John O'Donnell
Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Rondo Energy. On 2 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveengineerLinkedIn ↗rondo.com ↗
John O'Donnell is an energy innovator who co-founded Rondo Energy to decarbonize heavy industry using refractory brick heat batteries. Prior to Rondo, he co-founded GlassPoint Solar and Ausra, and previously worked on fusion experiments at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
2shows
3appearances
55statements
27resolved
15supported
3contradicted
56%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything John O'Donnell said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
O'Donnell: US developers are dangerously distracted by speculative hydrogen subsidies
“In the U.S., there's a developer community's attention, in my humble opinion, has been a bit attracted to the hydrogen subsidies, and that The place will get the next wave of growth for utility-scale solar. We'll be building hydrogen projects that sell hydroge…”
O'Donnell: Intermittent renewable electricity is cheaper than burning fossil fuels
“It is intermittent electricity that's becoming the cheapest source of energy humans have ever had available. We have now entered this world where, on a primary energy basis, you can have electricity at a lower cost than burning fuel.”
O'Donnell: 1,000°C bricks match lithium-ion energy density at one-tenth the cost
“And when you heat a brick to a thousand C, it stores as much energy per pound as a lithium ion battery. Costs 10 times less, lasts 10 times longer.”
O'Donnell: Heat battery grid carbon savings double project-site savings
“And those grid effects of causing more renewables to show up that the heat battery is not using all those megawatt hours mean that the total system carbon savings are approximately twice the savings at the project site.”
O'Donnell: Path is clear to decarbonize industrial heat within 15 years
“We see the path clear with what we're doing to decarbonize most of that within about 15 years, given the constraints on how fast wind and solar can be built, and there aren't meaningful production constraints on the brick materials that we use.”
O'Donnell: Intermittent renewable power will economically eclipse fossil fuels globally by 2030
“By 20 30 in most of the industrialized world, the conditions that exist in the six European countries where we're developing projects now in Australia and the half dozen US states, those market conditions exist in most of the industrialized world that you can …”
O'Donnell: Intermittent electricity is the cheapest energy in human history
“The reason why these Resistance heated electric thermal storage things are only emerging now is that it's only in the last few years where intermittent electricity has become the cheapest form of energy that humans have ever known in civilization's history, ri…”
O'Donnell: No business case for thermal storage beyond 20 hours
“And that says that we don't see a business reason for very, for storage beyond about 20 hours of storage. That if you have about 20 hours of storage, You know, there's going to be about 10 or 12% of annual energy that you're going to get from something else.”
O'Donnell: High Cost of Capital from Over-Innovation Kills Renewable Projects
“If you are too innovative, if you can't turn to a standard construction company or EPC, if you can't bring a new technology with suitable guarantees to market, cost of capital that's too high will just kill any renewable energy project.”
O'Donnell: Intermittent solar and wind are the cheapest energy in history
“PV and wind are pretty much everywhere in the world, intermittently cheaper than any other form humans have ever had available, including burning fuel.”
O'Donnell: Carbon capture fundamentally requires burning 30% more fossil fuels
“One, the carbon capture path says you're burning fossil fuel, burn 30% more fossil fuel than you're using right now to capture the emissions from burning fossil fuel. We can stipulate that is not a pathway that's cheaper than burning fossil fuel.”
O'Donnell: Electric boilers double or triple emissions on today's US grid
“A heat pump may get you about level with emissions from burning fuel directly locally, and an electric boiler will multiply your scope one plus two, at least by a factor of two and maybe three.”
O'Donnell: South Australia experiences nearly 3,000 hours of negative electricity prices
“Look at South Australia with 70% renewables in the system and almost 3000 hours a year of negative electricity prices.”
O'Donnell: Rondo heat batteries cost $5/kW marginally at 98% efficiency
“A round of heat battery is not a 2000 dollar or 1000 dollar a kilowatt electrolyzer that delivers heat at 50% efficiency. It's about five dollars a kilowatt on a marginal basis for these electrical wire heaters, and it's 98% efficient at turning electricity in…”
O'Donnell: Heat batteries unlock up to 1.9 times their capacity in renewables
“Jesse Jenkins has, is publishing a paper shortly exploring that. His paper findings really excited us because he found that in looking at systems that he modeled in the east, eastern side of the U.S., for every megawatt of heat batteries that show up in the sy…”
O'Donnell: Electrolyzers do not pencil below 50% capacity factor
“Electrolyzers that in principle can operate intermittently, but because of their capital costs, they don't pencil operating at capacity factors typically below 50%.”
O'Donnell: Rondo heat batteries address 90% of global industrial heat
“The temperatures that today's Rondo heat batteries deliver serve about 90% of all the industrial heat used in the world.”
O'Donnell: Renewable electricity sources are now cheaper than industrial fuels
“Those renewable electricity sources are now cheaper than the fuel being used today.”
O'Donnell: Electricity-to-heat thermal storage solutions exceed 95% efficiency
“This entire class of solutions, every one of them is above about 95% efficient in capturing electricity and delivering continuous heat.”
O'Donnell: Industrial Decarbonization Over Next 20 Years Will Focus on Existing Sites
“Over time, we're going to see energy intensive industries adapt to where renewables are cheapest, but look, for the next 20 years, it is all about repowering the facilities that we have today”
O'Donnell: Oklahoma Saw 2,000 Hours of Negative Wind Prices in 2021
“Oklahoma had 2000 hours last year of negative wind prices.”
O'Donnell: Oklahoma Wind Faces 10-Year Queue, California Solar Averages 7.5 Years
“There's a 10 year interconnection queue in Oklahoma for new wind projects. The average interconnection time for new utility scale PV projects in California is seven and a half years.”
O'Donnell: Rondo pairs heat batteries directly with off-grid renewable farms
“A great deal of what we're doing is off-grid generation. We've built our particular heat batteries to manage off-grid wind farms, off-grid solar farms.”
The other half of the tape: John O'Donnell's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Shayle Kann 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Catalyst 1
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens John's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 GREEN BLUEPRINTLEDGER | Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Rondo Energy | 2 | 36 | 67% 10/15 | full record on the Green Blueprint → |
| CATALYSTLEDGER | Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Rondo Energy | 1 | 19 | 42% 5/12 | full record on Catalyst → |