Good Clean Energy: Recent Episodes
TAE Technologies
How do we build a world with abundant, affordable, carbon-free electricity?
That’s the question at the heart of Good Clean Energy, a podcast featuring interviews with scientists, innovators and energy experts working to transform the energy ecosystem and tackle climate change.
Roughly 42% of energy-related carbon emissions come from households—our cars, water heaters, furnaces, dryers, cooktops and where we get our energy. Stephen Pantano, head of Market Transformation for Rewiring America, joins Good Clean Energy to explain how replacing fossil-fueled machines at home with electric ones is a critical and achievable strategy for reaching net zero emissions in the U.S.
Covered in this episode:
- [2:30] The mission of Rewiring America
- [4:02] “The perfect household is all-electric”
- [5:19] Using heat pumps to heat and cool your home
- [9:57] Cooking without gas
- [12:45] Heating your water with a heat pump
- [14:42] Drying your clothes with a heat pump
- [15:32] The economic incentives to electrify your home
- [20:49] Where Rewiring America comes in
- [23:22] The challenges of rolling out the rebate programs
- [24:51] The roadblocks to electrifying America
- [26:03] The 1 billion devices that need to be upgraded
- [29:59] Where an individual can make the most impact
- [31:22] A vision for 2035
For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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At COP28, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry announced a major fusion strategy for the world. Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz joins Good Clean Energy from Dubai to break down this White House plan to bring fusion to market as fast as possible. For a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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Cement accounts for 8 percent of global CO2 emissions. The production of one ton of Portland cement — the kind most commonly used — results in one ton of CO2 released into the atmosphere. And since cement is exceptionally cheap and the most massively produced man-made material in the world, those emissions are going to grow. “In a do-nothing scenario, emissions from cement are projected to increase 50 percent between now and 2050,” says Dr. Leah Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Sublime Systems.
Ellis’ company is producing low-carbon cement by replacing the traditional high-temperature, fossil fuel, combustion-driven kiln with an electrochemical approach that operates at ambient temperature and uses renewable electricity.
“I like to say Sublime is the electric vehicle of cement making.”
Covered in this episode:
- [3:18] How Ellis’ background in chemistry led to making carbon-free cement
- [5:51] Why defining cement by its performance is important
- [7:48] The basics of cement
- [9:29] The outrageous amount of cement produced annually
- [11:29] How Sublime Systems produces cement with fewer carbon emissions
- [18:06] The ability to compete economically
- [23:04] Scaling up Sublime’s operations
- [26:37 The leaky tap analogy to understand the climate crisis
- [29:53] A vision for the cement industry in 2035
For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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Anu Khan, Deputy Director of Science and Innovation at the nonprofit Carbon180, joins Good Clean Energy to discuss the ins and outs of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Throughout the industrial era, we’ve emitted roughly 2 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, 1 trillion of which is still in the atmosphere today and is going to continue to cause warming for an extended period of time. Most of that warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels for energy, and reducing emissions is crucial to keeping global warming below the goal of 2°C. But the challenge doesn’t end there. That’s where carbon dioxide removal comes in.
While there are a few ways to actually remove the carbon dioxide and there’s the question of who should really pay for it, it’s clear that CO2 removal is necessary. “It's fundamentally a climate justice solution, and carbon removed anywhere benefits everyone globally,” Khan said.
Covered in this episode:
- [3:28] The role of carbon in our planet
- [5:42] Why we need carbon removal in addition to clean energy
- [7:38] The difference between carbon capture and carbon removal
- [11:28] How much CO2 we need to remove from the atmosphere
- [15:11] The suite of carbon removal solutions
- [16:38] Who pays for carbon dioxide removal
- [21:04] The personal carbon offset market
- [22:27] The potential for cost-effective CO2 removal
- [25:05] The leading approach to direct air capture
- [28:57] The most compelling argument for CO2 removal
- [32:19] A vision for 2035
For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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What are the biggest challenges to widespread adoption of electric vehicles? Cost, range anxiety and charge time. Kedar Munipella, CEO of TAE Power Solutions, joins the show to talk about how his company solves for all that. Working with a radical new approach to power distribution, battery performance is optimized and charge time is reduced. That, in turn, will make EVs less expensive.
For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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Industrial heat accounts for 25% of global energy consumption to make products ranging from steel to cement to paper and so many other things you've probably never thought about. It’s a huge chunk of our climate problem — and it’s uniquely hard to decarbonize. That’s where John O’Donnell’s company, Rondo Energy, steps in. Rondo is using hot bricks to store energy as heat. And since industrial processes need energy in the form of heat anyway, it’s a no-brainer. “It happens to be the world’s most efficient way of storing energy,” O’Donnell said of his technology.
