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The Gist is the monthly newsletter of The Ad Hoc Group that covers everything at the intersection of climate tech and policy. Subscribe at the link here to have The Gist mailed to your inbox each month.

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The Ad Hoc Gist: Greece’s Climate Transformation

Greece experienced a summer from hell with raging wildfires and a punishing heatwave. And that’s less than two years after the war in Ukraine sent energy prices soaring.

But the land of sun and wind is poised to capitalize on the energy transition, says Nikos Tsafos, chief energy advisor to Prime Minister Mitsotakis.

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The Ad Hoc Gist: Inside DOE’s $8.5 billion push to retrofit homes

On the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the most significant piece of climate legislation in US history, we’re taking you inside the Department of Energy. Karen Zelmar is the manager of the home energy rebate programs, which provide $8.5 billion for home efficiency and electrification projects. We talked to her about their newly released guidance and what it’s like to work at DOE during a pivotal time.

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The Ad Hoc Gist: Cleaning Up the Catwalk

At AHG, we pride ourselves on being climate wonks. Some of us also pride ourselves on being fashionable climate wonks. But recently, we’ve been wondering if that’s an oxymoron.

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People as Moat – Ad Hoc Expands into Search

In climate tech, we talk a lot about, well, technology. But talk with most CEOs and they’ll share that the hardest part of their job is figuring out how to hire and retain the right people. In my experience, a company’s ability to hire and effectively onboard the right people is what differentiates successful businesses from those that falter. Because, as a CEO, you can have a great vision, but if you don’t have the right people, you can’t execute it.

A Conversation with Vida and Devin

We invited two leaders, Devin Hampton, CEO of UtilityAPI, and Vida Asiegbu, principal at Energy Impact Partners, for a candid conversation on equity and representation in the energy transition.

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The Regulator’s Dilemma, Part 3

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are poised to revolutionize the power sector by orchestrating distributed energy resources (DERs) — like smart thermostats, household appliances, solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles — into real-time networks of dispatchable capacity. The opportunity is especially significant for advanced VPPs, which aggregate multiple device types, are fully automated and optimized by price signals, provide multiple reliable grid services, are compensated on a pay-for-performance basis, and serve as a true supply-side resource.

Advanced VPPs can offer grid operators significant value by reducing stress on generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure at lower cost than conventional solutions like large-scale batteries, peaker plants, or additional poles and wires.

Read More @ Fortnightly

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C&I customer needs are rapidly changing. How can utilities maximize their relationship?

In the blink of an eye, large commercial and industrial customers present big challenges and opportunities.

Commercial and industrial customers have historically been boring to utilities. As long as power was reliable and reasonably priced, utilities hardly ever heard from these customers. They were so boring that, according to a 2023 J.D. Power study, only 15% of C&I customers even had a utility account rep assigned to them. The feeling has been mutual. A representative from a major C&I customer with a large trucking fleet recently said “why would I want to talk to a utility? My job is to move boxes from warehouses to stores.”

Read More @ UtilityDive

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Know thyself: Advice for climate tech founders

Building a climate tech company is not for the faint-of-heart.

No part of the process is easy; the tech is difficult, customers can be decidedly old-school, and regulation is often complex, for instance. And too often, the innate challenge for founders is compounded by the weight of high valuations, enormous growth targets, and limited exit options.

We don’t have all the answers for navigating what is an increasingly complicated market, but we do have some advice.

Read More @ Latitude Media

Hear more from our leadership on My Climate Journey and Technopolis.

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