Earthlings 2.0 Podcast

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Bryce Yonker, Executive Director and CEO of Grid Forward, about one of the biggest challenges facing the electric grid today: meeting surging electricity demand while keeping power reliable and affordable. As AI data centers, electrification, manufacturing, and extreme weather place new pressure on utilities, Bryce explains why affordability has become a central issue for grid operators and policymakers. The conversation covers data center rate structures, transformer and equipment shortages, grid-enhancing technologies, energy storage, demand flexibility, utility business models, and the need for smarter long-term infrastructure investments.
Check out the episodes in our data center series:
#175 – Investing in the Energy Behind the AI Boom with NosTerra Venture Capital
#170 – Turning Grid Transformers into Intelligent Infrastructure with Ionate Energy
#164 – How the Grid Could Survive the AI Boom with Solid State Transformers With DG Matrix

Key Points:
Rising electricity demand is making affordability a bigger grid challenge – Bryce discusses how load growth from AI data centers, electrification, manufacturing, and other sources is arriving as utilities already face higher infrastructure and equipment costs, putting greater attention on who pays for grid expansion and how those costs are allocated.
Large data centers are changing how utilities think about rates and infrastructure costs – Bryce explains that utilities and regulators are developing new approaches to serve very large electricity users, including rate structures designed to account for the infrastructure needed to connect them and reduce the risk of shifting those costs to other customers.
A diverse mix of energy resources will be essential as electricity demand grows – Bryce emphasizes that no single generation source can meet the grid’s growing needs. Solar, energy storage, natural gas, nuclear, geothermal, demand flexibility, and other resources can each help create a more reliable and resilient power system.

Bryce Yonker, Executive Director and CEO of Grid Forward, LinkedIn

Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

On this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Jeff Earl, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Sapphire Technologies, about an overlooked source of clean energy. Every day, pressure is intentionally reduced throughout natural gas pipeline networks to safely deliver gas to homes, businesses, and industrial facilities. That pressure contains usable energy, but in most systems it is simply dissipated as heat. Jeff explains how Sapphire Technologies' turbo expander technology captures and converts the wasted pressure into clean electricity, improving the efficiency of existing infrastructure without requiring additional fuel. The conversation explores pressure energy recovery, natural gas pipelines, hydrogen infrastructure, industrial energy efficiency, and how waste energy recovery could become standard practice in the future.
Key Points:
Pipelines contain an overlooked source of clean electricity – Every pressure reduction station along a natural gas pipeline releases stored energy that is typically wasted. Sapphire Technologies uses turbo expander generators to recover that pressure energy and convert it directly into electricity.
Recovery improves existing infrastructure – Rather than replacing natural gas infrastructure, the technology increases its efficiency by generating electricity from a process already occurring inside pipeline systems. The electricity can power on-site equipment or be sold back to the electric grid through power purchase agreements.
Pressure recovery has applications beyond natural gas – As hydrogen pipelines, carbon dioxide transport networks, and other industrial gas systems expand, similar pressure reduction opportunities could create new sources of distributed clean electricity across multiple industries.

Jeff Earl, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Sapphire Technologies, LinkedIn

Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…
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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Kameale Terry, CEO of ChargerHelp, about what it takes to keep EV charging infrastructure reliable after deployment. As the industry matures, attention is shifting toward uptime, maintenance, diagnostics, and how quickly operators can resolve failures when they occur. Kameale explains why modern EV chargers behave more like connected computers than traditional fueling equipment, how field data can reveal complex software and interoperability problems, and why improving mean time to repair is becoming an important measure of charging reliability. The conversation also explores fleet charging, remote diagnostics, AI and big data, charger lifecycle performance, and what the industry could look like in the future.
Key Points:
EV charging reliability is becoming more complex as the industry matures – Early charging problems often reflect the young market, but as those issues are resolved, operators are confronting more complicated software, firmware, interoperability, and communications failures.
Field data is essential for diagnosing EV charger failures – Remote diagnostics alone cannot explain every charging problem. Kameale emphasizes the importance of combining operational data with lessons from real-world charger repairs to identify patterns, test assumptions, and understand how equipment actually behaves after deployment.
Mean time to repair could become a more meaningful measure of charger reliability – Rather than focusing only on uptime percentages, Kameale explains that the industry also needs to understand how quickly problems can be identified and resolved when charging stations fail.

