# Energy Empire

> Energy Empire is a podcast about the people and billion-dollar deals driving the clean energy transition, hosted by Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan.

## About

Energy Empire explores how abundant, affordable energy is reshaping the global economy, creating new industries, and unlocking what may be the greatest wealth-creation opportunity of our generation. The podcast features interviews with industry leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs at the forefront of the energy transition.

## Hosts

- **Jigar Shah** — TIME100 honoree, serial entrepreneur, investor, and former Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office. Founded SunEdison and pioneered the "no money down" solar model.
- **Jamie Nolan** — Co-host and producer with sharp editorial instincts, making complex energy topics accessible and engaging.

## Pages

- [Home](/): Podcast overview and latest episodes
- [Episodes](/episodes): Full episode archive
- [About](/about): About the show and host bios
- [Newsletter](/newsletter): Newsletter archive
- [Sponsors](/sponsors): Sponsorship information
- [Suggest a Guest](/suggest-guest): Guest suggestion form
- [Contact](/contact): Contact form

## Links

- Website: https://www.energyempire.fm
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-empire/id1804672612
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3bSMWf8bZfMi2v6MNjHATF

## Episodes

### Five Months Into the Iran War, China Is Saving Its Oil for the Next One
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/five-months-into-the-iran-war-china-is-saving-its-oil-for-the-next-one
- Date: 2026-08-13
- Five months into the Iran war, the largest supply shock in oil market history has been managed into a strange calm. Exxon just made $14.5 billion in a quarter, gas is over $4 a gallon, and Washington is quietly running its oil reserve the way the Federal Reserve runs interest rates.   James Gutman i

### Introducing Grid 2.0, the Open Protocol for the American Grid (Bonus episode)
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/introducing-grid-2-0-the-open-protocol-for-the-american-grid-bonus-episode
- Date: 2026-08-11
- This is a special bonus episode where Jigar sits down with Chris Shelton to launch Grid 2.0. If this gets adopted, it changes how every new data center and battery in America gets onto the grid.   Grid 2.0 is a voluntary open protocol standard for how new electricity resources connect. It is modeled

### AI Is Breaking the Grid. A Flywheel Could Fix It.
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/ai-is-breaking-the-grid-a-flywheel-could-fix-it
- Date: 2026-08-06
- AI data centers make power demand jump in milliseconds. The grid can't keep up, and ratepayers get the bill.   Nate Walkingshaw, founder and CEO of Torus, has a fix already spinning: a multi-ton steel flywheel in a vacuum, one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2024, now part of a 500-megawatt agreement w

### A Decade as Clean Energy's Republican Whisperer with Heather Reams
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/a-decade-as-clean-energy-s-republican-whisperer-with-heather-reams
- Date: 2026-07-30
- For nearly a decade, Heather Reams had one of the toughest jobs in Washington: selling Republicans on clean energy.    As president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, she built the right's most prominent clean energy advocacy group, launched National Clean Energy Week, and got 21 House Re

### Adam Met on Permitting Reform, Building Clean Energy Superfans, and Selling Out Madison Square Garden
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/adam-met-on-permitting-reform-building-clean-energy-superfans-and-selling-out-madison-square-garden
- Date: 2026-07-23
- Sting has the rainforest. Pierce Brosnan has the whales. Adam Met has permitting reform.   The AJR pop star, who has more than 5 billion streams on Spotify and a PhD in sustainable development, joins Jigar and Jamie to make the case that permitting reform is energy's rare bipartisan opening.   His a

### Crossover with Volts: Data Centers Could Win Over Neighbors for Pennies. They'd Rather Fight
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/crossover-with-volts-data-centers-could-win-over-neighbors-for-pennies-they-d-rather-fight
- Date: 2026-07-20
- Dave Roberts spent years covering energy for Grist and Vox before building Volts into one of the most influential independent energy podcasts in the country. His last conversation with Jigar, on Volts, was about doing data centers the dumb way. The comments haven't stopped since.   For this crossove

### The Nurse Who Built a $400 Million Generator Company
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-nurse-who-built-a-400-million-generator-company
- Date: 2026-07-16
- Every construction site, concert, film set, and hurricane recovery runs on temporary power. So does the Super Bowl, and so do data centers that can't wait years for a grid connection. Most people use it every day and never see it.   Alicia Waineo became a registered nurse at 19, ran and sold a home

