{"podcast":{"title":"Volts","slug":"volts-3501275","podcast_index_feed_id":3501275,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/193024.rss","website_url":"https://www.volts.wtf/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/193024/9759d6c6bdb48d0b6d52469456f303bf.jpg","author":"David Roberts","episode_count":427,"summary":"A newsletter, podcast, & community focused on the technology, politics, and policy of decarbonization. In your inbox once or twice a week.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-18T06:18:09.413992+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/volts-3501275"},"episode":{"title":"Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring","slug":"sooner-than-you-think-electricity-is-going-to-be-cheap-abundant-and-boring","published_at":"2026-05-20T16:02:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/volts-3501275/sooner-than-you-think-electricity-is-going-to-be-cheap-abundant-and-boring","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/volts-3501275","url":"https://www.volts.wtf/p/sooner-than-you-think-electricity","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/195714283/2d5f4212aadbb3dda66a0f49b2301dcf.mp3","summary":"This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Are data centers and electrification going to break the US power grid, or are they the secret to making it cheaper for everyone? In this episode, I talk with Pier LaFarge of Sparkfund about Minnesota’s landmark decision to let Xcel Energy deploy batteries directly into local distribution networks. We look past the politics and map out how a battery-saturated system can socialize the benefits of load growth, ushering in an era of boringly reliable, low-cost energy by 2030.","meta_description":"This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Are data cen…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6339,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/volts-3501275/episodes/sooner-than-you-think-electricity-is-going-to-be-cheap-abundant-and-boring/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/volts-3501275/sooner-than-you-think-electricity-is-going-to-be-cheap-abundant-and-boring.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}