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BlocPower founder & CEO Donnel Baird
BlocPower

“Turning buildings into Teslas.”

That’s the name Donnel Baird has chosen to go by on his Twitter account — it’s also become the tagline for his company, BlocPower, ranked No. 47 on this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

Since 2014, the company has been retrofitting buildings in New York’s disadvantaged communities with energy efficient heating and cooling systems, ultimately upping building values and lowering building operating costs. So far, Baird has completed over 1,000 projects in the New York City area, with even more building retrofits underway in 24 additional U.S. cities.

For Brooklyn-raised Baird and his team at BlocPower, honing in on retrofitting opportunities in underserved communities translates to high-paying green jobs, healthier air, and increased investment in those neighborhoods — especially as U.S. businesses bring workers back to the office.

CNBC recently spoke with Baird, who says the level of interest from commercial buildings is “skyrocketing” when it comes to sustainability upgrades and energy efficiency. “We know that, as people return to work, air quality and the health impact of buildings is going to be a requirement,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the amount of construction projects that we’re completing … because folks are seeing June as the month to come back to work.”

The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

CNBC: Of the upcoming projects that you have planned throughout the country, which cities do you see presenting the biggest challenges?

Baird: Philadelphia is one of my favorite markets, but it’s also a huge challenge. The city actually has one of the highest amounts of low-income homeownership of any major American city. There used to be lots of factory jobs inside the city limits and Philly, so all the workers in those factories bought these row houses and townhouses. The jobs left, but the workers and their kids and grandkids are still there. Many of them are unemployed, many of them are considered low income by federal definition. They own those homes because their parents and grandparents bought the townhouses, but they can no longer afford property taxes, maintenance repairs, and certainly not energy efficiency. So it’s a really interesting challenge for us … how we’re going to capitalize and analyze all these buildings.

They have massive health needs, they have roofs that need to be replaced, they have plumbing that needs to be replaced, the buildings are filled with carbon monoxide and other kinds of lead and asbestos. So, we’re trying to figure that one out, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.

There’s another American city that wants to go 100% electric, 100% renewable energy within the next five years. And so we’re incredibly excited about that project. I can’t say which it is yet, because they’re in an RFP process. But hopefully, by the end of the month, or next month, we’ll be able to say. Obviously, that’s going to be a massive challenge, because we’re going to green up all the buildings and green all the cars and trucks. And so that’s going to be a major, major, major challenge. But if we can pull it off, it’s going to be huge.

CNBC: Can you give us a hint?

Baird: I will say it’s a city in New York that’s benefiting from the leadership of the state of New York and Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature, they have made significant commitments to clean energy. And so some of the cities are trying to match those commitments. So it’s in New York State.

CNBC: If it’s financially advantageous for buildings to switch out of fossil fuels and into green power, and if there are tax incentives for them to do so, what’s your biggest barrier to growth right now?

Baird: It’s financially advantageous under certain conditions. You have to have the right amount of tax credits, you have to have the right amount of incentives and or subsidies from the local utility company or from the local government. And in those conditions, it’s financially advantageous.

The real variable is not just the subsidies and tax credits, because some of them are federal and you can get them anywhere. The real variable is what’s the local cost of labor. And how efficient is your labor supply in terms of modern construction services and highly skilled workers. There’s a labor shortage of skilled construction workers across the country, which is a big problem and a major constraint right now.

And then the other constraint is the manufacturers. Their costs are coming down, but it’s a new piece of hardware that allows us to take buildings entirely off of fossil fuels. We’re still pretty early on in that manufacturing curve, but the cost is coming down. Right now, it’s cost that we’re able to amortize out over time, making it viable for building owners to access these technologies in the same way that the mortgage industry does for mortgages: Nobody can afford a house upfront. A 30-year mortgage stretches that payment out over time. So while we can make it affordable and accessible, the question is: Do building owners understand the value of taking out a second 15-year mortgage to electrify a building they already built? Part of our job is dealing with the labor supply, and another part is the sales, marketing and customer education.

