A Positive Climate
Alex McIntosh & Nick Zeltzer
Recent Episodes
Nick chats to Tim Washington from JET Charge about using electric vehicles as batteries for our homes.
Vehicle to grid technology could transform not one but *two* trillion dollar industries in energy and transport. All while paving the way to materially reduce carbon emissions and costs.
It is simple enough but does it work? When will consumers have it? What impacts will it have?
And what is it like running a startup with your wife? Thanks to Ellen Liang who also hopped on the mic!
You can enjoy this episode here or in full HD on Youtube.
(00:00) Teaser
(00:38) Introduction
(05:23) Australian EV Uptake Check-in
(11:00) Australian EV Charging Check-in
(13:46) How does Vehicle to Grid work?
(23:46) Consumer Perspectives
(29:54) Economics
(38:31) Challenges for Energy Retailers
(54:15) When Your Co-founder Is Your Spouse
(59:23) Uncomfortable Questions
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If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!
You can sign up to our mailing list at www.apositiveclimate.com, say [email protected] or follow us on https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate or www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast.
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About the podcast
A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.
Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.
The podcast rated in 2022 and 2023 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.
Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.
Music by the late, great Nick Weaver
Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media
Alex is taking a podcast break so if you miss everyone's favourite host, let her know via our website!
That’s a wrap! It's our annual review episode, with Alex and Nick covering all the climate technology news from 2023.
The hottest year on record brings a reminder that we need to be doubling down on the right solutions, so we hope you enjoy our reflections about what we think matters.
Thanks again to all you listening out there! It’s been a big year for us - where we hit the Top 5 in tech podcasts (in Malawi) - and we’ve loved hearing from many of you throughout the season.
Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(01:20) We announce the Pitch Fest Winner!
(02:23) Our Years Reviewed
(05:32) Large Scale Solar, Batteries and Global Developments (including Alex’s strange love of steel mills)
(21:32) Nuclear Energy (!)
(27:55) APC Season Portfolio Review
(38:41) BIG PREDICTIONS
Companies mentioned: Microtau, All G Foods, Samsara, Uluu, Novalith, SunDrive, Jolt Charge, Infravision, Nourish Ingredients, Goterra, Antora Energy, ahem Positive Ventures, JET Charge, Sicona, AMSL Aero, Renewable Metals, SeaForest, GridMo, Hysata, MGA Thermal, Eku Energy, Akaysha Energy, Zenobe, Raygen, Vast Solar, ThyssenKrupp, NuScale, and the EV company formerly known as “Build Your Dreams”
See you next year!
***
As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!
We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.
You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate.
**
About the podcast
A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.
Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.
Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.
Music by the late, great Nick Weaver
Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media
Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nick and Alex hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian startups working on climate solutions! *Vote HERE*
We’re back with our second pitchfest episode! And again teaming up with EnergyLab’s accelerator program, but this time it’s different - there will be a winner decided by YOU!
We’ve secured some awesome prizes that will go to the People’s Choice startup.
G+T Ventures, the startup arm Australian law firm Gilbert + Tobin has donated a full day legal workshop to prepare a startup for their next fundraising round.
Cake Equity - an Australian software platform that helps startups manage their equity and stock options in minutes - has donated free access, premium support and mentoring. And there’s more prizes!
Each startup gets a 60 second free pitch then there’s some Q&A from us to better understand their unique solution and opportunity. All the startups are listed below and don’t forget to vote for the People’s Choice! Voting will close on Friday October 27.
The lineup
(00:00) Intro Alex and Nick
(04:09) Renewable Metals - Turning Battery Waste into Battery Metals (Luan Atkinson)
(10:09) Pyrochar - Biochar for Green Steelmaking (Cameron Bell)
(17:06) Dovetail - Zero emission electric aviation (David Doral)
(23:37) Orkestra - Energy project feasibility just got easy, accurate and fast (James Allston)
(31:42) Tasmanion - Developing new aluminium-ion battery technologies (Shalini Divya)
(36:21) Elecsome - Solar panel recycling, reusing and upcycling (Neeraj Das)
(43:54) Savic - Australia’s premium high-performance electric motorcycle company (Dennis Savic)
(53:16) Emmi - The platform to help investors assess the carbon impact of their portfolio (Michael Lebbon)
(61:13) Bygen - Low cost production of activated carbon from waste (Lewis Dunnigan)
(66:34) Perl Street - Enables distributed infrastructure companies to sell more, raise more and manage more (Tooraj Arvajeh)
We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).
You can hear last year's episode here.
***
As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!
We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.
You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate.
**
About the podcast
A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.
Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.
Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.
Music by the late, great Nick Weaver
Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media
Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week Alex is away so Nick is let loose on the podcast! Nick chats to Christiaan Jordaan, CEO and founder of Sicona.
Sound familiar? We interviewed Christiaan in back November 2021 in one of our all-time listener favourite episodes: "Australia's Role in the Battery Revolution".
Since then Sicona has come a long way! Fresh off their recent $22m funding round for their battery technology we thought we'd cover the big issues since our previous chat:
- How the US Inflation Reduction Act has changed the game for climate startups (2:05)
- How Australia should respond (9:11)
- How the rise of Artificial Intelligence has affected climate startups like Sicona (12:29)
- Christiaan's HOTTEST TAKES on venture capital and funding climate solutions (15:38); and
- The inside scoop on Christiaan's recent funding round (21:28)
In case you missed our last episode with Christiaan, here's a quick recap on Christiaan and his business (or you can have a a listen here)
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Sicona aims to revolutionise the battery world by improving battery efficiency with their unique anode materials, a technology that can be used with existing lithium ion batteries.
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Christiaan is also the co-founder of Novalith, a company that uses carbon dioxide as a reagent in extracting lithium. We have an episode featuring Novalith where we spoke to his Co-founder Steven Vassiloudis.
We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).
***
As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!
We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.
You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate.
**
About the podcast
A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.
Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.
Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.
Music by the late, great Nick Weaver
Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media
Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We chat to Doug Mcnamee from Jolt Charge, an Australian electric vehicle charging business that has raised $100million from Blackrock (the world's largest money manager).
EV uptake in Australia is on a charge! When we recorded our first EV episode in 2021, they comprised less than 0.5% of total sales. In the first half of 2023 this number was up to 8%.
So while EVs are just one part of decarbonising how we move, the signs are promising. We enjoyed chatting with Doug about the future of transportation, whether Australia is out of the EV doldrums and what makes Jolt Charge different.
We are proudly supported by Bank Australia (www.bankaust.com.au).
***
As always if you don’t want to miss any eps, hit that follow button!
We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It helps other listeners find us.
You can sign up to our mailing list, say [email protected] or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate.
**
About the podcast
A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.
Hosted by Australian climate technology experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer, two friends on a mission to find the solutions to keep our existential crises at bay.
Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.
Music by the late, great Nick Weaver
Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media
Social Media, Comms and PR by Alistair Perkins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.