Earthlings 2.0 Podcast

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with James (JD) Dillon, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Tigo Energy, about the technologies that help solar installations operate more efficiently, safely, and reliably. JD explains how module-level power electronics (MLPE) improve solar panel performance, provide visibility into individual modules, and enable rapid shutdown to protect first responders. The conversation also explores how monitoring and emerging AI capabilities could transform solar maintenance, why aging installations are creating opportunities for equipment upgrades, and how battery storage software helps homeowners manage their electricity use. JD also shares why improving quality across solar equipment, system design, and installation will be essential to the industry's long-term growth.

Key Points:

• Module-level technology helps solar systems perform better and operate more safely – JD explains how power optimizers reduce the impact of shading, debris, and differences between individual panels, while module-level monitoring helps identify performance issues.
• Better monitoring could change how solar systems are maintained – With visibility down to individual panels, installers can remotely identify problems and plan maintenance more efficiently. JD also discusses how AI could eventually help predict equipment failures before they happen, making solar operations and maintenance more proactive.
• Long-term solar growth depends on improving quality across the industry – JD emphasizes that better components alone are not enough. Solar manufacturers, installers, designers, and certification organizations all play a role in improving system quality, especially as installations age and more homeowners rely on solar for decades of electricity production.

• James (JD) Dillon, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Tigo Energy, LinkedIn

• Sarah Malpeli, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host, Vice President of Client Services and Growth at Technica Communications, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

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In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with former USDA economist and agricultural economics professor James MacDonald about how American agriculture has evolved and what lies ahead for the nation's farmers. Drawing on decades of research, James explains how farm consolidation has reshaped the industry, why larger farms aren't necessarily corporate-owned, and how the economics of food production influence what consumers pay at the grocery store. The conversation also explores the challenges facing smaller farms, the potential of autonomous farming equipment and regenerative agriculture and how climate change, technology and agricultural research could shape the future of farming.

Key Points:

• Farm consolidation is changing the economics of family farming – James explains how larger, more efficient operations have transformed American agriculture, particularly in livestock and commodity crop production. While many farms remain family-owned, the financial investment, equipment costs, and management requirements needed to compete have made it more challenging for smaller farms to survive.
• Farmers receive only a fraction of what consumers pay for food – Although farm consolidation has helped reduce production costs, James explains that farm commodities typically account for just 5 to 20% of retail food prices, depending on the product. Processing, transportation, and retail costs make up much of the remaining price, complicating the relationship between farm economics and grocery bills.
• New technologies could reshape the future of American agriculture – James discusses how smaller autonomous tractors, robotic milking systems, and biological innovations could change farming operations. He also examines the economic limits of regenerative agriculture and why advances in irrigation, agricultural technology and research will matter as farmers adapt to climate change.

• James MacDonald, former USDA economist, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland and Senior Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, LinkedIn

• Luis de Leon, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

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Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

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In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Mike Clark, President of Global Innovation and New Business Development at Hollingsworth & Vose, about why air filtration is becoming an important part of energy efficiency and sustainable building design. As commercial buildings, hospitals, factories, and AI data centers consume growing amounts of electricity, even small improvements to HVAC systems can have a meaningful impact on operating costs and carbon emissions. Mike explains how advanced filtration materials reduce the energy required to move air while improving indoor air quality and protecting critical equipment. The conversation explores the connection between air filtration, healthy buildings, AI infrastructure, and why choosing the right filter can reduce both energy consumption and environmental impact.

Key Points:

• Advanced air filtration can lower HVAC energy consumption – Modern filter materials reduce airflow resistance, helping commercial buildings and data centers improve indoor air quality while lowering electricity use.
• Indoor air quality affects both human health and AI infrastructure – Effective filtration protects occupants in schools, hospitals, offices, and public buildings while also preventing contamination that can damage sensitive equipment in data centers and manufacturing facilities.
• Smarter filtration is an overlooked climate solution – Advances in nanofiber materials and filter design are helping buildings operate more efficiently, reducing operating costs and supporting broader carbon reduction goals.

• Mike Clark, President of Global Innovation and New Business Development at Hollingsworth & Vose, LinkedIn

• Luis de Leon, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Cherif Kedir, President and CEO of the Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), about what it takes to ensure solar panels can perform reliably for decades in the field. Cherif discusses RETC's PV Module Index (PVMI) and Thresher Test, how solar testing has evolved as technologies and operating environments have changed, and the role third-party validation plays in building confidence across the industry. The conversation also explores advances in solar module efficiency, the potential of perovskite solar cells, and how testing must continue to evolve as manufacturers introduce new materials and designs.

Key Points:

• Solar certification is the starting point, not the finish line – Cherif explains that basic certification historically focused primarily on whether solar modules could operate safely. RETC's Thresher program was developed to go further, evaluating the durability and reliability characteristics that determine how modules could perform over decades of deployment.
• Solar panels need to be tested for the conditions they will actually encounter – RETC continually adapts its testing to reflect real-world stresses, including heat, humidity, thermal cycling, wind loading, UV exposure, corrosion and hail. Testing also evolves as module sizes, materials and technologies change.
• Independent testing helps reduce risk for long-term solar investments – With significant capital invested in projects expected to operate for decades, developers and financial institutions need confidence in the products they select. Cherif explains how independent testing, sample verification and chain-of-custody controls provide technical due diligence that helps stakeholders evaluate solar technologies before deployment.