For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.
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Priya Donti, co-founder and executive director of Climate Change AI, joins the show to talk about the role AI and machine learning can play in transforming America's power grid to optimize clean power production and consumption.
Dr. Ernie Moniz, an acclaimed nuclear physicist and former U.S. Secretary of Energy, to joins the show again to discuss the film “Oppenheimer” and how the science out of the Manhattan Project ushered in the atomic age and connects to the nuclear energy technology being developed today.
“Fission has been an enormous boon to emissionless, carbon-free electricity,” he said. “But fusion would take that yet up another step.”
Moniz also explained how fundamentally different the technology to create fusion energy is from that of a fusion bomb, or thermonuclear weapon.
“The sun has an amazing confinement mechanism. It's called an enormous gravitational field,” said Moniz. “On Earth we have to use magnets and accelerators in combination to create the proper kind of magnetic cage to confine an extremely hot plasma. If we do not succeed in that confinement, then the reaction is just self-terminating. So that public safety issue is not there at all.”
Covered in this episode:
- [2:08] Ernie Moniz on the film “Oppenheimer”
- [4:49] The dawn of the fission age
- [6:42] The difference between fusion energy and a fusion bomb
- [11:17] Why NRC regulations for fusion will be similar to nuclear medicine regulations
- [14:11] The next generation of plasma physics
- [15:37] Not recognizing the clear threat of climate change
- [19:17] The mission of the Energy Futures Initiative
- [21:54] “Fusion will be available when the world needs it most”
Today's guest is Willy Shih, Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Shih talks about the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on reshoring manufacturing and how it can help the U.S. reassert itself as a leader in innovation, particularly in the transition to clean energy.
About 90 percent of the world's trade is transported by sea, on giant polluting cargo ships that burn particularly dirty oil. Last week, the International Maritime Organization, the UN body responsible for regulating the global shipping , set a new CO2 reduction target for the industry to get to net zero by 2050. To help us make sense of the transition that will need to happen, Maria Gallucci, a clean energy reporter at Canary Media, joins the show to talk about new green fuels and technologies for the industry.
Paul Eremenko, co-founder and CEO of Universal Hydrogen, believes that there is a relatively simple way to solve the aviation industry’s carbon emissions problem. Today’s sustainable fuels aren’t really all that sustainable, he says, and electric planes, while great in theory, don’t scale. That leaves one obvious choice for Eremenko: green hydrogen.
“There is a very significant sort of low-hanging fruit opportunity with no significant tech risk to put hydrogen in service and solve in one fell swoop half of aviation emissions problems by 2035,” Eremenko says.
His company, Universal Hydrogen, is working to do just that. The company, which does not plan to manufacture the actual hydrogen-powered planes in the future, has completed a test flight of a hydrogen-powered regional airliner.
Universal Hydrogen is “the Nespresso pod” of hydrogen, Eremenko says. “We don't grow the coffee. We buy the coffee, we put it in a convenient form factor, we get it to the consumer and we're building the first coffee machine to work with our capsule. But … we are not in the coffee maker business.”
Despite challenges, including limited availability of green hydrogen, Eremenko’s company plans to make hydrogen-powered commercial flight a reality by 2025, starting with regional airliners.
And with green hydrogen subsidies recently going into effect, hydrogen-powered commercial flight seems more achievable than ever.
Covered in this episode:
- [3:52] The aviation industry’s current carbon footprint
- [5:40] Why sustainable fuels aren’t really all that sustainable
- [7:12] Why electric planes aren’t feasible
- [8:27] Explaining the color spectrum of hydrogen
- [9:22] How hydrogen is safer than jet fuel
- [12:40] Technology for hydrogen fueled aviation
- [17:45] Why you can’t just fill up the existing fuel tanks with hydrogen
- [19:02] The “Nespresso pod of hydrogen”
- [21:23] Universal Hydrogen’s inaugural flight
- [23:20] How the range of a hydrogen craft compares to a regular jet-fuel plane
- [23:50] Major challenge is availability of green hydrogen
- [26:39] The economic competitiveness of hydrogen
- [27:31] A new commercial aircraft configuration
- [34:39] A few ways the aviation industry could look by 2045
To say Richard "Dick" Meserve has done a lot in his career is quite the understatement. The former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who has a law background as well as a PhD in applied physics, may be uniquely qualified to speak on the future of both nuclear fission and fusion in the U.S.
