Electric Hydrogen’s bet on supersized electrolyzers
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Raffi Garabedian co-founded Electric Hydrogen in 2020, he saw existing electrolyzers as too small and expensive to make green hydrogen economical...
How supply chain chaos sank Sunfolding
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leila Madrone founded Sunfolding in 2012 with an innovative idea – build a solar tracker using pneumatic "airbags" instead of motors and torque tube...
Open Circuit: Jigar, Katherine, and Stephen are back
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re featuring an episode of Open Circuit, a new show from Latitude Media that reunites Jigar Shah, Katherine Hamilton, and Stephen Lace...
The first commercial construction project for low-carbon cement
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In May 2024, Yanni Tsipis was watching as his team prepared to pour a low-carbon version of concrete — one that had never been used in a commercial ...
Pioneering one of the first IRA tax credit transfers
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Chris Taylor and his team at GridStor were building Santa Barbara county's largest battery storage project in Goleta, CA they saw an opportunity:...
Building the world’s biggest DAC facility
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Christmas Eve 2023, Doug Chan wasn't celebrating with family. Instead, he was in Hellisheiði, Iceland with his team, preparing to commission Mammo...
A complex path for building heat batteries
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, John O’Donnell and Peter von Behrens figured out how to design a heat battery that would deliver heat at very high, constant temperatures. ...
The ‘third inning’ of the energy transition [partner content]
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the presidential election, the clean energy industry is scrambling to figure out what a second Trump administration would mean for...
The risk of scaling 100x
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, Via Separations was getting ready to build its commercial-scale filtration system, a technology that could help cut emissions and costs for a...
Why concentrated solar couldn’t compete
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2009, John Woolard’s team flipped the switch on a first-of-a-kind concentrated solar power project. The pilot paved the way for BrightSource Ener...
Introducing: The Green Blueprint
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve already invented many of the solutions needed to decarbonize the global economy. But a big chunk of emission reductions will come from technol...
An update on what's ahead for this show, and more
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since we stopped The Carbon Copy, some listeners had questions about what’s next. Here's a preview of our new podcast, the Transition-AI event in D...
Frontier Forum: How rates will make or break the energy transition
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dynamic pricing is everywhere – and impacts all of us. Whether it's the time of day, your location, or the amount of demand, so many of our decision...
Our final episode: The top stories of 2024 so far
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some news: this will be our final installment of The Carbon Copy. But don’t go anywhere! Later this fall, the feed will be transformed into a new sh...
Avoiding mistakes from the first smart meters
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When millions of smart meters rolled out across the country at the turn of the last decade, many people hoped it would create the backbone of a digita...
Why ditching aluminum is key to securing the US solar supply chain
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Solar is the fastest growing electricity-generating technology in history. That rapid scaling was a result of squeezing cost reductions out of every s...
AI-fueled geothermal and ‘the edge of the possible’
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of climate tech investors are still trying to figure out how to invest in artificial intelligence. Will it become a unique investment category? ...
A macro view on the state of climate tech
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We need to invest many trillions of dollars every year to build a climate-positive economy. We know what those technologies are – but they're all at...
Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Data centers are an impressive energy success story. Over the last 25 years, internet traffic has climbed more than 500x while data center electricity...
Tesla’s extremely hardcore pivot
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The origin of Tesla was rooted in two goals: electrify transportation to drive down emissions that are warming the planet; and do it by driving down t...
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 w...
Political Climate: Is the IRA under political threat?
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we have a drop-in episode from our new podcast at Latitude Media: Political Climate. Since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in August...
An influx of EVs. Surging peaks. Can AI help?
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI is suddenly in use everywhere – and it’s headed for the power sector. New research from Latitude Intelligence and Indigo Advisory Group shows...
The rise of heat batteries
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John O’Donnell co-founded and ran two solar thermal companies. He watched as the technology shifted from being the most promising utility-scale sola...
Inside Apple’s failed car program
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Gurman has been covering Apple since 2009. His reporting career is full of scoops about new products or strategic decisions from inside the compa...
The Latitude: Could government rules hinder green hydrogen?
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US green hydrogen industry is at a critical juncture. After months of input and debate, the government put out draft rules for tax credits at th...
The achilles heel of AI in the power system: data
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are many forces that could hold back AI in the power system: computing infrastructure, power availability, regulation, and corporate inertia. Th...
