Emerging Tech That Will Help Revive Our Infrastructure

12/13/19 • 43 min

America’s physical infrastructure is in the dumps. The American Society of Civil Engineers regularly gives the country’s infrastructure a near-failing grade.

We need to rebuild a lot of stuff. Hardening our roads, grids, buildings, transit systems has a climate context to it: we need to do it better and we need to do it cleaner.

This week, we are exploring the cleantech opportunities in physical infrastructure. What are the most compelling trends shaping the way we optimize our electrical equipment, pipelines, streets, homes and buildings?

This conversation is based on Shayle Kann’s piece, titled “The World Around Us.”

We’re breaking the conversation into four parts:

The geospatial revolution: how the combination of new sources of geospatial data (satellites, drones, sensors), combined with the data revolution, will allow us to gain a real-time operational picture of our infrastructure and ultimately optimize it.
The culture of resilience: how increasing natural disasters will start to make investing in resilience (via anything from batteries to building retrofits) mainstream.
The re-platforming of our streets: how the arrival of new modes of transport (autonomous, micromobility, package delivery) will force us to rethink the orientation of our streets, which are currently designed for a single master – the passenger vehicle.
The impacts of 100% clean: how all the commitments to 100% will force us to confront the biggest challenge we’ll face in electricity for the next few decades: how to unlock grid flexibility, particularly behind the meter.

Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation.

Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.

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

America’s physical infrastructure is in the dumps. The American Society of Civil Engineers regularly gives the country’s infrastructure a near-failing grade.

We need to rebuild a lot of stuff. Hardening our roads, grids, buildings, transit systems has a climate context to it: we need to do it better and we need to do it cleaner.

This conversation is based on Shayle Kann’s piece, titled “The World Around Us.”

We’re breaking the conversation into four parts:

The geospatial revolution: how the combination of new sources of geospatial data (satellites, drones, sensors), combined with the data revolution, will allow us to gain a real-time operational picture of our infrastructure and ultimately optimize it.
The culture of resilience: how increasing natural disasters will start to make investing in resilience (via anything from batteries to building retrofits) mainstream.
The re-platforming of our streets: how the arrival of new modes of transport (autonomous, micromobility, package delivery) will force us to rethink the orientation of our streets, which are currently designed for a single master – the passenger vehicle.
The impacts of 100% clean: how all the commitments to 100% will force us to confront the biggest challenge we’ll face in electricity for the next few decades: how to unlock grid flexibility, particularly behind the meter.

Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation.

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

Previous Episode

The Expert Who's Ranking Every Climate Solution

This week, we have a special addendum to our deep decarbonization draft.

We’re talking with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, the vice president of communication and engagement at Project Drawdown.

Katharine is one of the minds behind the Project Drawdown solutions list that we used as the basis for our draft. We chose the list because it spans so many different areas of the global economy.

Katharine is a renowned expert and self-proclaimed “climate solutionary.” She has a very popular TED Talk on gender equality and climate change, and she speaks regularly to the press about climate issues.

She was the lead author on the Project Drawdown book, which goes deep on the top 100 decarbonization solutions.

If you haven’t listened to our draft, go back and check it out. This conversation will make a lot more sense.

We talk with Katharine about the biggest wins for decarbonization, the most surprising opportunities, and how do they break down along the lines of high-tech and low-tech.

We’ll also get her opinion on who won the Deep Decarbonization Draft — Stephen or Shayle?

Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation.

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

Next Episode

Decade in Review: Most Influential Deals, Stats, Twists and Buzz Phrases

It’s our last episode of the decade! We’re looking back over the last 10 years and making our choices for:

The most important statistic
The most impactful piece of research
The top buzz phrase
The most unexpected twist
The most pivotal deal
And the dark horse trend of the 2020s

Thanks to everyone who’s been listening to this show since 2014. We appreciate your feedback and support. Please continue to suggest topics via Twitter so that we can evolve over the next decade.

Support for the Interchange comes from Schneider Electric, the leader of the digital transformation in energy management and automation.

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