Catalyst with Shayle Kann

Data center developers are facing unprecedented roadblocks to power new facilities. In addition to being hampered by an enormous interconnection queue backlog, the major gas turbine suppliers — GE Vernova, Mitsubishi, and Siemens — are completely sold out past 2030. As a result, developers are scrambling to find alternate behind-the-meter power solutions.

In this episode, Shayle invites Tony Brough, president of Dora Partners & Company, back on the show to examine this squeeze on gas-fired power generation. They break down the OEM backlog, examine rising equipment pricing, and take a deep dive into the emerging ecosystem of new suppliers looking to fill the void.

Shayle and Tony discuss:

- Why turbine prices have surged from $500/kW to nearly $2,500/kW

- The long-term viability of deploying reciprocating generators as bridge power

- The technical and manufacturing hurdles facing new turbine OEMs like Boom Supersonic and Parallax

- How companies like FTAI, PROENERGY, and Nova Power are repurposing jet engines into stationary power units

- The market outlook for 2030, including the role of renewables, and whether behind-the-meter gas demand will plateau

- Catalyst: Data centers' looming methane surge

- Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers

- Catalyst: The gas turbine crunch

- Open Circuit: Data centers have a Texas-sized energy problem

- Open Circuit: Power is caught in AI's doom loop

- Latitude Media: Is the gas turbine bottleneck solving itself?

- Latitude Media: Hyperscalers say gas is a bridge — but no one says where it ends

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting http://gridbeyond.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more athttp://antennagroup.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

The AI buildout is the most capital-intensive project in history. The hunger for power has pushed companies to unconventional options, sparking demand for jet engines, mobile trailer-mounted generators, and hybrid microgrids.

And now batteries are having a moment. The urgency to connect to the grid and manage volatile AI workloads is making storage a must-have piece of the energy stack for data centers.

The demand is being felt by companies like battery integrator FlexGen, which has seen its order book suddenly filled with data center customers.

In this Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey talks with FlexGen CEO Pegler and COO Hugh Scott about how the demand is showing up — and how data centers are reshaping the industry.

“I had thought coming from the renewable energy space, we were an impatient crew. The data center community makes us look like the most patient people around,” says Kelcy Pegler, the CEO of FlexGen.

They walk through how developers are designing and integrating batteries, how software is controlling them, and where the market is headed.

This is partner content, brought to you by FlexGen. FlexGen designs and integrates battery energy storage solutions and the software platform that is enabling today’s energy transition.

This conversation was recorded live as part of Latitude Media’s Frontier Forum series. You can access the full video here.

It’s no secret that hyperscalers’ behind-the-meter gas bonanza could generate enormous CO2 emissions. But the BTM boom could become responsible for another, less-publicized emissions issue: upstream and onsite methane leaks that could derail decarbonization efforts.

In this episode, Shayle Kann speaks with Olya Irzak, founder and CEO of Frost Methane Labs. Olya unpacks the full lifecycle of methane emissions in gas-powered data centers, and considers why the actual warming impact of behind-the-meter gas may be double current estimates. Olya says practical, relatively low-cost strategies could cut those emissions in half. Shayle and Olya also discuss:

- The big-picture data: Why tens of gigawatts of new behind-the-meter gas capacity could generate 380 megatons of CO2 and methane emissions over the next 18 months.

- How methane can leak across the value chain, from wellheads and gathering pipelines to facility leaks and engine slippage

- How methane's extreme short-term warming potency means off-grid gas emissions could dwarf coal’s impacts over the next 20 years

- Why running gas generators at partial loads increases leaks

- Why low-leak gas procurement, leak detection and repair, and catalyst additions add less than 1% to total data center build costs without causing operational delays

- How big tech's current emissions reporting relies on averages that overlook actual leaks

- Frost Methane Labs / MERIT certification

- Catalyst: The unexplored frontier of methane removal

- Catalyst: Why are we still flaring gas?

- Catalyst: Serving data center load with carbon capture

- Catalyst: Can the fossil gas supply handle the AI boom?

- Open Circuit: The off-grid data center fantasy

- Latitude Media: The problem with the US gas bonanza for data centers

- Latitude Media: Senate Democrats probe gas-powered AI data centers

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting http://gridbeyond.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more athttp://antennagroup.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

As data center-driven load growth continues to rise, hyperscalers are turning to natural gas – both in front of and behind the meter — to secure power. But whether the natural gas pipeline system has the bandwidth to support this surging demand remains far from certain.

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Eric McGuire, director of natural gas and LNG trading analytics at Wood Mackenzie, to unpack whether gas is in the midst of a capacity crunch of its own. Shayle and Eric consider how data center demand has collided with massive LNG exports in the United States, why regional pricing spreads are informing data center siting, and how winter weather creates extreme daily price volatility. They also discuss:

- How connecting large loads directly into interstate gas pipeline headers compares to filing an electric grid interconnection request

- Why data centers and LNG export contracts compete for baseload gas

- How placing data centers in the Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale helps developers bypass long-haul pipeline constraints

- How cold snaps cause wellhead freeze-offs that knock out tens of billions of cubic feet of gas supply

- Catalyst: Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive AI capex

- Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers

- Catalyst: AI scaling pathways: On grid, on edge, off grid, off planet

- Open Circuit: The off-grid data center fantasy

- Open Circuit: AI needs a different kind of power plant

- Latitude Media: Microsoft is embracing off-grid gas for West Virginia data centers

- Latitude Media: Building clean power for data centers in a gas-obsessed market

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting http://gridbeyond.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more athttp://antennagroup.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

Of all the concerns surrounding the AI boom, data center water usage tops the list. Opponents claim that massive hyperscaler facilities threaten local drinking supplies and drain aquifers. Proponents say data centers use a negligible amount of water, at least compared to agriculture or conventional power generation sources.

So who actually has it right?

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Tim Shedd, founder of Ebullient Insights and an expert in data center thermal management. They unpack the history and evolution of data center cooling and consider how high-density chip racks have developers ditching air cooling in favor of single-phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling. The two also discuss:

- Why modern GPU racks (drawing 220 kW to 500 kW+) have rendered traditional air cooling obsolete

- The distinctions between single-phase direct-to-chip, two-phase cooling, and immersion cooling methods

- How collecting heat at higher temperatures inside a server allows data centers to reject heat outside with far less energy and water inputs

- How developers can better communicate with the public about data centers’ water usage and foster local trust amidst rapid buildouts.

- Ebullient Insights

- Catalyst: What comes after the data center backlash?

- Open Circuit: Can data centers regain their social license?

- Open Circuit: A feast of hot takes

- Latitude Media: Data centers' hidden water footprint is linked to the grid

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting http://gridbeyond.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more athttp://antennagroup.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

It’s been a wild few years for grid-scale batteries in Texas. At the start of the decade, the Lone Star State was home to roughly 200 megawatts of battery capacity. Today, that number has skyrocketed to seventeen gigawatts…with at least five more gigawatts expected to come online by the end of 2026.

But this rapid buildout quickly led to market saturation. In the past year alone, revenues plummeted by more than 80%, far below the threshold needed for fleet operators to stay in the black.

The future of the battery market in Texas remains murky. Will the depression continue? Or will the imminent, enormous surge of data center load growth reset the state of play and bring volatility back into the mix?

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Brandt Vermillion, U.S. market lead at Modo Energy, to unpack the mechanics of the Texas battery storage market, and consider when the tide could turn back in developers’ favor. They cover topics like:

- The factors behind the recent cratering of the market

- How longer battery durations are able to capture secondary price spikes

- The degree to which weather patterns have contributed to battery demand

- Reconciling currently suppressed revenues with the hundreds of incoming gigawatts of proposed data center demand

- Whether on-site generation for hyperscaler data centers will blunt peak demand spikes and delay the return of grid volatility

- Why off-takers are considering tolling agreements to survive the market downturn

