Caitlin Smith on Energy Tech Startups

11/08/22 • 45 min

Caitlin Smith is a policy entrepreneur who currently works as the Senior Director, Regulatory, External Affairs & ESG at Jupiter Power. Jupiter Power is a leading developer, owner, and operator of stand-alone, utility-scale battery energy storage. We have 650 MWh of operation projects in Texas with over 300 MWh in or near construction, including a 200MWh project in Houston. It is expected to be the first urban battery storage project of that size. Energy is complicated because of the broad stakeholders involved as well as the expectations we all have for its reliability. Join us as Caitlin explores how navigating policy goes hand in hand with bringing new technology to market.

Caitlin explores:

Caitlin explains the difference between MWh vs MW when it comes to battery storage and why that is important - 2:08
How Caitlin and the Jupiter team think about reducing emissions using utility-scale batteries - 6:48
Why Houston will be home to the first urban storage battery project of its size (200 MWh) - 10:26
How the messaging from companies has changed around energy as users become more informed through technology - 15:30
How Jupiter’s uses its batteries and its software to dispatch power economically into the grid - 19:20
How the recently passed IRA will change the economics of standalone storage - 23:40
How will energy storage developers think about deploying new battery technologies - 28:42
What a policy entrepreneur does - 31:55
Why disasters, unfortunately, drive policy changes, and why that sometimes leads to sub-optimal results - 38:00
Why we should always be thinking about the grid holistically - 43:10

https://www.jupiterpower.io/

twitter: @CaitlinSmithATX ; @jupiterpowerllc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitsmith09/

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Caitlin explores:

Caitlin explains the difference between MWh vs MW when it comes to battery storage and why that is important - 2:08
How Caitlin and the Jupiter team think about reducing emissions using utility-scale batteries - 6:48
Why Houston will be home to the first urban storage battery project of its size (200 MWh) - 10:26
How the messaging from companies has changed around energy as users become more informed through technology - 15:30
How Jupiter’s uses its batteries and its software to dispatch power economically into the grid - 19:20
How the recently passed IRA will change the economics of standalone storage - 23:40
How will energy storage developers think about deploying new battery technologies - 28:42
What a policy entrepreneur does - 31:55
Why disasters, unfortunately, drive policy changes, and why that sometimes leads to sub-optimal results - 38:00
Why we should always be thinking about the grid holistically - 43:10

https://www.jupiterpower.io/

twitter: @CaitlinSmithATX ; @jupiterpowerllc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitsmith09/

Previous Episode

Edward Eichstetter on Energy Tech Startups

Edward Eichstetter is the CEO of EKU Power Drives, an expert in the electrification and automation expert for the Oil and Gas industry. EKU has a number of technologies that reduce emissions, from the Engine Standby Controller which reduces idle time up to 90% through SOPHIA, a solution that taps into the cloud and allows fleet managers to better optimize their frack fleets. The founders of EKU tap into their shared history of developing electric formula racing cars to develop and deploy new products for upstream Oil and Gas.

Edward explores:

How EKU got started in Germany and how they came to the US to reduce emissions - 2:10
How Pioneer Natural Resources became EKU’s first pilot customer - 5:45
How a startup founder like Edward navigates O&G cycles - 9:10
How EKU was able to co-develop an E-frack system with O&G partners - 11:30
Vulcan? Sophia? Ruth? Nora? Atlas? Cerberus? How EKU names its products - 13:40
EKU’s biggest challenge is hiring; Ed explains where he finds new talent - 21:00
How E-frack will reduce the carbon and energy intensity of shale oil development - 29:00
How new technologies and business models will improve energy equity across the energy industry - 32:00
How EKU and other technology developers work with regulators such as the EPA to help balance energy access with emissions reduction - 37:50
How the founding teams can create luck for themselves - 44:12

EKU Power Drives Website: ekupd.com

EKU Jobs Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eku-power-drives/jobs/

Find Edward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-eichstetter-62151174/

Next Episode

Ian Bishop on Energy Tech Startups

Ian Bishop is the CEO and co-founder of Elemental Recycling (ER). Elemental has developed a single step process to recycle all plastics and tires into hydrogen and graphite /graphene. The process is also patented for electronics and greenhouse gases and has the potential to solve single stream recycling challenges while making money for plant operators.

Ian Explores:

How Ian and Ron made one small change with a Ph.D. chemist and developed a critical innovation for recycling - 1:15
How a culture of tinkering started with inventing an automated Margarita Machine - 3:35
How the Elemental Recycling process works - 6:08
How their new process enables ER to monetize waste streams differently - 13:09
Why this process can save the world - 18:27
Why mass producing graphene (an output of the ER process) is a game-changing material - 21:40
Why Houston has such a strong entrepreneurial spirit - 29:25
Why the ION district is a hidden gem in Houston - 36:25
What the basics are which entrepreneur needs to learn - 43:30