Nick chats with Mike Lazelle and Dr Rob Turner, co-founders of Kwetta, to discuss their groundbreaking approach to electrifying heavy vehicles. 

Kwetta has just raised ~$17 million AUD in Series A funding from the likes of Blackbird and Virescent Ventures to address the “grid issue” for EV charging. And they’ve given us a podcast exclusive!

Their innovative chargers connect directly to the high-voltage grid, providing up to 10 times more power, cutting installation times by up to 70%, and avoiding costly grid upgrades.

We dive into:

• Why electrification is the key to near term emissions reduction
• Why the hardest part of electrification is no longer the vehicles or batteries - it’s getting power from the grid.
• How Kwetta’s technology solves grid bottlenecks while being a “good grid citizen.”
• How a small, world class team from Napier New Zealand (founded with CEO Dustin Murdock) is competing with global giants
• How much Canterbury Beer was consumed at Rob and Mike’s first meeting

(00:00) Introduction

(04:02) Meet Kwetta

(08:21) A Beer Fuelled Origin Story

(12:27) Kwetta's Breakthrough

(14:38) Case Study: Electrifying a Gas Station

(22:21) Manufacturing in Napier

(26:02) The China Threat

(30:35) Revenue Model and Market

(33:19) Vehicle To Grid

(38:04) Traction and Expansion PIans

(41:44) Uncomfortable Questions

Kwetta is about to announce their first sites in Australia so it's great timing to bring them on!

Find out more at: www.kwetta.com

**

If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!

You can sign up to our mailing list at www.apositiveclimate.com, say [email protected] or follow us on https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate or www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.

The podcast charted in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.

Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Nick and producer-turned-”shark” Mark hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian climate startups! 

Our third annual pitch episode with some incredible ~seed stage startups in the latest cohort from EnergyLab - Australia’s leading climate accelerator. 

Previous guests on the Pitchfest and podcast have gone on to raise hundreds of millions in capital (you can review these here), so let's dive in to the latest group!

You can also watch on YouTube here.

The lineup:

(02:16) Stralis Aircraft - Hydrogen-electric planes for emission-free flights (Bob Criner)

(12:38) Enaxiom - Harnessing low-grade waste heat to decarbonize wastewater treatment (Tia Collings)

(23:58) OptiGrid - Smarter energy management for batteries (Sahand Karimi)

(33:31)GridStore Energy - Boosting solar panel output and profits (Garth Paton)

(42:47) CLT Toolbox - Structural design software to accelerate timber building (Adam Jones)

(53:51) Dewpoint Innovations - Novel coatings for passive cooling and atmospheric water collection (Dil Khosa)

(01:02:23) X-Centric - Accurate soil data for agriculture (Roozbeh Ravansari)

(01:11:22) Brownee - Empowering SMEs to thrive in a sustainable economy (Renate Crollini)

(01:21:06) InfigoLabs - Decarbonizing industries with ultra-high-temperature heat solutions (Prashant Parulekar)

(01:28:54) Planet Price - Quantifying the real costs of everything (Debbie O'Byrne)

If you liked the pitch? Reach out! And if you didn't like the pitch, send feedback!

***

As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!

We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It really helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian renewable energy and climate investment experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, Goterra, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Nick chats to Simon Holmes à Court about nuclear energy in Australia.

“When are you covering nuclear?” is one of the most common questions we’ve received from APC listeners.

So we finally went there. And it was great to have Simon on to explore it all before we go back to our startup roots next episode with our THIRD pitch fest.  

(00:00) Intro

(03:55) What people get wrong about nuclear 

(05:38) Simon’s background

(07:27) Global Nuclear Energy Landscape

(15:03) Safety Concerns

(20:23) Waste

(26:10) Construction Time

(32:39) Cost and Generation Profile

(39:21) Flexibility

(40:48) Economics

(50:02) Political and Regulatory Challenges

(01:00:42) Uncomfortable Questions

To ultimately answer the question: does Australia need nuclear energy?