### Sheldon Kimber on Why Google Paid $4.75 Billion for His Power Company
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/sheldon-kimber-on-why-google-paid-4-75-billion-for-his-power-company
- Date: 2026-07-09
- In March, Google paid $4.75 billion to buy Intersect — the first time a Big Tech giant has bought a clean energy developer.   Jigar and Jamie talk with Sheldon about why Google decided it had to own a power company, how the race to build data centers is reshaping the American grid, and what it actua

### How to Add 300 Gigawatts to the Grid Without Building a Single Power Plant
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/how-to-add-300-gigawatts-to-the-grid-without-building-a-single-power-plant
- Date: 2026-07-02
- The hyperscalers are racing to secure power, pouring billions into new plants, nuclear, even fusion. But interconnection queues still run for years. This week's guest can cut that wait to six to twelve months without building a single transmission line or power plant.   Amit Narayan is the founder a

### Jennifer Granholm's Data Center Playbook for Governors
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/jennifer-granholm-s-data-center-playbook-for-governors
- Date: 2026-06-25
- Data centers have become one of the most charged political issues in the country, and it cuts across both parties. Electricity bills are climbing, 36 states are electing governors who will have to answer for it, and the question is the same in red states and blue: how do you welcome the investment w

### The Costco of Solar — Meet the Man Quietly Cutting the Cost of Clean Energy
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-costco-of-solar-meet-the-man-quietly-cutting-the-cost-of-clean-energy
- Date: 2026-06-18
- Four generations of Daniel Dus's family have worked in American energy. His great-grandfather was a coal-mine engineer who became president of Michigan Tech; his grandfather built power transformers at General Electric. Daniel pivoted into renewables — and now runs Cleantech Industry Resources, the

### Can a Climate Democrat Win a Trump District? — with Rep. Kathy Castor
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/can-a-climate-democrat-win-a-trump-district-with-rep-kathy-castor
- Date: 2026-06-11
- Kathy Castor has represented Tampa in Congress for 20 years — four of them chairing the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, the policy engine behind the Inflation Reduction Act. Now Florida's new congressional map has carved her district into five pieces, turning a seat Democrats won by 12

### Forget Solar Stocks. The Best Solar Returns Are Overseas.
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/forget-solar-stocks-the-best-solar-returns-are-overseas
- Date: 2026-06-04
- Brazil: 14% returns. South Africa: 9.8%. United States: 7.1%. That's not a typo. Mike Silvestrini has deployed $476 million in solar projects overseas and at home. The US is his riskiest market. Silvestrini is the co-founder of Energea — a platform that lets anyone invest directly in real solar proj

### The Utilities Want $1.4 Trillion. The Hyperscalers Want a Gigawatt. Nobody Did the Math.
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-utilities-want-1-4-trillion-the-hyperscalers-want-a-gigawatt-nobody-did-the-math
- Date: 2026-05-28
- Electric utilities are on track to spend $1.4 trillion on the power grid by 2030. Hyperscalers keep asking for gigawatt-scale data centers. Nobody is required to show the math.   Katherine Blunt covered PG&E's bankruptcy and the Camp Fire for The Wall Street Journal and wrote California Burning, the

### Ask Jigar: Should You Cut the Cord on Your Utility?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/ask-jigar-should-you-cut-the-cord-on-your-utility
- Date: 2026-05-26
- Solar on the roof. Battery in the garage. You can run your house yourself now. The question is what that does to the grid we all share. This week on Ask Jigar: what local clean-energy leaders should do now that the feds have pulled back. Whether virtual power plants will hurt utility valuations. Why

### Inside California's Plan to Fix the Utility Business Model with Senator Josh Becker
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/inside-california-s-plan-to-fix-the-utility-business-model-with-senator-josh-becker
- Date: 2026-05-21
- California built the one of the cleanest grids in the country and wholesale prices have never been lower — but utility bills keep going up. One reason: utilities make more money by spending more.    California State Senator Josh Becker is writing the bills to change that. Before politics, Becker was

### Ask Jigar: Where do you actually start when you want to electrify your life?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/ask-jigar-where-do-you-actually-start-when-you-want-to-electrify-your-life
- Date: 2026-05-15
- A lot of people are walking around with energy questions and not getting straight answers. That changes now. Ask Jigar is a new weekly segment on Energy Empire. Three listener questions per episode. Jigar answers them on air. No hedging, no "it depends" non-answers. Should you sign a long-term elect

### What If Data Centers Paid You?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/what-if-data-centers-paid-you
- Date: 2026-05-14
- The backlash against data centers is, in many places, a backlash against rising electricity bills. Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, thinks the solution isn’t to stop building — it’s to change who benefits. In this episode, Nick explains why the way data centers currently connect to the America

### The Guy Who Built American Wind — and What He’s Betting On Next
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-guy-who-built-american-wind-and-what-he-s-betting-on-next
- Date: 2026-05-07
- Sandy Reisky started building wind farms in 2000, before it was an asset class. He founded Apex Clean Energy in Charlottesville, Virginia, scaled it into one of the country's largest independent wind developers, and in 2015 bought up distressed wind projects when the tax credit extension looked unce

### Bonus episode: Why Is Lady Liberty Holding a Power Cable?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/bonus-episode-why-is-lady-liberty-holding-a-power-cable
- Date: 2026-05-05
- The Energy Empire logo has a two-prong plug. Apparently, that's a problem. Since launch, we've been getting called out on LinkedIn by people who are very concerned about electrical safety. So we brought in our designer, Rosie Jewell, to finally answer for it — is our brand unsafe?  What happens if L

### "Nobody Cared About Deployment" — Who is Jigar Shah? (Part 2)
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/nobody-cared-about-deployment-who-is-jigar-shah-part-2
- Date: 2026-04-30
- In 2013, Jigar wrote a book arguing climate didn't have a technology problem. It had a deployment problem. The breakthrough-tech crowd called him naive. A year later, he co-founded Generate Capital to prove it — a C-corp, not a fund, because seven-year fund lives kill infrastructure deals before the

### Bonus Episode: Dan Shugar on Reshoring Solar Manufacturing (recorded at UNC Clean Tech Summit)
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/bonus-episode-dan-shugar-on-reshoring-solar-manufacturing-recorded-at-unc-clean-tech-summit
- Date: 2026-04-28
- When COVID broke global logistics in 2020, Dan Shugar made a call most of his peers didn't. Nextpower absorbed over $100 million honoring existing contracts, then built the manufacturing it needed at home.  Today the company has 35+ US factories — including a former Bethlehem Steel mill in Pittsburg

### Bonus Episode: Former EPA Administrator Michael Regan on Data Centers and Public Health (Recorded at UNC Clean Tech Summit)
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/bonus-episode-former-epa-administrator-michael-regan-on-data-centers-and-public-health-recorded-at-unc-clean-tech-summit
- Date: 2026-04-24
- Michael Regan served as the 16th Administrator of the EPA under President Biden — the first Black man to hold the role — and before that ran North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality, where he won the largest coal ash settlement in U.S. history against Duke Energy. This is a special bonus

### Trump's Iran War: Hubris, Blowback, and Peak Oil
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/trump-s-iran-war-hubris-blowback-and-peak-oil
- Date: 2026-04-21
- The Iran war is now the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Physical crude hit $150 a barrel. Futures markets are acting like a deal is around the corner. And James Gutman is back on Energy Empire to explain why those two numbers don't match — and what happens when the

### Russell Gold on Leaving The Wall Street Journal for the Solar Industry
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/russell-gold-on-leaving-the-wall-street-journal-for-the-solar-industry
- Date: 2026-04-16
- For two decades, Russell Gold covered the energy industry for The Wall Street Journal, breaking the Deepwater Horizon story and exposing PG&E's role in the Camp Fire. Now he's on the other side — running communications and strategy for T1 Energy, a company building a fully domestic solar supply chai

### Bonus Episode: Tom Fanning on 43 Years at Southern Company (recorded at UNC Clean Tech Summit)
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/bonus-episode-tom-fanning-on-43-years-at-southern-company-recorded-at-unc-clean-tech-summit
- Date: 2026-04-14
- Tom Fanning spent 43 years at Southern Company — 15 different jobs, 13 years as CEO — and oversaw the construction of the only new nuclear reactors built in America in a generation. This is a special bonus episode recorded live at the UNC Clean Tech Summit in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in collabor

### We've Been Piloting Grid Solutions for 20 Years. It's Time to Deploy.
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/we-ve-been-piloting-grid-solutions-for-20-years-it-s-time-to-deploy
- Date: 2026-04-09
- Your electricity bill keeps going up. Utilities are spending billions on new infrastructure. But the grid we already have is running at a fraction of its capacity — and the technology to unlock it has existed for 20 years. Vishal Kapadia knows this firsthand. At Walmart, he watched reliability decli

### No Fertilizer. No Data Centers. No Birthday Balloons. The Iran War Is Not Just Impacting Oil.
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/no-fertilizer-no-data-centers-no-birthday-balloons-the-iran-war-is-not-just-impacting-oil
- Date: 2026-04-02
- Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Everyone is focused on oil prices. But oil isn't just fuel — it's feedstock. 92% of the world's sulfur comes from refining oil and gas. A third of global helium is offline. Half the world's food depends on fertilizer that flows through a 21-mile chokepoint. And your

