Catalyst with Shayle Kann

Latest Episodes:

The story of steam Jun 19, 2025

Show notes

Addison Stark thinks waste heat is a waste of time. The real opportunity, he argues, is decarbonizing industrial steam, which accounts for roughly 30% of industrial heat in the U.S. But doing that means deploying alternatives to the fossil fuel boilers industry currently relies on.

So how do you clean up steam? And why does Addison think waste heat is overhyped?

In this episode, Shayle talks with Addison Stark, the CEO — or as he likes to call himself, chief boiler maker — of industrial heat pump startup AtmosZero. They dive into topics like:

The difference between saturated and superheated steam — and why it matters

Why fuel dominates OpEx in steam generation, and how fuel types vary across regions

How the cost of steam affects overall cost of delivered products

Why resistive boilers reached maturity ahead of heat pumps

Why standardized, air-source heat pumps are emerging as an attractive alternative to resistive boilers

The role of thermal storage combined with renewable PPAs

Why Addison thinks waste heat is a distraction for decarbonization

Resources:

Joule: To decarbonize industry, we must decarbonize heat

The Green Blueprint: Rondo Energy’s complicated path to building heat batteries

Catalyst: Solving the conundrum of industrial heat

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, and increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data plus tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub helps utilities build next-generation virtual power plants that unlock reliable flexibility at every level of the grid. See how EnergyHub helps unlock the power of flexibility at scale, and deliver more value through cross-DER dispatch with their leading Edge DERMS platform, by visiting energyhub.com.

The state of play of data center development Jun 12, 2025

Show notes

The future of the grid increasingly hinges on where and howdata centers get built. To forecast the kind of power infrastructure we need to meet AI’s growing appetite, we first need to understand a laundry list of variables: data center size, workload type, latency, reliability — even the variety of a data center’s coolant system.

So what’s the state of play in data center development today — and how are the trends shaping grid needs?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Chris Sharp, chief technology officer of Digital Realty, a developer, owner and operator of data centers. They cover topics like:

How AI inference workloads are clustering in existing regions, driven by latency and throughput requirements

“Data gravity” and “data oceans”: how large concentrations of data attract more compute infrastructure

What’s driving longer lead times: interconnection delays, equipment bottlenecks, or both?

Large-scale builds vs. incremental additions and densification of existing infrastructure

“Braggawatts” vs. real demand: separating hype from reality

The diverging power needs of training vs. inference, and whether any workloads work with intermittent power

The evolving role of “bridge power” and why diesel and gas are still in the mix

Resources:

Latitude Media: Google’s new data center model signals a massive market shift

Latitude Media: The future of energy-first data centers takes shape

Latitude Media: Can a new coalition turn data centers into grid assets?

Latitude Media: Do microgrids make sense for data centers?

The New York Times: Wall St. Is All In on A.I. Data Centers. But Are They the Next Bubble?

Catalyst: The case for colocating data centers and generation

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

The gas turbine crunch Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

Demand for turbines is growing fast, but so are lead times — causing serious headaches for developers. In Texas, one of six projects that pulled proposals from consideration for a valuable financing program cited “equipment procurement constraints” as the reasons for its withdrawal.

Lead times are stretching to four years and sometimes more. Costs are climbing. So what’s behind the bottleneck?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Anthony Brough, founder and CEO of Dora Partners, a consulting firm focused on the turbine market. Shayle and Anthony cover topics like:

Why previous boom-bust cycles in turbine manufacturing have left the industry skittish — and why Anthony says leaders are approaching this new peak with “guarded optimism”
The competing demands on the turbine supply chain, including from power, oil and gas, and aerospace industries
How lead times have ballooned to four years and, in some cases, even longer
Factors affecting the market beyond load growth, like renewables, storage, affordable gas, and coal retirements
How investment in tech innovation has raised turbine efficiency
How the industry is preparing for hydrogen — if hydrogen scales up

Resources:

Latitude Media: Engie’s pulled project highlights the worsening economics of gas

Latitude Media: High costs, delays prompt withdrawal of five more Texas gas plants

Power Magazine: Gas Power's Boom Sparks a Turbine Supply Crunch

Marketplace: Will we have enough natural gas turbines to power AI data centers?

CTVC: 🌎 Gas turbine gridlock #236

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

How geothermal gets built May 29, 2025

Show notes

Geothermal seems to be nearing an inflection point. With rising load growth, clean, firm power is more valuable than ever. Next-gen geothermal players like Fervo Energy and Sage Geosystems are signing PPAs with major tech firms. Even U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright — a known critic of renewables — has praised the potential of geothermal.

The size of the U.S. geothermal resource accessible through next-gen geothermal technologies like enhanced-geothermal systems is enormous — potentially thousands of gigawatts. But tapping into it hinges on figuring out the economics.

