Volts

David Roberts · English · 467 episodes

Listen in another app

Hosted by

Several a week · ~1h 05m · since 2020 · 467 episodes

TopicsClimate & energy 220 United States 74 Technology & AI 19 Media & journalism 14 Economy 13

Often with

Daniel Palken 3

Kristian Jensen 2

Caroline Spears

Luke Winston-Almanzar

Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)

Like this

Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

TED Talks Daily

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

Polityka Insight Podcast Polish

The federal permitting bill has been updated. What changed?

Nov 11 · Yesterday1h 59m
So, how about those midterm elections?

Nov 9 · 3 days ago1h 26m
Best of October 2026

Nov 6 · 6 days ago14 min
The transformative potential of solid-state transformers

Nov 4 · 1 week ago1h 32m
The (climate) case against (AI) data centers

Oct 30 · 1 week ago14 min
The PAC taking out clean energy opponents

Oct 28 · 2 weeks ago1h 08m
Building our piece of the electric stack

Oct 23 · 2 weeks ago1h 06m
Can distributed energy work around American utilities?

Oct 21 · 3 weeks ago1h 03m
What’s up with Denmark?

Oct 16 · 3 weeks ago1h 03m
Checking back in with Greenlight America

Oct 14 · 4 weeks ago1h 07m
What’s up with the new federal permitting reform bill?

Oct 9 · 1 month ago2h 21m
The grueling fight to pass the Inflation Reduction Act

Oct 7 · 1 month ago1h 05m
Best of September 2026

Oct 2 · 1 month ago43 min
What’s up with heat-pump water heaters?

Sep 30 · 1 month ago1h 05m
Do small residential batteries make sense?

Sep 23 · 1 month ago1h 06m
How energy politics work inside DC

Sep 18 · 1 month ago15 min
How to build a more flexible, quieter, less obnoxious data center

Sep 16 · 1 month ago1h 15m
Building a big, abundant, clean grid

Sep 11 · 2 months ago2h 01m
Is there way more conventional geothermal than we thought?

Sep 9 · 2 months ago1h 05m
Best of August 2026

Sep 4 · 2 months ago45 min
How to respond to disinformation about clean energy, at scale

Sep 2 · 2 months ago1h 12m
Could we use Trump's tricks to make good green policy?

Aug 28 · 2 months ago1h 09m
Making data centers flexible so they can serve the grid rather than stress it out

Aug 26 · 2 months ago53 min
Why can't utilities innovate?

Aug 21 · 2 months ago1h 12m
He helped Uruguay decarbonize. Can he help other countries do the same?

Aug 19 · 2 months ago1h 02m
Can public EV chargers be as reliable as gas stations?

Aug 14 · 2 months ago1h 02m
Another bipartisan housing miracle, this time in Idaho

Aug 12 · 3 months ago1h 02m
Grid cybersecurity: how big is the threat & what should we do about it?

Aug 7 · 3 months ago1h 12m
What should state policymakers do about data centers?

Aug 5 · 3 months ago1h 03m
Best of July 2026

Aug 2 · 3 months ago46 min
Silicon anodes for batteries unlock greater energy density and faster charging times

Jul 31 · 3 months ago46 min
Should we feel good about the trajectory of clean energy post-Trump?

Jul 29 · 3 months ago1h 28m
The US is terrible at building public transit. Here's how to get better.

Jul 22 · 3 months ago1h 08m
Making sense of the data center backlash

Jul 20 · 3 months ago1h 01m
Spreading the good news about electrification

Jul 15 · 3 months ago1h 03m
Want less sprawl and more urban infill? Try a land value tax!

Jul 10 · 4 months ago1h 10m
Forcing utilities to justify their distribution-system spending

Jul 8 · 4 months ago1h 08m
A key Arizona race will test clean energy's electoral power

Jul 1 · 4 months ago55 min
How to keep people cool without making the planet even hotter

Jun 24 · 4 months ago1h 06m
America's flagship automaker enters the home energy market

Jun 19 · 4 months ago56 min
Can the UK stay the course with its climate plans?

Jun 17 · 4 months ago1h 02m
Why is NERC so worried about data centers?

Jun 10 · 5 months ago1h 14m
This oil shock won't be like the others

Jun 5 · 5 months ago26 min
Are plug-in DERs going to spark a grid revolution?

Jun 3 · 5 months ago1h 14m
Giving clean electricity a political voice of its own

May 29 · 5 months ago1h 41m
A limited defense of Biden's everything-bagel industrial policy

May 27 · 5 months ago1h 08m
How to phase out residential gas equitably

May 22 · 5 months ago1h 08m
Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring

May 20 · 5 months ago1h 46m
Telling the story of the grid

May 15 · 5 months ago34 min
Electrifying industrial steam with heat pumps

May 13 · 6 months ago1h 04m
The case for using prices rather than VPPs to coordinate distributed energy

May 8 · 6 months ago1h 30m
Streamlining the difficult work of whole-home retrofits

May 6 · 6 months ago1h 04m
Enabling ordinary people to invest in renewable energy projects

Apr 29 · 6 months ago1h 05m
Tom Steyer wants to be California's climate governor

Apr 27 · 6 months ago55 min
The big stories from the last year in electricity

Apr 22 · 6 months ago1h 07m
Life as a clean energy journalist in an age of madness

Apr 20 · 6 months ago20 min
Climate finance, interrupted

Apr 17 · 6 months ago60 min
Doing data centers the not-dumb way

Apr 15 · 6 months ago1h 31m
Ruggedized solar power for the hard places

Apr 10 · 7 months ago52 min
Why climate funders don't fund housing policy, and why they oughtta

Apr 8 · 7 months ago1h 06m