Watt It Takes: Michael Liebreich

09/22/20 • 57 min

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This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Michael Liebreich.

You may know Liebreich as the brain behind New Energy Finance, which was sold to Bloomberg in 2009.

But before that company, Leibreich started a ski-based travel startup and invested in a portfolio of companies that lost 90 percent of their value in the dot-com bust.

After that, he was "unemployable." But he used a team of interns to begin compiling data on clean energy investment. in this episode, he tells the story of how that became a 140-employee business that Bloomberg eventually acquired.

This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.

To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.

The Energy Gang is brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. In fact, KORE Power is building a large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility here in the U.S. Once it’s operational, the 1 million square foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more.

The Energy Gang is also brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Michael Liebreich.

You may know Liebreich as the brain behind New Energy Finance, which was sold to Bloomberg in 2009.

But before that company, Leibreich started a ski-based travel startup and invested in a portfolio of companies that lost 90 percent of their value in the dot-com bust.

This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.

To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

Renewables Beat Fossils on Europe's Grid

In the first half of 2020, renewables beat out fossil fuels on the grid in Europe for the first time. They didn’t only beat out coal -- they beat out all fossil fuels put together. We’ll look at what the milestone means.

Then, 30 major companies have come together in a new joint lobbying organization to flex united power for clean energy. Will it make renewables a bigger political force? And what will they be fighting for?

Then, your view of Texas is probably out-of-date. We look at the dawn of Big Solar in Texas and peek at the ERCOT interconnection queue -- it’s almost all green.

Next Episode

How a Changed Supreme Court Could Derail Climate Progress

Does the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean the future of federal climate policy is in jeopardy? What will a changed Supreme Court mean for climate change, and for the all-important endangerment finding? The Gang weighs in.

Then, the great plastic cover-up. How important are plastics to the profits of fossil fuel companies? We dive into an important investigation from NPR and Frontline into how fossil fuel companies hoodwinked the public on plastics recycling.

Then last, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is out with an important and long-awaited policy that opens the door for all types of distributed energy – hot water heaters, batteries, rooftop solar, electric cars – to feed energy into the grid in the aggregate. Are we finally there?

Recommended reading, viewing:

Scientific American: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leaves a Nuanced Legacy on Env. Issues
Politico: Ginsburg Left a Long Environmental Legacy
Axios: The Climate Stakes of the Supreme Court Fight
Guardian: Oil industry lobbies US to help weaken Kenya’s strong stance on plastic waste
Fast Company: Surprise: Your cleaning supplies are full of fossil fuel
Frontline: Plastic Wars
NPR: How big oil misled the public into believing plastic would be recycled
Greentech Media: ‘Game-Changer’ FERC Order Opens Grid Markets to DER
Houston Chronicle: FERC opens grid to power aggregators
Twitter: Peter Cavan’s thread
Twitter: Ari Peskoe’s thread

The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.

The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.