Nick chats with Mike Lazelle and Dr Rob Turner, co-founders of Kwetta, to discuss their groundbreaking approach to electrifying heavy vehicles.

Kwetta has just raised ~$17 million AUD in Series A funding from the likes of Blackbird and Virescent Ventures to address the “grid issue” for EV charging. And they’ve given us a podcast exclusive!

Their innovative chargers connect directly to the high-voltage grid, providing up to 10 times more power, cutting installation times by up to 70%, and avoiding costly grid upgrades.

We dive into:

• Why electrification is the key to near term emissions reduction
• Why the hardest part of electrification is no longer the vehicles or batteries - it’s getting power from the grid.
• How Kwetta’s technology solves grid bottlenecks while being a “good grid citizen.”
• How a small, world class team from Napier New Zealand (founded with CEO Dustin Murdock) is competing with global giants
• How much Canterbury Beer was consumed at Rob and Mike’s first meeting

(00:00) Introduction

(04:02) Meet Kwetta

(08:21) A Beer Fuelled Origin Story

(12:27) Kwetta's Breakthrough

(14:38) Case Study: Electrifying a Gas Station

(22:21) Manufacturing in Napier

(26:02) The China Threat

(30:35) Revenue Model and Market

(33:19) Vehicle To Grid

(38:04) Traction and Expansion PIans

(41:44) Uncomfortable Questions

Kwetta is about to announce their first sites in Australia so it's great timing to bring them on!

Find out more at: www.kwetta.com

**

If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!

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**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.

Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.

The podcast charted in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.

Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from

Nick and producer-turned-”shark” Mark hear pitches from ten up and coming Australian climate startups!

Our third annual pitch episode with some incredible ~seed stage startups in the latest cohort from EnergyLab - Australia’s leading climate accelerator.

Previous guests on the Pitchfest and podcast have gone on to raise hundreds of millions in capital (you can review these here), so let's dive in to the latest group!

You can also watch on YouTube here.

The lineup:

(02:16) Stralis Aircraft - Hydrogen-electric planes for emission-free flights (Bob Criner)

(12:38) Enaxiom - Harnessing low-grade waste heat to decarbonize wastewater treatment (Tia Collings)

(23:58) OptiGrid - Smarter energy management for batteries (Sahand Karimi)

(33:31)GridStore Energy - Boosting solar panel output and profits (Garth Paton)

(42:47) CLT Toolbox - Structural design software to accelerate timber building (Adam Jones)

(53:51) Dewpoint Innovations - Novel coatings for passive cooling and atmospheric water collection (Dil Khosa)

(01:02:23) X-Centric - Accurate soil data for agriculture (Roozbeh Ravansari)

(01:11:22) Brownee - Empowering SMEs to thrive in a sustainable economy (Renate Crollini)

(01:21:06) InfigoLabs - Decarbonizing industries with ultra-high-temperature heat solutions (Prashant Parulekar)

(01:28:54) Planet Price - Quantifying the real costs of everything (Debbie O'Byrne)

If you liked the pitch? Reach out! And if you didn't like the pitch, send feedback!

***

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We’d also love it if you gave us a review / rating on Apple or Spotify! It really helps other listeners find us.

You can sign up to our mailing list, say hello@apositiveclimate.com or follow us at www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast and https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate.

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.

Hosted by Australian renewable energy and climate investment experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh.

Previous guests have included innovators from JET Charge, Goterra, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, All G Foods, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision,...

Nick chats to Simon Holmes à Court about nuclear energy in Australia.

“When are you covering nuclear?” is one of the most common questions we’ve received from APC listeners.

So we finally went there. And it was great to have Simon on to explore it all before we go back to our startup roots next episode with our THIRD pitch fest.

(00:00) Intro

(03:55) What people get wrong about nuclear

(05:38) Simon’s background

(07:27) Global Nuclear Energy Landscape

(15:03) Safety Concerns

(20:23) Waste

(26:10) Construction Time

(32:39) Cost and Generation Profile

(39:21) Flexibility

(40:48) Economics

(50:02) Political and Regulatory Challenges

(01:00:42) Uncomfortable Questions

To ultimately answer the question: does Australia need nuclear energy?

There was so much to cover we didn’t have time to explore all the questions, including the role of AI and covering the next 15 of the transition in more detail. Excuses for new episodes!

**

If you like the show, please subscribe/review/rate or comment. We really appreciate your support!

You can sign up to our mailing list at www.apositiveclimate.com, say hello@apositiveclimate.com or follow us on https://au.linkedin.com/company/a-positive-climate or www.instagram.com/apositiveclimatepodcast.

**

About the podcast

A Positive Climate is an uplifting podcast about tackling climate change. An entertaining look at the products, people and technologies making a real difference.

Hosted by Australian climate technology investors and experts Nick Zeltzer and Alex McIntosh. We cover it all on the show while keeping things optimistic and accessible: electric planes, waste eating maggots, plant-based meats, hydrogen made from beer, the solar revolution, the coolest new sustainable products and much much more.

The podcast rated in 2022 and 2023 as the top Australian made podcast in Apple’s Technology podcast charts.

Previous guests have included innovators and technologists from JET Charge, Goterra, 5B, Amazon, Zoomo, V2Food, Vow, Sea Forest, Great Wrap, Infravision, Zero Co, Hysata, Sicona, OneSmallStep, Tenacious Ventures, CarsGuide, AMSL Aero, Nori, EnergyLab, MicroTau and many more.

Music by the late, great Nick Weaver

Production by our hero Mark Spencer from Here.Media