“We have a huge challenge in confronting climate change, and it's my view that we need to marshal all the resources we can to address it," says Meserve. "And that obviously includes a heavy emphasis on renewables, but you need a backup. You need firm power as a supplement to renewables. And nuclear is a natural component of that.”
For show notes and a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
Jamie Alexander is working to make capitalism compatible with a climate-safe world. Alexander is the director of Drawdown Labs, a branch of the nonprofit organization Project Drawdown that works directly with corporations to think beyond net zero and use their existing social, political, financial, and employee power to accelerate climate solutions at an unprecedented scale. "The more that companies can identify what their superpower is and use that to help the world get closer to our climate goals — that's where I think capitalism and climate change are going to meet in the middle.” For show notes and a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/pushing-companies-to-go-net-zero-by-2030-with-project-drawdowns-jamie-alexander/
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Jane Hotchkiss, the president and cofounder of nonprofit Energy for the Common Good, is on a mission to educate the public about the promise of fusion and to support the buildout of a future fusion energy sector. For the full transcript, head to https://tae.com/building-a-voice-for-fusion-energy/
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On this episode, Jim is joined by Gaia Vince, science journalist and author of Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval, to discuss her book and how climate change and energy will play a factor in mass migration to come. For a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
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The U.S. power grid is old. On average, it’s 40 years old — a quarter of the grid is 50 years old and there are parts that are 100 years old. And as we strive for a net-zero future, that grid is going to play a massive role. On this episode, Jim talks to Christina Hayes, Executive Director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, a coalition focused on preparing the U.S. grid for new renewable and clean energy sources. For a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
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On this episode, Jim is joined by Col. Terry Virts, former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Virts believes we need to focus on smarter ways to abate carbon emissions. "In every way, if you can get clean, abundant energy, human life is better.”
For a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
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Scientists at TAE and the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan have demonstrated the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. Rich Magee, Senior Director of Physics Research and Development at TAE, joins the show to break down this promising achievement in the development of fusion power with hydrogen-boron, the cleanest, most cost-competitive, and most sustainable fusion fuel.
For a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
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This week, we talk to Kaylee Cunningham, a PhD student at MIT in nuclear engineering and a popular TikTok influencer who’s focused on communicating about the potential for nuclear power.
Covered in this episode:
- Small modular reactors are the future of nuclear fission, Cunningham says
- How NRC regulations affect the nuclear industry
- Why communicating with the next generation about science matters
Cunningham says that most of the pushback she gets is from people worried about nuclear waste or meltdowns. And with disasters from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl to Fukushima, it’s not hard to see why. But Cunningham is dedicated to making nuclear cool, and that means clearing up ambiguity about the science of it all.
For a full transcript, head to https://tae.com/good-clean-energy/
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Rose Mutiso, research director for the D.C.-based think tank Energy for Growth Hub, joins the show to discuss the connection between access to affordable electricity and poverty and details a path forward for “energy poor” countries on the continent of Africa.
Covered in this episode:
- The connection between access to electricity and poverty
- The reality of living in an energy poor country
- Why modeling is important for energy policy making
- How the path to accessible energy in Africa will unwind
- Why energy infrastructure is crucial to Africa’s future
This week on Good Clean Energy, we speak to Eli Dourado, an economist and a senior research fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University who believes that “energy superabundance” — access to an unlimited supply of cheap, clean energy— will drive growth, improve human well-being and unlock solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
On this episode, we mark a momentous occasion in fusion, a breakthrough event that shows that we can do fusion on earth. To understand what this means and where it can take us and how we're going to get there, we have one of the world's foremost experts on building fusion solutions, Dr. Michl Binderbauer, the CEO of TAE Technologies, the world's largest and oldest private fusion company. We talk about the timeline between now and when we're going to have commercial fusion power plants deployed around the world and what it's going to take to make that happen.
For a full transcript, head to TAE.com/Good-Clean-Energy
Ernest Moniz served as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Obama and currently heads the Future Energy Initiative, a nonprofit working to accelerate the clean energy transition. He joins the show to talk about the need for clean firm power, the promise of fusion, and what will ultimately drive clean energy policy. . "Eventually we will reach the point in the United States of having a national policy driving us to low carbon," says Moniz. "And the reason we will get there is that extreme weather will keep getting more extreme. The American public is more and more going to expect action on this."
For show notes and a transcript of the episode, head to TAE.com.