Critical Capital - The clean energy transition has a hardware problem, ft. Drew Baglino

he electric grid is under pressure from every direction: surging demand from AI data centers, electrification, utility-scale renewables, and new industrial loads. But according to Drew Baglino, one of the biggest constraints isn’t generation, it’s the aging hardware that moves electricity across the system. In this episode, Alfred Johnson sits down with Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power and former Tesla executive, to discuss why power electronics have become critical bottlenecks in the clean energy transition. After nearly two decades at Tesla leading powertrain, charging, and energy systems, Drew is now focused on rethinking the electrical infrastructure underlying the modern grid. Together, they dig into the explosive growth in electricity demand, the supply chain constraints facing medium-voltage transformers, and Heron Power’s effort to replace traditional transformer systems with software-enabled solid-state power electronics. Baglino explains how modular, semiconductor-based systems could make grids more reliable, easier to service, safer, and dramatically faster to deploy. Critical Capital is a co-production of Crux and Latitude Studios. Learn more about how Crux is financing the future of energy 01:24 Meet Drew Baglino 03:10 Why Power Electronics Matter 05:12 Transformer Supply Shock 08:52 Heron Power Explained 11:02 Deleting The Transformer 14:36 Scaling Manufacturing 17:18 AI In Engineering 19:43 Tesla Lessons Applied 24:32 Modernizing The Grid 28:06 Policy And Incentives 30:41 Capital And Cash Flow 33:20 Leapfrog Opportunity 34:05 Closing Credits