Volts

Volts

Home
Podcast
Notes
Subscribe
Donate
About

Markets

Volts podcast: using DOE loan guarantees to accelerate clean energy, with Jigar Shah
Shah has been charged with revitalizing the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office. We chat about the role loan guarantees can play in clean energy…
 • 
David Roberts
1
50:04
Minerals and the clean-energy transition: the basics
The clean-energy transition will require huge amounts of key minerals like lithium and cobalt, used to make cleantech like batteries & wind turbines…
 • 
David Roberts
22
19:37
Discussion thread: materials and mining
The rapid proliferation of batteries and solar panels has highlighted the environmental and ethical issues involved in mining key materials like lithium…
 • 
David Roberts
35
Volts podcast: the good news about clean energy, with Kingsmill Bond
Renewable energy, batteries, and electrolysis for clean hydrogen are all on powerful learning curves, getting cheaper at eye-popping rates & making…
 • 
David Roberts
16
1:03:20
A rant about economist pundits, and other things, but mostly economist pundits
An idle Friday essay about some of the way economists have botched climate change and what they might learn from it.
 • 
David Roberts
18
16:00
Taking an Uber or Lyft just makes everything worse
According to a new study, taking an Uber or Lyft adds more in external social & environmental costs (noise, congestion, emissions) than driving a…
 • 
David Roberts
7
13:11
Volts podcast: 20 years of solar advocacy, with Adam Browning of Vote Solar
Stepping down after 20 years at the helm of one of the scrappiest and most successful solar advocacy organizations in the country, Adam Browning shares…
 • 
David Roberts
1:02:07
Volts podcast: Sen. Tina Smith on the promise of a Clean Electricity Payment Program
The Minnesota senator, who has championed the CEPP in the Senate and is deeply involved in budget negotiations, explains how the program would work, how…
 • 
David Roberts
2
36:44
Volts podcast: the immense promise of a federal green bank, with Reed Hundt
One policy that might be included in the budget reconciliation bill is a green bank -- an independent, nonprofit entity that would fund clean energy…
 • 
David Roberts
2
50:58
There's real long-duration energy storage now. Can it find a market?
The energy world is excited about Form Energy, which has debuted a genuinely cheap ($20/kWh) battery that can discharge for more than 150 hours. But is…
 • 
David Roberts
16
12:04
Volts podcast: treating fossil fuels like nuclear weapons, with Tzeporah Berman
The storied Canadian activist has created a template for a global agreement to cap and reduce fossil fuel production. I talked with her about why it's…
 • 
David Roberts
2
1:00:21
Volts podcast: battery analyst Chloe Holzinger on the possible futures for lithium-ion
A wide-ranging conversation on batteries, materials, and innovations.
 • 
David Roberts
4
1:47:07
© 2025 David Roberts
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture