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Volts

David Roberts

Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)

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  • Yesterday · 1 hr 31 min

    The transformative potential of solid-state transformers

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Power electronics have taken over almost everything in our lives, with the exception, oddly, of the power grid itself — it is still held together by tens of millions of analog, iron-and-copper transformers, the design of which has barely changed in a century. Solid-state transformers replace the dumb gray box with something that can monitor and steer power or convert it from AC to DC and vice versa. In this episode, Enphase co-founder Raghu Belur, who built his company by dividing big solar inverters into thousands of small ones, explains how he’s trying the same thing with transformers, why AI data centers and big solar and battery projects are the first markets, and what it would take to put a smarter transformer on every pole. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:02 – What a transformer does 07:53 – What conventional transformers can’t do 11:43 – What makes a transformer solid state 15:27 – How much is software, how much is hardware 19:40 – Why power electronics hasn’t reached the grid 23:54 – Enphase’s distributed approach 31:23 – Building transformers from 5-kilowatt modules 34:58 – Copper, gallium nitride, and supply chains 43:44 – Cybersecurity 47:23 – Data centers and 800 volts DC 59:29 – Solar and battery storage 1:05:18 – The cost question 1:07:02 – Neighborhood transformers and the utilities 1:15:37 – Efficiency, lifespan, and heat 1:22:24 – Handling grid faults 1:25:27 – Standards, policy, and the next few years

    • Transcript
  • Friday · 13 min

    The (climate) case against (AI) data centers

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf Volts guests have argued that data centers can be good for the grid if they’re built right. Here I hear the case against, from Ketan Joshi, a former wind-industry analyst who now tracks Big Tech’s climate claims. He sees data centers as the wrong kind of demand growth: lumpy, concentrated, unwanted by neighbors, and largely met with gas. Underneath it all is the worry that the backlash against data centers will become a backlash against electrification itself. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:14 – How Ketan became a big tech critic 06:01 – The case against data centers 07:39 – What data centers add to emissions 11:57 – Isn’t more electricity demand good? 20:12 – Backlash and the NEXTDC power-pole protest 24:21 – AI claims 1: will AI help the climate? 27:53 – AI claims 2: machine learning vs. generative AI 33:47 – AI claims 3: inflated climate wins 36:51 – The gas rush: how much gets built? 44:49 – Would easier renewables fix it? 49:14 – Can data centers be flexible load? 55:41 – Do we actually want AI data centers? 59:39 – What should data centers do to plug in? 1:05:31 – Fake crackdowns and the risk to renewables 1:09:24 – What if AI is a bubble?

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  • October 28 · 1 hr 8 min

    The PAC taking out clean energy opponents

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Clean energy is the cheapest, fastest-growing source of power in the country, yet politically it barely registers. Republicans gutted its tax credits last year without fearing any consequences. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, a super PAC backed by clean energy investors, is trying to change that the old-fashioned way: by punishing the industry’s enemies. It went six for six in this year’s primaries; it’s now spending at least $15 million against seven Republican House candidates in the midterms. Its chair, Tom Matzzie, makes the case for fear as a political asset, explains why the industry has been so slow to throw elbows, and describes what it would take for clean energy to become a lion instead of a gazelle. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:55 - How the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition started 06:23 - Why a super PAC, and the idea of mythic power 09:50 - Punishing opponents to send a message to Congress 12:55 - Proving impact, and the permitting bill 17:13 - How ITC picks its general election races 21:41 - Does knocking out extremists help Republicans? 24:53 - Free riders and barriers to industry politics 28:58 - Who funds ITC, and why the industry underinvests 32:44 - Why clean power stays politically weak 38:28 - Did the IRA’s red-state investments pay off? 40:35 - Fear of Trump’s retaliation 45:05 - Avoiding the Democratic PAC label 49:30 - Presidential primaries and the ethanol playbook 53:20 - Gas inside the clean power trade groups 58:37 - Where ITC goes after November

