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PODCAST

Catalyst with Shayle Kann

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.

technology investing

All Episodes

35:54

Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/04/23

As the race to build out artificial intelligence accelerates, the infrastructure required to support it is undergoing a remarkable transformation. In February, Google announced a plan to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in CapEx for 2026— a figure roughly equivalent to the GDP of Hungary.In this special live episode, recorded at Transition-AI 2026 in San Francisco, Shayle sits down with Amin Vahdat, Google’s chief technologist for AI infrastructure. Amin pulls back the curtain on how the

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39:51

How Base Power plans to use its fresh $1B [re-published]

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/04/16

[This episode is a re-run from October 2025. Look out for a new episode of Catalyst on Thursday, April 23.] Yesterday, Base Power announced a ⁠$1 billion series C⁠, giving the residential battery company an eye-popping $4 billion post-money valuation. Base manufactures, installs, owns, and operates residential batteries — a vertical integration strategy that CEO ⁠Zach Dell⁠ says is the “magic” to beating utility-scale batteries on CapEx. The company also acts as an electricity retailer and sells

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43:06

The rise of flexible data centers

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/04/09

As the buildout of data centers accelerates on a dramatic trajectory,its strain on the electric grid has increased in turn; forecasts suggest they could consume up to 17% of all US power by 2030. To avoid higher rates and slower AI growth, the industry has embraced a promising solution: data center flexibility.In this episode, Shayle speaks with Varun Sivaram, the CEO of Emerald AI. Coming on the heels of a $25 million investment round led by Energy Impact Partners, Varun returns to the show to

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33:57

Frontier Forum: Why clean energy capital boomed in a...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/04/06

In 2025, the clean energy market navigated a mix of shifting tariffs, evolving FEOC compliance rules, and uncertainty around tax policy. On the surface, it looked like a year defined by instability.And yet, capital continued to move. Total capital expenditures across the clean economy reached roughly $120 billion, with total financing activity exceeding $200 billion across the full stack of project capital. The transferable tax credit market scaled to about $42 billion, growing rapidly in just a

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38:49

Building a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/04/02

Even as momentum grows for U.S. nuclear, the fuel supply chain is often overlooked. This dynamic is shifting as the industry wakes up to critical choke points and a heavy reliance on countries like Russia for enrichment. As America aims to reduce geopolitical dependency in energy, fixing these domestic gaps has become a strategic priority.In this episode — a companion to a separate episode of Catalyst focused on nuclear waste — Shayle Kann speaks with Scott Nolan, the CEO of General Matter. The

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30:31

Battery booms and the rise of flexibility [partner...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/30

Battery markets have a pattern: They boom, capital floods in, prices collapse, and then the cycle starts again.So as storage becomes more important than ever, how do we maximize revenue and deliver needed flexibility? In this episode, Stephen Lacey speaks with Sean McEvoy, chief product officer and head of commercial at GridBeyond North America, about how that cycle is playing out across global power markets — and what happens when batteries stop being scarce. As markets saturate, the source of

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34:09

The state and future of nuclear waste

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/26

The nuclear power sector is gaining a lot of momentum. But even as SMRs continue to flourish, the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program moves forward, and decommissioned plants come back online, the question of what to do with nuclear waste has largely stayed out of the spotlight. The U.S. currently houses 90,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel; as more plants come online, that number could rise dramatically. In this episode, Shayle speaks to Dr. Jen Shafer, a former ARPA-E director and current

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40:26

Scaling America's domestic solar supply chain

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/19

Despite the dark cloud of federal policy hanging over the solar industry, skyrocketing load growth is driving demand. The question is whether supply can keep up.In this episode, Shayle talks to Scott Moskowitz — VP of market strategy and public affairs at Qcells and board chair of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) — about the challenges of reshoring solar in the U.S. They cover topics like: How supply chain resilience incentivize reshoring efforts The specific state of

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42:32

AI scaling pathways: on grid, on edge, off grid, off...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/12

As demand for data center power skyrockets, available options to provide that power have dwindled. And cohesive frameworks for finding sustainable generation remain few and far between.In this episode, Shayle speaks with Jake Elder, senior vice president of research and innovation at Energy Impact Partners. The two colleagues dig into the four main generation solutions — on grid, off grid, on edge, and off planet – and consider the viability of each in the years to come. Shayle and Jake explore

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35:25

Frontier Forum: How VPPs earn grid-scale trust...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/10

Can a grid operator tell the difference between a virtual power plant and a traditional one? That’s the idea behind the Huels Test, a framework developed by EnergyHub to answer a simple but consequential question: when does a distributed fleet of customer devices become reliable enough to function like a power plant? Passing the test means more than just aggregating thermostats or batteries. It means delivering predictable, repeatable performance that utility planners and operators trust enough to

