Decentralized Power

The USA needs 5,000 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines a year but builds only 400. Jiake “Jake” Liu thinks the fix starts in the backyard. Jake is a serial entrepreneur whose new company, Outer Spaces, puts solar panels on the roof of a backyard pavilion with an EV-grade battery under the deck that can be installed in one day. This is a decentralized approach to upgrading US energy infrastructure. Rob and Jake talk about selling home energy now that the federal solar credit is gone, who should own the battery, and how trade with China shapes the product. In the future, Jake sees the 24 million acres of American backyards becoming charging pads for delivery drones, parking for flying cars, and even sites for tiny nuclear reactors.