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  • October 23 · 1 hr 6 min

    Building our piece of the electric stack

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Collectively, the electric stack (batteries, motors, chips, power electronics) has gotten about 99% cheaper since 1990. It is quietly remaking every machine that turns electricity into motion, heat, or work. Problem is, China makes most of it. Sam D’Amico, co-author of “The Electric Slide” and founder of Impulse Labs, is betting the US can still claim a piece of that stack. He’s starting with a battery-powered induction cooktop. We talk about why domestic manufacturing matters, what America would actually have to build to compete, and how Silicon Valley’s founder world really thinks about climate change, geoengineering included. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:52 – From VR headsets to kitchen appliances 07:07 – How a pizza oven inspired a battery stove 10:07 – Peak demand, at home and on the grid 13:25 – Which appliances could use a built-in battery 16:46 – Electric stack 1: the four technologies 20:28 – Electric stack 2: power electronics and motors 25:21 – China bets on hardware, the US bets on AI 30:08 – Why not just buy it all from China? 33:51 – Why engineers need to be near the factory 38:39 – How much does the US need to make at home? 45:19 – US EV policy and letting Chinese cars in 47:49 – Batteries in appliances vs. one home battery 52:04 – Impulse’s plan: its tech in other brands’ stoves 55:17 – What’s next after the stove 57:14 – Has Silicon Valley stopped caring about climate?

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  • October 21 · 1 hr 2 min

    Can distributed energy work around American utilities?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe American homes are filling up with batteries, EVs, and smart thermostats that could be coordinated to make the grid cheaper and more reliable — but almost none of them are. To understand why, it helps to watch what happens when the company best in the world at this tries to do it here. In Britain, Octopus Energy has built a giant virtual power plant out of its customers' devices. In the US, it has spent six years running into walls. Now it’s bought Uplight, which runs customer programs for 85 utilities. I talked with Nick Chaset, who runs both, about what's in the way and whether distributed energy can ever scale with US utilities … the way they are. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:02 – Octopus’s past year and the Uplight investment 05:18 – What makes the UK market work for Octopus 11:12 – Texas: fast growth, flattened volatility 14:57 – Will flexibility put itself out of business? 19:16 – Why Octopus stays out of Pennsylvania and New York 22:17 – Does residential retail competition have a future? 24:41 – Why utility programs trail Octopus on participation 32:17 – The demand stack and what planners can count on 39:11 – Kraken, Uplight and the overlap 46:04 – Consumer protection and the aggregator model 51:17 – Data centers and the social license to operate 55:11 – Do we need dynamic pricing? 58:30 – Five years out

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  • October 16 · 1 hr 3 min

    What’s up with Denmark?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Denmark gets a large share of its power from wind and other renewables and has cut its emissions roughly in half since 1990, but independent analysts doubt it will hit its 70 percent target for 2030. Kristian Jensen, CEO of Green Power Denmark and a former Danish minister of taxation, foreign affairs, and finance, argues the next stage is electrifying how Denmark uses energy: heat, transport, and industry. I talk with him about district heating and heat pumps, EVs and vehicle-to-grid, municipally owned grid companies and hourly power prices, biomass, carbon capture, power-to-X, solar’s “fields of iron” backlash, a grid oversubscribed with data center requests (an October 1 agreement has since put most data centers at the back of the queue), and whether the country’s political consensus will hold. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction: Denmark and industrial symbiosis 02:44 – Is the 70% target for 2030 out of reach? 06:24 – Carbon capture and storage, and the peatlands lag 09:57 – Why electrification has lagged: biomass and wood pellets 14:45 – Few batteries, many interconnectors 16:48 – Data centers and the grid-connection prioritization bill 21:34 – Municipally owned grid companies 24:32 – Smart meters, hourly prices, and thermal batteries 28:40 – The solar backlash and local ownership 35:04 – Agrivoltaics and biodiversity 37:24 – District heating: heat pumps, geothermal, and finance 43:24 – The EV transition and vehicle-to-grid 47:45 – Road pricing and fiscal room 50:07 – Power-to-X and eSAF 54:21 – Can Denmark build enough clean power? 57:12 – Will the political consensus hold?

