In this episode, I’m joined by Johannes Kirnberger, co-founder and Managing Director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German company building Europe’s next-generation charging and battery infrastructure for electric freight. Johannes shares his journey from advising global institutions like the OECD and World Bank to co-founding a startup that's tackling one of Europe’s most complex infrastructure challenges—how to electrify heavy-duty transport at scale.

Johannes Kirnberger is the co-founder and managing director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German energy company pioneering integrated charging and battery storage solutions for European industry and electric fleet. He previously advised the OECD, the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on energy, digital, and climate policy. Johannes serves as a guest lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from ESCP Business School, a Master of International Public Management from Sciences Po, and a Master in International Affairs, Energy and Environment from Columbia University.

About Delta Charge:
Headquartered in Munich, Delta Charge is a Swedish-German energy infrastructure company pioneering end-to-end charging and battery storage solutions for Europe’s freight sector. The company develops and finances a pan-European network of truck-charging depots and battery-enabled industrial hubs. Its platform combines intelligent software, grid-connected batteries, and fixed-price charging services to help fleet operators electrify their operations while supporting a more flexible and resilient power grid. Backed by Delta Capacity, one of Scandinavia’s leading battery energy storage developers, the company aims to deploy over €300 million in infrastructure and deliver 1.8 TWh of clean energy annually by 2030, anchoring the backbone of Europe’s zero-carbon freight future.

Social links:
Johannes Kirnbergeron LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneskirnberger/
Delta Charge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deltacharge/
Delta Charge website: https://www.deltacharge.com/

Episode Links:
Book Recommends:
Termination Shock- Neil Stephenson - https://amzn.eu/d/1XmpfDC
About Hyperion Search:
At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit s

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode, David Hunt discusses the key insights from the Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review, highlighting the significant shifts in the cleantech sector during 2025. The conversation covers the maturation of the industry, the focus on execution over exuberance, and the evolving demands for leadership and talent across various sectors, including energy storage, EVs, and renewables. The episode also touches on the challenges faced by hard tech and the implications for the future as the market prepares for 2026.

Takeaways

• 2025 was a year of maturity in cleantech.
• The focus has shifted from technology to execution.
• Nearly 50% fewer companies reached seed to Series A rounds.
• Talent demand is focused on operational discipline and execution.
• AI-driven optimization is becoming crucial in mobility.
• Solar has overtaken coal as the EU's largest electricity source.
• The pilot to readiness gap in hard tech is widening.
• Boards need to be operator-led for effective scaling.
• Talent markets are becoming more selective with higher expectations.
• The next phase of the transition is about delivery, not invention.
• Navigating the Cleantech Landscape: Insights from Hyperion
• 2025: The Year Cleantech Matures

Sound Bites

• "The pilot to readiness gap is widening."
• "Boards need operators, not just advisors."
• "AI becomes invisible infrastructure."

Chapters

00:00Introduction to the Hyperion Q4 Review

01:212025: A Year of Maturity in Cleantech

03:20Energy Storage and Grid Market Insights

05:09EV and Future Mobility Developments

07:01Renewables: Milestones and Talent Trends

08:35Challenges in Hard Tech and Funding

09:55Looking Ahead: Key Themes for 2026

Links

• Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review - https://hyperionsearch.com/market-reviews/
• Net Zero Insights -State of Cleantech 2025 - https://stateofclimatetech.com/

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

Devrim Celal– Kraken

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, David Hunt is joined once again by Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility & Marketing Officer at Kraken, nearly six years after their first conversation in 2019—back when Devrim was CEO of Upside Energy.

Since then, Upside Energy was acquired by Octopus Energy and evolved into Kraken, now one of the world’s leading energy technology platforms, serving tens of millions of customers and optimising flexible power at global scale.

Rather than a linear success story, Devrim reflects on the last decade as a series of distinct phases: early uncertainty, pivotal strategic pivots, the acquisition decision, rapid scaling within Octopus, and now Kraken’s transition into a fully independent global company.

The conversation explores leadership at scale, the reality of building culture through growth, the trade-offs founders face between conviction and adaptability, and what the future holds for flexibility, storage, EVs, data centres and grid optimisation.

This is a thoughtful, honest discussion about long-term impact, not short-term hype—and what it really takes to build enduring companies in the energy transition.

Devrim Celal:
Devrim is the Chief Flexibility and Marketing Officer at Kraken. Overseeing Kraken’s flexibility and product capabilities, the cloud-based flexibility platform controls and optimizes distributed energy resources such as batteries of all sizes, EVs, solar and wind generation or heat pumps with machine learning and AI to match electricity supply and demand, helping the electricity grid deal with the natural volatility of renewable generation. Kraken is currently contracted to manage over 42 GW of power.

Previously, Devrim was the CEO of Upside Energy, which was acquired by Kraken in 2020. Before starting Upside Energy, Devrim’s professional career saw him take up executive roles with blue chip management consultancies and finance companies such as Publicis Sapient, Kearney and Lansdowne. He also holds an MBA from Yale University. In 2023, Devrim joined the Elexon Board, which manages the Balancing and Settlement Code of Great Britain’s energy system, as a Non-Executive Director.

About Kraken:
Vienna-based innovator enspired is known for pioneering automated energy trading and Kraken is the most-loved operating system for energy.

Powered by Utility-Grade AI™ and deep industry expertise, we

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...