This week on Everybody in the Pool, a returning guest is staying the course on climate tech—even as investors and attention pivot toward AI. Mike Schroepfer, the former Facebook CTO and founder of Gigascale Capital, last joined us in episode 77 to talk about the technology trends making a cleaner future possible. Now he’s back with a new $250 million fund and more evidence for his central thesis: the clean option can also be the cheaper, better option. The challenge is getting it built and into customers’ hands.
Schrep explains why factory-built technologies like solar panels and batteries keep getting cheaper, and how those falling costs unlock much more than we initially imagine—from electric trucks that cost less to operate to a more resilient, distributed energy system. We talk about simpler solar installations, cleaner rare-earth processing, next-generation turbines, and fusion, along with the determined founders working to turn those technologies into competitive businesses.
We also get into the complicated relationship between AI and climate. The data-center boom creates enormous demand for new power, but the rush to build is driving investment in gas generation before cleaner alternatives are ready at scale. Schrep shares why that timing mismatch worries him—and why accelerating deployment matters so much. Plus, he’s getting into the storytelling game with Field Trips, a new YouTube series taking viewers behind the scenes at labs and factories to meet the people building what’s next. Think fusion, electric trucks, robots, and a microreactor that traveled from Los Angeles to Idaho on a truck. It’s a conversation about grounded optimism, real urgency, and making the clean choice the easy choice.