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  • October 14 · 1 hr 7 min

    Checking back in with Greenlight America

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe On this episode, recorded live at Climate Week NYC, I talk with Matt Traldi. He’s the founder and CEO of Greenlight America, which finds the local meetings where clean energy’s fate is being decided and recruits supporters to attend. Traldi argues that siting and permitting approvals turn on who shows up, and that local partners, conservative groups included, outperform outside advocates. We discuss how to measure impact, recent wins and losses, blue-state resistance, data center backlash, and Greenlight’s growth. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:09 – What Greenlight does and why Matt started it 04:41 – How Greenlight finds the decisions that matter 07:27 – Growth, and the tax credit deadline sprint 13:38 – Who shows up to local hearings 19:39 – Winning in conservative communities 22:35 – Bodies in the room, measuring impact, and win rates 27:46 – Losses, wins, and “there is no bag” 32:44 – Blue-state obstacles and organized opposition 36:31 – When data center backlash spills over onto clean energy 42:31 – Which projects Greenlight won’t back 45:38 – Lessons from housing and growing an organization 50:17 – Audience Q&A: disinformation and state permitting reform 54:39 – Audience Q&A: developers and elections 59:30 – Audience Q&A: funding local groups and designing community input

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  • October 9 · 2 hr 21 min

    What’s up with the new federal permitting reform bill?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe The proposed bipartisan federal permitting bill is 417 pages filled with extremely consequential provisions that have left the climate community some mix of excited, infuriated, and confused. In an attempt to bring some clarity, I asked Daniel Palken of Arnold Ventures, a veteran of Senate permitting fights, to walk through what’s in it. We cover the blockbuster transmission reforms, the rule making data centers pay more than their share of grid costs, the wins for geothermal, and the fossil carve-outs. Then we get into NEPA reforms that render the act toothless, limits on state water permits, and the permit-certainty sections that have lawyers worried about “forever permits.” And finally: whether it restrains Trump, why Democrats shouldn’t wait for a better deal, what the modeling says about emissions impacts, and Daniel’s odds of passage. This is a long one, folks. Buckle up. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro: the bipartisan permitting bill 04:15 – Why permitting reform matters 12:23 – Agency staffing and capacity 16:59 – Past permitting attempts 20:26 – Transmission 1: planning and federal backstop 28:28 – Transmission 2: who pays and grid upgrades 38:17 – Data centers 1: paying more for grid access 43:20 – Distributed energy and geothermal 49:06 – Oil, gas, and mining provisions 57:06 – Data centers 2: will they go off-grid? 1:00:19 – NEPA 1: courts can’t halt projects 1:08:57 – NEPA 2: the main objections 1:17:10 – State water permits 1:23:35 – Endangered species 1:27:37 – Permit certainty 1: limits on revoking permits 1:36:43 – Permit certainty 2: lawsuits and damages 1:48:12 – Politics 1: Trump’s wind blockades 1:52:57 – Politics 2: why not wait for a better deal? 1:58:33 – Politics 3: elections, courts, and modeling 2:10:57 – Politics 4: next steps and odds of passage

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  • October 7 · 1 hr 4 min

    The grueling fight to pass the Inflation Reduction Act

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe On September 14, I sat down with Leah Stokes in front of a live audience at Seattle’s Town Hall to talk about her new book, The Carbon Wave. It’s an insider account of how the Inflation Reduction Act got made, braided with the story of the high-risk twin pregnancy she went through while helping to make it. We get into why electrification is the heart of decarbonization, the enduring mystery of what’s going on in Joe Manchin’s head, what it means to trade your carbon footprint for a carbon wave, and how much of the IRA survives. It was followed by questions from the audience. Chapters: 00:00 – Welcome and housekeeping 03:05 – The twins, the NICU, and writing the book 08:51 – Carbon footprint vs. carbon wave 13:39 – Sam Ricketts and 100% clean electricity 18:13 – Why electricity is the core of the solution 23:28 – Utilities and the politics of change 26:18 – Tech companies and data centers 29:11 – Inside the Manchin negotiations 33:57 – Why Manchin got to yes 38:46 – Trump, setbacks, and where things stand 42:55 – Clean energy politics and the global shift 46:25 – Audience Q&A: the transmission gridlock 48:59 – Institutions, speed, and structural reform 53:27 – If Democrats win the House, what next 55:43 – Permitting reform 59:06 – State utilities, coal, and getting involved

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  • October 2 · 13 min

    Best of September 2026

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf Volts published seven conversations in September, which is a lot for anyone to listen to. We’ve rounded up the highlights into less than an hour. Enjoy!

