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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

29:15

Looking for a turnaround in transmission

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/11/20

After years of stalled transmission buildout, there are new signs of progress. Earlier this month, SPP approved $8.6 billion in transmission projects across 14 states. Major plans are emerging in MISO, PJM, and ERCOT. Despite the DOE canceling its loan guarantee, the Grain Belt Express is still moving forward. And regardless of court battles, so is the New England Clean Energy Connect. Are these signs that the U.S. could start building transmission at scale again? In this episode, Shayle talks to

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31:15

New Mexico proves America can still build [partner...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/11/18

Across the country, people are asking the same question: why is it so hard to build in America?From transmission lines to clean energy factories, projects are taking longer, costs are rising, and frustration is growing. But in New Mexico, two cabinet secretaries are trying to show that it doesn’t have to be this way. Together, Economic Development Secretary Rob Black and Environment Secretary Jim Kenney are helping redefine how state agencies work with industry. Their model blends speed, access,

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41:28

Driving down the cost of green hydrogen

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/11/13

A few years ago, industry and political leaders embraced hydrogen as a solution to a laundry list of hard-to-abate decarbonization challenges — steel production, ammonia production, and more. But hydrogen failed to come down in costs and policymakers pulled back support. Ultimately, the bubble burst. So what does it take to drive down the costs of low-carbon hydrogen and rebuild momentum? In this episode, Shayle talks to Raffi Garabedian, co-founder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen. (Shayle is on the

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36:26

Inside a $300 million bet on AI for physical R&D

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/11/06

A big problem with using artificial intelligence to discover new materials? It struggles to predict beyond its training data. That means AI might be better at optimizing known materials than discovering entirely new ones — like a room temperature superconductor or carbon-capture sorbents. But since we last covered the topic in September 2024, a few things have changed. OpenAI released its powerful O1 reasoning model. Large language models have also gotten better at math, physics, and coding. And

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40:37

Unpacking DOE's proposal to transform data center...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/30

Last Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consider rulemaking to fast-track interconnection for large loads — as long as they agree to be curtailable or colocate with dispatchable generation.So what does this proposal actually mean for interconnection? In this episode, Shayle talks with Allison Clements, former FERC commissioner and current partner with digital infrastructure advisory firm ASG. Allison is also principal of 804 Advisory

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44:23

Five big questions about the future of energy

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/23

We’ve covered AI’s massive power appetite in depth over the past year – with good reason. It’s the driving force behind much of the change and uncertainty in the energy world right now, from the error bars around our demand for electricity to the lineup of technologies vying to meet that demand. In this episode Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, head of research and partner at Energy Impact Partners, about five big questions arising in this uncertain load-growth environment. They cover

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36:04

Frontier Forum: The new power map for AI infrastructure

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/21

As AI reshapes the industrial landscape, companies are questioning whether the grid can keep pace. Permitting delays, transmission constraints, and reliability risks are forcing developers to rethink where power comes from. In this episode, KR Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, lays out a radically different vision. He believes that many data centers will ultimately operate like refineries — powered by captive, off-grid generation that prioritizes resilience, speed, and local control over traditional

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41:14

Calibrating hype with Akshat Rathi

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/16

In the climate space, every idea sits somewhere along the hype continuum. Some command outsize attention. Others fly under the radar despite big potential. And a rare few hit the sweet spot, earning exactly the buzz they deserve.But how do you tell which is which? In this episode, Shayle teams up with Akshat Rathi, senior reporter for climate at Bloomberg News and host of the Zero podcast, to sort it out. Akshat and Shayle run through a list of hot topics and place each one on the hype continuum

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26:50

How insurance can narrow the valley of death [partner...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/15

Jamie Daggett started his career as a mechanical engineer working for cleantech startups in Silicon Valley. But after five startups and three buyouts, Daggett saw the same story repeat itself: good technologies that worked in the lab often died before reaching commercial scale. And often they didn’t fail because the science was wrong; they failed because investors couldn’t trust that the performance would hold up over time. That realization eventually led him to an unexpected place:

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39:51

How Base Power plans to use its fresh $1B

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/09

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 generation capacity.So how does Base’s business model work? And what will it do with its new fundraise? In this