### How My Retired EV Ended Up Powering Homes in Ukraine
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/how-my-retired-ev-ended-up-powering-homes-in-ukraine
- Date: 2026-03-26
- After an accident totaled his Tesla, Philippe Dunsky forgot to remove it from the app. A year later, his 18-year-old daughter texted him: "Papa, what is Georgia doing in Ukraine?" Their old car — named Georgia — was charging in a rural town in western Ukraine near the Polish border. Someone had salv

### 500 Miles on a Charge: Is This the End of the Diesel Semi?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/500-miles-on-a-charge-is-this-the-end-of-the-diesel-semi
- Date: 2026-03-20
- Electric semi trucks that go 500 miles on a single charge and fully recharge in 30 minutes. That's what the Tesla Semi is promising — and trucking companies are already placing orders by the hundreds. In this episode, Jigar and Jamie sit down with Adam Browning to dig into what's actually happening

### Trump: The Accidental Clean Energy President
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/trump-the-accidental-clean-energy-president
- Date: 2026-03-18
- Trump promised to cut energy bills in half. Instead, he started a war that pushed oil past $100 a barrel, shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and sent every oil-importing nation on earth scrambling for solar panels and batteries — mostly from China. James Gutman returns to Energy Empire with a provocati

### The Cheapest Grid Is the One We Already Paid For
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-cheapest-grid-is-the-one-we-already-paid-for
- Date: 2026-03-12
- Your utility bill keeps going up. But the problem isn't that we need to build more — it's that we're barely using what we already have.  Arnab Pal, founder of clean energy advocacy group Deploy Action and co-author of a new grid affordability playbook, joins Jigar and Jamie to make the case for grid

### Why the War in Iran Is Speeding Up the Clean Energy Transition
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/why-the-war-in-iran-is-speeding-up-the-clean-energy-transition
- Date: 2026-03-04
- The US bombed Iran on Saturday. We threw out our planned episode and called James Gutman, Strategist & co-author of The New Joule Order at the Carlyle Group, to make sense of what comes next.  James explains why the US has no incentive to protect global energy supply chains, how Venezuela and Iran a

### The Case Against Off-Grid Data Centers with Tim Hade
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-case-against-off-grid-data-centers-with-tim-hade
- Date: 2026-02-26
- Tim Hade, Air Force veteran and founder of Scale Microgrids, joins Jigar and Jamie to make the case that the rush to build off-grid data centers is solving the wrong problem.  With 56 gigawatts of co-located data centers in the pipeline, Tim explains why most won't get built — and why the real answe

### Why Wars No Longer Move Oil Markets with Kevin Book
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/why-wars-no-longer-move-oil-markets-with-kevin-book
- Date: 2026-02-19
- Oil shocks once defined the global economy. But even as conflict returns to major energy regions, prices remain relatively stable. In this episode, Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan speak with Kevin Book about how electrification, energy efficiency, and avoided oil demand are reshaping global markets — and

### A Decade as Solar’s Top Lobbyist with Abby Hopper
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/a-decade-as-solar-s-top-lobbyist-with-abby-hopper
- Date: 2026-02-19
- Abby Hopper spent nearly a decade as CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), representing one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S. economy at the center of Washington’s biggest political fights.  In this episode of Energy Empire, she joins Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan to talk a

### The American-Made Solar Billionaire with Dean Solon
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/the-american-made-solar-billionaire-with-dean-solon
- Date: 2026-02-19
- Dean Solon went from carrying his dad’s HVAC toolbox as a kid to building Shoals—and becoming one of solar’s rare self-made billionaires.  Dean breaks down how he thinks, how he sells, and why he’s allergic to corporate nonsense. We talk tariffs, solar factories, microgrids, Disney, and the hard tru

### Who is Jigar Shah?
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/who-is-jigar-shah
- Date: 2026-02-19
- He’s helped finance billions in clean energy and served as one of the U.S. government’s top energy officials—but Jigar Shah rarely talks about himself.  In this episode, Phil Radford, CEO of Consumer Reports and Jigar's best friend, joins to change that. Jigar shares the personal story behind SunEdi

### Welcome to Energy Empire
- URL: https://www.energyempire.fm/episodes/welcome-to-energy-empire
- Date: 2026-02-09
- A once-in-a-generation shift is underway in how the world is powered. Across the United States, clean energy now makes up more than 90% of new electricity added to the grid — not because of politics or ideology, but because these technologies simply work better. They’re cheaper to build, faster to d