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  • September 30 · 1 hr 4 min

    What’s up with heat-pump water heaters?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Heat pump water heaters use a fraction of the energy of conventional electric resistance heaters — which use more electricity in a year than an EV — but they're only 2 percent of the market, mainly because they tend to cost more, be slow and loud, and require a plumber and an electrician. Reservoir is a Boston company trying to fix all that, with a smarter, quieter machine and its own plumbers. I talk with CEO Luke Winston-Almanzar about how it works, what it costs, and its potential role in demand response programs. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:06 – Why water heaters 06:34 – How gas, resistance, and heat pump water heaters work 09:33 – Size and slow recovery: predictive heating and party mode 15:31 – Installation and vertical integration 22:19 – Cutting electric resistance backup 20:31 – What Reservoir builds and what it sources 23:41 – Tankless gas, virtual capacity, and the booster heater 27:11 – Recirculation, freeze protection, leak detection, and Legionella 32:03 – What it costs and what it saves 36:01 – Placement: small rooms, basements, and cold climates 42:37 – Noise and durability 48:19 – Demand response and virtual power plants 53:22 – A. O. Smith’s CO2 split system and Reservoir’s moat 55:54 – Policy headwinds after the IRA 59:29 – What’s next for Reservoir

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  • September 23 · 1 hr 5 min

    Do small residential batteries make sense?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Home batteries like the Tesla Powerwall are nice, but what about people who can’t afford them, or renters who aren’t allowed to install them, or people who just don’t want the hassle of dealing with a permit and an electrician? A company called Pila is selling small (1.6 kWh) batteries that simply plug into a normal electrical socket. They can serve as backup for a refrigerator or other appliance in the event of a blackout, but they can also “mesh” with one another to form a network, pair with rooftop solar, or participate in VPP programs. CEO Cole Ashman explains the value proposition. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:26 Lessons from Powerwall and Span 05:33 What Pila is and how it works 07:14 How long a fridge runs on one battery 09:28 Fire risk, LFP chemistry, and New York City 16:02 Why the price went up, and cost per kilowatt hour 19:55 Who is actually buying Pila 23:00 Financing models and free batteries 27:04 Do the bill savings add up? 32:05 Why utilities want small batteries in VPPs 36:58 Pilots with Holy Cross Energy and Brooklyn SolarWorks 41:09 Solar pairing and the Pila mesh network 47:14 Camping batteries and built-in storage 54:19 Utilities and visibility at the grid edge 55:58 Bidirectional outlets and the next five years 1:00:10 Clean energy as invisible infrastructure

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  • September 18 · 14 min

    How energy politics work inside DC

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.volts.wtf Back in 2011, I wrote that fossil fuel interests had a much better media game than clean energy. My example was Frank Maisano, a media relations guy for coal utilities and the natural gas industry. Thirty years on, he’s still at it — still writing his newsletter, still connecting reporters to sources, still better at it than anyone on the clean side (sigh). So I’m finally talking to him about it: clean energy trade groups nobody in Washington fears, Trump’s daft efforts to kill renewables, the PAC picking off dirty-energy Republicans, permitting and data center fights, and the climate denial shop he worked for in the ‘90s. Spoiler: he regrets nothing. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:46 – What a DC media strategist actually does 09:50 – Republicans, Trump, and a narrow House majority 15:29 – Why tax cuts beat energy in the OBBBA fight 18:54 – Competing with China on AI without the electric stack 21:15 – Paying $4 billion to hand back offshore wind leases 28:07 – Red-state wind and the orders keeping coal plants open 32:52 – Clean energy trade groups and the building trades 38:41 – Gas as a bridge, and what longer term means 44:55 – Whether a half-gas trade group can serve clean energy 48:43 – A coherent clean vision against an incoherent coalition 51:14 – Do the green groups still scare anyone 55:18 – Permitting reform and the Whitehouse-Capito path 59:46 – Data centers, animal spirits, and the midterms 1:06:48 – The revenge PAC, and whether it is working 1:12:31 – Congress, the courts, and what Democrats could do 1:18:53 – COP, climate change, and the client he would turn down

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  • September 16 · 1 hr 14 min