The urgent need to simplify clean energy finance [partner content]
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Early in her career, Amanda Li worked on many deals in solar and storage as part of a billion-dollar sustainable infrastructure fund. And she discover...
New demand is straining the grid. Here’s how to tackle it.
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Brian Janous took charge of Microsoft’s clean energy strategy in 2011, the company’s data center demand was modest. He was measuring new dema...
The right way to recycle batteries [partner content]
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 2000s, Steve Cotton ran a company serving the fast-growing data center industry with backup battery systems. And when those systems reach...
A view of the $1.8 trillion clean energy economy
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can a couple trillion dollars feel small? Global investments in the energy transition – from the buildout of factories and power projects to project...
Virtual power plants: the ‘sandwich’ for the grid
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If we want any chance of affordably and reliably building a grid powered 100% by zero-carbon resources, we need to triple the capacity of virtual powe...
Pricing and tech trends shaping the global battery storage market
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The storage market is full of surprises. Last year, global storage installations were a third higher than expected, driven mostly by Chinese policy to...
US power demand is set to boom. How will we meet it?
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As President Biden’s green industrial policies reignite the US manufacturing base, AI computing workloads soar, and machines across the economy turn...
How AI is rapidly advancing new materials for clean energy
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is quickly accelerating drug discovery, healthcare services, product design, and manufacturing efficiency. Now it's here for m...
Venture investors riff on headwinds, hype, and wildcards of 2023
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Turbulent. Equilibrating. Those are the words that investors Gabriel Kra and Carly Anderson use to describe the last year for venture capital in clima...
The terawatt era of PV: ‘Solar will be the gas of today’
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the numbers for 2023 are finalized, there could be another 320 to 413 gigawatts of solar installed around the world – bringing global capacity ...
The storylines of the energy transition in 2023
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The competing trends in the energy transition from 2023 were stark: a looming peak in demand for oil, gas, and coal; a global agreement to transition ...
LNG exports: America’s hidden ‘climate bomb’
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In less than a decade, America has become the world’s biggest exporter of liquified natural gas. In the mid-2000s, the US was building terminals t...
Making sense of advanced nuclear’s stumbles
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The nuclear industry is grappling with several issues: high interest rates, rising commodity prices, limited supply chains, fuel availability, and a r...
How to triple renewables by 2030
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It took 12 years to triple global renewables – and now we need to do it in eight years. As the latest UN climate summit begins, there’s a propos...
AI in the real world: Solar forecasting, EVs, and virtual power plants
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Weather forecasts for the grid depend on supercomputers to calculate the flow of heat, water, and radiation in the atmosphere, and then spit out predi...
The future of the ‘broken’ grid [partner content]
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by Intersect Power. The U.S. grid is in trouble. It's old; it's really hard to build new transmissio...
For Microsoft, AI is an ‘unlock’ for decarbonization
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft was an early mover in integrating OpenAI’s LLM into its Azure cloud services. And now every part of Microsoft’s technology stack — fro...
Inflation plagues clean energy. How bad is it?
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wind, solar and batteries have seen steady, fairly predictable cost drops over the last two decades. But a combination of pressures – supply chain t...
Tackling the tough stuff: steel, cement, and chemicals
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The industrial sector is set to overtake power generation and transportation as the biggest source of planet warming emissions in the US by 2035, acco...
Investors riff on the new era for climate investing
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of quarterly ups and downs in venture dollars deployed across climatetech. But the trend is generally up. Since 2021, more than 200 ne...
Can California pull off its clean energy ambitions?
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California is at a crossroads. The state has already installed nearly 1.8 million rooftop solar systems, 5 gigawatts of batteries, and 1.6 million ele...
Why electric cars are driving the auto strikes
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just as the auto industry resolves supply chain problems from the Covid pandemic, a new disruptive force has emerged: labor disputes. Nearly 20,000 Am...
New frontiers of clean energy emerge
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Renewables and electric vehicles are on a tear, and they’ll soon likely attract $2 trillion in yearly investment. But global emissions have not peak...
Inflation headwinds for offshore wind
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the last few months, three major projects in Europe and America have been delayed or canceled, thanks to rapidly rising costs. Those projects mak...
As debate over carbon removal swirls, America steps up funding
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the carbon dioxide removal industry grows, engineered solutions like direct-air capture are getting more attention. According to the IPCC, novel me...
America’s next-generation mining future [partner content]
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a partner podcast episode, brought to you by South32. Pat Risner spent 25 years as an engineer, general manager, and executive at one of the l...
