Field notes The Energy Transition for the Rest of Us

Threads

Electrification

18 notes · Catalyst 8 · Critical Capital 2 · Steel For Fuel 8

  1. Critical Capital · 7 Jul 2026 Navigating the new world disorder with David Miliband, president and CEO, International Rescue Committee; previously a member of the British Parliament and UK foreign secretary When distributed clean energy has never been cheaper, why do the world’s most vulnerable people still have no electricity, and what would actually change that?
  2. Catalyst · 18 Jun 2026 Enter the electric supercycle with Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research, Energy Impact Partners Electricity demand is surging while everything needed to supply it is scarce and expensive. Is that a temporary crunch, or the start of a long expansion, and what would stop it?
  3. Steel For Fuel · 1 Jun 2026 Riding the Electric Supercycle by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners If every input to the power system is getting more expensive at once, why is that the setup for a durable investment opportunity rather than a squeeze?
  4. Critical Capital · 26 May 2026 The clean energy transition has a hardware problem with Drew Baglino, founder and CEO, Heron Power; previously nearly two decades at Tesla, where he was powertrain architect for the Model S and later led the global charging and energy business If the world has to build several times as much electricity system as it has today, what is actually holding up the build, and can the equipment that moves the power be replaced with something that scales faster?
  5. Catalyst · 25 Feb 2026 Volts crossover: Six big energy questions with David Roberts, host of the Volts podcast (co-hosted episode; both speakers pose and answer questions) What are the big open questions in energy and climate that we might actually get an answer to within the next five to ten years?
  6. Catalyst · 15 Jan 2026 2026 trends: Gas turbines, Texas’ load queue, and China electrifies with Nat Bullard, co-founder, Halcyon; energy and climate analyst and writer There isn’t one. This is the annual walk through Bullard’s 200-slide data deck, part one of two, with Kann picking favorite slides rather than building a thesis. The loose through-line: how much new demand is coming, and is anyone positioned to serve it?
  7. Catalyst · 4 Sep 2025 AMA: Geoengineering, nuclear, power prices, and more with Lara Pierpoint, managing director, Trellis Climate at Prime, and host of The Green Blueprint Listener questions put to two climate investors: what do they actually think about solar geoengineering, electricity prices, nuclear, the climate tech cycle, vehicle-to-grid and plastics?
  8. Steel For Fuel · 30 Jun 2025 Full Steam Ahead by Addison Stark, CEO and co-founder, AtmosZero Why is industrial steam still raised by burning fossil fuel, and what would it take to change that?
  9. Catalyst · 19 Jun 2025 The story of steam with Addison Stark, co-founder and chief executive (he prefers chief boiler maker), AtmosZero What actually decarbonizes industrial steam, and why has the obvious-looking answer, harvesting waste heat, never worked?
  10. Steel For Fuel · 27 Feb 2025 Autonomy is real now by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Have autonomous vehicles actually arrived, and what would that mean for the energy system?
  11. Steel For Fuel · 30 Aug 2024 HVAC: the next frontier by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Where does the next big block of building energy efficiency come from, as the stock of light bulbs left to swap out for LEDs begins to dwindle?
  12. Catalyst · 30 May 2024 Heavy duty decarbonization with Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research, Energy Impact Partners Batteries cannot move the biggest, heaviest things. So what fuels the trucks, ships and planes, and what actually decides the answer?
  13. Steel For Fuel · 3 Apr 2024 How will we move the big, heavy things? by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners How will we decarbonize the big, heavy things: trucks, planes, ships and trains?
  14. Steel For Fuel · 27 Feb 2024 The electricity gauntlet by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners What happens to the electric power system when demand growth returns at the same moment that firm capacity becomes harder to add?
  15. Steel For Fuel · 23 Aug 2023 How will we keep warm in the winter? by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners How do we keep buildings warm in winter without burning fossil fuel?
  16. Steel For Fuel · 27 Jun 2023 Can wind turbines self-replicate? (And how will we make beer?) by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Can the electricity that wind turbines and solar panels produce be used to make the steel, cement and industrial heat that building more of them requires?
  17. Catalyst · 8 Dec 2022 Solving the conundrum of industrial heat with John O’Donnell, co-founder and CEO, Rondo Energy Industrial heat is about a quarter of global emissions, factories need it around the clock, and energy can be more than half their cost of production. How do you decarbonize it?
  18. Catalyst · 17 Nov 2022 Fixing cement’s carbon problem with Leah Ellis, co-founder and CEO, Sublime Systems Cement releases carbon dioxide twice over, once from the fuel and once from the rock itself. Which of the proposed fixes actually gets both to zero?