So what does it actually take to develop a geothermal project — and how are new tools reshaping the process?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Carl Hoiland, co-founder and CEO of geothermal energy company Zanskar, which uses AI for enhanced geothermal exploration. Shayle and Carl cover topics like:

Why geothermal stalled — and what’s changing now
The full step-by-step process of developing a project
How to avoid exploration risk, also known as dry hole risk
Methods for estimating resource size and managing depletion risk
The geothermal supply chain
How permitting is speeding up
Carl’s outlook for when and where development is likely to happen

Resources:

Latitude Media: Geothermal could meet 64% of hyperscale data center power demand

Latitude Media: Why geothermal might benefit from Trump’s tariffs

The Green Blueprint: How a text message launched a geothermal revolution in Utah

Latitude Media: The geothermal industry has a potential ally in Chris Wright

Latitude Media: Why California lawmakers are warming to geothermal

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push May 22, 2025

Show notes

In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to accelerate the development of deep-sea minerals — part of its broader push for “energy dominance.” The world’s oceans hold vast, untapped deposits of critical minerals like nickel, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements — all essential to batteries and clean energy technologies.

Despite decades of interest, no commercial deep-sea mining project has begun production. The reasons? Regulatory uncertainty, environmental concerns, and the complexity of processing polymetallic nodules.

So what does this new executive order actually do?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Hans Smith, president and CEO of Ocean Minerals, a company participating in exploration of the Cook Islands. Shayle and Hans cover topics like:

What the Trump executive order mandates — and its legal limits
The bottleneck of U.S. deep-sea exploration
The controversy about U.S. legal authority over international waters
The economics and geopolitics of deep-sea hotspots like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Japan, and the Cook Islands
The technical challenges of refining polymetallic nodules
CapEx, OpEx, and barriers to commercial deployment

Resources:

Catalyst: Mining the deep sea
World Resources Institute: What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t
Reuters: Trump signs executive order boosting deep-sea mining industry

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

A former race car engineer on battery safety and supply chains [partner content] May 20, 2025

Show notes

From his days as an IndyCar race engineer to his current role as chief product officer for a leading storage integrator, Tristan Doherty has always worked at the intersection of high performance and risk management.

Today, he's applying that expertise at LG Energy Solution Vertech to build more resilient, domestically manufactured energy storage systems for America's evolving grid.

LG Energy Solution Vertech is the US energy storage division of LG Energy Solution, which has committed $1.4 billion to manufacture batteries in the U.S., creating a hub capable of producing 16.5 gigawatt-hours of energy storage cells annually. This investment is part of the company's long-term strategy to diversify supply chains.

"We're on schedule for early next year to be a hundred percent non-Chinese in terms of all of the components and sub-components going into those ESS cells,” says Doherty.

This manufacturing strategy is critical in a moment of trade uncertainty. While LG Energy Solution's substantial resources allow it to weather these challenges, smaller players in the supply chain face greater difficulties. "We're seeing projects that are being paused, that are being delayed. We're seeing suppliers that are rethinking their strategy...the goalposts are continually shifting."

Beyond manufacturing, LG Energy Solution has transformed its approach to system integration. Rather than simply connecting batteries to the grid, the company now designs comprehensive power solutions with grid needs as the starting point. Doherty describes this as "flipping the script" from an inside-out to an outside-in approach.

"The direction of design decisions and the direction of design intent has kind of flipped 180 degrees," he explains. "It's creating much more effective and much more powerful designs."

This evolution in design philosophy extends to safety considerations as well. Following incidents like the Moss Landing fire, the industry has increasingly shifted toward containerized solutions that compartmentalize risk. According to Doherty, this approach, combined with other innovations, has contributed to a 97% reduction in energy storage system failure rates.

As unprecedented demand growth from data centers, electrification, and manufacturing transforms the grid landscape, Doherty sees energy storage playing a central role.

"We've made immense strides and we've figured out a whole lot of really interesting and fascinating ways of using batteries. But I think there's a whole bunch more to come."

This episode was produced in partnership with LG Energy Solution Vertech. LG Energy Solution Vertech is the U.S. energy storage division of LG Energy Solution, here to be your lifetime energy storage partner. Learn more about the company's approach to safety, performance, and its commitment to the U.S. market.

Terrawatt Infrastructure’s billion-dollar strategy May 15, 2025

Show notes

This week, we're bringing you a special episode of The Green Blueprint, a show about the stories behind first-of-a-kind climate projects. In this episode: Terawatt Power's first commercial electric truck charging depot, which opened in April near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It was a significant milestone for the industry. So how’d Terawatt pull it off?

Host Lara Pierpoint talks to Terawatt’s founder Neha Palmer about the financing, offtakes, and market demand for electrified trucks. It’s the kind of deep-dive conversation we love to have here on Catalyst, so we think you’ll enjoy it.

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, Terrawatt secured a billion-dollar investment. But as the company developed plans for a nationwide charging network, it confronted the daunting challenge of building infrastructure for an electric truck market that barely existed.

High-profile bankruptcies like Nikola Motors cast long shadows over the sector's viability, raising questions about whether heavy-duty transport can truly be electrified.