- Catalyst: 2026 trends: Gas turbines, Texas' load queue, and China electrifies

- Catalyst: Why C&I storage is finally taking off

- Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers

- Open Circuit: Data centers have a Texas-sized energy problem

- Open Circuit: The off-grid data center fantasy

- Open Circuit: A global energy shock and the case for distributed power

- Open Circuit: Power is caught in AI’s doom loop

- Latitude Media: How the AI boom has impacted US battery storage so far

- Latitude Media: Branch Energy heads to PJM to sell battery capacity to data centers

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting http://gridbeyond.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more athttp://antennagroup.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

This is a partner episode, brought to you by Bloom Energy.

Long interconnection queues, fragile supply chains, and a lack of grid capacity are pushing a wide range of C&I customers to invest in distributed, on-site power.

But as data centers and other industrial facilities build more power behind the meter, new challenges have emerged. Air quality, noise, and water use are top concerns for local communities, making cleaner solutions like fuel cells much more attractive.

This shift within the data center industry is starting to shape energy decisions in the broader C&I sector across retail, healthcare, higher education, and manufacturing.

In this Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey talks with Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer at Bloom Energy, about how the scramble for electricity is changing how large energy users plan their power.

In this new landscape for large loads, Aman explains why more customers are planning to permanently stay disconnected from the grid; how the familiar cost-per-megawatt-hour calculation can fall short; and why speed, reliability, and community acceptance are central to power decisions.

This conversation was recorded live as part of Latitude Media’s Frontier Forum with Bloom Energy. You can access the full video here.

Dual-use technologies and the rise of defense tech are having a moment. But how does the defense sector approach innovations in energy that may be necessary to optimize its fleets?

To help answer that question, Shayle turns to the maritime sector to explore how advanced batteries, nuclear propulsion, and autonomous capabilities are shaping the future of defense.

Unlike conventional EVs, maritime vehicles and drones must compete with the challenges presented by the sea in order to complete surveillance and reconnaissance-related missions, as well as direct attacks. Saltwater corrodes hardware, and vehicles at great depths must withstand enormous pressure; to say nothing of the fact that moving through water requires nearly 1,000 times more energy than through air.

To learn how the sector navigates these obstacles, Shayle sits down with Andrew Nuss, the head of growth and strategy in the maritime division at the defense technology company Anduril. They unpack topics including:

- The complicated physics influencing maritime drone design and energy usage

- How lithium-ion cells fare in deep-sea deployment

- Why extreme reliability and long-range capabilities drive the military’s energy requirements compared to commercial shipping

- How surface or subsea recharging depots could reshape vehicle design

- Why both commercial and defense sectors are revisiting nuclear propulsion as a viable option for high-speed, zero-emission surface vessels

Catalyst: The rise of metal fuels

- Catalyst: GM’s big new battery tech push

- Catalyst: Decarbonizing the high seas

- Open Circuit: A five-alarm fire for the grid?

- Latitude Media: Is adaptation ready for growth money?

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at https://www.energyhub.com/

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttps://www.bloomenergy.com/

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at https://www.engieresources.com/.

As we head into the final quarter of this pivotal and dramatic year for the energy sector, Catalyst host Shayle Kann takes stock of 2026 so far – and considers what’s to come – in this AMA-style episode. He discusses the year’s biggest stories, the trends that have surprised him the most, and his hot takes on the current energy landscape.

Shayle dives into topics including:

- The data center backlash and why it has become more bipartisan than he expected

- The impacts of the war in Iran on global EV adoption, and how the rollback of U.S. tax credits has countered that momentum

- Why fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is flourishing amidst the rush for behind-the-meter generation

- Tariff innovations: How big data centers could subsidize retail electricity rates in small utility territories

- Why Shayle thinks predictions of a flattening U.S. solar market are underestimating massive growth potential

- Hot take: why Shayle thinks massive grid capacity is about to hit the system

- Catalyst: What comes after the data center backlash?

- Catalyst: Can AI revolutionize grid operations?