America’s historic climate law, one year on
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A year after it was passed, the Inflation Reduction Act is already reshaping the energy and automotive industries in the U.S. New factories for a wide...
The high stakes debate over green hydrogen
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In August, the US government is set to issue standards for hydrogen tax credits. Over the last year, a debate has been raging over how strict those st...
A surprise benefit of rooftop solar in New England
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years, rooftop solar was overlooked as a reliability solution in New England. But in a very sudden reversal, the region's grid operator says it’...
What’s the next big trend in clean energy?
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, we have wildly underestimated the growth of renewables. Now that cost curves and deployments have exceeded all expectations, what’s nex...
A groundbreaking battery nears industrial scale
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mateo Jaramillo is the co-founder and CEO of the long-duration storage company Form Energy. Mateo has spent the last two decades building battery st...
A new narrative series on the origins of Europe's energy crisis
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Putin’s assault on Ukraine triggered an energy crisis that sent Europe’s economies into a tailspin and put the European energy transition to the t...
Will poor data hold back the potential of AI on the grid?
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we started the show with a simple question: what do we want from the artificial intelligence systems advancing so quickly? Inevitably, wh...
How AI is being used in energy, right now
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are at the start of a commercial arms race in artificial intelligence that has thrilled some, and alarmed others. For many, it's both. There's no s...
The fall of a battery maker still haunts America
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As we evaluate the Biden team's approach to building back domestic manufacturing and climate-positive infrastructure, we keep coming back to the quest...
Why Texas Republicans are trying to crush wind and solar
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Republicans dominate every part of government in Texas. It's been that way for two decades. It also happens to be a state with the most wind and utili...
EVs are a catalyst for broader electrification [partner content]
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are at an inflection point for electric vehicles. The mass adoption phase is underway in many countries, including America. The US government is pu...
Degrees: The fastest electric vehicle fleet makeover in the West
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re running a bonus episode from our friends at Environmental Defense Fund and their podcast Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving car...
How will we power all those green factories?
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the nine months since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, $28 billion in new manufacturing investments have been unveiled. Credit Suis...
Live: Is advanced nuclear ready for liftoff?
17 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 Big Switch: California’s climate czar on banning gas cars
10 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...
America’s green industrial strategy 2.0
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last two years, we’ve created the foundation for a green industrial awakening in America — thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jo...
Creating the ‘energy capitals’ of a decarbonized grid [partner content]
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The landscape for peaker power plants in New York is changing. Over the next two years, dozens of aging oil- and gas-fired plants will be phased out a...
Will America’s commercial kitchens go electric?
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Around the US, cities are passing laws to phase fossil gas out of buildings. But the culinary industry is pushing back, saying that gas bans hurt chef...
From Drilled: The Boom
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We're sharing an episode of a podcast we love, Drilled from our friends over at Critical Frequency. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a questi...
Live: How AI could supercharge climate tech
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Up until six months ago, artificial intelligence might not have squeaked into the top five areas of climate tech for most people. But the Cambrian exp...
What’s driving a surge in renewables opposition?
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In five years, we've tripled the amount of solar capacity connected to America's grid. Wind capacity has grown 60% in the last 5 years. And in just th...
Live: The most ambitious city energy transition in America
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s supercomputer found that Los Angeles can hit 100% clean power within a decade and a half. But ho...
A bank collapse threatens climate startups
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley Bank was a mid-sized bank that catered to entrepreneurs in the tech sector. The bank was an early supporter of the climate tech and sus...
A rogue geoengineering startup sparks worry
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, TIME Magazine staff writer Alejandro de la Garza found himself on the floor of a hotel room in Nevada with two guys trying to cook su...
Introducing Discarded: Episode 1, David vs. Goliath
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Discarded is a series from Lemonada Media. If you like The Carbon Copy, then we think you’re going to enjoy Discarded. The shadow of Goliath is loom...
Are oil & gas majors abandoning clean energy?
08 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...
California's 'white gold' rush (re-run)
01 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...
Stunning new data on coal vs renewables
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For the last 12 years, coal generation in America has been in steady decline. In 2022, wind, solar, and hydro collectively generated more electricity ...
A surprising history of gas stove pollution
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, new research showing that 12 percent of childhood asthma can be linked to gas stoves took over the news cycle. Suddenly, gas stoves were a...