    How to build a more flexible, quieter, less obnoxious data center

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Verrus is building data centers designed to address every objection the public has raised: they use batteries instead of diesel generators, which makes them grid assets that help hold down power prices; they use closed-loop cooling, which uses a tiny fraction of the water; their equipment is quieter; and as a bonus, they squeeze more servers into the same grid connection. Yet both of Verrus’s proposed sites, in Michigan and Oregon, are mired in fierce local opposition. In this episode, CEO Nelson Abramson walks through the engineering — and the politics that the engineering hasn’t quite solved. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:43 – Three decades in data centers 05:05 – What a Verrus data center looks like 07:39 – The medium voltage power plane 12:13 – UPS batteries vs. the big LFP battery 17:27 – Priority aware capping and provisioned utility capacity 22:31 – Why not buy the pieces off the shelf? 25:42 – Duration: what happens when four hours runs out 34:28 – Diesel backup and what customers ask for 37:15 – How flexible is compute, really? 42:37 – Noise, fans, and the sound studies 48:42 – Water use and the 12 million gallon question 52:19 – Industrial land and by-right zoning 56:07 – Public opposition, recall petitions, and community benefits 1:00:07 – Oregon, Salem, and the moratorium 1:03:56 – Ride-through, NERC, and losing the moat 1:07:11 – What V2 looks like

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  • September 11 · 2 hr

    Building a big, abundant, clean grid

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Jane Flegal has worked inside philanthropy at the Hewlett Foundation, industrial emissions policy at the Biden White House, and carbon-removal market development at Frontier; she's now a senior fellow at the Searchlight Institute, writing some of the smartest climate policy analysis around. We cover a lot of ground: industrial policy versus market approaches, what the IRA got right and wrong, philanthropy's proper role, data centers and the case for an infrastructure fund, and behind-the-meter gas, among other things. This is a long one, and spicy! Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:11 – Flegal's thesis: building a clean grid fast enough to power growth 06:29 – Why she rejects degrowth 09:27 – The Roosevelt essay: climate as more than a market failure 13:30 – Why clean energy underuses its political muscle 15:24 – Industrial policy and the green spiral theory of change 20:40 – Was IRA the right approach? 22:12 – Lily Bermel's paper and the fight over what survived 23:21 – What she would have done differently under IRA 30:11 – Philanthropy, Silicon Valley, and what government is for 33:29 – The epistemic crisis inside environmental NGOs 39:09 – The abundance movement and what each faction misses 44:16 – What establishment Democrats get wrong on climate 46:06 – Why issue polling misleads 50:34 – Republicans and the Cold War analogy 52:47 – Data centers and the American Grid Infrastructure Fund 59:13 – Affordability politics and who pays for the grid 1:08:14 – Emissions, behind-the-meter gas, and flexible load 1:13:57 – The clean firm debate: storage plus transmission? 1:20:14 – Capacity markets, ERCOT, and the case for planning 1:24:32 – Utility incentives, public power, and affordability fixes 1:35:55 – Permitting reform and the land footprint asymmetry 1:41:05 – NEPA reform and the political window 1:48:21 – Where fresh policy thinking comes from

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  • September 9 · 1 hr 4 min

    Is there way more conventional geothermal than we thought?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Zanskar argues that the US is badly underestimating its conventional geothermal resources — that there are far more undiscovered hydrothermal systems, and that each one can produce far more power, than people think. They think AI can help find those resources, and they have drilled three sites to back it up, including a “blind” discovery in Nevada with no surface signs and no prior exploratory wells. If they're right, terawatts of firm, carbon-free power are reachable with off-the-shelf drilling technology. Co-founders Carl Hoiland and Joel Edwards make the case. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:29 – Heat, permeability, and how resources have been found 04:49 – Why conventional geothermal stalled, and why the estimate is stale 09:22 – Applying AI to old exploration data 11:10 – The data Zanskar works with 13:09 – Models, field testing, and the feedback loop 15:02 – How much more resource is really out there 20:22 – Lightning Dock: reviving a written-off field 22:14 – What has changed in drilling technology 28:37 – Pumpernickel and the permeability question 31:08 – Natural permeability vs. enhanced geothermal 34:21 – Big Blind, the first blind discovery in 30 years 37:09 – Improving the models to keep getting better 40:51 – Financing exploration: the development capital facility 44:38 – The NV Energy PPA and data center demand 47:42 – The skeptical case and geographic limits 54:20 – Policy dependence and public lands 58:11 – What's next for Zanskar