- Catalyst: Why C&I storage is finally taking off

- Catalyst: Enter the electric supercycle

- Catalyst: Inside the global fertilizer crunch

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at ⁠https://www.energyhub.com/⁠

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visiting ⁠https://www.bloomenergy.com⁠

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at ⁠https://www.engieresources.com

You don’t have to look far to see the vitriol and backlash ignited by the rapid expansion of hyperscaler data centers. While critics and activists tend to focus their ire on resource consumption and residents’ electricity bills, the reality of data center economics is far more complex.

In this episode of Catalyst, host Shayle Kann sits down with Andy Lubershane, head of research at Energy Impact Partners, to unpack the nuances. They crunch the numbers behind utility rate structures, consider the "denominator effect" that can lower customers’ rates, and dig into the supply chain crunches pushing global power system costs higher.

Shayle and Andy discuss:

- Why a new data center can reduce utility rates for locals while contributing to rising costs elsewhere

- How data centers impact utility tariff rates

- Separating public perception of data centers from the reality of the grid

- How soaring demand for transformers, switchgear, conductors, gas turbines, and labor is driving systemic cost increases across the power sector

- Strategies to mitigate rising global grid costs, from load flexibility and distributed energy resources (DERs) to energy efficiency hardware

- Catalyst: What comes after the data center backlash?

- Catalyst: Enter the electric supercycle

- Catalyst: Can AI revolutionize grid operations?

- Catalyst: Inside the AI power wars

- Open Circuit: As midterms approach, electricity bills are on the ballot

- Open Circuit: Data centers have a Texas-sized energy problem

- Latitude Media: The great home battery financing experiment

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at https://www.energyhub.com/

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visiting https://www.bloomenergy.com

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at https://www.engieresources.com

In their early days, data centers were largely welcomed by communities who saw their arrival as an economic boost. Today as concerns around noise levels, power prices, water use, and AI grow, they face fierce opposition.

In this episode, Shayle speaks to Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Together, they unpack the data center backlash and explore how the industry can approach the problem differently.

Shayle and Brian dive into specifics like:

- Communities’ shift from “red carpets to pitchforks” on data center development

- How misleading information about data center energy and water usage has led to the AI sector losing the public relations battle

- Distinctions between data centers’ micro-level benefits and macro-level price inflation on power grids

- The potential, and pitfalls, of "bring-your-own-capacity" and behind-the-meter generation

- The viability of taking data centers off-grid, off-land, or off-planet

- The emerging market for distributed edge compute facilities

Resources:

- Catalyst: When to colocate data centers with generation

- Catalyst: Explaining the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’

- Open Circuit: The off-grid data center fantasy

- Open Circuit: Utilities are in the crosshairs of the data center backlash

- Latitude Media: In Indiana, an anatomy of data center opposition

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at https://www.energyhub.com/

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttp://bloomenergy.com.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Diesel generators remain ubiquitous because they offer an unusually powerful combination of low cost, high energy density, long-duration storage, and reliable off-grid power. But their pollution, noise, maintenance requirements, permitting challenges, and growing footprint are becoming increasingly problematic as data centers drive demand for backup generation.

In this episode of Catalyst, Shayle Kann talks with Richard Wang, co-founder and CEO of Voya Energy, about the company's effort to replace diesel generators with generators powered by aluminum.

Richard explains why diesel has been so difficult to displace, why natural gas and batteries fall short for some backup applications, and how Voya's electrochemical generator uses aluminum pellets and air to produce electricity. Unlike combustion-based generators, the system is designed to operate without air emissions, while offering high energy density, quiet operation, rapid startup, and long-duration capabilities.

The conversation also explores aluminum's potential as a globally transportable energy carrier and why low-grade scrap aluminum could provide Voya's initial fuel supply.

