Archive - Volts

Telling the story of the grid

Stepchange podcast hosts Ben Eidelson and Anay Shah discuss the wild, complicated history of the largest machine ever built.

14 hrs ago • David Roberts

1:29:47

Electrifying industrial steam with heat pumps

Addison Stark unpacks how geopolitical gas volatility is making electrified thermal energy an economic necessity for manufacturers.

May 13 • David Roberts

1:02:55

The case for using prices rather than VPPs to coordinate distributed energy

Researcher Bruce Nordman explains how dynamic, real-time pricing can do the work of coordinating DERs.

May 8 • David Roberts

1:28:35

Streamlining the difficult work of whole-home retrofits

Grant Gunnison explains how digitizing project design can save local contractors from the grueling overhead of the HVAC sales process.

May 6 • David Roberts

1:02:28

April 2026

Enabling ordinary people to invest in renewable energy projects

Energea co-founder Mike Silvestrini explains why the best returns in renewable energy are hiding in places often overlooked by traditional investors.

Apr 29 • David Roberts

1:03:48

Tom Steyer wants to be California's climate governor

Tom Steyer joins me to explain his plan to slash California’s exorbitant electricity bills by taking on monopoly utilities.

Apr 27 • David Roberts

54:51

The big stories from the last year in electricity

The biggest stories from the global power sector in 2025, from India's new path to a possible plateau in fossil generation.

Apr 22 • David Roberts

1:07:17

Life as a clean energy journalist in an age of madness

Robinson Meyer and I discuss why the traditional climate movement struggles to build infrastructure and how a global oil shock is scrambling US energy…

Apr 20 • David Roberts

1:31:56

Climate finance, interrupted

Beth Bafford on Climate United, the green fund she designed & ran before Trump killed it -- and the legal fight to revive it.

Apr 17 • David Roberts

59:34

Doing data centers the not-dumb way

Jigar Shah joins me to break down why powering new data centers with behind-the-meter natural gas plants is an engineering and economic disaster.

Apr 15 • David Roberts

1:30:57

Ruggedized solar power for the hard places

I chat with Lauren Flanagan about self-contained solar nanogrids in disaster areas & forward deployments.

Apr 10 • David Roberts

50:26

Good news for paid subscribers!

I shall nag you no longer.

Apr 8 • David Roberts and Samuel R (Volts team)

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