• Cherif Kedir, President and CEO of RETC, President and CEO of VDE Americas, LinkedIn

• Sarah Malpeli, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host, Vice President of Client Services and Growth at Technica Communications, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

Visit our website for more episodes!

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures! 

We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Ben Kuethe Oaks, Senior Vice President, Commercial at Divert, about building a more circular approach to food waste. Divert works with grocery retailers and other food businesses to track unsold food, prevent waste, increase food donations, and process food that can no longer be eaten through anaerobic digestion.

Check out our previous episodes on food waste and agriculture:

• #98 – Beyond Organic: Understanding Regenerative Agriculture with UnderstandingAg
• #65 – A Fresh Outlook on Fruit Logistics with RYP Labs
• #22 – The Land of the Lost Food with Lisa Johnson

Key Points:

• Preventing food waste starts with understanding where it happens – Divert collects data on unsold food from individual stores and shares those insights with retailers, helping them identify trends, improve ordering and merchandising, increase donations, and ultimately prevent more food from becoming waste.
• Food that can't be donated can still become a valuable resource – Divert uses proprietary de-packaging technology and anaerobic digestion to process unsold food that can no longer be eaten, capturing methane to generate renewable energy and recovering nutrients for use as fertilizer or soil amendments.
• Building alternatives to landfills can help create a more circular food system – Ben explains that limited infrastructure has historically made it difficult to manage commercial food waste at scale. Divert is expanding integrated diversion and energy facilities that give food businesses another option while generating data to help prevent future waste.

• Ben Kuethe Oaks, Senior Vice President, Commercial at Divert, LinkedIn

• Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

Visit our website for more episodes!

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures! 

We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

Let’s stay connected! Follow Earthlings 2.0 Socials for the latest updates and news: 

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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Bryce Yonker, Executive Director and CEO of Grid Forward, about one of the biggest challenges facing the electric grid today: meeting surging electricity demand while keeping power reliable and affordable. As AI data centers, electrification, manufacturing, and extreme weather place new pressure on utilities, Bryce explains why affordability has become a central issue for grid operators and policymakers. The conversation covers data center rate structures, transformer and equipment shortages, grid-enhancing technologies, energy storage, demand flexibility, utility business models, and the need for smarter long-term infrastructure investments.

Check out the episodes in our data center series:

• #175 – Investing in the Energy Behind the AI Boom with NosTerra Venture Capital
• #170 – Turning Grid Transformers into Intelligent Infrastructure with Ionate Energy
• #164 – How the Grid Could Survive the AI Boom with Solid State Transformers With DG Matrix

Key Points:

• Rising electricity demand is making affordability a bigger grid challenge – Bryce discusses how load growth from AI data centers, electrification, manufacturing, and other sources is arriving as utilities already face higher infrastructure and equipment costs, putting greater attention on who pays for grid expansion and how those costs are allocated.
• Large data centers are changing how utilities think about rates and infrastructure costs – Bryce explains that utilities and regulators are developing new approaches to serve very large electricity users, including rate structures designed to account for the infrastructure needed to connect them and reduce the risk of shifting those costs to other customers.
• A diverse mix of energy resources will be essential as electricity demand grows – Bryce emphasizes that no single generation source can meet the grid’s growing needs. Solar, energy storage, natural gas, nuclear, geothermal, demand flexibility, and other resources can each help create a more reliable and resilient power system.

• Bryce Yonker, Executive Director and CEO of Grid Forward, LinkedIn

• Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

On this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Jeff Earl, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Sapphire Technologies, about an overlooked source of clean energy. Every day, pressure is intentionally reduced throughout natural gas pipeline networks to safely deliver gas to homes, businesses, and industrial facilities. That pressure contains usable energy, but in most systems it is simply dissipated as heat. Jeff explains how Sapphire Technologies' turbo expander technology captures and converts the wasted pressure into clean electricity, improving the efficiency of existing infrastructure without requiring additional fuel. The conversation explores pressure energy recovery, natural gas pipelines, hydrogen infrastructure, industrial energy efficiency, and how waste energy recovery could become standard practice in the future.

Key Points:

• Pipelines contain an overlooked source of clean electricity – Every pressure reduction station along a natural gas pipeline releases stored energy that is typically wasted. Sapphire Technologies uses turbo expander generators to recover that pressure energy and convert it directly into electricity.
• Recovery improves existing infrastructure – Rather than replacing natural gas infrastructure, the technology increases its efficiency by generating electricity from a process already occurring inside pipeline systems. The electricity can power on-site equipment or be sold back to the electric grid through power purchase agreements.
• Pressure recovery has applications beyond natural gas – As hydrogen pipelines, carbon dioxide transport networks, and other industrial gas systems expand, similar pressure reduction opportunities could create new sources of distributed clean electricity across multiple industries.

