MIT professor & researcher Jessika Trancik talks with Jim about energy return on investment (EROI), the power of learning curves, the feasibility of an all-electric society, base vs intermittent renewable energy, ‘energy storage plus’, the role & power of soft technologies, ‘soft costs’ of energy production, less known clean energy tech, the challenge of energy distribution & diversification, our collective action problem, discussion of carbon taxes, Jessika’s research priorities, the decarbonization-first perspective & achievable policy targets, how renewable tech innovation could impact the developing world, climate despair, the state & future of solar, wind, storage, nuclear, carbon removal & more.