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A weekly podcast featuring veteran investor Shayle Kann interviewing experts about the state of the energy sector and the technologies powering decarbonization.
Shayle Kann is asking the big questions about the ways we power our world: How cheap can clean energy get? Where is the smart money going on new technologies? How will the AI boom both help and hinder us on our journey to decarbonization? Every Thursday on Catalyst, Shayle dives deep into the world of energy with prominent experts, investors, researchers, and executives to unpack both the solutions and the challenges at play in this ever-changing landscape.
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De nyeste 50 af 283 episoder
- The global geopolitics of nuclear fuel · 36 min.This fall, uranium prices set a record high — $96.50 per pound. But even though the radioactive metal is critical to the nuclear power buildout, rising prices haven’t triggered…
- The new landscape for gas turbines · 32 min.Data center developers are facing unprecedented roadblocks to power new facilities. In addition to being hampered by an enormous interconnection queue backlog, the major gas…
- The battery boom behind the AI buildout [partner content] · 30 min.The AI buildout is the most capital-intensive project in history. The hunger for power has pushed companies to unconventional options, sparking demand for jet engines, mobile…
- BTM data centers’ looming methane surge · 32 min.It’s no secret that hyperscalers’ behind-the-meter gas bonanza could generate enormous CO2 emissions. But the BTM boom could become responsible for another, less-publicized…
- Can natural gas supply handle the AI boom? · 36 min.As data center-driven load growth continues to rise, hyperscalers are turning to natural gas – both in front of and behind the meter — to secure power. But whether the natural…
- The truth about data center water usage · 44 min.Of all the concerns surrounding the AI boom, data center water usage tops the list. Opponents claim that massive hyperscaler facilities threaten local drinking supplies and drain…
- ERCOT batteries: boom, bust, or rebound? · 38 min.It’s been a wild few years for grid-scale batteries in Texas. At the start of the decade, the Lone Star State was home to roughly 200 megawatts of battery capacity. Today, that…
- The rush for clean, on-site power [partner content] · 31 min.This is a partner episode, brought to you by Bloom Energy. Long interconnection queues, fragile supply chains, and a lack of grid capacity are pushing a wide range of C&I…
- Anduril's vision for powering maritime defense · 32 min.Dual-use technologies and the rise of defense tech are having a moment. But how does the defense sector approach innovations in energy that may be necessary to optimize its…
- AMA: Fuel cells, geopolitics, and the solar growth curve · 23 min.As we head into the final quarter of this pivotal and dramatic year for the energy sector, Catalyst host Shayle Kann takes stock of 2026 so far – and considers what’s to come –…
- Do data centers actually increase electricity prices? No...and yes · 42 min.You don’t have to look far to see the vitriol and backlash ignited by the rapid expansion of hyperscaler data centers. While critics and activists tend to focus their ire on…
- What comes after the data center backlash? · 48 min.In their early days, data centers were largely welcomed by communities who saw their arrival as an economic boost. Today as concerns around noise levels, power prices, water use…
- The rise of metal fuels · 40 min.Diesel generators remain ubiquitous because they offer an unusually powerful combination of low cost, high energy density, long-duration storage, and reliable off-grid power. But…
- Can AI revolutionize grid operations? · 39 min.Everyone loves to talk about the “broken grid.” But if you look inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, a different picture emerges: infrastructure that is…
- Is now the time for DERs to scale? [re-published] · 42 min.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…
- Critical Capital: Senator Tillis' case for "all-of-the-above" energy · 31 min.This week, we’re presenting an episode of Critical Capital, a new podcast from Crux and Latitude Studios. Energy policy has become increasingly polarized just as the U.S. faces…
- The electrician shortage slowing the AI boom · 35 min.The race to build AI infrastructure is often framed around the availability of power, chips, and capital. But another critical constraint is becoming impossible to ignore…
- The commercial battery comeback · 44 min.Commercial and industrial (C&I) battery storage has long been the missing middle of the energy storage market. It’s been too complex and expensive to scale like residential…
- The multi-billion dollar promise of vehicle-to-grid integration · 35 min.Most electric vehicles spend nearly all of their lives parked, doing nothing. But under the hood of those idle cars, a massive store of energy sits untapped. The Kia EV9, for…