In this episode, Lara talks with Neha about how Terrawatt aims to transform freight transport despite market skepticism. Neha explains Terawatt’s strategic approach to site selection, innovative charging designs for fully-loaded trucks, and the vision for a revolutionary California-to-Texas network.

Credits: Hosted by Lara Pierpoint. Produced by Erin Hardick. Edited by Anne Bailey and Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

The U.S. nuclear groundswell May 09, 2025

Show notes

The nuclear renaissance of the 2000s turned out to be something of a mirage. Buoyed by rising fossil gas prices, growing climate awareness, and steady load growth, nuclear seemed poised for a breakout moment. But that momentum stalled. Electricity demand flatlined. The fracking boom sent gas prices plummeting. And Fukushima rattled public confidence in nuclear power. Ultimately, only two new reactors, Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia, reached completion over a decade later.

So is this latest wave of nuclear hype any different?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Chris Colbert, CEO of Elementl Power, which on Wednesday announced a deal with Google to develop three nuclear projects of at least 600-megawatts each. (Energy Impact Partners, where Shayle is a partner, is an investor in Elementl.) Chris, a former executive at NuScale Power, thinks last year may have marked the start of a nuclear revival: the recommissioning of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island and Michigan’s Holtec Palisades; Big Tech deals to support small modular reactor development; and the start of construction on TerraPower’s Wyoming reactor, the Western Hemisphere’s first advanced nuclear facility.

But until new reactors move beyond one-off projects to serial deployment, nuclear won’t achieve the cost reductions needed for widespread adoption. Chris and Shayle discuss what it will take to turn this groundswell of activity into widespread deployment, covering topics like:

Current tailwinds, like load growth and interest from corporate buyers
Why corporate buyers may be better positioned than utilities to take on development risks
Elementl’s technology-agnostic approach
Different nuclear technologies — light water, non-light water, and advanced designs — and Chris’s predictions for when they’ll reach commercialization
Why iteration is essential to driving down costs (and why the Google deal involves three separate projects)
How regulatory timelines are speeding up
The steps of project development with a corporate buyer
Chris’s criteria for site selection — and why attracting skilled labor ranks surprisingly high

Resources:

Latitude Media: Was 2024 really the year of nuclear resurgence?
Latitude Media: Is large-scale nuclear poised for a comeback?
Catalyst: The cost of nuclear
Latitude Media: Trump’s DOE is reupping Biden-era funding for small modular nuclear reactors
Latitude Media: Utah bets on a new developer to revive its small modular reactor ambitions

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

Frontier Forum: Unlocking next-generation VPPs May 06, 2025

Show notes

In the mid-2000s, Ben Brown started his career designing demand response programs that relied on pagers and telephones. Today, as Renew Home's CEO, he's leveraging AI and tens of millions of connected smart devices to help households save energy and create an entirely new approach to grid management.

Renew Home is building a new kind of virtual power plant that moves beyond occasional emergency events toward continuous, subtle energy shifts across millions of connected households.

"The biggest evolution is connected devices," explains Brown, who previously led energy product development at Google after its acquisition of Nest.

During his time at Google Labs working on large language models, Brown also witnessed firsthand the massive energy demands that AI would place on our grid.

This realization, combined with his work on smart home technology, led Brown to envision a new approach to virtual power plants – one built on subtle, personalized adjustments across millions of homes rather than occasional disruptive events.

“There's actually a lot more value continuously throughout the year, over hundreds of hours where customers can save more money by helping support the grid."

With DOE projections showing a 200 gigawatt peak on the US grid by 2030, Renew Home's approach offers a compelling alternative to building new power plants. By focusing on customer control and personalization, they've achieved 75% opt-in rates, while creating a resource that is far cheaper than gas peakers.

In this episode, recorded as part of a live Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey talks with Ben Brown about the next generation of virtual power plants.

How does Renew Home’s approach differ from demand response or battery-based VPPs? And what role can it play in addressing the grid’s urgent needs?

This is a partner episode, brought to you by Renew Home. It was recorded live as part of Latitude Media's Frontier Forum series. Watch the full video to hear more details about next-generation VPPs.

Catalyst Live at SF Climate Week May 01, 2025

Show notes

It’s a Catalyst first-of-a-kind: our very first live event! We hosted it last Wednesday at San Francisco Climate week. In this episode, Shayle talks to Mike Schroepfer, co-founder and partner at Gigascale Capital and former CTO of Meta, and Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US. Together they cover:

Lessons on building products that consumers love
Over and under hyped trends, including data center load growth, carbon removal, and fusion
What areas will benefit most from the current administration
The most important, least appreciated category of climate tech
The craziest idea that just might work

Recommended resources:

Catalyst: A skeptic’s take on AI electricity load growth
Catalyst: The geopolitics of rare earth elements

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

This special Catalyst Live was sponsored by JP Morgan Chase and DLA Piper.

Catalyst is brought to you by Anza, a platform enabling solar and storage developers and buyers to save time, reduce risk, & increase profits in their equipment selection process. Anza gives clients access to pricing, technical, and risk data and tools that they’ve never had access to before. Learn more at go.anzarenewables.com/latitude.

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