CNBC: Your services also make buildings healthier. Have you seen any pandemic tailwinds and what are your expectations, post-pandemic?

Baird: Absolutely. We’re spending a lot of time linking green energy equipment upgrades to Covid-19, thinking, ‘How can a piece of green equipment actually filter the air in your building to make it safer for you and your kids? To make it safe for weddings or funerals in a synagogue, church or a mosque?’

Talking with owners about the way their buildings circulate outdoor air pollution indoors … this is a huge focus for our business post-pandemic. In Oakland, California, we’ve got a big demonstration project, where we’re taking lead and asbestos out of the buildings, which keeps people healthier. But we’re also putting in new electric heating systems that are making the air quality inside buildings healthier. Companies that do this, like Kaiser Permanente, who we’re working with, are going to have fewer families in and out of the emergency room with chronic asthma attacks and other conditions, because the buildings are healthier. It’s a huge focus for us.

CNBC: In that same regard, how are you thinking about the environmental impact of people returning to work in office buildings?

Baird: Millennials and Gen Z are very focused on the air quality and health impact of buildings, particularly office buildings, now that many millennials are totally comfortable working from home via Zoom and looking for greater benefits as an in-person employee. At a minimum, it has to be safe. We’re seeing a lot of commercial office folks in New York City focusing on those types of upgrades. Now, they haven’t had rent coming in for the last 12 months, so many of them are hesitant to pull the trigger and make that investment. But the level of interest that we’re seeing is skyrocketing; And we know as people return to work that those upgrades are going to be the new requirement.

There’s a set of economic indicators involved that bring value to a landlord that’s leasing the space. If you increase the air quality, you can simultaneously boost the productivity per square foot of your investment in commercial office space. There’s a lot of data on this that’s coming out, and we expect that customers who have large commercial office space are going to demand, at a minimum, that air quality be as clean and healthy as possible.

CNBC: You mentioned the hesitancy of companies looking to make these types of investments. Are you seeing that hesitancy diminish as we move further into a post-pandemic world?

Baird: People are starting to pull the trigger. Folks we’ve been talking to for the last 12 to 18 months, who were about to pull the trigger in February of last year, are starting to come back around. Everyone’s feeling more optimistic, everyone’s ready to return to work and return to normal economic activity. They’re making those investments, and we’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the amount of construction projects that we’re completing, year over year, but particularly month over month. We’re doing better than projected, because folks are seeing June as the month to come back to work.

CNBC: Last week, Senate Republicans introduced a $928 billion counteroffer on infrastructure to President Biden’s now $1.7 trillion plan. GOP leaders say that $4 billion of that goes to major infrastructure projects like electric vehicles, but there’s still very few specifics on whether green energy or clean tech will be included in those projects at all. If you were working in the Biden-Harris administration, would you encourage the president to accept this offer?

Baird: Let me start by saying that I’m a big believer in President Biden. As both a healer, and as an individual, he has gone through truly difficult times losing his family, re-building a life, and trying to heal his children after multiple losses. I think he’s the right president for what this country needs in terms of our hyper-partisanship. And so given that, I 100% understand President Biden’s desire to complete a bipartisan infrastructure bill. I think it’s important to the overall health of the country to be able to do something together.

Still, the skinny or narrow infrastructure bill that has been proposed does strip away a lot of smart grid and solar electrification projects, as well as some social stuff like senior care, elder care, child care. The Democrats want that stuff. Meanwhile, it’s clean energy, and some of this social service infrastructure funding that the Republicans want to pull out. There is bipartisan agreement on extending broadband across the country, and making sure that America’s competitive with China and other places so that any American kid can access the internet, and the genius of the American population can be unleashed because we all have internet as a baseline and digital access. So that’s good. That’s the good part of the skinny infrastructure bill.

I believe that there’s a cohort of Republican senators that want to do something on climate. It can’t be called climate. I talked to my Republican friends … I only have like one Republican friend, I talk to this one dude, all the time, about the fact that there is a small cohort of Republicans that could do something on solar, they could do something on batteries, they could do something on nuclear, they could do something on smart grid. The fact that our nation’s electricity grid and gas grid has been under attack by hackers … we saw all that stuff needs to be upgraded. And that’s cybersecurity infrastructure. And so I think there’s something to be done there. And I’d love to at least see the cybersecurity and smart grid aspect be included in a skinny infrastructure bill.