Richard and Shayle discuss:

•

The global diesel generator market and why diesel remains dominant

•

Why natural gas generators and batteries haven't displaced diesel

•

Aluminum as a high-energy-density fuel

•

How Voya Energy's electrochemical aluminum generator works

•

Voya vs. diesel on cost, footprint, power quality, and runtime

•

Using Voya generators as grid assets and battery alternatives

•

• Why metal fuels are becoming viable now

• Using low-grade scrap aluminum as fuel and the long-term vision for recyclable aluminum energy storage

•

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by John Sheehan. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttp://bloomenergy.com.

Everyone loves to talk about the “broken grid.” But if you look inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, a different picture emerges: infrastructure that is remarkably reliable, built and run by engineers solving impossibly complex problems with often outdated tools.

In this episode, Shayle Kann sits down with Josh Wong, CEO and founder of ThinkLabs AI, a company building physics-informed AI for utility planning and operations. They break down how utility studies get built today, the data cleanup headaches, the silos between teams, and the “worst case” mentality that drives an overbuild of infrastructure.

Shayle and Josh discuss:

•

Why utility planning is split into silos across transmission, distribution, and DER planning.

•

The gap between studies that identify grid problems and the work of actually solving them.

•

What “physics-informed AI” actually means.

•

The shift from AI that identifies problems to AI that actually solves them.

•

The disconnect between utility planning and real-time operations.

•

Should data center microgrids be treated as micro utilities?

Resources:

Latitude Media: GE spinout ThinkLabs has a new copilot offering for the grid

Latitude Media: Do microgrids make sense for data centers?

Latitude Media: The case against relying on behind-the-meter power for data centers

Latitude Media: Unpacking DOE's proposal to transform data center interconnection

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttp://bloomenergy.com.

A decade ago, DERs were hot. The hype was that things like batteries, smart devices, and other distributed energy technologies would offset the need for expanding traditional grid infrastructure.

But DERs never took off, at least not at the scale that many hoped for. They had high price tags and short track records compared to the existing substations, transmission lines, and generation options that utilities were familiar with. In short, the market didn’t need them yet.

Fast forward 10 years, and things have changed. Load growth is increasing while major grid bottlenecks — like in transmission, interconnection, and supply chains — may be opening up a new opportunity.

So is the time finally right for DERs? In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research at Energy Impact Partners. Last week, Andy published a blog post making the case that DERs were a good idea that was just too early, but the market is ready now. Original episode date: 9/18/2025.

Shayle and Andy cover topics like:

- What held DERs back a decade ago

- Why now is different, including falling system costs and growing grid bottlenecks

- The difference between demand response and virtual power plants

- The potential hurdles to scale, like supply chain bottlenecks, foreign entity of concern regulations, and fire codes

Resources:

Latitude Media: Can distributed energy answer AI’s power problem?

Open Circuit: The grid flexibility solutions staring us in the face

Catalyst: Making DERs work for load growth

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.com/http://bloomenergy.com/.

This week, we’re presenting an episode of Critical Capital, a new podcast from Crux and Latitude Studios.

Energy policy has become increasingly polarized just as the U.S. faces record electricity demand, a rapidly expanding AI economy, and growing competition from China.

In this episode, Alfred Johnson speaks with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis about why the country's biggest energy challenge is the inability to build durable, bipartisan policy that survives changes in political leadership.

Drawing on more than a decade in the Senate, Tillis argues for an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that embraces renewables, natural gas, nuclear, and other generation sources rather than treating them as competing ideologies. He discusses the economic consequences of abruptly cancelling energy projects, the need for stable investment signals, and why rising electricity demand requires policymakers to focus on practical solutions instead of partisan rhetoric. Tillis also discusses domestic manufacturing, critical minerals, AI governance, and the importance of strengthening America's energy supply chains while remaining globally competitive.

Subscribe to Critical Capital on Apple, Spotify, or any podcast platform.

The race to build AI infrastructure is often framed around the availability of power, chips, and capital. But another critical constraint is becoming impossible to ignore: skilled labor. In this episode, Shayle sits down with Raymond Hawkins, chief customer officer at Compass Datacenters, about why a shortage of qualified electricians has emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks to data center construction, and how the industry is responding.

