We’ve been talking storage, reliability, and the grid … but what if we could just make more clean energy in more places? This week on Everybody in the Pool, we look at solar in a whole new way.

My guest is Anthony Letmon, co-founder and CEO of Kardinia Energy, which makes ultra-lightweight, recyclable printed solar. Imagine solar that looks more like a concert poster than a heavy panel. You can roll it up, ship it anywhere, and stick it where traditional solar could never go.

We talk about:

• Why weight keeps solar off millions of industrial roofs — and how printed solar solves that
• Why Kardinia builds panels to last just five years on purpose
• Coldplay’s global tour as a solar testbed
• How printing solar could power disaster relief, data centers, even stadiums

It’s the solar solution you didn’t know we needed — and it could open up whole new markets for clean energy.

👉 Last week, we looked at grid stability with Wärtsilä. Next week, we’re going camping — with the future of RVs.

• Kardinia Energy: https://www.kardiniaenergy.com
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We’re wrapping up the Smart Grid Series with a rocket scientist who thinks the next big thing in batteries might actually be … zinc.

My guest is Mike Burz, co-founder and CEO of Enzinc, which is commercializing a zinc “sponge” anode developed with the U.S. Navy. The breakthrough: solving the dendrite problem that has historically killed rechargeable zinc batteries. The result? A safe, recyclable, low-cost chemistry that could power everything from scooters to data centers — and replace lead-acid or nickel-cadmium in millions of applications.

We cover:

• Why storage is the foundation of a renewable grid
• The Navy’s quest for a battery as safe as lead acid, but with the energy of lithium
• How a metal sponge structure prevents dendrites and enables true rechargeability
• Why zinc is abundant, cheap, and fully recyclable — unlike lithium
• The “Intel Inside” business model: supplying drop-in anodes to existing manufacturers
• First demos: e-bikes, golf carts, and telecom backup
• Longer-term possibilities: zinc-air chemistries for aviation and long-duration storage
• Why this is not about killing lithium but about giving the grid (and vehicles) safer, more appropriate options

• Enzinc — https://enzinc.com/
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Smart Grid Series recap:

• E101: Flow batteries with XL Batteries
• E102: Synthetic inertia & reliability with Wärtsilä
• E103 (this episode): Rechargeable zinc with Enzinc

Next week, we shift gears — from storage to deployment — with printed solar that could go just about anywhere. 🌞

Together, we can get this done.

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This special episode is brought to you by RE+—North America’s largest gathering of clean energy professionals, developed by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

On Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, I gave the opening keynote at RE+ in Las Vegas about where the energy transition is headed—followed by a panel with two leaders building it at scale:

• Ray Henger, CEO of Copia Power (developing gigawatts of renewables and data-center infrastructure)
• Pedro Pizarro, President & CEO of Edison International (parent of Southern California Edison)

• Our full panel discussion on the future of the grid, the challenges of accomplishing skyrocketing demand and what that means for net zero goals
• Data centers, meet reality: AI-driven load growth and how to keep reliability while adding massive new demand.
• Utility POV: Transmission, interconnection queues, permitting, wildfire risk, and keeping customers whole.
• Developers at scale: Financing in a higher-rate world, siting tradeoffs, and building projects communities actually want.

This special drops in the middle of our Smart Grid mini-series:

• Episode 101: XL Batteries on long-duration, pH-neutral organic flow batteries for utility storage.
• Episode 102 (airs Sept. 11): Wärtsilä on synthetic inertia and batteries as an “airbag” for the grid.
• Episode 103 (airs next Thursday): Enzinc on zinc-based batteries that are safer, recyclable, and ready for mobility and stationary use.

Subscribe to the newsletter and find every episode at everybodyinthepool.com. Want an ad-free feed and to support the show directly? Tap the link in your podcast app. And send your thoughts—or a voice memo—to in@everybodyinthepool.com.

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Continuing our Smart Grid Series, we zoom in on reliability — because building more solar and wind doesn’t matter if the grid itself can’t stay stable. We’ve seen what happens when it fails: blackouts in Spain and Portugal earlier this year, near misses in Texas, rolling outages in California.

My guest is David Hebert, VP of Global Sales & Business Strategy at Wärtsilä Energy Storage. Wärtsilä is a 190-year-old company that now builds integrated storage systems combining hardware + software to keep grids reliable — even in moments of stress.

We dive into:

• Why grid operators need fast, flexible tools beyond just generation
• Synthetic inertia: batteries mimicking the stabilizing effect of spinning turbines
• How storage can act like an “airbag” — catching a wobble before it cascades into blackout
• Real-world deployments: from the UK’s Blackhillock project to island microgrids in Bonaire & Graciosa
• Reliability + resilience: sectionalizing grids after hurricanes, blackstart capability, and non-wires alternatives
• Enabling more renewables by smoothing intermittency and curtailment issues
• Why batteries are the “Swiss Army knife” of the grid: frequency regulation, voltage support, time-shifting, backup power
• Cost, customer adoption, and how utilities are (finally) moving past reflexive resistance

• Wärtsilä Energy Storage— https://www.wartsila.com/energy
• Everybody in the Pool: all episodes & newsletter — https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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• Send me your thoughts: in@everybodyinthepool.com — have you lived through blackouts? Tried a microgrid?
• Share this episode with a friend who loves geeking out about grid reliability.

Smart Grid Series lineup:

• E101: Safe, long-duration flow batteries with XL Batteries
• E102 (this episode): Grid “airbags” & synthetic inertia with Wärtsilä
• E103 (next): A rechargeable zinc sponge anode that solves dendrites — Enzinc

Together, we can get this done.

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For the next few episodes, we’re digging into the wild world of energy and the aging global electricity grid. This week, we start where reliability begins: utility-scale storage. The grid we have was built for one-way power plants; the grid we need has to juggle rooftop solar at noon, heat waves at 6 p.m., EVs, and data centers galore.

My guest is Tom Sisto, founder & CEO of XL Batteries. His team is commercializing a pH-neutral, aqueous organic flow battery — a non-flammable, salt-water system using carbon-based molecules instead of vanadium. Think: safer, long-life storage you can scale for hours to days, without sulfuric acid or scarce metals.

We get into:

• Why storage is the “time machine” the grid needs (match generation to demand, cut curtailment)
• Flow batteries 101: engine vs. tank, independent power and duration, and why that matters for utilities
• XL’s chemistry: organic charge carriers in neutral saltwater (no vanadium, no acid), designed for long life
• Cost and safety vs. lithium — and why duration + cycle life drive utility economics
• Real-world progress: containerized field unit, EPRI duty-cycle testing, and an industrial pilot at Stolthaven Terminals
• Retrofit potential: turning existing petrochemical tanks into energy storage tanks
• Storage-as-transmission: placing batteries on both sides of a bottleneck to double effective flow
• Reliability + resilience: PSPS/wildfire shutoffs, hurricane backup, and data-center load growth
• Where decentralization fits, and how industrial customers can de-risk adoption on the way to utility scale

• XL Batteries — https://xlbatteries.com/
• Everybody in the Pool: all episodes & newsletter — https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Become a paid subscriber for an ad-free feed (and my eternal gratitude) — https://plus.acast.com/s/everybody-in-the-pool

• Send thoughts & voice memos: in@everybodyinthepool.com — where do you see storage unlocking reliability?
• If you liked this one, share it with a grid geek friend.

• E101 (this episode): Safe, long-duration flow batteries with XL Batteries
• E102 (next): Grid “airbags” — synthetic inertia & fast frequency control with Wärtsilä
• E103 (after that): A rechargeable zinc sponge anode that solves dendrites — Enzinc

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re celebrating our 100th episode with a look at what matters most: your actions.

