Watt It Takes

Hydrostor Co-Founder and CEO Curtis VanWalleghem

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Arc Boats Co-Founder and CEO Mitch Lee

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

If you spend any time on the water, you’ve probably heard the joke that the two best days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy the boat… ...

Voltus Co-Founder and CEO Dana Guernsey

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As an aging grid faces rising demand, increasing complexity, and more frequent stress events, one thing has become clear: we don’t just need more po...

Tyba Co-Founder and CEO Michael Baker

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

​​As load growth pushes the grid to its limits, the energy transition increasingly depends on one technology: storage. Batteries are becoming the ...

Jennifer Granholm, Former Director, Department of Energy

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At a moment when our country can feel deeply divided, and when progress on clean energy can feel uncertain, this month's guest — former U.S. Secreta...

Cloverleaf Infrastructure Co-Founder and CCO Brian Janous

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we’ve covered in other recent episodes, the growth of data centers and the massive amount of power they require is reshaping the energy landscape...

Intersect Power Co-Founder and CEO Sheldon Kimber

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. power sector serves more than 160 million electricity customers—across homes, businesses, and factories in all 50 states. But the grid that...

Brimstone Co-Founder and CEO Cody Finke

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If cement were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, behind only China and the United States. That’s beca...

Sage Geosystems CEO Cindy Taff

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a few years since we last covered geothermal on Watt It Takes. Our 2021 episode with Tim Latimer, Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy, explore...

Jigar Shah, Former Director, Loan Programs Office (LPO)

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You don’t meet many people like Jigar Shah.He’s one of the rare leaders who has shaped the clean energy transition from every angle — as a found...

Shayle Kann, Managing Partner, Energy Impact Partners

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are a handful of people in the clean energy and infrastructure world whose knowledge and voices serve as guiding lights. Shayle Kann is one of t...

Pearl Street Technologies Co-Founder and CEO David Bromberg

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here’s a thought experiment. You’re a seasoned clean energy developer. You’ve got a pipeline of projects. You’ve navigated permitting, secured...

Overstory CEO Fiona Spruill

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a new year unfolds, 2025 has already brought devastating natural disasters. From blizzards to wildfires, climate chaos is impacting our neighbors a...

KoBold Metals Co-Founder and CEO Kurt House

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

2024 was a landmark year for the energy transition. With record-setting investments in climate infrastructure, we saw the price of renewables out-comp...

Stegra CEO Henrik Henriksson

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As we touched on in our last episode with John O’Donnell of Rondo Energy, industry is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions, and it is only fo...

Rondo Energy Founder and Chief Innovation Officer John O'Donnell

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the same way that “Climate Change” and “Global Warming” went from scientific terms to colloquial ones, “Decarbonization” is slowly perm...

AMP Founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Humans produce a lot of trash. How much trash you ask? We produce 2.3 billion tons of trash per year. That’s enough to fill about 800,000 Olympic po...

Amperon Co-Founder and CEO Sean Kelly

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common. In July, Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, causing 3 million Texans to lose p...

LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carbon is everywhere, not just in the air around us, but also in the materials we use everyday.We talk a lot about reducing the overall amount of carb...

Lightship Co-Founder and CEO Toby Kraus

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One in ten American families own a Recreational Vehicle, and yet, the RV industry hasn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades, due in part to extre...

Heirloom Co-Founder and CEO Shashank Samala

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere would take thousands of years to naturally dissipate through pro...

Odyssey Energy Solutions Co-Founder and CEO Emily McAteer

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

WattBuy Co-Founder and CEO Naman Trivedi

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

SustainCERT Co-Founder and CEO Marion Verles

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ushe...

Ebb Carbon Co-Founder and CEO Ben Tarbell

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On November 17th, 2023 the average global temperature was temporarily 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrialization, an event with ominous clima...

Charm Industrial Co-Founder and CEO Peter Reinhardt

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Co-Founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

According to researchers around the world, fusion could be a nearly waste-free, carbon-free, and all-geography answer to creating enough dispatchable ...

Petra Co-Founder and CEO Kim Abrams

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and vulnerable transmission infrastructure have defined some of the worst natural disasters of the past decad...

Lunar Energy Founder and CEO Kunal Girotra

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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, ...

Lilac Solutions Founder and CEO Dave Snydacker

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 gl...

Nithio Co-Founder and CEO Kate Steel

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 f...

Sublime Systems CEO and Co-Founder Leah Ellis

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Concrete is the second most-used material in the world, right behind water. It’s everywhere – in our bridges, our buildings, our homes, our roads....

Leap CEO and Co-Founder Thomas Folker

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. is on track to deploy 550 gigawatts of new renewables on the grid by 2030. That's a massive amount of solar, wind, and other renewables power...

