Project Manager II - Climate and Energy at Frederick County (MD) Government - my employer! This division is amazing and empowered to do lots of great climate and energy work! More information on current projects/plans available here: https://frederickcountymd.gov/8464/Department-of-Climate-Energy
Unfortunately no Larry; the County is a completely hybrid workplace. Divisions get to set their own hybrid policies with how many days in office vs. remote, but the absolute minimum is 1x office day per week as a Countywide policy. Hope that helps!
I forgot you did an episode on Beta Technologies. I was born in Burlington VT and get back there once in a while and visiting this fall I tracked down a view of their actually functional electric 6-seater plane. Very cool. They went public in November on the NYSE, and while the stock is a bit under the opening, at least it's not some shifty SPAC thing. As one would expect for an airplane company, the website and Linkedin pages have fun videos. Lots of job openings too.
Some of your guests seem to approach conservation and ecology as secondary to clean energy, things that can (or even must) be compromised for the sake of lower emissions. I'd love an episode where you talk to scientists who study the interaction between clean energy and ecological systems. Names that come to mind are Dr. Stephen Grodsky or Dr. Rebecca Hernandez, both of whom co-founded the Wild Energy Center at UC Davis. https://www.wildenergy.org/
RE: Dynamic Line Rating, Transmission Grid Monitoring News
PG&E started using the Heimdall Power solution as a pilot program in late 2025, with hardware installations for the project completed around September 2025. The formal announcement of the successful launch of the demonstration was made in December 2025.
Long time listener, first time commenter. You should have Alex Honnold on the pod! Aside from being an incredibly cool dude and superhuman athlete, he founded the Honnold Foundation which helps build community solar projects all over the world, often in remote places.
Long time reader/listener (your grist article on discount rates was super helpful in grad school), with a suggestion to do a Volts series on state energy offices. We’re doing yeoman’s work on renewables, electrification, and decarb, during a time of great uncertainty. Even in less interesting times SEO’s do important but largely overlooked work.
Surely part of the reason India's at the top of the non-English speaking ranks is both population, and the fact that the vast majority of well-educated Indians learn English -- partly for the same reason lots of Europeans learn English (it's the global lingua franca), but also partly because it's actually the lingua franca _of India_, thanks to the history of the British Raj. There are quite a few people who speak some local language like Tamil or Telugu, and speak English, but _don't_ speak Hindi, or at least not as well as the other two languages they know.
Map nerd here. Your map should have a legend showing what the color levels mean. Also, the correct variable to map is the number of subscribers over the population of the state, as populous states have brighter shades due to population alone. As a resident of Colorado, I was surprised to see my state was in a muted shade relative to California but Colorado has one-tenth of the population of California and I'll bet we do better on a per capital basis! If you need a map in the future, feel free to reach out to me.
Hi Michael! We used a map from Substack's analytics dashboard, I agree that it leaves much to be desired. FYI Colorado is near the top -- there's a logjam of states with similar numbers in the 6 - 15 range. Per capita, CO ranks higher but the tippy top belongs to Vermont and fellow New England states.
I guess I need to get my fellow Coloradoans to step up! I figured with NREL and RMI her we'd be higher. If you have those numbers as text I'd like to make that map myself if it wasn't too much trouble
I truly appreciate all the work this group of folks does to promote renewables and post news about energy. This has been a discouraging year in the USA for renewables IMHO, with current US leadership abandoning or outright sabotaging progress in renewable energy. In other parts of the world (Africa a big growth area!) the PRC is assuming the mantle of world leader in renewable tech and manufacturing.
I feel like I’m taking a master class to learn about renewable energy and how to help make more progress and impact in the industry every episode I listen to. Thanks for the important work that you guys are doing. I just signed up as a paid subscriber today and shared the call to subscribe with my network. Happy new year and thanks again!
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
We at PowerLines are building—and growing! (Thanks, in no small part, to Volts.)
We’re hiring for 3 roles:
1) Communications Associate
2) Operations Associate
3) Program Manager
Come join us here: https://powerlines.org/careers/
Just submitted an application for the program manager position! Thanks!
Project Manager II - Climate and Energy at Frederick County (MD) Government - my employer! This division is amazing and empowered to do lots of great climate and energy work! More information on current projects/plans available here: https://frederickcountymd.gov/8464/Department-of-Climate-Energy
Link to job: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/frederickmd/jobs/newprint/4834912
any chance they would take remote applicants?
