🌐 The Clean Energy Transition Is Cooking with Batteries

Most U.S. homes aren’t wired for electrified living—even though the clean energy future depends on it.

That fossil-free future hinges on two big shifts:

1. Generating massive amounts of clean energy that feed the power grid

2. Electrifying everything—cars, homes, buildings—so it can all plug in and run on that clean power

Sounds simple. Yet, it’s the greatest challenge in human history. Not only because it’s civilization-scale change, but also because civilization is on the clock.

2050 is the deadline the world’s scientists set for net zero. That’s a “lawyered-up” way of saying we need to be completely unf*cked in just twenty-five years.

The problem for American homes?

They’re old. The median-aged U.S. home is 40. It was built before Michael Jordan won his first NBA title, before Tiger Woods won his first Masters, before Roger Federer lifted a Grand Slam. Upgrading all the wiring, panels, and transformers will cost billions.

They’re built for gas. 61% still rely on direct natural gas for heating, hot water, or cooking.

Their occupants have other things on their minds. They’re not demanding electrification. No one wakes up thinking, “Today’s the day I rethink my load capacity.”

They want lifestyle upgrades:

• Faster, more precise cooking

• Backup power in a pinch

• Appliances that cost less and perform more

That’s the challenge Copper was founded to solve.

🔌 The Technology Bottleneck: The Grid

Clean energy technology is doing its job. Solar, wind, and batteries have gotten cheaper faster than anyone predicted.

So cheap that 96% of new U.S. power was carbon-free last year.

Globally, new solar and wind energy are the cheapest forms of new electricity on the planet.

Granted, the Trump Administration is trying to curtail the U.S. transition. But the tech is proven. Deployments continue. New utility-scale wind in Iowa. New utility-scale solar in Texas and Wisconsin. Economics will ultimately win the day.

Meanwhile, the other side of the clean energy equation—home electrification—is running into a wall of obstacles:

• Wires that can’t carry the load

• Neighborhood transformers stretched thin

• Analog electrical panels that top out

• Permits that drag on for months

• Labor that’s expensive or unavailable

• Utilities that delay

🔋 Copper’s Clever Workaround

Copper’s approach? Sidestep all the friction—by putting a storage battery inside the appliance.

Meet Charlie, a sleek, modern induction range with a built-in 5 kWh battery. It skips the costly 240-volt upgrade, avoids tearing out the drywall, and eliminates the need to run new wires.

The true electrification unlock? It plugs into a standard 110V outlet, readily available in any U.S. kitchen. And it delivers:

• 4× faster cooking than gas

• Smart charging when renewables are abundant

• Continued performance during blackouts

That one shift—embedding storage in the appliance—removes the most painful parts of electrification. It also opens the door to something much bigger.

“We can make kick-ass appliances if they have batteries inside of them. I sell the most powerful induction range on the market. It preheats four times faster than gas, boils water three times faster than gas. It’s made possible by that embedded battery storage,” says Sam Calisch, Copper’s co-founder and CEO.

🍳 What Makes Charlie Different

The trend has been underway for years now. Top chefs and restaurants prefer induction to natural gas. Michelin three-star restaurants such as Robuchon au Dôme in Macau, Alinea in Chicago, and the French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, have all adopted induction.

Induction ranges are faster, more precise, and safer to use. Charlie delivers added benefits:

• It draws low, steady power

• Stores it in the internal battery

• Delivers high-performance bursts on demand

• Automatically charges when power is cleanest or cheapest

It’s a grid asset wrapped in a superior cooking product.

It may sound hyperbolic, but the fate of the human race may depend on consumers falling in love with Charlie’s timeless design and black walnut knobs.

Every installed Copper appliance that draws less peak power eases pressure on the grid. Every integrated battery that shifts power consumption to off-peak hours strengthens it.

“All 140 million housing units in the U.S. have a stove in them,” said Sam. “That’s a giant market—and a huge opportunity to rethink how power is used.”

🏠 The Strategy: Start With One, Then Scale

Copper is many things at once. An appliance company. A climate company. A demand-management platform. 

Charlie is the first node:

• It includes Copper’s Home Energy OS
  

• It sets the foundation for dryers, water heaters, and more
  

• It creates a new way to manage home energy without rewiring the home
  
  

The business model is familiar. Lead with a standout product that solves a real problem, then build the network that product unlocks.

“We don’t have to rewire America to electrify it,” Sam told me. “We just have to start putting intelligence and storage in the right places.”

🏢 Why Multifamily Comes First

Charlie works in any home, and already 1,000 units have been installed nationwide. But Copper’s first major market isn’t single-family—it’s multifamily.

That’s where the barriers are highest and the opportunities strongest. The One Big Beautiful Bill is sunsetting the 30% tax incentive for single-family homeowners this year, but it kept them on the books for multifamily apartment buildings.