There was so much to cover we didn’t have time to explore all the questions, including the role of AI and covering the next 15 of the transition in more detail. Excuses for new episodes!

**

If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!

You can sign up to our mailing list at www.apositiveclimate.com, say [email protected] or follow us on https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate or www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.

The podcast rated in 2022 and 2023 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.

Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, Goterra, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Nick chats to Tim Washington from JET Charge about using electric vehicles as batteries for our homes.

Vehicle to grid technology could transform not one but *two* trillion dollar industries in energy and transport. All while paving the way to materially reduce carbon emissions and costs.

It is simple enough but does it work? When will consumers have it? What impacts will it have?

And what is it like running a startup with your wife? Thanks to Ellen Liang who also hopped on the mic!

You can enjoy this episode here or in full HD on Youtube.

(00:00) Teaser

(00:38) Introduction

(05:23) Australian EV Uptake Check-in

(11:00) Australian EV Charging Check-in

(13:46) How does Vehicle to Grid work?

(23:46) Consumer Perspectives

(29:54) Economics

(38:31) Challenges for Energy Retailers

(54:15) When Your Co-founder Is Your Spouse

(59:23) Uncomfortable Questions

**

If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!

You can sign up to our mailing list at www.apositiveclimate.com, say [email protected] or follow us on https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate or www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.

The podcast rated in 2022 and 2023 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.

Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Alex is taking a podcast break so if you miss everyone's favourite host, let her know via our website!

That’s a wrap! It's our annual review episode, with Alex and Nick covering all the climate technology news from 2023.

The hottest year on record brings a reminder that we need to be doubling down on the right solutions, so we hope you enjoy our reflections about what we think matters.

Thanks again to all you listening out there! It’s been a big year for us - where we hit the Top 5 in tech podcasts (in Malawi) -  and we’ve loved hearing from many of you throughout the season. 

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(01:20) We announce the Pitch Fest Winner!

(02:23) Our Years Reviewed

(05:32) Large Scale Solar, Batteries and Global Developments (including Alex’s strange love of steel mills)

(21:32) Nuclear Energy (!)

(27:55) APC Season Portfolio Review

(38:41) BIG PREDICTIONS

Companies mentioned: Microtau, All G Foods, Samsara, Uluu, Novalith, SunDrive, Jolt Charge, Infravision, Nourish Ingredients, Goterra, Antora Energy, ahem Positive Ventures, JET Charge, Sicona, AMSL Aero, Renewable Metals, SeaForest, GridMo, Hysata, MGA Thermal, Eku Energy, Akaysha Energy, Zenobe, Raygen, Vast Solar, ThyssenKrupp, NuScale, and the EV company formerly known as “Build Your Dreams” 

See you next year!

***

As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!

We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick and Alex hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian startups working on climate solutions! *Vote HERE*

We’re back with our second pitchfest episode! And again teaming up with EnergyLab’s accelerator program, but this time it’s different - there will be a winner decided by YOU! 

We’ve secured some awesome prizes that will go to the People’s Choice startup. 

G+T Ventures, the startup arm Australian law firm Gilbert + Tobin has donated a full day legal workshop to prepare a startup for their next fundraising round.

Cake Equity - an Australian software platform that helps startups manage their equity and stock options in minutes - has donated free access, premium support and mentoring. And there’s more prizes!

Each startup gets a 60 second free pitch then there’s some Q&A from us to better understand their unique solution and opportunity. All the startups are listed below and don’t forget to vote for the People’s Choice! Voting will close on Friday October 27.

The lineup

(00:00) Intro Alex and Nick

(04:09) Renewable Metals - Turning Battery Waste into Battery Metals (Luan Atkinson)

(10:09) Pyrochar - Biochar for Green Steelmaking (Cameron Bell)

(17:06) Dovetail -  Zero emission electric aviation (David Doral)

(23:37) Orkestra - Energy project feasibility just got easy, accurate and fast (James Allston)

(31:42) Tasmanion - Developing new aluminium-ion battery technologies (Shalini Divya)

(36:21) Elecsome - Solar panel recycling, reusing and upcycling (Neeraj Das)

(43:54) Savic -  Australia’s premium high-performance electric motorcycle company (Dennis Savic)

(53:16) Emmi - The platform to help investors assess the carbon impact of their portfolio (Michael Lebbon)

(61:13) Bygen - Low cost production of activated carbon from waste (Lewis Dunnigan)

(66:34) Perl Street - Enables distributed infrastructure companies to sell more, raise more and manage more  (Tooraj Arvajeh)

We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).

