PermitPal is a community and political intelligence platform designed to make permitting predictable and efficient by providing actionable insights. Catering to the utility-scale renewables and AI infrastructure industries, PermitPal has built AI agents that analyze local zoning codes, planning records and community feedback to deliver tailored feedback to developers about the permitting process.

In this episode, we were joined by Emily Tench, the Founder and Business Lead at PermitPal, and Camila Nicollier, PermitPal's AI & Data Lead. Emily and Camila talk about the emerging challenges clean energy infrastructure projects face in receiving local permits and how they are empowering developers to better navigate these challenges. They also provide advice about building a startup in a traditional industry and breaking into the energy and climate space as a young person.

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Anurag Kamal is the Co-Founder and CEO of ElectricFish Energy, an energy storage and infrastructure provider. ElectricFish provides EV charging and grid resiliency services to its customers and has deployed its infrastructure at installations across the United States. The company is backed by Techstars, Greentown Labs, Google and Newlab, among others.

During the show, Anurag explains why the grid is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation and how ElectricFish is enabling this transition. He shares what differentiates ElectricFish from a traditional EV charging company and the role that batteries play in improving uptime for his customers. Anurag discusses what founders need to do maximize their experience with incubators and accelerators and entrepreneurial lessons he has learned while building ElectricFish.

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Stwart Pena Feliz is the Co-Founder and CEO of MacroCycle, a hard tech startup developing novel PET and polyester waste upcycling technologies. Stwart, along with his Co-Founder Jan-Georg Rosenboom, started MacroCycle while they were students at MIT. MacroCycle has received the backing of Breakthrough Energy, Clean Energy Ventures and The Engine.

In the episode, Stwart shares how MacroCycle's ring chain chemistry allows for the company to dramatically improve the economics of recycling. He also shares how he built the world-class team of scientists and engineers at MacroCycle, explains how his experience as an engineer at ExxonMobil helps him build MacroCycle and provides advice for founders looking to receive the most value out of startup accelerator and incubator programs. For college students, Stwart discusses the best steps to take for creating a career of impact.

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Navy McKee is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kai Pono Solutions, the developer of a patented wastewater treatment system that removes trash, chemicals and sediment from stormwater runoff. Navy founded Kai Pono Solutions during her Senior year at San Diego State University after realizing the role that innovation can play in cleaning up our waterways. Kai Pono Solutions has been accepted in multiple prominent Blue Tech accelerators, including SeaAhead's BlueSwell program and the StartBlue Ocean Enterprise Accelerator.

Navy shares about her journey founding Kai Pono Solutions as well as the many iteration cycles needed to refine their product. She provides insights into why water is overlooked and underinvested as a vertical and the society-wide implications of failing to properly manage our water resources. We discuss how to find your niche as a young entrepreneur and strategies to gain credibility as an innovator in more traditional and risk-adverse industries.

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Dylan Gretok is Founder and CEO at Seagull EcoChem, while also earning his degree in chemical engineering, economics, and entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University. Inspired by his passion for the environment, Dylan is building a more sustainable future by commercializing a seaweed-derived plastics packaging replacement, which he hopes will remove the green premium on packaging alternatives and drive mass adoption. His work is supported by beVisioneers, the Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, and by NC State's Innovation and Entrepreneurship department.

Dylan shares with us his founding journey at Seagull, why he believes his technology is well positioned to displace existing, environmentally harmful materials, and how he overcomes challenges as a student entrepreneur. We also discuss his love of the outdoors, how students can persevere in the face of adversity, and staying grounded while juggling multiple competing commitments.

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James Johnston is a PhD-turned-entrepreneur who has spent the last 12 years building toward a single thesis: that energy markets need to be redesigned from the ground up for a distributed future. This venture, Piclo, is the first Distribute Energy Resource (DER) flexibility marketplace in the United States.

The global energy transition has an infrastructure problem. Building new transmission lines and generation capacity takes years — queues are long, supply chains are strained, and the economy can't wait. Meanwhile, we are in the wake of the AI boom where data centers are multiplying, electricity demand is surging, and affordability is becoming a political crisis. The answer, according to James, is unlocking the power of distributed energy resources.

DER — batteries, solar, controllable loads, and other small-scale assets — is the lowest-cost, fastest way to build energy infrastructure. But unlocking its potential requires more than just deploying the technology. It requires the markets, systems, and procurement mechanisms to match. That's the gap Piclo was built to fill.

Piclo's flexibility marketplace connects utilities and hyperscalers with DER owners, operators, and aggregators through an open, competitive platform. Instead of utilities prescribing specific technologies through patchwork bilateral programs, they post a need — capacity, demand response, location, timeframe — and let the market respond. The result is better prices, more competition, and a critical mass of liquidity that bilateral contracting can never achieve.

Tune in to learn why the era of DER has finally arrived.

Keynotes:

• Why data center load growth is forcing utilities to rethink how they procure energy

• What it takes to build a two-sided marketplace in a regulated industry

• How a marketplace model unlocks competition, liquidity, and lower costs for DER

• And much more

Book Recommendation from the Show: Amory Lovins' Small is Profitable

Adam Cowie-Haskell is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focuses on electricity markets within BPC's Energy Program. His energy interest is in improving regulation, enhancing efficiency and lower costs in wholesale electricity markets throughout the United States. In 2025, he co-authored a report for the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability calling for greater load flexibility as a solution to accommodate large load growth. The report has been cited in multiple Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state proceedings.

Adam tells us about the critical role that policy plays in the proper functioning of electricity markets. He walks the audience through the history of wholesale market restructuring and the new challenges that the electric power systems in an era of rising load growth. Adam provides an overview of current policy proposals designed to lower the cost of electricity for residential customers and discusses what reforms are needed to catalyze lasting change. Adam also shares his advice to students looking to break into electric power markets and improve their quantitative skills.

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Eshaan Agrawal is a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Co. who formerly served in the Office of Technology Transitions at the Department of Energy (DOE). His energy interest is routed in climate impact, and he started off in college by focusing on environmental actions related to air pollution in his local community. Eshaan tells us about why he chose to start his career at DOE rather than alternative options, and then describes the different components of his role, such as authoring the Innovative Grid Deployment Liftoff Report and developing the pathway to commercial liftoff for critical energy transition technologies. Throughout the episode, he shares advice on career decision making, exciting areas of the energy sector, and more.

Keynotes:

- Energy work through the government

- Figuring out how to maximize impact and make strategic career decisions

- Exciting topics within energy

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