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Battery storage is reshaping how electricity systems run, often out of sight behind buildings and in garages. RBC’s Climate Action 2027 report finds that storage is accelerating, and this episode of Disruptors asks what that means for Canada.
John Stackhouse speaks with energy entrepreneur Jigar Shah, who led the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office from 2021 to 2025. Shah argues that solar, wind and batteries are no longer best understood as climate technologies. Utilities and data centre developers are buying them because they are the fastest way to bring new capacity online: batteries provide the capacity, and solar and wind refuel them.
The conversation moves from the grid to the household. Shah explains how home batteries in Puerto Rico and Salt Lake City are already helping utilities balance their systems, why appliance makers and carmakers want to be paid for the flexibility their devices provide, and how Google is now funding payments to homes and businesses through Voltus.
For Canada, the discussion turns to building a national electricity strategy across provincial systems. Shah points to Ontario, where homes and businesses have used local batteries for a decade to manage peak demand, even as the province plans large new nuclear plants. He argues central projects and local resources have to grow in parallel.
Shah also shares lessons from the Loan Programs Office: publish clear criteria for picking winners, hold to them, and commit to a ten-year effort so capital markets believe the policy will last.
FAQs
Jigar Shah is an energy entrepreneur and investor. He served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office from March 2021 to January 2025. Before that, he founded SunEdison and co-founded Generate Capital. He is a co-founder of the advisory firm Multiplier and co-hosts the Open Circuit podcast.
The Loan Programs Office is the U.S. Department of Energy’s lending arm for clean energy and advanced transportation projects. On Disruptors, Shah explains that its technical due diligence gave banks confidence that a technology would work, which most lenders cannot assess on their own. He says the office published its criteria and gave loans to anyone who met them.
The episode looks at how battery storage, solar and wind have become the fastest way to add power to the grid. Jigar Shah and John Stackhouse discuss why utilities, data centres and households are adopting them for cost and reliability, and how governments can finance the shift.
Canada is working toward a national electricity strategy across very different provincial systems. Shah argues Canada faces the same tension as the United States: a culture of large central generation alongside growing demand from households to use their own batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles. He says both have to grow in parallel.
Batteries are now being used as grid capacity, and home batteries are being enrolled to support the grid during outages and peaks. Shah says appliance makers, carmakers and tech companies want to be paid for that flexibility, and that companies such as Google are now funding it directly through operators like Voltus.
Shah’s advice is to pick winners on published technical and financial merit, hold to those standards, and treat failures as part of how entrepreneurs learn. He says transforming an energy system takes about ten years, and capital markets need to believe governments will stay the course.
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