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36:05

Digging deep for super hot geothermal

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/03/05

Despite its ability to deliver ample carbon-free energy, the potential of geothermal and EGS is limited by the number of drilling sites close enough to the earth’s surface.But a few pioneering companies have landed on a potential solution: dig way deeper. In this episode, Shayle speaks with Carlos Araque, the founder of Quaise Energy. The company has developed millimeter-wave drills to vaporize rock, allowing them to dig up to twelve miles underground in search of water around 800 degrees

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64:33

Volts crossover: Six big energy questions

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/02/25

They’re at it again. Two years after they last teamed up for a Volts/Catalyst crossover episode, David Roberts joins Shayle for another far-ranging conversation exploring the future of energy. Their prompt was simple: Each host brought three critical questions they want to see answered in the next decade. From “data center fever” to closed-loop critical mineral economics, Shayle and David take the opportunity to dive deep into a myriad of second-order effects of the clean energy transition. In

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50:29

The rise of grid power electronics with Drew Baglino

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/02/19

For decades, the physical equipment underpinning the electric grid has remained largely unchanged: passive, "dumb" devices installed as far back as the 1970s that lack much real-time control. But today, in the face of skyrocketing energy demand, a new class of technologies has emerged.In this episode, Drew Baglino, the founder and CEO of Heron Power, returns to the show to discuss his company’s new generation of solid-state transformers, or SSTs. After a 17-year career at Tesla — where he led

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40:08

PJM and ERCOT navigate a capacity rollercoaster

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/02/12

Last year, the PJM capacity crunch became a focal point for an entire industry struggling to navigate the explosive growth of hyperscaler data centers. Yet even in the first two months of 2026, capacity prices have continued to skyrocket, and the economics of energy generation have only become more tenuous. In this episode, Shayle Kann talks to Paul Segal, the CEO of LS Power. A major player in the space, LS Power owns a diverse portfolio of generation, storage, and transmission assets across the

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34:44

The path to market for new nuclear reactors

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/02/05

Spurred by a suite of executive orders and investments from the federal government, new nuclear reactors are coming soon. Or the announcements are at least. The advanced nuclear sector has found itself in the spotlight as companies race to acquire licenses and permits aimed at achieving "criticality.” But what do these milestones signify? And is hitting the deadlines even feasible? In this episode, Shayle talks to Katy Huff, former assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the Department of

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35:51

The rise of permissionless DERs

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/01/29

Distributed batteries are having a big moment. On one hand, companies like Base Power and Tesla have leaned into large residential batteries that export power back to the grid, but need permits and inspections to operate. At the same time, however, a new category has emerged: small, "plug-in" batteries that don’t require an electrician or complex installation, let alone a permit. In this episode, Shayle talks to James McGinniss, co-founder and CEO of David Energy (yes, the biblical reference is

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25:39

More 2026 trends: Solar costs, oil oversupply, and...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/01/22

We are back for Part 2 of Shayle’s double header conversation with the veteran energy analyst Nat Bullard, dissecting his annual presentation on the state of decarbonization.If you missed it, we recommend you go back and listen to Part 1, which was released last week. In this episode, Shayle and Nat shift their focus from data centers to exploring other intriguing trends found in the data that Nat assembled—from the surprising resilience of clean energy stocks to the rising costs of solar

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19:48

A ‘rain delay’ for the energy transition [partner...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/01/20

In 2024, Tom Burton described the clean energy transition as entering its “third inning” — a phase defined by execution and scale. A year later, the game looks very different.In this episode, produced in partnership with Mintz, Stephen Lacey sits down with Burton to revisit that framework and assess the state of play for U.S. energy infrastructure heading into 2026. Burton, who chairs Mintz’s sustainable energy and infrastructure practice, brings nearly 3 decades of experience advising

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46:25

2026 trends: Gas turbines, Texas’ load queue and...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/01/15

It’s a new year, which means the veteran energy analyst Nat Bullard has dropped another annual, data-rich presentation on the state of energy and decarbonization.And per what has become tradition, Nat is back on Catalyst – for the fourth time – to discuss some of Shayle’s favorite slides, cherry-picked from the 200-page deck. In part one of their two-part conversation, they cover topics like: The significance of China’s rapid electrification Why the proportion of GDP spent on

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52:42

The VC case for 'full stack deeptech'

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2026/01/08

For “deep tech” or industrial tech investors, a captivating idea on paper doesn’t always translate into a sustainable or viable business. Even a remarkable technological breakthrough isn’t guaranteed to survive the long sales cycles of the industrial world.So which companies are worth the investment? Ian Rountree, founder and partner at the venture firm Cantos, wrote a bare-bones thesis on X that offers guidance on this question. In it, Rountree lays out a stark list of the companies he invests

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