Climate Positive

Solar panel prices have fallen roughly 95% since the mid-2000s. They are now the cheapest energy equipment available. The constraint, though, has moved downstream, to everything that happens after the panels show up: land, zoning, interconnection, and the field labor to physically assemble a power plant. The US builds enough solar to cover around 220,000 acres a year, or around 40 gigawatts. But we still need to deploy multiples more and at a faster pace to meet energy affordability and climate goals. Meanwhile, skilled crews building solar farms are being bid away by data center construction, and the job still means lifting a sixty-pound module overhead hundreds of times a day, often through hundred-degree heat.On this episode, Guy Van Syckle is joined by Eric Brown, CEO of Planted Solar, whose team is addressing these challenges by redesigning solar deployments as a robot-assembled product rather than a custom construction project. The result is about twice the energy per acre and up to a 50% reduction in construction time. They discuss why super-cheap modules and batteries are driving a rethink of site design, how their systems are helping mitigate permitting issues, and the promise of a safer, more productive robotics-enabled solar workforce. We also get into where this goes from here: a hundred megawatts targeted for this year, a partnership with Google, and a project pipeline north of 20 gigawatts.Links:Planted WebsiteEric Brown's LinkedInPlanted's recent funding announcement Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

Mass production of fertilizer was one of the most important advances of the past century, with roughly half the world's food supply depending on it, but it casts a long shadow. Between manufacturing and field application, nitrogen fertilizer accounts for five to seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The inefficiency is just as striking: global nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency sits at about 33%, meaning roughly two-thirds of every tank a farmer buys never reaches the crop. It runs off into waterways, where it drives algae blooms and dead zones, or it volatilizes into the air, becoming a high-impact greenhouse gas. As our guest Nico puts it in this episode, imagine buying $100 of gasoline and pouring $66 of it on the ground. And because the industry is so centralized, a disruption on one side of the planet can double a farmer's single largest input cost overnight.In this episode, Hilary and Guy are joined by Nico Pinkowski, co-founder and CEO of Nitricity, which is making liquid organic nitrogen fertilizer from almond shells, air, water, and renewable power. Farmers can disburse the fertilizer through their irrigation systems, spoon-feeding nitrogen as the crop actually needs it rather than front-loading a season's worth of ammonia into the soil. The result is dramatically lower field emissions, far better nutrient uptake, and a product that competes on price with the animal byproducts that dominate organic farming today. We talk through the new plant Nitricity just finished in California's Central Valley, the multi-year fixed-price contracts that made it financeable, expansion into new geographies, and the reactor breakthroughs that open the door to decarbonizing the conventional market. Let's dive in.Links:Nitricity WebsiteNico Pinkowski's LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this episode, Gil Jenkins and Guy Van Syckle speak with John Hensley, Senior Vice President – Markets and Policy Analysis for the American Clean Power Association (ACP). We dig into how clean energy manufacturing is powering a new chapter of economic prosperity, exploring the industry's rapid growth in facilities, the economic impact on communities, workforce development challenges, supply chain progress, the role of the 45X tax credit, and where the industry is headed by 2030.Links: John Hensley LinkedIn America Builds Power: The State of Clean Energy Manufacturing 2026Episode recorded June 26, 2026. Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