You can hear last year's episode here.

***

As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!

We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Alex is away so Nick is let loose on the podcast! Nick chats to Christiaan Jordaan, CEO and founder of Sicona. 

Sound familiar? We interviewed Christiaan in back November 2021 in one of our all-time listener favourite episodes: "Australia's Role in the Battery Revolution".

Since then Sicona has come a long way! Fresh off their recent $22m funding round for their battery technology we thought we'd cover the big issues since our previous chat:

• How the US Inflation Reduction Act has changed the game for climate startups (2:05)
• How Australia should respond (9:11)
• How the rise of Artificial Intelligence has affected climate startups like Sicona (12:29)
• Christiaan's HOTTEST TAKES on venture capital and funding climate solutions (15:38); and
• The inside scoop on Christiaan's recent funding round (21:28)

In case you missed our last episode with Christiaan, here's a quick recap on Christiaan and his business (or you can have a a listen here)

• Sicona aims to revolutionise the battery world by improving battery efficiency with their unique anode materials, a technology that can be used with existing lithium ion batteries.

• Christiaan is also the co-founder of Novalith, a company that uses carbon dioxide as a reagent in extracting lithium. We have an episode featuring Novalith where we spoke to his Co-founder Steven Vassiloudis.

We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).

***

As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!

We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We chat to Doug Mcnamee from Jolt Charge, an Australian electric vehicle charging business that has raised $100million from Blackrock (the world's largest money manager).

EV uptake in Australia is on a charge! When we recorded our first EV episode in 2021, they comprised less than 0.5% of total sales. In the first half of 2023 this number was up to 8%.

So while EVs are just one part of decarbonising how we move, the signs are promising. We enjoyed chatting with Doug about the future of transportation, whether Australia is out of the EV doldrums and what makes Jolt Charge different.

We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).

***

As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!

We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We chat with Vince Allen from SunDrive, a Sydney-based startup on a mission to transform Australia into a solar manufacturing powerhouse.

In 2021, SunDrive made headlines by developing the world's most efficient commercial-sized solar cell. Not only that - by swapping silver with copper as the conductive material their products could be lower cost too. With over $30 million in funding from high-profile investors like Blackbird, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Main Sequence Ventures, Malcolm Turnbull, and CEFC/Virescent Ventures, they're a force to be reckoned with.

We loved this chat and especially Vince's love of solar, passion for Australia's great opportunity and also his toast analogy to explain how a solar panel actually works. 

We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).

**

Don't miss out on future episodes—hit that follow button! Your reviews and ratings on Apple and Spotify really help us reach more listeners, so we'd love your support. 

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

Chapters
(00:00) Intro: Nick and Alex set the scene (Bonus: Nick's Rant)

(6:17) The Unstoppable March of Solar Energy

(10:34) The SunDrive Origin Story, Vince's Love Affair with Solar

(14:27) The Toast Analogy: Where SunDrive Fits in the Solar Ecosystem

(23:49) What's Next for SunDrive

(25:49) Making the Case for Australian Solar Manufacturing

(31:39) Australia's Competitive Edge in Solar

(39:01) The Transformative Potential of Low-Cost Solar

***

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do we have enough lithium for all the batteries we’ll need for a low carbon future? What is the impact of lithium extraction on the planet? And can we do it in a more sustainable way? 

Nick and Alex chat with Steven Vassiloudis of Novalith, a Sydney startup that can extract lithium in a way that not only reduces emissions but also the amount of chemicals used in the process.

We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).

 **

As always if you don’t want to miss any episodes, hit that follow button! We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate. 

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference. 

Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media

Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.