Smarter power: Negawatts before megawatts
The hosts:
Rushad Nanavatty, RMI-Third Derivative
What is this Ripple about?
New geothermal, fusion, SMRs, and the like are the charismatic megafauna of the energy transition. But ecosystems aren’t always sustained by their most exotic species—and neither is the electricity system. 95%+ of the clean-power solution depends on decidedly less sexy species: grid-enhancing technologies, demand flexibility, solar PV, and batteries. Let the billionaires and tech giants chase the big game. The smart money—for both climate impact and returns—is on making the power system we already have work much harder.
Why this topic timely or urgent in 2026
In the context of load growth, there is a disproportionate amount of attention and investment dollars focused on solutions that are relatively marginal importance -- and not nearly on sound technologies that can help us squeeze much more from our existing power systems. We want to bring a sense of proportion to this discussion and focus investor attention on sound, impactful, if less sexy technologies.
Key questions or challenges being explored
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities, from your perspective, with respect to power system decarbonization?
How much more -- in terms of capacity or energy -- can we squeeze from our existing grid and renewable energy assets?
What will it take to fully unlock the potential for grid enhancing technologies, demand flexibility, and energy efficiency?
The main tensions or debate:
Investor attention on headline-grabbing nukes and geothermal vs. more modest, distributed, and mature technologies.
Who would get the most value from attending this Ripple?
Investors focused on the power system. Policymakers and regulators in the same space.