David Roberts

2 days ago | volts.wtf | David Roberts

1. 🎤 We’ve got two excellent live events coming up! As always, we’ve set aside a handful of free tickets for paid subscribers. Register your interest via this form; you’ll hear from Sam in the next few days if you’ve won tickets!The first is here in Seattle. On May 20, at the 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub (the same place I did the Climate Papa podcast), I’ll interview Jigar Shah on stage about the difficulties Washington state is facing in financing its ambitious climate policies.

5 days ago | volts.wtf | David Roberts

In this episode, I chat with Kathy Hannun of Dandelion Energy about ground-source heat pumps, which are twice as efficient as air-source units but still more expensive up front. Dandelion has designed its own drills and heat pumps, and with a new 1,500-home partnership with a developer in Colorado, it’s looking to scale up and bring costs down.

1 week ago | volts.wtf | David Roberts

In this episode, I’m joined by consultant Jarrett Walker to take the pulse of US transit in a world of empty downtown office towers, surging weekend ridership, and the tech elite’s dream of transit without strangers. We unpack the myths that plague buses, reveal why Canada’s transit abundance should be our model, and map the policy battles that will determine whether US transit systems shrink or soar.

1 week ago | volts.wtf | David Roberts

I catch up with Span CEO Arch Rao to discuss the company's expansion from consumer panels to the utility-focused Span Edge which can be used to create a true distributed power plant. We discuss why this is key to accelerating electrification and examine how the system works to respect consumer choices while managing grid constraints.

1 week ago | open.substack.com | David Roberts

I catch up with Span CEO Arch Rao to discuss the company's expansion from consumer panels to the utility-focused Span Edge which can be used to create a true distributed power plant. We discuss why this is key to accelerating electrification and examine how the system works to respect consumer choices while managing grid constraints.