Water is something most of us take for granted. We turn on the tap, and it's just there. But behind that tap is an increasingly strained system that is quietly becoming one of the defining infrastructure challenges of our time. Just in the US, McKinsey estimates we are underinvesting in water assets by about $100 billion annually, with the cost only compounding as more investment is delayed.  The effects are already being seen with over 20% of treated water lost through leaks in pipes that are sometimes 70 years old, generating no revenue for cash-strapped utilities. The record data center and industrial development buoying our economy is now facing major opposition, often due to local water demands. In addition, there are growing concerns and regulations regarding the forever chemicals, known as PFAS, which are showing up in more of our water supply. Today, I'm joined by Guillaume Clairet of H20 Innovation, who has helped build the company into a water treatment powerhouse over the past 25 years. From massive municipal reuse projects to distributed systems serving the critical industrial facilities, H2O is leading the water infrastructure buildout and offers a hopeful outlook on how we can start addressing our water needs. Let's dive in. Links: H20 Innovation Website Guillaume Clairet’s LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this episode of Climate Positive, Guy Van Syckle connects with Tripp Wall, CEO of Pantheon Regeneration, to explore how his team is turning degraded peatland ecosystems into high-impact stores of carbon with a wealth of additional benefits for biodiversity and resiliency. We dive deep into an unsung hero of carbon sequestration—peatlands—which cover just 3% of the earth's surface but store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests combined. Tripp explains the hydrological engineering and cutting-edge tech helping to restore and monitor these ancient ecosystems. We discuss the evolving Voluntary Carbon Market, the supply-demand mismatch approaching, and how nature-based solutions offer a highly scalable alternative to engineered carbon capture.  Additionally, Guy and Tripp explore how high-quality removal credits with biodiversity co-benefits are attracting major corporate offtakes, and the opportunities for traditional infrastructure investors to invest in natural capital to secure differentiated returns. Links: Pantheon Regeneration Website Tripp Wall LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this Climate Positive episode (our 100th!), Chad and Guy talk with Matt Loszak, CEO and co-founder of Aalo Atomics, about their innovative approach to building factory-made advanced micro reactors to power the AI-driven energy demand surge. Matt shares his unconventional journey from nuclear engineering student to software entrepreneur to nuclear startup founder, explaining why he believes we're entering a "second atomic age" for clean energy. Matt discusses Aalo's strategy of vertical integration and mass manufacturing, inspired by SpaceX and Tesla, to deliver compact, liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactors that can be deployed rapidly for data centers and other applications. He explains how the regulatory environment has evolved with recent executive orders streamlining pathways to criticality, the company's ambitious timeline to achieve zero power criticality by July 2026, and their vision for 3-cent-per-kilowatt-hour nuclear energy at scale. Matt also addresses public safety perceptions, the advantages of particular reactor technologies, and how their 50-megawatt "Aalo Pod" architecture provides the redundancy and incremental buildout that hyperscalers need. Links: Aalo Atomics Website Matt Loszak on LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this episode of Climate Positive, Kenny Gayles talks with Vinnie Campo, CEO and co-founder of Haven Energy, about their unique batteries-as-a-service approach that reduces barriers to affordable, reliable backup power by integrating home storage into virtual power plants (VPPs) to support the electric grid.  Vinnie shares Haven’s journey as a rapidly growing operator of distributed energy assets. He discusses the effects of California’s policy impacts on battery adoption, the influence of electrification and AI-driven demand on utilities, and why batteries are vital for grid resilience. He also discusses regulatory and market trends transforming residential energy, and what it takes to scale integrated energy infrastructure solutions.  Links: Haven Website Vinnie Campo on LinkedIn Haven Blog: “Raising New Funds to Speed Distributed Power” LADWP Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this episode of Climate Positive, Gil Jenkins speaks with Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). They discuss the current state of the U.S. hydropower industry, its role in providing carbon-free electricity, and the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. A central focus of the conversation is the hydropower relicensing process -- how it works, where projects can stall, and how lengthy reviews can delay investment, upgrades, and in some cases lead facilities to shut down.Malcolm shares real-world examples to illustrate what’s at stake, while also exploring the potential to add generation to non-powered dams, the role of pumped storage in supporting grid reliability, and emerging marine energy technologies.Links:NHA WebsiteMalcom Woolf LinkedInNHA on LinkedInPress Release: The Hydropower Foundation and NHA Align to Strengthen Workforce Development EffortsArticle: US hydropower is at a make-or-break momentArticle: Google to buy up to 3 GW of hydro power from BrookfieldVideo: Whooshh Innovations' "Salmon Cannon" Gives Fish A Boost Over Dams Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

The trucking industry operates on razor-thin margins and highly optimized schedules. Think free delivery from click to your door in 4 hours. Decarbonizing that kind of industry requires more than green intentions—it requires a highly reliable solution that drives real economic value. In the push to electrify large trucks, we often focus on the vehicles. But this rollout requires industrial-scale access to electricity in the context of an often-challenged distribution grid.My guest today is Patrick Sullivan, CEO of EV Realty.  Building on decades of renewable energy development experience, navigating electricity grid constraints, Patrick and team are enabling the EV semi-truck rollout today.We discuss the coming wave of EV trucks, the realities of the freight supply chain, and how EV Realty is building a network that works for the bottom line, local communities, and the broader climate.Links:EV Realty WebsitePatrick Sullivan – CEO of EV RealtyEpisode recorded  Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].

In this episode, Guy Van Syckle connects with the CEO of Mad Capital Brandon Welch who is proving that financing regenerative agriculture can scale—and it can do so profitably.  Brandon reviews the significant challenges posed by current agricultural practices and how Mad Capital is helping farmers and ranchers build a more sustainable food system through innovative financing.  He shares insights on farmers economic incentives, the steps involved in transitioning farming practices, and his company's growing impact as a leading investor in regenerative agriculture.  Most importantly he shares the stories of how farmers economic outlooks are being improved through these investments.Links:MadCapital WebsiteBrandon Welch - CEO of Mad CapitalEpisode recorded November 12, 2025  Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at [email protected].