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  • September 4 · 45 min

    Best of August 2026

    Volts published eight conversations in August — with two Idaho state legislators, a grid cybersecurity expert, the architect of Uruguay's energy transition, an EV charging exec, and more — which is a lot for anyone to listen to. We've rounded up the highlights into a single hour. Enjoy! Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction and how the best-of series works 01:59 – Saleem Chapman on why every market design fails ratepayers the same way 07:51 – Patrick Miller on Chinese inverters and commodity boards 12:22 – Ben Toews and Megan Egbert on how Idaho's housing bills happened 18:34 – Seth Cutler on why an IONNA site is technically a bakery 22:52 – Ramón Méndez Galain on getting every Uruguayan party to sign one plan 28:00 – Quinn Nakayama on why a utility would adopt something that saves money 34:16 – Varun Sivaram on workload tiers and who pays when flexing goes wrong 38:44 – Todd Tucker on the Defense Production Act precedent 44:20 – Closing note and what to send in This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe

    • Transcript
  • September 2 · 1 hr 11 min

    How to respond to disinformation about clean energy, at scale

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Disinformation about clean energy is showing up everywhere — online after every blackout, at county commission meetings about siting new projects, in regulatory dockets stuffed with fake comments. GoodPower, which combines a C3 education arm with a C4 advocacy arm, is trying to fight back with a network of thousands of content creators, rapid-response campaigns around storms and grid failures, and an AI tool that detects manufactured public comments. I talk with CEO Leah Qusba about what they've tried, what they've measured, and what actually works. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:06 – What the disinformation claims, and who spreads it 05:57 – From Action for the Climate Emergency to GoodPower 08:38 – Building a creator network in non-political verticals 14:17 – Competing with talk radio and Fox News 18:26 – Winter Storm Fern and the rapid response system 23:26 – Measuring whether a deployment actually worked 27:24 – Pre-bunking and the 80-county experiment 33:18 – Getting people off the couch and into the room 38:10 – AI agents and where human judgment sits 42:05 – Keeping the C3 and the C4 distinct 47:13 – Battery fires, Moss Landing, and talking to fire chiefs 50:54 – TrueVoice and manufactured public comment 56:13 – Whether AI will overwhelm the comment process 58:11 – The best messages that actually land 1:04:22 – Super PACs, budgets, and what comes next

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  • August 28 · 1 hr 8 min

    Could we use Trump's tricks to make good green policy?

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Even as he has torn down climate policy, Donald Trump has normalized the use of more powerful & aggressive tools of economic statecraft, like equity stakes in private companies, new federal authorities, and sovereign wealth funds. The Roosevelt Institute recently issued a collection of 17 essays exploring how a future administration could use the tools Trump has assembled for decarbonization. I talk with Todd Tucker, editor of and contributor to the volume, about these new industrial planning tools. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 02:32 – Did Biden's green policy prove durable? 09:39 – The Defense Production Act and the Sable pipeline 14:59 – Whether to leave the DPA on the table 15:35 – Executive orders and the durability problem 19:01 – Whether the Supreme Court treats Democrats differently 22:03 – Executive power and a disempowered Congress 25:05 – Senate malapportionment and filibuster reform 29:43 – Court reform and the major questions doctrine 34:13 – Manufacturing vs. deployment 42:52 – Permitting, abundance, and theory of power 49:20 – Public ownership and the U.S. Steel golden share 55:22 – What state capitalism could look like for green ends 59:56 – Shelley Welton on utilities as planning tools 1:02:42 – Speed vs. deliberation before 2029

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  • August 26 · 53 min

    Making data centers flexible so they can serve the grid rather than stress it out

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Typically, AI data centers are large, inflexible loads that the grid has to build around, which is one reason utilities take so long to connect them. Emerald AI has designed a “digital brain” that can ramp down, move, or delay computing jobs in a data center on demand, making a data center a flexible asset to the grid. I talk with CEO Varun Sivaram about how the software works, what flexibility costs the compute, why it beats just installing batteries, whether utilities can enforce it, and what it would mean for clean energy. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 03:05 – Temporal, spatial, and resource flexibility 06:26 – What Emerald Conductor touches on site 08:35 – Who decides which workloads can flex 10:55 – Who is liable when a job slows down 13:45 – Who actually signs the contract 14:49 – Larger and faster grid connections 18:02 – Enforcing the flexibility promise 19:05 – What broke in the demos, from bad nodes to slow telemetry 26:41 – What flexing costs the compute jobs 29:21 – Why not just use batteries, and the demand merit order 35:44 – Training, inference, and substation-scale data centers 40:23 – PJM, ERCOT, and legal enforceability 44:50 – Renewables, gas, and consumer bills

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Showing 1–20 of 40 episodes