Listen: The Clean Energy Transition has a Hardware Problem
About the episode
The electric grid is under pressure from every direction: surging demand from AI data centers, electrification, utility-scale renewables, and new industrial loads. But according to Drew Baglino, one of the biggest constraints isn’t generation, it’s the aging hardware that moves electricity across the system.
In this episode, Alfred Johnson sits down with Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power and former Tesla executive, to discuss why power electronics have become critical bottlenecks in the clean energy transition. After nearly two decades at Tesla leading powertrain, charging, and energy systems, Drew is now focused on rethinking the electrical infrastructure underlying the modern grid.
Together, they dig into the explosive growth in electricity demand, the supply chain constraints facing medium-voltage transformers, and Heron Power’s effort to replace traditional transformer systems with software-enabled solid-state power electronics. Baglino explains how modular, semiconductor-based systems could make grids more reliable, easier to service, safer, and dramatically faster to deploy.
Critical Capital is a co-production of Crux and Latitude Studios. Learn more about how Crux is financing the future of energy.
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It was during his 18 years at Tesla that Drew Baglino realised how inadequate the US energy grid had become. The technology connecting to the network was advancing rapidly, but the infrastructure underpinning it had changed little for decades.The economy of the 21st century is still drawing on a power system built in the 19th century, he says. “It just isn’t able to keep up.”
Financial Times: The century-old device choking the world’s AI push
It was during his 18 years at Tesla that Drew Baglino realised how inadequate the US energy grid had become. The technology connecting to the network was advancing rapidly, but the infrastructure underpinning it had changed little for decades.The economy of the 21st century is still drawing on a power system built in the 19th century, he says. “It just isn’t able to keep up.”
Axios: Drew Baglino on Heron's big prototype summer
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Press Release: Heron Power Collaborates with LG Energy Solution Vertech, Uniting American-Made Battery Energy Storage Systems and Solid State Transformers to Power the Modern Grid
Heron Power, a U.S.-based manufacturer of next-generation medium-voltage power electronics, today announced a design and engineering collaboration with LG Energy Solution Vertech to integrate Heron’s solid-state transformer–based Heron Link with LG Energy Solution Vertech’s U.S.-manufactured battery energy storage systems.
Press Release: Heron Power Collaborates with LG Energy Solution Vertech, Uniting American-Made Battery Energy Storage Systems and Solid State Transformers to Power the Modern Grid
Heron Power, a U.S.-based manufacturer of next-generation medium-voltage power electronics, today announced a design and engineering collaboration with LG Energy Solution Vertech to integrate Heron’s solid-state transformer–based Heron Link with LG Energy Solution Vertech’s U.S.-manufactured battery energy storage systems.