Kameale Terry, CEO and founder of ChargerHelp, LinkedIn

Sarah Malpeli, Earthlings 2.0 Guest Host, Vice President of Client Services and Growth at Technica Communications, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…
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We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!
Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website
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In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Will Regan, Founder and Chief Scientist of Pacific Fusion, about how the company is developing pulser-driven inertial fusion for eventual commercial deployment. Will breaks down how the system works, the scientific breakthroughs that have changed the outlook for commercial fusion, and why Pacific Fusion believes modularity and mass manufacturing could provide a path toward reliable fusion power plants. He also discusses the company's recent prototype milestones, plans to demonstrate net energy gain by 2030, fusion's regulatory and safety advantages, and what the next decade could hold for fusion energy on Earth and potentially in space.
Check out our previous episodes on fusion:
#115 - Fusion’s Magnetic Mirror Magic for a Low-Carbon Energy Future with Realta Fusion
#26 - The Forever Fuel in Nuclear Fusion

Key Points:
Pacific Fusion is using pulsed power to create star-like conditions from a tiny can of fuel – The company's pulser-driven inertial fusion system uses a powerful pulse of electricity to compress a tiny amount of fuel, creating the conditions needed for fusion.
Modularity could be key to making fusion power reliable and scalable – Pacific Fusion recently demonstrated a one-third-scale version of its pulser module and is now developing a full-scale unit.
Pacific Fusion is targeting net energy gain by 2030 and commercial power plants in the 2030s – The company plans to break ground on a facility for its demonstration system and is targeting system-level net energy gain by 2030, followed by a first power plant in the mid-2030s.

Will Regan, Founder and Chief Scientist of Pacific Fusion
LinkedIn
Pacific Fusion LinkedIn
Pacific Fusion’s technology

Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, and Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…
Visit our website for more episodes!
Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures!
We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!
Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website
Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.
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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Theo Ludwick, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NosTerra Venture Capital, about the infrastructure behind AI's rapid growth. Theo explains why electricity has become one of the biggest bottlenecks facing AI data centers, how operators are balancing power and water use, and why energy efficiency could help unlock additional data center capacity in the near term. The conversation also explores emerging energy and cooling technologies, the shift from AI training to inference, data centers as critical infrastructure, and where investors are finding opportunities across the next generation of AI infrastructure.
Check out a few of our previous episodes on data centers:
#173 - Active Diesel Particulate Filters: Unlocking Cleaner Growth for Data Centers With Rypos
#164 - How the Grid Could Survive the AI Boom with Solid State Transformers With DG Matrix

Key Points:
Electricity is becoming a major bottleneck for AI data centers – The rapid growth of AI compute is driving greater demand for power. Theo explains that addressing this challenge will require a combination of energy efficiency, grid flexibility, new generation, storage, and other technologies rather than a single energy solution.
Data center efficiency could unlock more capacity in the near term – While new power generation can take years to deploy, technologies that improve efficiency and flexibility can be implemented sooner. Better chips, cooling, system orchestration, batteries, and flexible loads could help data centers use existing grid capacity more effectively as AI demand grows.
The shift from AI training to inference could reshape data center infrastructure – AI training has favored large, centralized data centers, but inference can operate across a wider range of computing environments. As inference grows, Theo expects opportunities for smaller data centers located closer to population centers, potentially changing how facilities are designed, powered, and distributed.

Theo Ludwick, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NosTerra Venture Capital, LinkedIn

Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, and Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn

🚀 Calling all Earthlings…
Visit our website for more episodes!
Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures!
We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!
Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our website
Thanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.
Let’s stay connected! Follow Earthlings 2.0 Socials for the latest updates and news:
Follow us on LinkedIn
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Thanks to Resource Labs for having us on the network!