Vibrant Planet CEO and Co-Founder Allison Wolff

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Forests make up a third of all land on Earth,  and they're one of our major defenses against a warming world. 45% of the carbon stored in land exists...

Via Separations CEO and Co-Founder Shreya Dave

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Industrial processes are one of the hardest sectors of the economy to decarbonize. Fossil fuels have been the go-to way of powering the facilities tha...

Electric Hydrogen CEO Raffi Garabedian

28 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Large swaths of the global economy are very hard to decarbonize with renewables and batteries alone. Steel, cement, aviation – these industries are ...

Raptor Maps CEO and Co-Founder Nikhil Vadhavkar

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last decade, solar growth has exploded. Just last year, the U.S. added a record 13 gigawatts of utility-scale solar to the grid. And despite ...

Nth Cycle CEO and Co-Founder Megan O'Connor

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To deploy enough solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries needed to decarbonize the grid, we'll need more of the crit...

Sealed CEO and Co-Founder Lauren Salz

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The energy we use in our homes remains one of the largest sources of emissions in the country. About 20 percent of our energy-related GHG emissions co...

Terabase Energy CEO and Co-Founder Matt Campbell

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, solar reached a historic milestone: 1 terawatt of capacity around the world. One trillion watts is a huge achievement. But solar st...

SPAN CEO Arch Rao

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our homes account for 20 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. The fastest way to cut those emissions is to electrify the systems that heat...

Antora Energy CEO Andrew Ponec

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Heavy industries like manufacturing, food processing, mining, and construction require a staggering amount of energy, often in the form of heat. But ...

TeraWatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of millions of delivery vans and semi trucks move around the clock to keep supply chains humming. These medium- and heavy-duty vehicles make up m...

Our Friends from The Big Switch

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Normally, we’d be bringing you an episode featuring an entrepreneur who’s making our climate-positive future a reality. But behind every founder w...

Watershed Co-Founder Taylor Francis

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With 93 Fortune 500 companies committing to net-zero targets, and with the SEC preparing to require public companies to disclose climate risks, corpor...

Mainspring Energy CEO & Co-Founder Shannon Miller

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’re running a contest! Through April 19, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a limit...

Monolith Co-Founder & CEO Rob Hanson

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’re running a contest! Through March 15th, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a lim...

ChargerHelp! Co-Founder Kameale Terry

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are 46,000 public EV charging stations across the United States. But with 32% of charging stations down at any given time, maintaining them is a...

Remix Co-Founder Tiffany Chu

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Electrifying cars and trucks is an essential part of decarbonizing mobility. But there's another vital piece in the race to zero-emissions transportat...

Fervo Energy Co-Founder & CEO Tim Latimer

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Starting in the 1960s, the United States became a world leader in building large-scale geothermal power plants.That changed in the mid-2000s with the ...

Alex Blumberg, Host of ‘How to Save a Planet’

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of nuances to the way people perceive our warming planet. But media coverage of the issue is often catastrophic, scientifically dense,...

Aurora Solar Co-Founder Samuel Adeyemo

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The United States recently surpassed 100 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, enough to power nearly 20 million homes. But to decarbonize the power...

Arcadia Founder & CEO Kiran Bhatraju

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ninety percent of Americans want to see more renewable energy on the grid. But two-thirds of them can't directly access wind and solar — because the...

Tesla Co-Founder & Founding CEO Martin Eberhard

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to climate tech companies, there's only one name that's known around the world: Tesla.Tesla has arguably been the defining climate tech ...

Malta CEO Ramya Swaminathan

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There's a race going on to build the next generation of energy storage technologies using gravity, chemicals, or heat to store clean electricity for l...

Powerhouse Founder & CEO Emily Kirsch

14 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past four years, we’ve interviewed 40 incredible founders and CEOs on Watt It Takes.Our guests have inspired emerging and established leade...

‘Clean Energy Yoda’ Andy Karsner

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Andy Karsner is a highly influential entrepreneur, investor, diplomat, and strategist working to transform the world’s energy systems.In June, he wa...

SHYFT Co-Founder Ugwem Eneyo

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Africa is becoming a dynamic market for clean, distributed energy. All across the continent, solar, batteries, generators, and microgrids are giving p...

Executive Producer Stephen Lacey

26 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was first aired on February 25, 2021. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Stephen Lacey, the founder of Post Script Audio.Steph...

OhmConnect Co-Founder Matt Duesterberg

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Power plants are massive, complicated pieces of machinery. Gears. Pipes. Boilers. Generators. Instruments. But a new kind of model is taking shape: o...

BlocPower Founder Donnel Baird

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally released on January 15, 2021.In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Donnel Baird, the founder and CEO of BlocPower.B...

EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Cathy Zoi, the CEO of EVgo — one of the cou...

Solstice CEO Steph Speirs

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally released on October 23, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Steph Speirs, the CEO of Solstice.Solstice is ...