That’s also something Sam knows well. Before co-founding Copper, he co-founded Rewiring America and helped champion clean energy policy provisions that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Typically, electrifying apartment buildings involves trenching, rewiring, and extensive panel upgrades. Copper bypasses all of that.

Copper’s battery-embedded appliances allow:

• Drop-in installs

• No utility coordination

• No infrastructure overhauls

For building managers, this means carbon reductions with lower capital expenditures. For housing authorities and developers, it’s a fast path to hit sustainability targets without blowing the budget.

Electrifying one unit is helpful. Electrifying 500 at once—that’s leverage. Copper already has a contract with the New York City Housing Authority to supply 10,000 stoves.

⚡ From Appliance to Grid Asset

Charlie doesn’t just cook. It shifts load, balances demand, and participates in the grid.

Each unit:

• Charges during off-peak hours

• Supports demand response

• Provides backup in outages

• Can be enrolled in Virtual Power Plant  programs

Copper is already establishing its partnerships with utilities to turn Charlie into a distributed storage fleet, a Virtual Power Plant capable of sharing power back to the grid.

“The energy transition won’t happen through utility-scale batteries alone,” Sam said. “We’re building resilience into homes directly. That’s how you scale.”

🌍 The Climate Case (Without the Pitch)

Charlie cuts emissions in three ways:

1. Faster electrification — by removing friction that limits adoption
   
   

2. Smarter load timing — by charging when the grid is cleanest and cheapest
   
   

3. Avoided upgrades — by keeping homes under current service limits

But none of that is front and center. Charlie is sold on performance.

“The average consumer doesn’t care about climate,” Sam said. “They care about performance, cost, and reliability. If we want electrification to scale, the products have to be better.”

Copper doesn’t ask people to care more. Instead, they build appliances people fall in love with.

🌐 Supercool Takeaway

Copper didn’t upgrade the grid. It outsmarted it.

Love. It’s what makes a Subaru (so they say). And with Charlie, it’s what pushes the clean energy transition forward.

This Week’s Podcast Episode

The Clean Energy Transition Is Cooking: Copper's Battery-Enabled Appliances Unlock Home Electrification

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other podcast platforms.

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Stat of the Week: $320–720 billion

That’s what it would take to upgrade and reinforce America’s grid so every home could run on clean electricity—about $2,600–$5,800 per household.

However, by implementing demand-response programs like Virtual Power Plants, as much as 77% of that investment could be recouped.

Quote of the Week:

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Related

Markets and Policies Together Are Electrifying the Future

Coming in September, a Supercool conversation with Jared Della Valle, CEO of Alloy Development. The real estate developer was named one of Fast Company’s 2025 Most Innovative Companies in the World for building New York City’s first electrified skyscraper. 

Alloy’s work foretells what the future of electrification looks like at the city-block level.

Developers are also getting a push from local city leaders who are establishing the market rules for electrified buildings to become the default.

Here are seven cities accelerating the adoption of building electrification.

1. New York City, NY

• Local Law 154: Bans fossil fuel hookups in most new buildings (phased from 2024).

• Local Law 97: The nation’s most ambitious building emissions caps, affecting 50,000+ buildings, with fines starting this year.

• Why it matters: Largest U.S. real estate market, huge precedent-setting effect.
  
  

2. Los Angeles, CA

• Requires all-electric new residential and commercial construction (effective 2023).

• Why it matters: The Biggest West Coast city to mandate all-electric, symbolic and influential across CA and beyond.
  
  

3. San Francisco, CA

• All-electric new buildings since 2021; now moving toward banning gas in major renovations.

• Why it matters: Among the earliest and most aggressive large cities, expansion into retrofits helped set a precedent.
  
  

4. Seattle, WA

• Building code bans most fossil-fuel space and water heating in new commercial and large multifamily buildings (since 2021).

• Why it matters: Shows how building codes can be leveraged to decarbonize at scale, even outside CA/NY.
  
  

5. Boston, MA

• BERDO 2.0: Binding emissions targets for large existing buildings, with reporting requirements beginning in 2022, compliance deadlines will start in 2025–26.

• Why it matters: The leading model in the Northeast (besides NYC) for performance standards on existing buildings.
  
  

6. Denver, CO

• Energize Denver: Performance standards requiring large buildings to cut energy use and emissions by 2030.

• Why it matters: A national model for how inland cities (not just coasts) are pushing electrification through standards.
  
  

7. St. Louis, MO

• First Midwestern city to adopt a Building Energy Performance Standard (2020).

• Why it matters: Important signal that this isn’t just a coastal trend—BPS policies can take root in the Midwest, too.

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Where Supercool traveled this week:

Article:

🌐 Yahoo: Game-changing startup offers new way to get high-quality secondhand clothes: 'The consumer would prefer'

🌐 thinkPARALLAX: When climate goals meet reality: What should companies do when they miss the mark?

Podcasts:

🌐 In with the new: Supercool: Building the Low-Carbon Future

🌐 UpNext: Josh Dorfman. Evolving Your Personal Brand.

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