Hawkins explains that labor shortages aren't preventing new data centers from being built, but they are driving up costs, extending project timelines, and forcing developers to compete aggressively for experienced electricians. As AI demand accelerates, companies are increasingly moving workers across the country, housing them near construction sites, and relying on a traveling workforce much like the healthcare industry relies on travel nurses. At the same time, demand is surging for highly specialized professionals capable of installing the sophisticated electrical systems that modern AI data centers require.

Hawkins also explores how modular construction and prefabrication are reshaping the way data centers are built, and how, as data centers expand into new markets, developers must become more transparent about their projects to earn a community's trust.

Shayle and Raymond discuss:
- Why electricians have become one of the biggest constraints on AI data center growth

- How workforce shortages are changing hiring, training, and construction practices

- Compass Datacenters' partnership with community colleges to develop skilled labor

- The role of modular construction and prefabrication in reducing labor demands

- Strategies for earning community support through transparency, workforce investment, and responsible infrastructure development

Resources:

Catalyst: The State of Play of Data Center Development

Catalyst: AI Scaling Pathways: On Grid, On Edge, Off Grid, Off Planet

Latitude Media: As community scrutiny grows, data center developers turn to on-site power

Latitude Media: The mechanics of data center flexibility

Latitude Media: The off-grid data center fantasy

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by John Sheehan. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.com/http://bloomenergy.com/.

Commercial and industrial (C&I) battery storage has long been the missing middle of the energy storage market. It’s been too complex and expensive to scale like residential systems, but too small to compete with utility-scale projects.

That may finally be changing.

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Tim Hade, senior vice president at Voltus and founder of Brightfield Infrastructure, to discuss why C&I storage has historically struggled, why the economics are shifting dramatically, and why the next wave of distributed energy could be driven by commercial customers rather than utilities.

They explore the four revenue streams that are making batteries more valuable, from demand charge management to emerging capacity markets, and examine how declining hardware costs, stable federal tax incentives, and AI-powered automation are reshaping project economics. Tim also explains how aggregating thousands of commercial batteries into virtual power plants could help hyperscalers bring new data centers online faster while easing pressure on an increasingly constrained electric grid.

Shayle and Tim discuss:
- Why commercial battery storage lagged behind residential and utility-scale markets

- The four revenue streams driving today's C&I storage economics

- How rising electricity prices and capacity shortages are changing customer demand

- Why battery hardware costs have fallen by roughly one-third in 18 months

- How AI could reduce project transaction costs by as much as 90%

- The opportunity — and challenge — of aggregating thousands of distributed batteries into virtual power plants

- Why data center growth and "bring your own capacity" programs could accelerate C&I storage adoption

- Tim's outlook for the fastest-growing segment of the battery storage market
Resources

Latitude: Voltus is acquiring energy storage startup Brightfield AI

Latitude: Google is Voltus' first Bring Your Own Capacity

Latitude: Can VPPs unlock grid capacity for data centers?

Catalyst: Battery booms and the rise of flexibility

Latitude: The Off-Grid Data Center Fantasy

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com/.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.com/http://bloomenergy.com/.

Most electric vehicles spend nearly all of their lives parked, doing nothing. But under the hood of those idle cars, a massive store of energy sits untapped. The Kia EV9, for instance, holds a 100-kilowatt-hour battery—which is equivalent to about seven home backup batteries—just waiting to be utilized.

Yet despite this enormous potential, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology has remained mostly limited to small-scale pilot programs for decades. But with advanced tech hitting the market, that could soon change.

In this episode, Shayle sits down with Steve Letendre, senior advisor at the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council and editor of V2G News, to explore why the V2G revolution is finally moving from concept to reality. They break down the technical battle between AC and DC architectures, tackle the looming questions around battery degradation and warranties, and debate the business models that will finally convince everyday drivers to plug their cars back into the grid.

Shayle and Steve discuss topics like:

- The unused energy capacity hidden in parked EVs

- The technical debate, cost trade-offs, and hardware differences between off-board power conversion (DC architecture) and on-board power conversion (AC architecture).

