On The Grid

I will not apologize for the pun. We're talking with Robert Sewell, CEO of VesprSolar, a company that makes clip attachments for PV solar modules. We primarily discuss tackling the "last mile" of solar installation to help drive down solar costs. We also talk about where startups see promise and opportunity but also challenges in the solar industry.

This episode was sponsored by NREL. Check out the next round of the American Made Solar Prize at americanmadechallenges.org/solarprize/round4

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Capital metro in Austin is rolling out six electric buses for public transportation, with two already on the streets! How does one do this kind of public transportation project in a pandemic? What does such a process look like from the inside to potentially be modeled by other transit agencies? We wanted the answers to these questions as well, so we brought on Sam Sargent, Deputy Chief of Staff at Capital Metro, and Lauren Scoville, Senior Director of Sales at Proterra to discuss the project front-to-back!

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Adrian Garcia, VP of Transformation & Strategy at Daito Design, is our guest this week. The discussion centers around moving digital transformation out of the abstract and into reality: what is transformation in service of? Who makes the plan and what should they keep in mind? How do we distinguish a "transformation" from just on-boarding tech to do business as usual?

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It's been a while since we've dug into a specific project, but when word came to us of a long-term storage project with a new battery, we had to sniff the story out. We have Minnesota's Great River Energy Chief Power Supply Officer Jon Brekke, and the Form Energy's cofounder, president, and COO Ted Wiley to discuss the "aqueous air" battery project set to be fully rolled out in 2023.

As we've done before, we do a deep dive on the process of this project as a litmus test for the challenges and opportunities utility-scale solar projects present. We get in the weeds a bit this episode, but there are so many interesting things to find in there!

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How has the pandemic affected cities' commitments to building more ecologically-minded? What do those standards look like in the first place? To answer these questions and more we brought on Anita Ledbetter, Executive Director at Build San Antonio Green.

If you want to donate to help protesters fight for racial justice across the country here are some resources:

Freedom Fund - https://www.lgbtqfund.org/

Campaign Zero - https://www.joincampaignzero.org/

NAACP Legal Defense Fund - https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6857/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=16304

Here is a compiled list of local organizations as well - https://zpryme.com/insights/resources-for-those-seeking-to-help-anti-police-brutality-protesters/

Today on the show we have Dr. Massoud Amin of the University of Minnesota talking about the powers of resiliency. The conversation flows between grid resiliency, cyber resiliency, and personal resiliency against the various threats of the modern era. Dr. Amin lays out prescriptive practices in these fields based on years of research and observation.

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Today we're launching a monthly solar podcast focus for the coming year and we're starting it off with NREL's Sarah Gomach who is here to talk about round two of the American Made Solar Prize. The lessons learned from round 1 have helped shape the solar network of developers, labs, entrepreneurs and other key figures. We also talk about the larger implications of the movement towards solar in all the messy context of the year 2020.

This episode was sponsored by NREL. Check out the next round of the American Made Solar Prize at americanmadechallenges.org/solarprize/round4

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Our guest today is Chris King, SVP of emobility policy and regulatory affairs at Siemens. He discusses EV charging standards and interoperability allowing for a better customer experience, but on a larger scale this episode explores what the most cost-effective way is to create a user-friendly infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to help remove barriers to EV adoption and prepare for what looks like an inevitable future of electric vehicle ubiquity.

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Today we have Rod West, President of Utility Operations at Entergy, on the show to talk about two key aspects of COVID-based disruption in the energy space. Initially we dive into resiliency and what precautions are taking place to ensure reliability of power alongside safety of workers. Then we take a look at how the customer journey has been upended by the personal, cultural, and economic impacts of the virus.

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We're following up with NYU's Dr. Kissane on the global oil conflict and how we ended up with a negative value in the US last week. If you're following what's happening with oil during the pandemic, don't miss this one!

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