I’d take a narrow deal with cybersecurity for the nation’s electricity and gas grids as a part of that. As a business person, I can understand that if we digitize the nation’s electric and gas grid infrastructure, that new digital platform is going to provide enough data and computerization to allow us to do a lot of the solar and other kinds of green energy stuff that we need. Having a digital foundation for the country’s energy system as a whole would be a huge improvement. I would take a narrow infrastructure deal and live to fight another day on climate and maybe just pass a separate small climate bill through reconciliation. And then you’ve got to let the private sector do its thing.

CNBC: Over the last year or so, venture capitalists and investors alike have made a lot of promises to reckon with diversity at their firms and among their portfolio companies. As a Black founder, do you feel as if any substantial progress has been made when it comes to greater investment in, and representation of, founders of color?

Baird: No, not in venture capital. I don’t. However, I think that in corporate America — certainly the leaders of corporate America — particularly in the tech industry, we are seeing real substantive conversations about diversity. And more importantly, not just conversations, but strategic investments.

With regard to Silicon Valley VCs or Silicon Alley VCs in New York, or even across other parts of the country, no. You have the same superstar, legendary investors. Kapor Capital [a BlocPower investor] was investing in Black and Latinx founders before George Floyd. They were investing in women founders before George Floyd. Andreessen Horowitz, as much as the press loves to give them a hard time about what they do or don’t do, they invested in us in 2014, long before before George Floyd. And they invested again in 2019, long before George Floyd.

I talked to these folks every week, and it’s a significant source of mentorship and guidance for my personal growth. And, by the way, they never share the fact that they talk to me every week, and give me specific feedback on how to grow my company. Kapor Capital doesn’t talk about it. Andreessen Horowitz doesn’t talk about it, but they invest significantly, kind of off the books and outside of the public eye. They were doing it before and they’re going to continue to do it after.

So, the folks who have already figured out a lot of the racial stuff doubled down — they tripled down — in Silicon Valley. Other folks, I think, are still trying. They’re interested, they want to do better, they want to do more, but they don’t quite have a plan to square traditional pattern matching. As a VC, how do you square that with the need to invest in a new cohort of founders that don’t resemble the patterns that you’re comfortable with, and don’t resemble the patterns that you think are going to make money? Deep down in your heart, if you don’t think someone’s going to go off and make you a bunch of money, it’s really hard to make that investment.

I am hopeful. I think like five years from now, VC will be in a better place. But now, there’s been no substantive difference, other than the hype and public conversation around trying to do better, which is still progress.

CNBC: Is BlocPower at the point where it’s thinking about life as a publicly traded company?

Baird: I don’t think we’re quite big enough right now, but maybe 10 months from now. We’re looking at it. We want to grow fast and grow big and we’d look at something like a SPAC the same way we’d look at an IPO: ‘Are we ready to do it?’

We’re firm believers in providing retail investors access to our platform. I know a lot of times VCs think that’s a negative signal, but fundamentally, as a former community organizer, I believe in having regular Americans participate in our company. And if things go well, those people are going to own the upside, because we want to be BlocPower by the people, for the people. We believe in that kind of stuff.

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HD Hyundai announces lithium phosphate battery pack for commercial trucks

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HD Hyundai announces lithium phosphate battery pack for commercial trucks

HD Hyundai Infracore (HDI) is set to debut a new, 35 kWh lithium phosphate battery pack to power the next generation of electrified commercial equipment.

While the new HD Hyundai lithium phosphate battery isn’t technically out yet (it will officially bow at Intermat 2024 at Paris-Nord Villepinte next month), the battery pack has been in development since back when Infracore was still a Doosan brand.