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31:57

Frontier Forum: A new playbook for clean energy growth

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/06

After the failure of federal climate legislation in 2010, clean energy advocates realized they had to look elsewhere for momentum. The result was a shift toward states and regional markets — and the creation of Advanced Energy United, a trade group built to make policy progress outside of Washington.Today, that strategy is more important than ever. With the federal government rolling out new regulatory hurdles, load growth accelerating, and an affordability crisis growing, states have become

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39:03

The new wave of DERs

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/10/02

Demand response was the original distributed energy resource. In its early days, it was surprisingly manual: a grid operator would call up a large load, like a factory, and request a few hours of reduced demand during peak times.Fast forward to today and DERs look dramatically different. They’re automated, deployed frequently across the country, and include everything from EVs and thermostats to sophisticated management systems at paper mills and data centers. So how did DERs evolve from phone

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35:16

Ag residue and carbon removal

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/09/25

Agricultural byproducts like corn stover, wood chips, and soybean husks typically get left to decompose and release carbon dioxide. Don’t call them “waste” though; some farmers use these byproducts as field cover to improve soil health. And industry uses a fraction of this biomass as feedstock for valuable products like ethanol, electricity, and heat. Theoretically, it’s a vastly underutilized resource. The problem is that agricultural residue is really hard to collect. The economics of gathering,

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41:01

Is now the time for DERs to scale?

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/09/18

A decade ago, DERs were hot. The hype was that things like batteries, smart devices, and other distributed energy technologies would offset the need for expanding traditional grid infrastructure.But DERs never took off, at least not at the scale that many hoped for. They had high price tags and short track records compared to the existing substations, transmission lines, and generation options that utilities were familiar with. In short, the market didn’t need them yet. Fast forward 10 years,

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36:32

When to colocate data centers with generation

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/09/12

The idea of colocating data centers with behind-the-meter generation is picking up steam, including large projects in Memphis, Texas, and Utah developing significant on-site capacity, mostly from combined-cycle gas plants. The main argument is speed to power. Building your own generation allows data centers to sidestep the challenges involved in grid upgrades, transmission, and permitting. But when does a good idea jump the shark? In this episode, Shayle brings Brian Janous back on the show to

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42:06

AMA: Geoengineering, nuclear, power prices, and more

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/09/04

You sent in great questions, and today we’re answering them. In this episode, Shayle hands it over to Lara Pierpoint, the managing director of Trellis Climate at the Prime Coalition and host of The Green Blueprint. Together they cover topics like:Whether solar radiation management will remain the “black sheep” of climate technologies What technologies will excel in a world of rising power prices Whether the nuclear renaissance is finally here Why Lara and Shayle are more bullish on

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36:07

The mechanics of data center flexibility

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/08/28

Adding flexibility to data center loads could ease strain on the grid and reduce the need for costly new generation. And, according to one study, shaving off just a few megawatts during peak hours could also unlock unused capacity —as many as 98 gigawatts in the U.S — if those facilities reduced load by just 0.5% each year. The problem: data centers promise near-perfect reliability, often “five nines” (99.999% uptime) in service-level agreements with customers. That leaves little room to adjust

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35:45

The Green Blueprint: Terrawatt Infrastructure’s...

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/08/21

Editor's note: With the Trump administration's efforts to roll back California's electric trucking rules, there's new attention on heavy duty transport right now. So we're bringing you a deep dive into the industry, an episode of The Green Blueprint on Terawatt Infrastructure's $1 billion strategy to build charging depots.In 2021, Neha Palmer co-founced Terrawatt Infrastructure with a bold mission: create the backbone for America's electric trucking revolution. Within its first year,

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45:36

The case for sodium-ion

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/08/14

Our first episode covering sodium-ion batteries featured a cautious take on the chemistry: Back in February Adrian Yao, founder of Stanford’s STEER program, explained the challenges of reaching competitive energy density and costs, especially given the falling price of LFP. Still, sodium-ion chemistries are picking up steam, thanks largely to growing deployments in stationary storage and small-scale mobility in China.So what’s a more bullish take on sodium-ion? In this episode, Shayle talks to

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42:01

Explaining the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’

Catalyst with Shayle Kann ·

2025/08/07

Editor’s note: The uncertainties of data center construction — like when, where, and how much to build — are as pressing as ever. So we’re revisiting a conversation with Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer at data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. In this episode, he explains his theory of the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’, which offers insightful heuristics for understanding how data centers are driving change in the power sector.Every data center company is after one thing right

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