- When will quantum computing have its breakout moment? · 40 min.Over the course of the past decade, quantum computing (or the concept thereof) has ridden hype cycles, just like AI or the internet writ large. In the past year, however, as…
- Inside the AI power wars · 44 min.For those steeped in the world of AI development, the major differences between tech giants’ chip strategies are easy enough to see: the speed of Google’s TPUs, the affordability…
- Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering · 38 min.One of the biggest challenges with technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is that they require mass adoption. Solar radiation management (SRM) has the opposite…
- How data centers are complicating transmission expansion · 31 min.Electric transmission development is notoriously difficult, and these days, NIMBYism gets the brunt of the blame. But as data center loads surge and electricity prices climb…
- Enter the electric supercycle · 36 min.While many energy insiders remain focused on the staggering demand coming from AI and data centers, a much larger and far-reaching shift is happening. We are entering what Energy…
- How China is reshaping the global auto market · 34 min.In 2020, China exported about a million cars a year. Now, it’s tracking somewhere around twelve million — surpassing the historic peaks of giants like Japan and Germany. Yet…
- Surprising trends in global electricity generation · 44 min.While global electricity demand is unquestionably rising, we may nonetheless be underestimating the scale of necessary future generation. In this episode, Shayle speaks to Nic…
- Building inference data centers on the high seas · 48 min.Amidst the increasing urgency of powering data centers, a new solution has entered the mix: send them out to sea. In this episode, Shayle speaks to Garth Sheldon-Coulson…
- A blueprint for scalable fusion power · 41 min.For years, the prospect of commercial nuclear fusion felt a long way off. But recent breakthroughs—like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s historic 2022 net energy…
- Inside the global fertilizer crunch · 36 min.While much of the world has been focused on the war in Iran’s impact on the energy sector, another arguably more impactful market has been largely overlooked: fertilizer. The…
- Cracking the code on autonomous trucking · 43 min.Even though autonomous passenger vehicles have entered the mainstream in cities across the country, autonomous trucks still lag behind. But Humble Robotics thinks it has cracked…
- How AI is modernizing EPCs · 34 min.As the utility-scale solar market collides with an era defined by massive load growth, EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) firms are rethinking their strategy to…
- Inside Google’s massive AI capex (live) · 36 min.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…
- How Base Power plans to use its fresh $1B [re-published] · 40 min.[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…
- The rise of flexible data centers · 43 min.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…
- Frontier Forum: Why clean energy capital boomed in a volatile year [partner content] · 34 min.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…
- Building a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain · 39 min.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…
- Battery booms and the rise of flexibility [partner content] · 31 min.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…
- The state and future of nuclear waste · 34 min.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…
- Scaling America's domestic solar supply chain · 40 min.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…
- AI scaling pathways: on grid, on edge, off grid, off planet · 43 min.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…
- Frontier Forum: How VPPs earn grid-scale trust [partner content] · 35 min.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…
- Digging deep for super hot geothermal · 36 min.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…
- Volts crossover: Six big energy questions · 1 t. 4 min.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…
- The rise of grid power electronics with Drew Baglino · 50 min.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…
- PJM and ERCOT navigate a capacity rollercoaster · 40 min.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…
- The path to market for new nuclear reactors · 35 min.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…
- The rise of permissionless DERs · 36 min.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…
- More 2026 trends: Solar costs, oil oversupply, and the startup slump · 26 min.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…
- A ‘rain delay’ for the energy transition [partner content] · 20 min.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…
- 2026 trends: Gas turbines, Texas’ load queue and China electrifies · 46 min.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…
