Catalyst with Shayle Kann

AMA: Fuel cells, geopolitics, and the solar growth curve

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

Do data centers actually increase electricity prices? No...and yes

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

What comes after the data center backlash?

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, wa

The rise of metal fuels

Diesel generators remain ubiquitous because they offer an unusually powerful combination of low cost, high energy density, long-duration storage, and reliable off-grid po

Can AI revolutionize grid operations?

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

Is now the time for DERs to scale? [re-published]

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 traditi

Critical Capital: Senator Tillis' case for "all-of-the-above" energy

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

The electrician shortage slowing the AI boom

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 ignor

The commercial battery comeback

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 resident

The multi-billion dollar promise of vehicle-to-grid integration

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,

When will quantum computing have its breakout moment?

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, howeve

Inside the AI power wars

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 affor

Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering

One of the biggest challenges with technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is that they require mass adoption. Solar radiation management (SRM) has the opposite

How data centers are complicating transmission expansion

Electric transmission development is notoriously difficult, and these days, NIMBYism gets the brunt of the blame. But as data center loads surge and electricity prices cl

Enter the electric supercycle

While many energy insiders remain focused on the staggering demand coming from AI and data centers, a much larger and far-reaching shift is happening. We are entering wha

How China is reshaping the global auto market

In 2020, China exported about a million cars a year. Now, it’s tracking somewhere around twelve million — surpassing the historic peaks of giants like Japan and Germany. 

Surprising trends in global electricity generation

While global electricity demand is unquestionably rising, we may nonetheless be underestimating the scale of necessary future generation. In this episode, Shayle speaks

Building inference data centers on the high seas

Amidst the increasing urgency of powering data centers, a new solution has entered the mix: send them out to sea. In this episode, Shayle speaks to Garth Sheldon-Coulson

A blueprint for scalable fusion power

For years, the prospect of commercial nuclear fusion felt a long way off. But recent breakthroughs—like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s historic 2022 net energy

Inside the global fertilizer crunch

While much of the world has been focused on the war in Iran’s impact on the energy sector, another arguably more impactful market has been largely overlooked: fertilizer.