Unfortunately no Larry; the County is a completely hybrid workplace. Divisions get to set their own hybrid policies with how many days in office vs. remote, but the absolute minimum is 1x office day per week as a Countywide policy. Hope that helps!
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I forgot you did an episode on Beta Technologies. I was born in Burlington VT and get back there once in a while and visiting this fall I tracked down a view of their actually functional electric 6-seater plane. Very cool. They went public in November on the NYSE, and while the stock is a bit under the opening, at least it's not some shifty SPAC thing. As one would expect for an airplane company, the website and Linkedin pages have fun videos. Lots of job openings too.
Beta.team
Some of your guests seem to approach conservation and ecology as secondary to clean energy, things that can (or even must) be compromised for the sake of lower emissions. I'd love an episode where you talk to scientists who study the interaction between clean energy and ecological systems. Names that come to mind are Dr. Stephen Grodsky or Dr. Rebecca Hernandez, both of whom co-founded the Wild Energy Center at UC Davis. https://www.wildenergy.org/
How about an episode on SolarApp+ , which is now administered by the SolarApp+ Foundation?
RE: Dynamic Line Rating, Transmission Grid Monitoring News
PG&E started using the Heimdall Power solution as a pilot program in late 2025, with hardware installations for the project completed around September 2025. The formal announcement of the successful launch of the demonstration was made in December 2025.
https://youtu.be/GbJFVhM9PXg?si=NiFitdmss9caRNLz
GUEST IDEA
Long time listener, first time commenter. You should have Alex Honnold on the pod! Aside from being an incredibly cool dude and superhuman athlete, he founded the Honnold Foundation which helps build community solar projects all over the world, often in remote places.
Long time reader/listener (your grist article on discount rates was super helpful in grad school), with a suggestion to do a Volts series on state energy offices. We’re doing yeoman’s work on renewables, electrification, and decarb, during a time of great uncertainty. Even in less interesting times SEO’s do important but largely overlooked work.
Surely part of the reason India's at the top of the non-English speaking ranks is both population, and the fact that the vast majority of well-educated Indians learn English -- partly for the same reason lots of Europeans learn English (it's the global lingua franca), but also partly because it's actually the lingua franca _of India_, thanks to the history of the British Raj. There are quite a few people who speak some local language like Tamil or Telugu, and speak English, but _don't_ speak Hindi, or at least not as well as the other two languages they know.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
Seems like we need to think about cooling as a stop gap:
https://substack.com/@paulgambill/note/c-196683940?r=2ht56&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
--- QUESTIONS ---
Map nerd here. Your map should have a legend showing what the color levels mean. Also, the correct variable to map is the number of subscribers over the population of the state, as populous states have brighter shades due to population alone. As a resident of Colorado, I was surprised to see my state was in a muted shade relative to California but Colorado has one-tenth of the population of California and I'll bet we do better on a per capital basis! If you need a map in the future, feel free to reach out to me.
Hi Michael! We used a map from Substack's analytics dashboard, I agree that it leaves much to be desired. FYI Colorado is near the top -- there's a logjam of states with similar numbers in the 6 - 15 range. Per capita, CO ranks higher but the tippy top belongs to Vermont and fellow New England states.
I guess I need to get my fellow Coloradoans to step up! I figured with NREL and RMI her we'd be higher. If you have those numbers as text I'd like to make that map myself if it wasn't too much trouble
I truly appreciate all the work this group of folks does to promote renewables and post news about energy. This has been a discouraging year in the USA for renewables IMHO, with current US leadership abandoning or outright sabotaging progress in renewable energy. In other parts of the world (Africa a big growth area!) the PRC is assuming the mantle of world leader in renewable tech and manufacturing.
Everything else? ( suggestion for a show)
Every day we hear about the enormous thirst for electricity by A I data centers.
What becomes of this energy? Well doesn’t it all leaves the center as HEAT…?
Why isn’t this vast heat resource recycled to heat buildings or warm wort fermentation at a brewery or countless other uses…
I feel like I’m taking a master class to learn about renewable energy and how to help make more progress and impact in the industry every episode I listen to. Thanks for the important work that you guys are doing. I just signed up as a paid subscriber today and shared the call to subscribe with my network. Happy new year and thanks again!