Investor Shayle Kann is asking big questions about how to decarbonize the planet: How cheap can clean energy get? Will artificial intelligence speed up climate ...
The case for colocating data centers and generation
Sheldon Kimber says the grid is broken — at least for new data centers and other large, industrial loads that need lots of clean power, fast.
But the founder and CEO of Intersect Power believes there’s a workaround that enables larger data centers and speeds up time to power: colocating behind-the-meter generation and storage on megasites rich with renewable resources.
In short, instead of bringing clean generation to load, bring load to clean generation. Major partners are on board with the strategy. Last December Intersect announced $800M in investment from Google and private equity firm TPG, along with a goal of catalyzing $20B in projects by 2030.
So how does colocation work? And how far does it go?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Sheldon about how colocation can help sidestep the challenges associated with grid upgrades, transmission, and permitting. They dig into topics like:
Major forces shaping the market, like AI demand, the IRA, and tariffs
Optimal PPA prices and tenures
The right mix of grid-connected and behind-the-meter power
The extreme version of colocation: off-grid data centers
Megasite developers for hydrogen and crypto and how they took advantage of the AI boom
Whether DeepSeek will cause energy demand to temper or accelerate
Recommended resources
Latitude Media: Google’s new data center model signals a massive market shift
Latitude Media: Load growth is changing how Silicon Ranch develops solar projects
Latitude Media: Amazon’s data center strategy: ‘Get back to being grid-tied’
Catalyst: The US power demand surge: The electricity gauntlet has arrived
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
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46:44
More 2025 trends: DeepSeek, plug-in hybrids, and curtailment
Didn’t catch last week’s episode on Nat Bullard’s mega slide deck on energy transition? Start there.
This is the second half of our extended conversation with Nat, the former chief content officer at BloombergNEF and current co-founder at data insights company Halcyon.
In this episode, Shayle and Nat dig into topics like:
Rising solar installations and stagnating wind
Why we’re wasting so much renewable power amid skyrocketing load growth
The rise of Chinese plug-in hybrids and exports
Whether DeepSeek’s efficiency will temper or turbocharge load growth
The woeful state of transmission buildout, despite demand for it
Why one quarter of Virginia’s power demand comes from data centers
Recommended resources
Latitude Media: Does DeepSeek call the data center boom into question?
Latitude Media: To get data centers online, one Virginia co-op is proposing a new business model
Latitude Media: A dizzying year at the AI energy nexus
Catalyst: Demystifying the Chinese EV market
Reuters: Exclusive: Global solar capacity hits 2 TW on path to climate goal, data shows
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
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49:45
Are utilities ready to fully harness demand flexibility? [partner content]
When it comes to decarbonization planning, utilities tend to focus heavily on the supply side. But they may be overlooking one of their most powerful tools for managing a cleaner grid — demand flexibility.
Demand response and time-varying rates have been in use for decades. But many utilities still haven't fully embraced demand flexibility in their planning. As utilities push toward higher penetrations of renewable energy, the ability to shift demand becomes increasingly vital for maintaining grid stability.
The challenge? It requires a fundamental shift in mindset: from controlling power plants with knobs and dials to empowering customers through smart rate design.
"For years and years and decades and decades, the utilities' incentive has been to sell customers more of their product," says Scott Engstrom, chief customer officer at GridX. "But this idea of much more targeted demand flexibility as a requirement to manage a grid dominated by intermittent renewable resources is quite new."
In this episode, produced in partnership with GridX, Scott Engstrom talks with Stephen Lacey about why demand flexibility deserves more attention — and how utilities can better harness it as they transition to cleaner energy.
Learn more about how GridX delivers detailed analytics for time-of-use rates, helping utilities harness grid flexibility as part of their decarbonization efforts.
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30:49
2025 trends: aerosols, oil demand, and carbon removal
Out today: Nat Bullard’s 200-page slide deck with data from across the energy transition. Nat is the former chief content officer at BloombergNEF and current co-founder at data insights company Halcyon.
In part one of their two-part conversation, Shayle cherry-picked the most interesting slides and sat down with Nat to unpack them. They cover topics like:
Accidental solar geoengineering and the state of aerosols
The United States’ record-setting fossil fuels exports
Whether Chinese oil demand is peaking
Conflicting indicators for the state of ESG investing
Whether you can have too many carbon removal startups
Recommended resources
Catalyst: Putting a halt to geoengineering — by accident
Catalyst: 2024 trends: batteries, transferable tax credits, and the cost of capital
Catalyst: 2023 trends: biomass, ESG, batteries and more
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
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35:34
The climate-ag grab bag
Here’s a three-part puzzle for global agriculture: How do you increase calories for a growing population, while zeroing out emissions and minimizing land usage?
The stakes are enormous. According to the UN, the world has to feed an estimated 9.8 billion people by 2050. But agriculture currently accounts for about a third of global carbon emissions and is driving the conversion of important ecosystems – like rainforest and grasslands – into farmland. Converting land is especially problematic because it releases additional carbon into the atmosphere.
So what do we do about it?
In this episode, Shayle talks to journalist Mike Grunwald, who recently penned a defense of industrial agriculture in The New York Times. He’s also the author of the upcoming book “We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.” Shayle and Mike cover topics like:
The drawbacks of industrial agriculture, like the overapplication of fertilizer and the mistreatment of animals and employees
Why calories per acre need to grow substantially to feed a growing global population
Why minimizing land usage through industrial agriculture may cut more emissions than alternative methods of farming like regenerative agriculture
Why feed additives are not as important as the land efficiency of beef production
Potential solutions, like biofertilizers, cultivated meat, and addressing food waste
Why vertical farming requires too much electricity to be viable
Recommended resources
Simon & Schuster: We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate
The New York Times: Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food
Canary Media: Why vertical farming just doesn’t work
Reuters: Fertiliser ban decimates Sri Lankan crops as government popularity ebbs
Catalyst: Mitigating enteric methane: tech solutions for solving the cow burp problem
Catalyst: From biowaste to ‘biogold’
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the public relations and strategic marketing agency of choice for climate and energy leaders. If you're a startup, investor, or global corporation that's looking to tell your climate story, demonstrate your impact, or accelerate your growth, Antenna Group's team of industry insiders is ready to help. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Investor Shayle Kann is asking big questions about how to decarbonize the planet: How cheap can clean energy get? Will artificial intelligence speed up climate solutions? Where is the smart money going into climate technologies? Every week on Catalyst, Shayle explains the world of climate tech with prominent experts, investors, researchers, and executives. Produced by Latitude Media.