As of 2021, the first prototypes of the battery were configured with bespoke battery management system (BMS) and thermal protection systems, as well as a flexible design architecture that allows the manufacturer to produce batteries with different voltages and capacities by using different numbers of standardized cylindrical nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) battery cells (that’s actually an NCM pack shown, at top).

The OG Doosan

Battery pack prototype no. 1, developed in-house by (then) Doosan Infracore; via HD Hyundai.

Different versions of the Infracore battery have been in used in the company’s 1.7 ton mini electric excavators since 2023. And they’re not alone. HD Hyundai currently offers LFP battery packs in 5.8, 8.8 and 11.7 kWh power capacities – but these news ones that are set to bow are expected to be much bigger.

Like, “big enough to power a commercial truck,” bigger.

Coming to an electric truck near you

Tata Daewoo’s C-segment truck which feature the new Infracore LFP battery pack; via HD Hyundai.

HDI recently confirmed that it will supply battery packs for Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle’s medium-duty electric trucks, and announced that the two companies will work together to expand Korea’s electric commercial offerings.

The official HDI release cites data from market research platform, Markets and Markets, that projects the global electric commercial vehicle market to grow from the 529,400 units sold in 2023 to more than 2.1 million units by 2030.

“We have been able to pioneer the EV market with on our proprietarily produced battery pack technology,” says HD Hyundai Infracore CEO, Seung-hyun Oh, “Based on such success, we plan to gradually expand the vehicle types applied with our battery packs and extend our supplier base to emerging countries and other regions.”

The new battery packs are intended to, “offer a value-oriented and robust solution for companies operating in the construction, industrial and marine sectors,” according to Power Progress (formerly Diesel Progress). We’ll have more when Hyundai lifts the veil in Paris.

Electrek’s Take

Hyundai Concept X at CES2024
Image by the author.

If their sprawling, interactive display at CES didn’t already convince you, Hyundai is serious about electrifying job sites around the world. Yes, they’re also working on hydrogen – but their concerted push to become global EV leaders is very real.

Construction companies like Caterpillar and Deere should would do well to learn the lesson Toyota and Honda learned the hard way in the 90s: underestimate the Koreans at your peril.

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Daily EV Recap: An autonomous EV that can drift

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Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they’re available.

Stories we discuss in this episode (with links):

Tesla wants to bring ‘private 5G’ to its EVs and Optimus robot

Volvo makes its last diesel car and puts it in a museum

Elon Musk says Tesla Optimus robot should cost ‘less than half of a car’

Hyundai reveals ambitious $50 billion investment to secure a top 3 spot in the EV market

Ghost ride the whip! Geely shows off AI chassis performing fully-autonomous drifting 

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Share your thoughts!

Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

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You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

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Ahead of sentencing, SBF team argues for 5-6 years in jail because FTX customers will get money back

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Ahead of sentencing, SBF team argues for 5-6 years in jail because FTX customers will get money back

Government exhibit in the case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

Source: SDNY

While prosecutors are requesting that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried spend 40 to 50 years in prison for his crimes, the defense team is urging the judge to consider a sentence that’s roughly 90% shorter.

Bankman-Fried’s fate will be announced in Manhattan on Thursday morning by Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the monthlong trial in November. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges tied to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the roughly $10 billion of customer deposits that went missing.

The hope for Bankman-Fried’s team is that Kaplan takes into account the increased likelihood that FTX customers will be able to recoup most, if not all, of the money they lost when the exchange spiraled into bankruptcy in 2022.

Lawyers representing the bankruptcy estate of FTX told a judge in Delaware last month that they expect to fully repay customers and creditors with legitimate claims. Bankruptcy attorney Andrew Dietderich, who works with FTX’s new leadership team, said “there is still a great amount of work and risk” ahead in getting all the money back to clients, but that the team has a “strategy to achieve it.”

It was a potentially dramatic change in the narrative surrounding FTX’s collapse 16 months ago. At the time, it was believed that many thousands of customers — reportedly up to a million — collectively lost billions of dollars that would be unrecoverable due to the lightly regulated and unsecured nature of the crypto industry. Those clients faced the real possibility that the vast majority of their money had evaporated, just like in other cases of hedge funds and lenders that failed during the so-called crypto winter of 2022.

