Everybody in the Pool

Molly Wood talks to Raghu Belur, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Enphase Energy, about the company's pioneering work in decentralized solar power and their vision for a distributed, software-driven energy system that puts renewable power and storage in the hands of homes and businesses. They discuss Enphase's origins back in Clean Tech 1.0, the importance of microinverters, the role of batteries, and the policy challenges (ahem, California) that are shaping the adoption of distributed energy resources.RESOURCES & LINKSEnphase Energy: https://enphase.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolPlease subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

This week, we’re talking about sustainable food production—both an adaptation and a mitigation opportunity. Molly Wood talks with Alexander Olesen, co-founder and CEO of Babylon Micro-farms, who shares the journey from a student project aimed at feeding people in refugee camps to developing small-scale, remotely managed vertical farming systems. This startup is focused on installing beautiful micro-farms in stores, campuses, senior centers, educational spaces, and other facilities that can benefit from growing food onsite. But we also tackle the bigger picture about traditional farming, such as soil degradation and high greenhouse gas emissions, and explore how controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics present a resource-efficient solution.RESOURCES & LINKSBabylon Micro-Farms: https://babylonmicrofarms.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool Please subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

In this episode of Everybody in the Pool, Molly Wood speaks with Tiya Gordon, co-founder of It’s Electric, a company focused on overcoming the challenges of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in urban areas. They delve into the barriers to EV adoption, emphasizing the lack of accessible charging options for city dwellers without private parking. It’s Electric proposes a novel solution by installing small, bollard-style chargers powered by adjacent buildings, avoiding the need for extensive infrastructure and utility coordination. This approach not only promises to expand EV charging access in densely populated areas but also offers building owners a revenue-sharing model, turning every participating building into a potential charging station. The goal: make it easy to transition to electric vehicles no matter where you live.RESOURCES & LINKSIt’s Electric: https://www.itselectric.us/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolPlease subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

This episode of Everybody in the Pool dives into the pressing issue of food waste and its significant impact on the climate crisis. Molly talks with Jordan Schenck, the Chief Customer Officer at Flashfood, exploring the staggering fact that 30-40% of the US food supply is wasted at various stages from production to household disposal. This results in a colossal loss of approximately $161 billion annually and contributes massively to greenhouse gas emissions, notably methane, due to food decomposition in landfills. Also it’s just dumb, because it’s food, people. Flashfood is an app that lets grocery stores sell surplus or near-expiry items at half the price, reducing waste and providing consumers with affordable food options, and letting margin-strapped grocery stores make a little extra, too.RESOURCES & LINKSFlashfood: https://www.flashfood.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolPlease subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re sticking with renewable energy! Wind and solar often steal the renewable spotlight, but geothermal energy—derived from the Earth's constant underground heat—offers a clean, infinite source of power for heating and cooling. This week, we’re joined by retired NHL great Mike Richter, who has an amazing career pivot story into climate finance and resource deployment. He’s currently the CEO of Brightcore Energy, which does all kinds of sustainable energy retrofitting for the built environment, and which, lately, is specifically focused on ground source heat pumps, using geothermal energy to heat and cool buildings even in dense urban areas, like Manhattan.RESOURCES & LINKSBrightcore Energy: https://brightcoreenergy.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolPlease subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking utilities. We know that one of the big keys to dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming to manageable levels is to transition as quickly as possible to renewable energy and electrify everything. And at the absolute heart of that challenge are utilities—the ones responsible for generating and distributing electricity. Addressing the challenge takes commitment, to start with, and not all utilities are created equal in this regard. The ones who are quickly realized it also takes investment and innovation. Molly talks with Steve Smith, the CEO of National Grid Partners, which is the corporate venture arm of National Grid Group, about the tech needed to modernize the grid ASAP.RESOURCES & LINKSNational Grid Partners: https://www.ngpartners.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-poolPlease subscribe and tell your friends about EITP! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!