AI may be booming, but the real bottleneck to its growth may be turbines. And if firm power can’t scale fast enough, parts of the energy transition hit a wall.

In this episode, Tom Raftery is joined by Brad Hartwig, Co-founder and CEO of Arbor Energy, to unpack a part of the climate tech and energy transition story that gets far too little attention: the physical machinery needed to deliver reliable, round-the-clock power. Arbor is developing modular supercritical CO₂ turbines with integrated carbon capture, aimed at tackling one of the hardest problems in decarbonization: how to provide firm, scalable electricity while still driving emissions reduction and keeping net zero in view.

Brad digs into why turbine shortages are becoming a serious constraint on hyperscale data centres, utilities, and industrial electrification, and you’ll hear why he believes this is now a critical choke point for both AI infrastructure and climate progress. You might be surprised to learn how stretched the traditional turbine supply chain has become, and why legacy manufacturers may be structurally mismatched to meet the moment.

Brad also gets into oxy-combustion, methane leakage, biomass, carbon sequestration, long-duration storage, and the awkward reality that wind, solar, batteries, and grid expansion, while essential, may still leave gaps when it comes to firm power. This is a grounded conversation about climate tech, policy, energy transition strategy, and what serious infrastructure thinking looks like when the easy slogans run out.