Much of the government’s successful case against Bankman-Fried hinged on convincing the jury that the defendant had stolen billions of dollars worth of FTX customer money to make risky bets at Alameda.

For months, as FTX has wound its way through a Delaware bankruptcy court, new CEO John Ray III and his team of restructuring advisors have been clawing back cash, luxury property, and crypto, as well as tracking down missing assets. They’ve already collected more than $7 billion, and that doesn’t include valuables like $26 million in gifts and property to Bankman-Fried’s parents, or the $700 million handed over to K5 Global and founder Michael Kives, who invested FTX cash in companies like SpaceX that have since increased in value.

Bankman-Fried’s defense team has asked the court for a sentence in the range of 63 to 78 months. Beyond the fact that he’s a “first time, nonviolent offender,” attorneys for the FTX founder largely lean on the argument that Bankman-Fried’s risky bets paid off and the bankruptcy estate expects to fully repay FTX customers.

It’s a story that Bankman-Fried was trying to sell as he awaited trial.

“FTX US remains fully solvent,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a Substack post on Jan. 12, 2023, while he was under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California. He said the exchange “should be able to return all customers’ funds.”

Prosecutors recommend a prison sentence of 40-50 years for Sam Bankman-Fried in FTX fraud

One key asset in FTX’s portfolio is its stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. Late last week, FTX’s bankruptcy estate struck a deal with a consortium of buyers to sell the majority of its Anthropic holdings for $884 million. Under Bankman-Fried’s leadership, FTX invested $500 million in the startup in 2021 before the boom in generative AI. The company’s valuation hit $18 billion in December 2023, which would put FTX’s roughly 8% stake at about $1.4 billion.

During Bankman-Fried’s trial, Kaplan denied the defense’s request that it be permitted to say that FTX’s investment in Anthropic was a smart bet.

‘Still guilty’

Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Section, told CNBC that the more money the estate is able to recover for clients, the better for Bankman-Fried.

“If true, that is relevant and the judge is required to consider victim restitution at sentencing,” Mariotti said. “But even if victims weren’t harmed, he is still guilty of the offense.”

Mariotti said he expects the sentence to fall somewhere in between what the prosecution and defense are asking, predicting it will be “at least 20 to 25 years.”

Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried arrive for the trial of their son, former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at Federal Court in New York City, U.S., October 26, 2023. 

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

In addition to the Anthropic gains, FTX customers can look at the rebound in crypto for signs of optimism. Bitcoin is trading at close to $70,000, up from less than $17,000 at the time of FTX’s collapse.

In September, the bankruptcy team released a status report showing that FTX had $3.4 billion worth of digital assets, with over $1.1 billion coming from its investment in crypto coin Solana. In the defense’s letter to the court filed last month, attorneys note a sizable increase in the value of FTX’s Solana stake, saying that as of Feb. 26, the estate saw a roughly $4 billion increase over the last six months thanks to the token’s appreciation.

Solana fits into a category of so-called “Sam coins,” a group that also includes Serum, a token created and promoted by FTX and Alameda. Solana saw a huge run-up of late, climbing more than eightfold since the end of September.

Meanwhile, FTX’s bitcoin stash, which was worth $560 million at the time of the September report, when the coin was trading at around $25,000, has seen a significant uptick as well. Bitcoin’s value has increased by around 180% since then.

For FTX customers, being made whole, according to a judge’s ruling, means getting the cash equivalent of what their crypto was worth in November 2022. In other words, they’re not seeing any of the upside of FTX’s investments or being given virtual coins that would allow them to cash out at higher valuations.

Braden Perry, who was once a senior trial lawyer for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told CNBC that Bankman-Fried faces at least 70 months in prison based on his base level offense, number of victims, sophisticated means and leadership role — even if there’s no monetary loss to the victims. The massive losses that were originally expected would suggest 30 years to life, Perry added.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:

Sam Bankman-Fried set to testify at fraud trial in what experts deem a major gamble for the case

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