• Jeff Earl, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Sapphire Technologies, LinkedIn

• Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

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We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Kameale Terry, CEO of ChargerHelp, about what it takes to keep EV charging infrastructure reliable after deployment. As the industry matures, attention is shifting toward uptime, maintenance, diagnostics, and how quickly operators can resolve failures when they occur. Kameale explains why modern EV chargers behave more like connected computers than traditional fueling equipment, how field data can reveal complex software and interoperability problems, and why improving mean time to repair is becoming an important measure of charging reliability. The conversation also explores fleet charging, remote diagnostics, AI and big data, charger lifecycle performance, and what the industry could look like in the future.

Key Points:

• EV charging reliability is becoming more complex as the industry matures – Early charging problems often reflect the young market, but as those issues are resolved, operators are confronting more complicated software, firmware, interoperability, and communications failures.
• Field data is essential for diagnosing EV charger failures – Remote diagnostics alone cannot explain every charging problem. Kameale emphasizes the importance of combining operational data with lessons from real-world charger repairs to identify patterns, test assumptions, and understand how equipment actually behaves after deployment.
• Mean time to repair could become a more meaningful measure of charger reliability – Rather than focusing only on uptime percentages, Kameale explains that the industry also needs to understand how quickly problems can be identified and resolved when charging stations fail.

• Kameale Terry, CEO and founder of ChargerHelp, LinkedIn

• Sarah Malpeli, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host, Vice President of Client Services and Growth at Technica Communications, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

Visit our website for more episodes!

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures! 

We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Will Regan, Founder and Chief Scientist of Pacific Fusion, about how the company is developing pulser-driven inertial fusion for eventual commercial deployment. Will breaks down how the system works, the scientific breakthroughs that have changed the outlook for commercial fusion, and why Pacific Fusion believes modularity and mass manufacturing could provide a path toward reliable fusion power plants. He also discusses the company's recent prototype milestones, plans to demonstrate net energy gain by 2030, fusion's regulatory and safety advantages, and what the next decade could hold for fusion energy on Earth and potentially in space.

Check out our previous episodes on fusion:

• #115 - Fusion’s Magnetic Mirror Magic for a Low-Carbon Energy Future with Realta Fusion
• #26 - The Forever Fuel in Nuclear Fusion

Key Points:

• Pacific Fusion is using pulsed power to create star-like conditions from a tiny can of fuel – The company's pulser-driven inertial fusion system uses a powerful pulse of electricity to compress a tiny amount of fuel, creating the conditions needed for fusion.
• Modularity could be key to making fusion power reliable and scalable – Pacific Fusion recently demonstrated a one-third-scale version of its pulser module and is now developing a full-scale unit.
• Pacific Fusion is targeting net energy gain by 2030 and commercial power plants in the 2030s – The company plans to break ground on a facility for its demonstration system and is targeting system-level net energy gain by 2030, followed by a first power plant in the mid-2030s.

• Will Regan, Founder and Chief Scientist of Pacific Fusion
• LinkedIn
• Pacific Fusion LinkedIn
• Pacific Fusion’s technology

• Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, and Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

Visit our website for more episodes!

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures! 

We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Theo Ludwick, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NosTerra Venture Capital, about the infrastructure behind AI's rapid growth. Theo explains why electricity has become one of the biggest bottlenecks facing AI data centers, how operators are balancing power and water use, and why energy efficiency could help unlock additional data center capacity in the near term. The conversation also explores emerging energy and cooling technologies, the shift from AI training to inference, data centers as critical infrastructure, and where investors are finding opportunities across the next generation of AI infrastructure.

Check out a few of our previous episodes on data centers:

• #173 - Active Diesel Particulate Filters: Unlocking Cleaner Growth for Data Centers With Rypos
• #164 - How the Grid Could Survive the AI Boom with Solid State Transformers With DG Matrix

Key Points:

• Electricity is becoming a major bottleneck for AI data centers – The rapid growth of AI compute is driving greater demand for power. Theo explains that addressing this challenge will require a combination of energy efficiency, grid flexibility, new generation, storage, and other technologies rather than a single energy solution.
• Data center efficiency could unlock more capacity in the near term – While new power generation can take years to deploy, technologies that improve efficiency and flexibility can be implemented sooner. Better chips, cooling, system orchestration, batteries, and flexible loads could help data centers use existing grid capacity more effectively as AI demand grows.
• The shift from AI training to inference could reshape data center infrastructure – AI training has favored large, centralized data centers, but inference can operate across a wider range of computing environments. As inference grows, Theo expects opportunities for smaller data centers located closer to population centers, potentially changing how facilities are designed, powered, and distributed.

• Theo Ludwick, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NosTerra Venture Capital, LinkedIn

• Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, and Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…  

Visit our website for more episodes!

Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures! 

We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!

Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website

Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.

Let’s stay connected! Follow Earthlings 2.0 Socials for the latest updates and news: 

• Follow us on LinkedIn
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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!