Bloomberg New Energy Finance Founder Michael Liebreich

22 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was first released on September 22, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New E...

Green Jobs Pioneer Van Jones

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally published on September 4, 2020In this episode: Emily’s conversation with CNN host and green-jobs pioneer Van Jones.Van m...

Opower Co-Founder Dan Yates

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode originally aired August 16, 2021.In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dan Yates, the co-founder and former CEO of Opower. Opower...

Natel Energy Co-Founder Gia Schneider

28 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally published on May 28, 2020.In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Gia Schneider, the co-founder and CEO of Natel Ener...

Otherlab Founder Saul Griffith

30 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally  published on April 30, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Saul Griffith, the founder and chief scientis...

Blueprint Power Co-Founder Robyn Beavers

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Robyn Beavers, the co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Power.Blueprint works with real estate companies to tu...

Imprint Energy Co-Founder Dr. Christine Ho

08 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dr. Christine Ho, the co-founder and CEO of Imprint Energy.Imprint is the company created to commercializ...

Opus 12 Co-Founder Dr. Etosha Cave

13 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dr. Etosha Cave, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Opus 12.Opus 12 is a team of engineers, e...

Sunrun Co-Founder Lynn Jurich

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally released on November 15, 2018In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Lynn Jurich, the co-founder and CEO of Sunrun.Su...

Form Energy Co-Founder Mateo Jaramillo

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Mateo Jaramillo, the co-founder and CEO of Form Energy.Form is working on a new kind of long-duration bat...

Zola Electric Co-Founder Xavier Helgesen

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Xavier Helgesen, the co-founder and former CEO of Zola Electric. Zola is a provider of solar and storage...

StreetLight Data Founder Laura Schewel

05 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Laura Schewel, the founder and CEO of StreetLight Data.While at UC Berkeley, Laura got interested giving ...

Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers

02 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was originally published on August 2, 2019In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Matt Rogers, the co-founder of Nest.Nest is best k...

Sila Nanotechnologies Co-Founder Gene Berdichevsky

24 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Gene Berdichevsky, the co-founder and CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies. Sila is developing a new lithium-ion...

Dandelion Co-Founder Kathy Hannun

29 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Kathy Hannun, the co-founder and president of Dandelion.Dandelion is a company reinventing home geotherma...

Solar Technology Veteran Terry Jester

07 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Terry Jester, a solar technology veteran.Terry has seen it all in her four-decade career in solar and ele...

Former NRG CEO David Crane

11 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with David Crane, the former CEO of NRG.Today, David is a clean energy investor. Back in 2015, he was CEO of N...

Wunder Capital Co-Founder Bryan Birsic

06 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Bryan Birsic, the co-founder and former CEO of Wunder Capital.Since its launch in 2014, Wunder has explod...

Solar Impulse Co-Pilot Bertrand Piccard

26 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Bertrand Piccard, the co-pilot of Solar Impulse, the first solar-electric plane to circumnavigate the glo...

Sunnova Founder John Berger

13 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with John Berger, the Founder and CEO of Sunnova. Sunnova is a Texas-based company putting hybrid solar-batte...

Proterra Co-Founder Ryan Popple

22 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Ryan Popple, co-founder and executive director of Proterra.Proterra is one of the largest makers of elect...

Advanced Microgrid Solutions Founder Susan Kennedy

31 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Susan Kennedy, the founder of Advanced Microgrid Solutions. AMS created a platform for managing battery ...

Sunfolding Founder Leila Madrone

18 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Leila Madrone, the founder and chief technology officer of Sunfolding. Leila is a former NASA engineer w...

Mosaic Co-Founder Billy Parish

09 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Billy Parish, the co-founder and CEO of Mosaic. Mosaic is the top underwriter of home solar loans in Ame...

Generate Capital Co-Founder Jigar Shah

26 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Jigar Shah, the co-founder of Generate Capital.Jigar is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs and inve...

Sungage Financial Co-Founder Sara Ross

02 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Sara Ross, the co-founder of Sungage Financial. Sungage is a company that makes it easy for homeowners t...

DBL Partners Founder Nancy Pfund

09 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Partners. Nancy is one of the most recognizable VCs in ...

Greentech Media Co-Founder Scott Clavenna

02 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Scott Clavenna, the co-founder of Greentech Media.Launched in 2007, Greentech Media quickly became the pr...

Nextracker Founder Dan Shugar

22 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dan Shugar, the founder and CEO of Nextracker. Dan lives, breaths and bleeds solar. Some call him the "K...

Sungevity Co-Founder Andrew Birch

07 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Andrew Birch, the co-founder of Sungevity.Sungevity was an early success story in residential solar. But ...

SunPower Founder Dick Swanson

09 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dick Swanson, the founder of SunPower, one of the most successful solar companies of all time. Dick is a...