Electrotech, world models, permission-less power

Overview

This course explores how electrification, distributed energy resources (DERs), and embedded compute are impacting our existing centralized energy system. We will:

1. Develop energy system intuition by focusing on the network of machines humans rely on every day.
2. Build to learn about the 5-layer cake of distributed energy and compute:
   • Electrify an analog bicycle (batteries, electric motors, power electronics)
   • Build a solar-powered agentic AI assistant (embedded compute, LLMs/world models)
3. See the stack being built by startups in our early-stage fund:
   • B2U Energy Storage Solutions: 2nd-life EV battery power plants
   • Copper: Appliances with a battery inside
   • Flux Hybrids: Bolt-on electric drivetrains for worktrucks
   • Popwheels: Charging cabinets for ebike batteries, FDNY-approved
   • Every Electric: No-cost, no-install powerbanks for your A/C
4. Talk to people behind two DER projects based in New Orleans.
   • Together New Orleans’ Community Lighthouse micro-grid network
   • New Orleans City Council’s $30M Virtual Power Plant Program

Scope and sequence

1. Visualizing the US Energy Grid: A Billion machines
   • Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future, Saul Griffith, MIT Press
   • Reframing Energy for the Age of Electricity, Daan Walter, Kingsmill Bond, Ember
2. How that grid works: Building energy and grid intuition -
   • Energy Cheat Sheet, Brian Potter, Construction Physics
   • The Batteries Included Fund investment thesis
   • My Search for a Gallon of Electricity, Matt Candler
3. Electrotech - A Sixth Industrial Revolution
   • The electrotech revolution in 10 charts and not too many numbers, Daan Walter, Ember
   • The Electric Slide, Packy McCormick, Sam D’Amico
4. Electrostates vs Petrostates
   • PetroStates and ElectroStates in a World Divided by Fossil Fuels and Clean Energy, by Tatiana Mitrova, and Anne-Sophie Cobra
   • A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, Robert Bryce
   • Some insights into a new way of thinking about the transition, by Hannah Ritchie
5. Distributed Energy Resources, in New Orleans and beyond
   • When the power goes out, churches offer shelter through the Community Lighthouse network, Delaney Dryfoos, The Lens
   • Inside The Community Push for a VPP in New Orleans, Bianca Giacobone, Latitude Media
   • DERVOS 2025 Wrap Up!, Nicole Green, DER Task Force

Instructor, Matt Candler, MBA

mattcandler.io, CV.MattCandler

• Investor: GP, Batteries Included Fund;
• Builder, designer: Night Shift Bikes