Today's guest is Robert Piconi, CEO and co-founder at Energy Vault, which develops and deploys utility-scale energy storage solutions. 

The company's offerings include proprietary gravity, battery, and green hydrogen energy storage hardware technologies supported by a technology-agnostic energy management system software layer. They can deliver short- and long-duration energy storage with the goal of helping carbon-free energy be as cost-effective as possible at all times of the day and night. 

Robert and Cody have a great conversation about why energy storage matters, the different types of energy storage today, and some unique insights from Bill Gross at Idealab that led to the earliest version of Energy Vault. They talk about the rapid iterations Energy Vault has done on its gravity storage model, and how they've raised capital. Energy Vault went public via SPAC one year and one day before Rob and Cody had this conversation. It's incredible to see such an infrastructure-heavy company grow and iterate so quickly. Enjoy the show! 

In this episode, we cover: 

• [2:41] Robert's background and interest in the energy sector 
• [6:55] Challenges of energy storage
• [10:19] Energy Vault's history as a company and exponential growth 
• [15:16] The energy storage space broadly and its shortcomings 
• [19:09] How Energy Vault landed on its solution and a description of its tech
• [26:17] Feedback from customers and the evolution of the company's tech 
• [29:04] An overview of the company's EVX platform 
• [30:55] Differences between long vs short storage 
• [34:36] Energy Vault's latest project announcements 
• [42:25] Tailwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act 
• [45:45] The 24/7 carbon-free energy market 
• [49:40] Talent and partner opportunities with Energy Vault

Get connected: 
Cody Simms Twitter / LinkedIn
Robert Piconi / Energy Vault
MCJ Podcast / Collective

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Episode recorded on February 15, 2023

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant