Volts Jump-Start guide

A list of essential episodes & a tool to search the Volts library

Last updated: October 2026 (updated quarterly)

“Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight.” - David Roberts

Volts has 400+ episodes. Each one stands on its own, but that’s a big library to walk into. This guide is your shortcut.

• Brand new? Start with the three episodes right below.

• Want to go deeper? Browse the Essential Episodes by topic.

• Studying one subject? Jump to Search the Volts Library at the bottom.

🚀 Start here

1. Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring (May 2026) Where the power system is headed, and why the optimistic case is backed by the numbers.

2. Solar + storage is so much farther along than you think (Jul 2025) In sunny cities, solar plus batteries now beats new gas and nuclear on cost.

3. What is PJM, and why is everyone so mad about it? (Feb 2026) The biggest grid operator in the country, and the center of the fight over power bills.

🎧 How to listen

Listen on the Volts podcast page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Using another app? Find Volts in your app.

Paid subscribers: your private podcast feed lives on your account page. Here's how to add it to your podcast app. Listening on Spotify? Or skip setup and use the Substack app, where paid episodes just play.

⏩ Shortcuts

Short on time? Every month we cut the best moments from the month’s episodes into one Best Of recap episode. It’s the fastest way to catch up. Here’s the latest.

New to the jargon? Grab the Volts acronym cheat sheet

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❤️ Essential Episodes

Maybe you’re new to Volts or you’d like to introduce a colleague to Volts. Dig in. This list of Essential Episodes will help you jump-start your Volts journey. There’s a little something for everyone.

The list is refreshed regularly. We’re sure to swap in newer episodes when the tech or politics change. However, there are plenty of older episodes here. Why? Some topics are evergreen, like transmission basics and learning curves. Other topics [cough, cough hydropower] don’t move all that fast. And of course, older episodes provide historical context critical to understanding current events.

So here they are, the Essential Episodes, by category:

State of the Transition

🌍 Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring (May 2026)
The most optimistic case on the show, backed by the numbers. Where the power system is headed.

🌍 Clean electrification is inevitable (Nov 2025)
Kingsmill Bond on why the shift to clean electricity is an economic story first.

🌍 The fate of fossil fuel systems in the “mid-transition” (Mar 2026)
What happens to gas pipelines and oil infrastructure while we’re halfway through the switch? The awkward middle, explained.

Transmission/Grid/Batteries

⚡ Making the electricity grid work like the internet (Jan 2026)
What if the grid routed power the way the internet routes data? A big idea about how the system could run.

⚡ What is PJM, and why is everyone so mad about it? (Feb 2026)
The biggest grid operator in the country, and the center of the fight over power bills. Start here if the name keeps coming up.

⚡ Are plug-in DERs going to spark a grid revolution? (Jun 2026)
Batteries you can plug into a wall socket, no permission needed. Why that could change who gets to participate in the grid.

🔋 Can “second life” EV batteries work as grid-scale storage? (Oct 2025)
Old EV batteries still have plenty of life in them. Can they do a second tour of duty on the grid?

⚡ Transmission month: everything in one place (Feb 2021)
Volts was transmission-pilled before it was cool. This series of episodes on transmission is a fantastic 101 primer on the movement of electricity.

⚡ What’s the deal with interconnection queues? (Aug 2023)
New renewable projects connect to the grid via an “interconnection” queue. An explanation of the queue and why in the world it works the way that it does.

⚡ Getting more out of the grid we’ve already built (Sep 2023)
Grid-enhancing technologies can significantly improve performance of existing transmission. Utilities aren’t doing enough.

⚡ Free the smart meter data! (Aug 2024)
Consumers need better access to real-time utility data to reduce energy usage, participate in demand-response programs, and save money.

⚡ Managing a distributed grid (Nov 2023)
The grid is a cacophony. ”Grid orchestration” works to help utilities see, track, and coordinate energy resources.

⚡ Steps toward a unified electricity market in the western US (June 2023)
Western states have not joined together in a regional transmission organization to administer their transmission systems. They should.

⚡ When transmission planning actually goes well (Aug 2022)
An example of transmission planning done well: MISO’s transmission roadmap for 2,000 miles of new lines.

⚡ Tying utility profits to actually doing a good job (Oct 2024)
Most utility incentives don’t align with efficiency or decarbonization goals. This episode explores ”performance-based regulation."

🔋 Battery Week: everything in one place (May 2021)
Potentially Volts’ most popular series. An evergreen primer on lithium-ion batteries.

Solar/Wind/Hydro

☀️ What’s the deal with balcony solar? (Nov 2025)
Solar panels you hang off your apartment balcony. Big in Germany, coming to the US. Here’s what they can and can’t do.

☀️ What’s the real story with Australian rooftop solar? (Dec 2025)
Australia put solar on a third of its homes. Saul Griffith on what the US can learn from it.

☀️ What? The sun isn’t always shining? (Nov 2023)
A fan favorite. Here’s how we can build a decarbonized energy system that relies on variable wind and solar power.

☀️ Solar + storage is so much farther along than you think (July 2025)
Costs have declined so much that solar + storage can provide baseload-level power in sunny cities for less than the cost of new nuclear/gas.

☀️ What’s the deal with perovskite solar (July 2024)
Perovskite solar cells have always been the Next Big Thing in solar. They’re actually almost here now.

☀️ Minerals and the clean-energy transition: the basics (Jan 2022)
Scaling up mineral supply as demand skyrockets is a worthy challenge.

☀️ A clean energy transition that avoids environmentally sensitive land (May 2023)
Both the left and the right complain about solar/wind land use. Here’s how the clean energy transition can minimize impact on ecosystems.

🌬️ What's going on with offshore wind? (Dec 2023)
Offshore wind faces significant headwinds.

💧 What’s going on with hydropower? (April 2023)
The current state of hydropower and where the industry is headed.

Innovation/Business

💡 Which technologies get cheaper over time, and why? (Jan 2023)
Learning curves. Learn them; they are everywhere.

👔 Making shipping fuel with off-grid renewables (June 2023)
Businesses are opting to skip grid connection altogether. This one is harnessing renewables to make carbon-neutral methanol.

💡 Why electrifying industrial heat is such a big deal (March 2023)
25% of energy goes towards industrial processes. A company called Rondo makes a thermal battery to store renewable energy in bricks.

👔 Wrapping our heads around AI and climate (June 2024)
AI is a major energy sink but it’s also potentially useful climate tech.

Data centers/AI

🖥️ Doing data centers the not-dumb way (Apr 2026)
Everyone wants data centers and nobody wants the bill. Jigar Shah on how to build them without wrecking the grid or your rates.

🖥️ Why is NERC so worried about data centers? (Jun 2026)
The grid’s reliability referee is nervous. Here’s why giant new loads are a different kind of problem.

Politics

✏️ The cure for misinformation is not more information (Dec 2025)
Why fact-checking doesn't fix bad information, and what might.

✏️ What’s going on with China these days? (April 2024)
China’s recent decarbonization efforts and demystifying the country’s intentions.

✏️ The current state of unions in America (Feb 2024)
The current tattered state of unions in the US and their future prospects.

✏️ Organizing local support for clean energy projects (Jan 2025)
Greenlight America is a great example of an organization that’s mobilizing supporters to advocate effectively at a local level.

✏️ How climate activists can help get things built (September 2023)
How the environmental movement can shift its focus from blocking what it doesn’t like to building what it does.

✏️ How big business sold America the myth of the free market (March 2023)
Have Americans been brainwashed into worshipping free markets?

✏️ The right-wing groups behind renewable energy misinformation (Dec 2023)
Here’s how right-wing groups rally opposition to renewable projects.

✏️ Utilities are lobbying against the public interest (Feb 2023)
Did you know that utilities use ratepayer $$$ to lobby against clean-energy?

Geothermal/Heat

🪨 What’s going on with geothermal? (March 2023)
Volts is big on geothermal! Learn about recent developments in geothermal and the opportunities ahead.

🪨 Enhanced geothermal power is finally a reality (July 2023)
Fervo Energy successfully brought online the first full-scale commercial power plant sourcing from enhanced geothermal systems.

🔥 What’s the deal with district energy? (Oct 2023)
Here’s how district energy could be a part of the clean energy transition.

Transportation/Housing

🚗 US transit costs and how to tame them (July 2025)
Why is building transit so costly, especially in America?

🚗 Minnesota forces transportation planners to take CC seriously (Sept 2023)
Minnesota’s ambitious transportation policy, which includes climate accountability measures that no other state has implemented.

🚗 Making sure electric vehicles help rather than hurt electricity grids (Oct 2022)
Ensuring that rapid EV expansion leads to improved grid stability.

🏠 The obscure but extremely important battle over building codes (March 2024)
Unlocking building codes. More important than you think.

🏠 The fight to build faster in California (June 2025)
California voted to reform its notorious environmental review law, CEQA.

🏠 Why housing is a pass/fail question for climate (March 2025)
Why are housing and urban land use so central to climate policy?

Climate

🌎 Focusing on the climate actions that can make a real difference (Sept 2022)
The seven most effective climate policy actions.

🌎 The trouble with net zero (May 2023)
Net zero is a vague term. Dig deep on what it is and what it isn’t.

🌎 Voluntary carbon offsets are headed for a crash (Aug 2023)
Are carbon offsets “unscalable, unjust, and unfixable”?

🌎 How to think about solar radiation management (Feb 2023)
Solar radiation management, the practice of adding shielding particles to the atmosphere. Like it or not, it’s a thing.

🌎 On the abuse (and proper use) of climate models (Jan 2023)
Model limitations, the role of human judgment, and how climate modeling could be improved.

🌎 Reducing the climate impacts of food and farming (June 2025)
The folly of biofuels, the promise of meat alternatives, and the central importance of increasing yields.

🌎 Climate change and insurance: a growing fustercluck (Dec 2024)
How climate change is breaking the insurance industry.

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🔎 Search Volts Library

Episode archive: The Volts episode archive has a search box. Fastest way to find a specific episode.

Google Sheets: Want to browse every Volts episode in one spreadsheet? Click this link. Make sure to click File > Download if you want to play with the filters.

Substack: Substack’s native archive feature is annoying, but it does have a tagging system that’s good at categorizing episodes. If you rather search via Substack, here are our most popular tags: Activism, Advocacy, AI, Batteries, Built Environment, Business, Clean Electricity, Clean Energy, Climate, Climate Goals, Community, David Guest Pods, Decarbonization, Economics, Electrification, Energy Efficiency, Environment, EV, Federal, Finance, Gas, Geopolitics, Geothermal, GHG Emissions, Grid, Heat, Hydro, Hydrogen, Industry, Infrastructure, Innovation, International, IRA, Journalism, Legal, Mailbag, Markets, Mining, Modeling, Nuclear, Offsets, Permitting, Philanthropy, Policy, Politics, PR, Recycling, Research, Solar, Tax, Transmission, Transportation, USA, Utilities, Wind

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