Since this show began a little over two years ago, the goal has been simple — to spotlight innovation, ingenuity, and capital coming together to tackle the climate crisis. Hope is stronger than fear, but hope alone isn’t a plan. This milestone episode is about agency — the choices we make in our own lives, and how together, those choices add up to systemic change.

Listeners wrote in and sent voice memos sharing the climate actions they’ve taken:

• Investing through platforms like Climatize to fund renewable energy projects
• Moving retirement savings and banking into fossil fuel–free funds and community credit unions
• Cutting back on red meat, shifting diets, and sourcing local food
• Tackling food waste with apps like FlashFood and composting with Mill (our presenting sponsor for this week’s episode)
• Retrofitting homes with solar, heat pumps, and energy efficiency upgrades
• Rethinking careers, transportation, and even family planning with the climate in mind

Along the way, we revisit powerful clips from past episodes and highlight the ripple effects of these solutions — from decarbonizing finance to building circular food systems.

Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, and taken action. This episode is a reminder that we are not helpless — our feedback, votes, purchases, and investments all send signals that drive change. Drops become a flood.

Thanks to Mill for sponsoring this week’s episode! Get $75 off yours with my custom link! https://www.mill.com/lp/mollywood?utm_source=newsletter-sponsorship&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=everbodyinthepool &utm_content=mollywood

• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool! Send feedback or become a sponsor at in@everybodyinthepool.com!

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re diving into ocean intelligence. Despite covering more than 70% of the Earth, the ocean remains one of the least understood parts of our climate system — and that knowledge gap has huge consequences for weather prediction, global commerce, and climate resilience.

Our guest is Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean, a company building the world’s largest privately deployed network of ocean sensors. Their inexpensive, solar-powered Spotter buoys collect real-time data on waves, weather, and water conditions — information that fuels better climate models, safer shipping routes, and more sustainable ocean economies.

We talk about:

• The massive “ocean data gap” and why it hinders weather and climate forecasting
• How Sofar’s 2,500+ Spotter buoys are creating the largest private ocean sensor network
• Wayfinder, Sofar’s “Google Maps for ships,” and how it saves fuel and cuts emissions
• Why more ocean intelligence is critical for industries from aquaculture to shipping
• Partnerships with researchers, governments, and nonprofits to democratize ocean data
• The bigger vision: turning ocean information into a foundation for climate solutions

From global trade to Pacific Island communities, ocean intelligence has the potential to save money, reduce emissions, and protect vulnerable coastlines. Janssen explains why data may be the most important climate solution of all.

• Sofar Ocean: https://www.sofarocean.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
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Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool! Send feedback or become a sponsor: in@everybodyinthepool.com

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This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re talking ocean tech — in a slightly roundabout way. Nano-bubbles are a tiny but powerful technology that’s helping to make a big climate impact across wastewater treatment, irrigation, aquaculture, and more.

Our guest is Nick Dyner, CEO of Moleaer, a company that manufactures systems to produce nano-bubbles — microscopic bubbles that can enhance chemical, physical, and biological processes. The applications range from improving crop yields to cleaning food without chemicals, reducing energy use in wastewater treatment, and even building a nearly chlorine-free Jacuzzi.

We talk about:

• How nano-bubbles work and why they stay in water for weeks or months
• The potential to cut energy use in wastewater aeration, which consumes 2% of global electricity
• Using nano-bubbles to boost irrigation efficiency, reduce chemicals, and increase yields
• Applications in aquaculture, from improving salmon welfare to remediating ocean floors
• Surprising future possibilities — from replacing soap to targeted cancer treatments
• Why this “new class of science” is already deployed in more than 4,000 systems worldwide

From salmon farms in Norway to backyard spas, Nick explains how nano-bubbles could be a critical tool for climate solutions today — and the sci-fi breakthroughs of tomorrow.

• Moleaer: https://www.moleaer.com/
• All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
• Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
• Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/

Please subscribe and tell your friends about Everybody in the Pool! Send feedback or become a sponsor: in@everybodyinthepool.com

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