- Current compatible EV options, including the Nissan Leaf, Tesla Cybertruck, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Kia EV9

- The high upfront cost of V2G systems

- Consumers' fears regarding whether discharging power to the grid will ruin their EV batteries or void manufacturer warranties.

- Streamlining the V2G enrollment process via VPP programs or at point-of-sale

- How financing can unlock mass V2G adoption

Resources

Catalyst: Repurposing EV batteries for grid storage

Catalyst: How China is reshaping the global auto market

Catalyst: Enter the electric supercycle

Latitude Media: Electric Era is turning its EV-charging tech into a data center power play

Latitude Media: The future of optimized EV charging

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at ⁠engieresources.com⁠.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at ⁠EnergyHub.com⁠.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visiting⁠ ⁠⁠BloomEnergy.com⁠.

Over the course of the past decade, quantum computing (or the concept thereof) has ridden hype cycles, just like AI or the internet writ large.

In the past year, however, as governments across the globe have committed north of $50 billion to the sector, and billions more have poured into quantum startups, the technology is finding itself in the midst of a particularly dramatic hype wave.

Yet even as the money pours in, quantum remains a nascent technology that hasn’t seen any use in the real world. Among other applications, it offers enormous potential to revolutionize material discovery and molecular design, and to turbo charge clean energy tech. But how close we are to actually moving from isolated chips in a lab to bringing these real-world commercial applications to life remains a bit of a mystery.

In this episode, Shayle speaks to Bob Sorensen, chief analyst for quantum computing at Hyperion Research. They dig past the VC hype to map out the current state of quantum hardware, look at the timeline for fault-tolerant computing, and evaluate where the true performance gains lie.

Shayle and Bob discuss:

- Why recent claims of "quantum advantage" are often based on artificial constructs without much real-world relevance

- The difference between physical and logical qubits, and why reducing the "noise" is a defining hurdle for the hardware industry

- How data-driven AI models and science-driven quantum architectures complement each other differently in materials discovery

- Why 85 independent hardware vendors are far too many for the current ecosystem, and how market consolidation might impact investor confidence

Resources

- Catalyst: Quantum computing could be a critical climate solution

- Catalyst: Can AI revolutionize materials discovery?

- Latitude Media: Can quantum computing help solve the load growth problem?

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttp://bloomenergy.com.

For those steeped in the world of AI development, the major differences between tech giants’ chip strategies are easy enough to see: the speed of Google’s TPUs, the affordability of Amazon’s Trainium, and Nvidia’s market dominance. But those same companies’ respective energy strategies often fly under the radar.

As data center buildouts surge across the U.S., the tech industry is hitting a massive wall: a power grid that can’t move fast enough to support them. In this episode, Shayle sits down with Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros, who leads coverage of infrastructure and power at SemiAnalysis, to lift the curtain on the hyper-competitive world of AI energy procurement.

They cover topics including:

• The hyperscaler leaderboard: Why Google remains the most energy-sophisticated tech giant, as others continue to innovate
• Why power has effectively become revenue for frontier labs
• How Google uses its massive balance sheet to provide financial backstops for Anthropic’s data center buildouts
• Why the interconnection queue is forcing AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic to bring their own generation
• The sudden market frenzy over modular speed-to-power options—ranging from aeroderivative gas turbines and massive reciprocating engines to billions of dollars of fuel cells

•
Catalyst: How data centers are complicating transmission expansion
• Catalyst: Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive AI capex
• Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers
• Catalyst: AI scaling pathways: On grid, on edge, off grid, off planet
• Open Circuit: The new reality for data centers: No easy answers
• Open Circuit: Can data centers regain their social license?
• Open Circuit: Grid utilization vs expansion: The 100GW debate
• Latitude Media: FERC to grid operators: Connect large loads to transmission faster
• Latitude Media: The rise of the data center power exchange

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at http://energyhub.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visitinghttps://www.bloomenergy.comhttp://bloomenergy.com.