Open Circuit

Virtual power plants are having a moment. Suddenly, this once-niche solution for the power sector is breaking into mainstream discourse.

The convergence of sudden load growth, aging infrastructure, extreme weather, and electricity inflation is turning distributed resources into must-deploy assets.

At the state level, VPPs are becoming a go-to tool for making electricity more affordable. They’re championed as one of the only solutions that can open up enough capacity to support load growth over the next three years.

But at a moment of historic utility spending, VPPs can still feel like a round peg in a square hole. Utilities and regulators treat them as a novelty, and market rules are not designed to unlock their potential.

So what still needs to happen to leverage the true potential of this resource? This week, we have a live episode recorded from Cpower’s GridFuture conference in Jersey City.

Stephen is joined by David Visneau, head of demand response and VPPs at NRG Business; Ken Schisler, senior director of growth & policy at NRG; and Mathew Sachs, chief strategy Officer at CPower​ ​. They dive into the unique tailwinds for the market, the regulatory constraints, the state-level policy activity, and some predictions about where we're headed.

This episode was produced in partnership with CPower.

We're on vacation through the end of August, so this week we’re featuring an episode of The Green Blueprint.

Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized energy storage. But inexpensive, multi-day storage will still be critical for backing renewables and decarbonizing the grid.

Form Energy is tackling that challenge with a new class of iron-air batteries. By oxidizing and reducing iron, Form is creating low-cost, multi-day storage that competes directly with natural gas peaker plants.

Mateo Jaramillo, CEO and co-founder of Form Energy, has spent over two decades in the battery industry, including building Tesla’s storage business. At Form, he’s leading the charge to bring these "E-peakers" to utilities across the country. The company recently achieved a major milestone: completing a one-million-square-foot factory on the site of an old steel mill in Weirton, West Virginia.

In this episode, Mateo talks with host Lara Pierpoint about the grueling realities of scaling up manufacturing, why they chose to build in West Virginia, using AI to drive material science discovery, and the immense logistical challenges of building physical infrastructure.

Open Circuit is brought to you by Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, where New Mexico's energy future is shaped. Join industry leaders, policy makers, researchers, and innovators at Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, September 14-16 in Albuquerque. Visit nmwomenlead.org/registration and use promo code CIRCUIT to save 10% on registration.

Open Circuit is brought to you by FischTank PR, an award-winning climate and energy tech, renewables, and sustainability-focused PR firm dedicated to elevating the work of both early-stage and established companies. Learn more about their PR approach and how they can support your company’s messaging by visiting fischtankpr.com.

Arbor Energy is betting that smaller, modular turbines can solve problems the conventional generation model was never designed for.

Arbor Energy was founded with an unusual idea: take technologies from rocket engines and use them to make carbon-negative power plants.

Today, the market has radically changed. Demand for turbines is exploding, the supply chain is jammed, and data centers need power on rapid timelines. Suddenly, Arbor’s 3D-printed turbine is a potential answer to the power bottleneck.

In this episode, Stephen Lacey talks with Arbor CEO and co-founder Brad Hartwig, a former SpaceX engineer who found his calling in power generation.

They explore how Arbor is adapting rocket technologies for power generation, how additive manufacturing could unlock new turbine supply chains, and why the company believes cleaner power solutions are critical for community acceptance.

Can rocket engineering help reinvent the way we build power plants?

This episode was produced in partnership with Arbor Energy.

After Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, everyone thought prices would hit historic highs. But they didn't. Why?

The answer is less about market resiliency, and more about two major government interventions. The U.S. intervened using a central banking model, and China intervened with a top-down government approach.

James Gutman, head of research at Abaxx Technologies, joins us this week to discuss how these two interventions influenced global oil flows, and why China emerged as a clear winner. Gutman wrote about the Chinese and American strategies on his substack, Arcs and Angles.

We look at how China cut crude oil imports and leaned on a decade of investment in electric vehicles, high-speed rail, and coal-to-liquids to defer demand. As China starts to come back into the market, the country is now operating at a position of strength.

We also discuss the U.S. model, which leaned on strategic oil reserves to moderate prices in a way that mirrors central banking. Gutman argues that this “central bank of molecules” model worked, but only for so long. And he worries about how it will get used in the future.

Finally, we ask how both of these approaches could get used again in other industries like critical minerals or equipment manufacturing.

Get your ticket to Latitude Media’s Flex Summit in Austin, Texas on October 14-15.

Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and special guest Nate Adams. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey, Sean Marquand, and Anne Bailey.

Open Circuit is brought to you by Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, where New Mexico's energy future is shaped. Join industry leaders, policy makers, researchers, and innovators at Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, September 14-16 in Albuquerque. Visit nmwomenlead.org/registration and use promo code CIRCUIT to save 10% on registration.

Open Circuit is brought to you by FischTank PR, an award-winning climate and energy tech, renewables, and sustainability-focused PR firm dedicated to elevating the work of both early-stage and established companies. Learn more about their PR approach and how they can support your company’s messaging by visiting fischtankpr.com.

The showdown over data centers is taking a new turn. This week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a data center pause in order to audit how they’ll impact water supplies and the power grid. This comes weeks after New York issued a moratorium.

Not long ago, Governor Abbott was declaring Texas the center of the AI boom. But with his re-election bid under threat, he’s now responding to the radical shift in anti-data center sentiment.

So what will this mean for other states? And more importantly, will states use their pauses to find creative ways to upgrade grids and deploy clean energy?

Then, the end of the corporate net-zero era. AI load growth is blowing up climate goals in real time and tech companies are scrambling to explain their emissions increases. Meanwhile, many of the biggest corporate players are walking away from their targets.

But could this actually be a good thing for corporate decarbonization? We’ll look at more effective ways for companies to accelerate clean solutions.

Get your ticket to Latitude Media’s Flex Summit in Austin, Texas on October 14-15.

Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and special guest Nate Adams. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey, Sean Marquand, and Anne Bailey.

Open Circuit is brought to you by Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, where New Mexico's energy future is shaped. Join industry leaders, policy makers, researchers, and innovators at Building an Advanced Energy Ecosystem, September 14-16 in Albuquerque. Visit nmwomenlead.org/registration and use promo code CIRCUIT to save 10% on registration.

Open Circuit is brought to you by FischTank PR, an award-winning climate and energy tech, renewables, and sustainability-focused PR firm dedicated to elevating the work of both early-stage and established companies. Learn more about their PR approach and how they can support your company’s messaging by visiting fischtankpr.com.