Interested in a piece of a $400 billion pie from which Tesla once took a $465MM bite?  Chris Creed, Chief Investment Officer of the Department of Energy’s Loan Program’s Office spoke to me about how the pie is made available to innovators or scalers in renewable energy and energy infrastructure.  He discussed suitable projects, financial metrics and loan terms.   Recent LPO facilities include the subject of our Episode 33, the ACES Delta hydrogen storage program,  $2.2BN for Nevada’s Thacker Lithium Mine, and GM’s Ultium and Ford’s BlueOval battery efforts.  Chris works with Jigar Shah, Director of the LPO and co-founder of Sun Edison.  

You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.    The LPO monthly activity report is here.  

Time stamps below. On some podcast players you can click the timestamp to jump to it.

(0:00) Introduction

(2:26) Chris Creed and intro to the LPO

(6:30) Chris’ background

(9:55) “Bridge to bankability”; innovation; infrastructure

(14:40) The kinds of risks LPO will take

(21:57) Terms, conditions & diligence

(27:01) Community benefits

(29:19) The role of large/small companies and private debt/equity

(36:37) Related Tech Cars Machines episodes

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners. 

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GE’s “fuels guy” and current Global Hydrogen Value Chain Leader at GE Vernova, Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer, shares his 23 years of experience and insight on energy generation, energy transition, the electric grid, and the role of hydrogen.

We got technical in an accessible way about electric grid characteristics and how the transition to carbon-free sources influences them. One thousand six hundred miles of existing hydrogen pipeline, 50+ years of experience burning hydrogen as a fuel (100,000+ hours at one GE installation alone), and a vast ammonia transport network for fertilizers imply that technical breakthroughs aren’t the main gating items — infrastructure investments and subsidies are.  Jeff is a natural teacher and host of the Cutting Carbon podcast.

You can read the related article here in 4 minutes.

The Cutting Carbon podcast is here.

GE Vernova’s hydrogen-fueled turbines website page is here and very informative.

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

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You get a billion! And you get a billion! And YOU get a billion! (repeat 4 more times).

The Department of Energy recently announced seven recipients of a total $7 billion who will build hydrogen hubs around the U.S.  The auto and steel sectors, concentrated around Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, are covered by the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen (MachH2).  Neil Banwart, MachH2’s CIO, talked with Ali Tabibian about how the hub will use scale to demonstrate the economics of hydrogen across diversified production methods and applications.  We discussed green, blue, pink and white hydrogen, and applications in heavy-duty transportation, marine and air travel.  We touched on the program’s commitment to social justice as the Inflation Reduction Act prescribes.

You can read the related article here in 3 minutes.

Host: Ali Tabibian of GTK Partners.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download