10x More Storage: Cole Ashman on Reinventing Home Energy with Mesh Batteries

When you think about climate change solutions, your mind might jump to solar panels, electric vehicles, or wind turbines. But what about the batteries that help make those technologies useful in real life, especially when the power grid fails?

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet , host Dylan Garrett talks with Cole Ashman , CEO and founder of Pila Energy , about how distributed, modular energy storage can make our homes more resilient, affordable, and climate-friendly. 

After experiencing Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of critical infrastructure firsthand, Cole dedicated his career to addressing the invisible yet essential energy problems that affect our daily lives.

• 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4iUtpas
• 🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/GpzYvl72O-A
• 🎧 Spotify: https://bit.ly/4jFLKck

From Hurricane Katrina to Climate-Resilient Homes

Cole Ashman’s journey into climate tech began with a crisis. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, he saw how quickly life unraveled when infrastructure, especially electricity, failed. That formative experience made him realize just how fragile modern comforts are without a reliable power source.

That moment led him to study engineering and later take on product leadership roles at Tesla and Span. Through that experience, he developed a people-first mindset to solving infrastructure problems, prioritizing comfort, convenience, and well-being as much as carbon reductions.

At Pila, he’s applying that ethos to a growing problem: how do we make home energy storage accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford whole-home battery systems?

Modular, Portable Batteries for the Modern Home

Traditional home battery storage systems are expensive, complicated to install, and often require extensive permitting. They’re a poor fit for renters or people who move frequently. Pila’s solution? A plug-and-play, modular battery system that works more like mesh WiFi than a fixed appliance.

These compact units are:

• One-tenth the cost of traditional systems
• Stackable and scalable—start with what you need and grow over time
• Movable, meaning you can take them with you if you relocate
• Designed to power critical appliances like your fridge, lights, or internet router

By making the hardware approachable and user-friendly, Pila lowers the barrier to entry for millions of households. That’s essential in a world where climate-related blackouts and energy insecurity are becoming more common.

A Grid Revolution from the Edge

While the individual batteries are impressive, their true potential lies in how they connect. Pila’s platform allows thousands of units to operate in a coordinated mesh network. This transforms them from isolated devices into a distributed energy storage system that could rival utility-scale projects.

Cole explains that this networked approach could:

• Create 10x more storage capacity than all U.S. utility-scale batteries combined
• Support coordinated charging/discharging, improving grid flexibility.
• Enable features like appliance-level monitoring, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization.

In essence, Pila’s vision turns homes into miniature power plants—resilient, efficient, and ready to contribute to the broader energy system.

Resilience Without Friction

Much like how WiFi became ubiquitous by embedding itself into everyday devices, Cole sees energy storage heading in the same direction.

But the key to that future, he says, is removing friction. People don’t want to manage permits, deal with complex installations, or pay tens of thousands of dollars upfront. That’s why Pila’s model centers on ease of use, flexibility, and affordability.

By embedding storage into appliances and leveraging software to manage energy flows, they’re building an application layer for energy, not just hardware. This makes it easier for partners to integrate storage into new homes, new appliances, or new business models.

Building Climate Tech for People

At the core of Pila’s philosophy is a belief that climate tech should be designed for people first. That means understanding what people truly care about, including comfort during outages, cost savings, the ability to live sustainably, and developing solutions that deliver these outcomes seamlessly.

Pila’s batteries aren’t just clean. They’re practical. They offer:

• Peace of mind during blackouts
• Lower energy bills through smarter load management
• Mobility and modularity, meeting people where they are

This approach is how climate solutions break out of niche markets and into the mainstream.

A Vision for Ubiquitous Energy Storage

Cole’s long-term vision is ambitious: a world where every appliance, every building, and every home has embedded energy storage, just like every device now connects to WiFi.

Reaching that future will require:

• Partnerships with builders, appliance makers, and utilities
• Software platforms that manage distributed storage as a cohesive network
• Policy support to level the playing field between centralized and distributed systems

But most of all, it requires a mindset shift, from thinking of batteries as rare, expensive hardware to seeing them as everyday infrastructure that belongs in every home.

Final Thoughts: Climate Resilience Starts at Home

This episode of Hardware to Save a Planet is a powerful reminder that some of the most impactful climate solutions start at the household level. By empowering individuals with resilient, accessible energy tools, we can build a grid that’s cleaner, stronger, and more equitable.

Cole’s work at Pila shows that when technology is simple, affordable, and people-centered, it can scale fast, bringing both climate impact and quality of life improvements along the way.

If you're passionate about clean energy, resilience, or democratizing access to climate tech, this conversation is a must-listen.

• 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4iUtpas
• 🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/GpzYvl72O-A
• 🎧 Spotify: https://bit.ly/4jFLKck

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