The Latitude

America’s first commercial plant for capturing CO2 directly from the air is online. 

It marks the start of an industrial race in direct-air capture – or DAC – an industry that needs to succeed in tandem with a tripling of clean generation to slash global emissions.

The US has emerged as a leader in the promotion of DAC in the hopes of radically dropping costs. And the success of this new plant will be an important indicator of the economic and technical path ahead. So, how will it work?

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from staff writer Maeve Allsup, who went to Tracy, California to witness the opening of Heirloom’s carbon removal plant.

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Thanks to our partner, Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America. Latitude listeners are invited to attend the event for free on January 17-19 at the San Diego Convention Center. Visit Intersolar.us and use code LAT to get free expo access and save 20% on a conference pass.

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The concentrating solar power industry – also known as solar thermal – has been defined by bankruptcies, failed projects, and high costs. But is it finding new life?

Crystalline silicon photovoltaics won the race for solar power generation long ago. But there’s a vital market it can’t serve cheaply: industrial steam.

And now out of bankruptcy, GlassPoint is hoping that solar thermal can find a competitive edge in the massive market for heat.

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from staff writer Maeve Allsup on the industrial niche that may pull concentrated solar out of obscurity.

For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

Thanks to our partner, Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America. Latitude listeners are invited to attend the event for free on January 17-19 at the San Diego Convention Center. Visit Intersolar.us and use code LAT to get free expo access and save 20% on a conference pass.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transmission backlogs. Land constraints. Local pushback. They’re all causing headaches for developers of wind, solar, and battery projects.

And that’s making brownfields more attractive for renewables – and a range of novel, industrial-scale storage and carbon-removal projects.

An Italian company is planning a compressed carbon dioxide storage project on the site of an old coal plant in the Midwest. It’s a first-of-a-kind. And it may offer a pathway for the hundreds of gigawatts of long-duration storage that are needed to hit net-zero emissions.

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from contributor Emma Foehringer Merchant on the surge of interest in old industrial sites to host frontier climatetech projects like long-duration storage.

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A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

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The market for engineered carbon removal is starting to resemble, well, a real market. 

Tax credits. Billions in government support. Corporate buyers. A wide range of startups that are picking up investment and working toward commercial deployment. They’re all helping push forward the use of machines to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

But the path to gigaton scale is not yet clear. And there’s a big gap between promises and reality.

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from staff writer Maeve Allsup about how the carbon removal industry is in its “figuring it out” phase.

For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

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Green hydrogen is a critical resource for cleaning up industry and heavy trucking. 

With tens of billions of government and corporate dollars plowing into the space – electrolyzer companies are preparing for a ramp up in sales and project developments to help turn renewable electrons into hydrogen molecules.

But they’re also hitting a snag: without much demand for more expensive green hydrogen, electrolyzer makers are caught in a holding pattern. So when will the market break open?

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from writer Tammy Xu called, “The electrolyzer market is caught in limbo.”

For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

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Top tech companies are on a quest to run their massive data centers around the clock with clean power.

It’s not an easy task, but they’ve been making progress. The energy efficiency of large data centers has radically improved over the last two decades. And tech players have been buying renewables at breakneck speed.

But a new source of computational demand is complicating those efforts: artificial intelligence.

Today: Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins presents a story from writer Erin Wong called, “The AI ‘wild card’ promises to complicate clean clouds.”

For more of Latitude Media’s coverage of the frontiers of clean energy, sign up for our newsletter.

A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

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Electric grids are increasingly being saturated with weather-dependent renewables. At the same time, power systems are also getting challenged by intensifying and unpredictable extreme weather.

So can weather prediction models rise to the challenge? The answer may be in machine learning.

Today: how artificial intelligence could make weather modeling much more powerful – and limit the use of fossil fuels as a backup to renewables.

Latitude Media Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins brings us a story titled, “Could AI-fueled weather forecasts boost renewable energy production?” from contributor Emma Woollacott.

Read all of Latitude Media's news here.

A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Renewables are now super cheap and abundant. We could install nearly a half terawatt of new wind and solar capacity this year – more than the entire capacity of China.

But with that surge comes a set of very pointed questions: what do we do with all those clean electrons on grids that don’t always value them – and can’t always handle them?

Today: how to make good use of all the new renewable electrons hitting the grid. 

Latitude Media Editor Lisa Martine Jenkins brings us a story titled, “The excess renewables opportunity,” by contributor Emma Foehringer Merchant.

Read all Latitude Media’s stories here.

A big thanks to our launch sponsor, Scale Microgrids. Scale Microgrids is the distributed energy company dedicated to transforming the way modern energy infrastructure is designed, constructed, and financed. Check out scalemicrogrids.com/careers to learn more about the open roles.

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Hi Climavores listeners: we're announcing a change to this feed. Going forward, this show will be called The Latitude.

Solar, wind, and batteries have all surged around the world. We’re set to install 400 gigawatts of renewables in the next five years — equivalent to the capacity of China. But emissions still have not peaked globally. This leaves us with an obvious question: what are the new frontiers of technology that will reverse this trend at the speed needed?

Covering this frontier of climate tech will form the basis of The Latitude’s coverage. We aim to offer a clear picture of where these sectors stand today, and help you figure out where they’re headed.

You'll hear stories from our journalists, analysts, and a range of experts on a wide range of trends: artificial intelligence, storage, carbon removal, virtual power plants, hydrogen, and more.

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In this last episode of the season, Tamar and Mike discuss what they’ve learned over the past six months and debate whether there’s hope for solving the food and climate problem (spoiler alert: they both say, “Yes, if….). 

They discuss techno optimists who see the rise in food and ag tech innovations as an overall win for the climate, but admit that technology can only slow climate change if people embrace it. In this episode, Mike and Tamar weigh in on a recent Bloomberg article titled “Fake Meat Was Supposed to Save the World. It Became Just Another Fad.” They point out that naysayers also doubted the solar industry in the ‘60s and plant-based milks in the ‘90s. And look where they are now! 

They also dig into the belief that the way we grow food and the food we eat should be rooted in a natural system. Tamar admits that until people can disassociate naturalness from their view of the food system, we're not going to make the progress needed to save the planet. 

Have a question about food and climate change for Mike and Tamar? Leave a message on the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at [email protected]. We might feature your question on a future episode. 

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media.

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