13: Building the Stripe for energy or how your Tesla can earn money. Interview with Thomas Folker, co-founder of Leap

SustainNOW Podcast - Learn from entrepreneurs & scientists about climate solutions

In this episode I am speaking with Thomas Folker, creator of the US software Leap. Leap provides an easy market access for distributed energy providers (short DER). This can be your electric vehicle at the charging station at home or a smart thermostat. In a nutshell, your Tesla can trade energy back into the grid and you get money for it. The aim is to create a resilient and efficient virtualized grid for decarbonizing the future.
Beforehand, Thomas developed multiple large scale solar and offshore wind projects across Europe and supported the renewable energy transition in Curacao and Aruba.
In this episode, we are talking about the energy transition, what virtualization of the grid means and why Europe is in serious Energy trouble.
Leap automates market access for smart energy technologies.

Our software platform makes it easy for distributed energy resource (DER) providers to get paid for supplying flexible support to the grid.

Questions addressed in this episode:

• How did you see the difference between Clean 1.0 and Clean 2.0? (4.50)
• Energy production and usage is almost responsible for 70% of all carbon emissions emitted every year. This is not only for electricity but also for using energy in production such as steel, etc. To reach a global Net Zero, the energy world needs to transition to “green” energy. Right now around 30% of the electricity is produced by renewable energy supplies, to reach Net zero emissions, we would need to increase this to 90%. However, renewable energy in general only accounts for 15%. Do you think it is possible to decarbonize the grid in that speed by 2050? (11.20)
• What 3 things need to change to make the transition happen to achieve 95% renewable energy? (14:30)
• If you take investor head, where would you invest currently in the energy market? (22.00)
• What can a consumer do in this energy transition in Europe? What are the top 3 things? (32.00)
• Can you please explain in a few sentences what kind of problem leap is solving? (36.00)
• Can you please explain the energy value chain and participating stakeholders? (39.30)
• What means flexibility / virtualized grid? (44.30)
• How do you make sure that your tesla battery is not empty when the energy get's traded back? (46.00)
• Can you get a kick-back as consumer? (50.10)
• What is your expansion plan? (52.00)
• How is it going with a full remote team? (56.45)
• You received 33m in funding last year in Series B- congratulations! What is the biggest challenge in the next year to scale your company? (56.55)
• Do you have competitors? (59.30)
• What makes you unique? (1.00.00)
• What makes you confident that we will solve the climate crisis? (1.02.00)
• What is the impact of the current market situation on your sector and your company? (1.04.30)

Please check out show notes and background information: www.sustainnow.ch
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