Episodes

  • Episode 50: Building Heavy Duty EV Infrastructure at Data Center Scale with Neha Palmer
    Dec 17 2024

    50 episodes later… Thank you all for joining us on this journey. We are so pleased to celebrate this milestone by hosting Neha Palmer, CEO and Co-Founder of TeraWatt Infrastructure! Neha Palmer’s career in energy is extensive, with experience in utilities, finance and technology. In her role most prior to TeraWatt, as Head of Google’s Energy Strategy, she led Google to be the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world.

    In this episode we will dive into the electric heavy-duty vehicle space. This sector is notoriously hard to decarbonize, yet accounts for 23% of US transportation emissions. Tackling it has major benefits for our air and Earth. To do so, Terawatt’s approach includes thinking of electric heavy-duty vehicle infrastructure in the same way as we think about building energy solutions to data centers. The demand is high, the scale is large, and the capital is intense. Tune in to hear Neha’s thoughts.

    Thank you to Energy Dialogues for making this (and all our prior episodes!) happen.

    Keynotes:

    • How to tackle complicated electrification issues

    • Why is the energy transition a ‘once in a generation’ transition?

    • What lessons is TeraWatt taking from global electrification leaders?

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    34 mins
  • SPARK Episode 21: Matthew Koh
    Nov 27 2024

    Matthew Koh, Co-founder of Sequestor, is combining his dual passions of finance and sustainability by building the copilot for carbon markets.

    Growing up in Singapore, Matthew quickly found a passion for finance. In high school, he founded an investment platform that equips Gen Z with the tools to learn and understand investing, a venture he credits with helping him build entrepreneurial skills and an interest in starting companies. After high school, he served in the Singapore Army before arriving at Duke University, where he currently studies economics.

    In the episode, we talk about Matthew's vision for Sequestor, trends in sustainable investing, his thoughts on leadership skills, the mechanics of starting a company in college, and much more.

    Key points:

    • How to build leadership skills at a young age
    • Why picking co-founders is the most important decision you make and how to do it right
    • How to validate ideas with customer feedback
    • The complexity of carbon markets
    • And much more

    And follow us on:

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    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

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    22 mins
  • Episode 49: Nuclear to Scale with Joe Klecha
    Oct 24 2024

    In the last 20 years, the United States has only successfully built one nuclear energy project. So how does startup The Nuclear Company plan to turn the industry on its head?

    In this episode, we are joined by Joe Klecha, Chief Nuclear Officer of The Nuclear Company, to discuss the startup’s ambitious plans to deploy 6 GW of new nuclear power in the next decade. Having played a key role in the development of Southern Company’s Vogtle project, Joe reflects on lessons learned and how the nuclear industry will look much different in the future.

    We cover must-know topics including why nuclear energy is seeing a resurgence in public opinion, how technology will play a key role in lowering costs, why their innovative partnership model is critical to their success, and where the next generation can play a role.

    Keynotes:

    -Why the U.S. stopped building new nuclear, and why need to start again

    -How macro trends like electrification and AI are affecting perceptions of nuclear energy

    -How digitalization and technology will make nuclear energy more cost-effective

    -And much more

    And follow us on:

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    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

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    38 mins
  • SPARK Episode 20: Jacob Mansfield
    Jul 29 2024

    Jacob Mansfield is the CEO & Co-Founder at Tierra Climate, a startup whose mission is to accelerate grid-scale battery deployment by unlocking and monetizing grid decarbonization services. Before pursuing his MBA and starting Tierra Climate, Jacob began his career as a rotational analyst at Citi in power trading. He tells us about the lessons from this experience and what drove him to then pursue an MBA. Jacob then explains the process of identifying the problem that Tierra Climate was founded to solve, and gives us the behind the scenes of what it was like to start and grow the company. Jacob finishes the episode with advice for students and aspiring founders, and how young people can use their youth as an asset.

    And follow us on:

    Newsletter: https://www.energy-terminal.com/newsletter-signup

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

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    25 mins
  • 48. FOAK: The Future of Cleantech
    Jul 2 2024

    First time is a charm, right?

    For many climate technologies, building a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) project is a major barrier to widespread adoption and commercialization. The ecosystem of early-stage climate tech funding, such as venture capital and grants, is well-known and used to taking substantial risk for outsized impact. The pools of capital and expertise for turning those technologies into commercial-scale projects, however, is more challenging to navigate. Nevertheless, it is critical for companies to learn to navigate this gap to bring impactful technologies to scale.

    Deanna Zhang, CEO of V1 Climate Solutions, joins us on the show to talk all things FOAK. With a background in investment banking, she has built an expertise in helping companies navigate the pitfalls of FOAK projects and works with startups, investors, and corporates to help them define strategies to successful scale-up climate technologies. Tune in to learn more about how we can best bridge the gap between FOAK and Nth-of-a-kind projects and what developments are needed to make that possible.

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    31 mins
  • SPARK Episode 19: Lamisa Chowdhury
    Jun 9 2024

    Lamisa Chowdhury, University of Kansas grad and current Patagonia Program Officer, has dedicated the early years of her career to investigating energy justice. Lamisa walks us through her path to the energy transition, including why the built environment stands out to her, and why storytelling has become influential to her own understanding of energy systems. Lamisa’s roles have been across nonprofits, utilities, and now the private sector. Each of these experiences shaped Lamisa’s goals for the energy transition, and helped her understand all of its interwoven dimensions. She walks the audience through the importance of equity within the transition, and what students can do to equip themselves to tackle this challenge. She reminds us that humans, people, are at the center of all energy systems.

    Keynotes:

    - The importance of community-focused energy work

    - How different experiences shape our personal understanding of the energy transition

    - The gaps in current energy system structures

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    24 mins
  • Episode 47: Issues with Interconnection
    May 22 2024

    The US’s grid is expansive and complicated. To break it down we are featuring guest Tyler Norris, former VP of Development at Cypress Creek Renewables and current Duke PhD student in Energy Systems. He walks us through the nuances of the issues surrounding transmission and interconnection.

    Join us as we discuss how important transmission and interconnection is to the growth of renewables, and what sort of policy work needs to be done to fix the current problems facing our grid. Also, hear about Tyler’s own career path, and why diversity of experiences is so beneficial to the energy transition.

    Thank you to our sponsor, Energy Dialogues, for making content like this possible.

    And follow us on:

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    32 mins
  • SPARK Episode 18: Will Phelan
    Apr 16 2024

    Today we spoke with Will Phelan, a graduate of Rice University working in Corporate Development at Electric Hydrogen Co. Will begins the episode by telling us how he got his start in energy, and more specifically, green hydrogen. He shares a useful exercise to help students pick their vertical, and gives advice on how to approach this process of finding your niche. Will then explains why he took an interest in green hydrogen and how he used cold-outreach to find experiences and opportunities in the space. We then discussed how students can use a similar strategy to find companies they want to work for and show the team that they will be a valuable asset. Finally, the episode concludes with a discussion around misconceptions about entrepreneurship, advice on finding your passions in energy, and what’s next for Will!

    Keynotes:

    - Green hydrogen’s role in the energy transition

    - Finding your passion and vertical within energy

    - Utilizing cold outreach and LinkedIn to get a job

    And follow us on:

    Newsletter: https://www.energy-terminal.com/newsletter-signup

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-terminal

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/energyterminal/

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    20 mins