Energy Evolution

Europe is heading into winter with low gas storage and prices back at levels not seen since 2022. Does a tight start to winter mean Europe will struggle to get enough gas, or will it simply have to pay more for it? In this episode of Energy Evolution, host Camilla Naschert is joined by Stuart Elliott, news manager at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. He explains why prices rose sharply to their late-October peaks, what current storage levels mean at the start of winter, and why low levels in Germany and the Netherlands matter in particular. Stuart also covers where Europe's gas is coming from, with the loss of most Qatari LNG and the EU ban on Russian LNG starting in the new year.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage has long been one of the most promising and contested technologies in the rapidly expanding world of carbon removal. It is now starting to move from theory to practice at scale, in ways that matter for carbon markets, energy producers and industrial emitters alike. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte is joined by three practitioners actively shaping the BECCS market to assess whether the sector has finally crossed the threshold from ambition to delivery. Jan-Willem Bode, president of Puro.earth, maps the state of carbon removal certification; Alex Clayton, chief carbon officer at Gevo, offers a ground-level view from an operating BECCS facility in North Dakota; and Kaja Voss, CEO and founder of Inherit Carbon Solutions, explains how Europe is pursuing a different but complementary path to geological storage. Together they assess how evolving project financing structures and sharply contrasting policy approaches on either side of the Atlantic will determine the trajectory of carbon markets in the years ahead. The central question running through the conversation is a simple one: is BECCS finally ready to deliver the tons of carbon removal that buyers, regulators and climate targets urgently need?

Lithium-ion batteries dominate today's rapidly expanding global market for energy storage systems, fueled by hyperscalers and utilities scrambling to bring online new flexible capacity. But alternatives to lithium ion are fast emerging, perhaps none as quickly as its close cousin sodium ion.

This episode features a recording from the American Clean Power Association's RECHARGE energy storage conference in Aurora, Colorado, where Platts senior reporter Garrett Hering moderated a fireside chat with Landon Mossburg, CEO and co-founder of Peak Energy, a developer of sodium-ion battery storage systems.

Mossburg makes a case for why market observers may be underestimating the ability of sodium ion to rise from a fraction of the market to a meaningful market share in just a few years.

The Texas grid experienced record electricity demand in summer 2026 while posting some of the lowest power prices in nearly a decade. That might be good for customers, but it makes for a tough investment environment if you want to build a gas plant. And with surging demand projections and increasingly extreme weather swings, many believe Texas needs significant new dispatchable generation, mainly gas, to prepare.

So how do we think about the reliability of the Texas grid? And how much are policy mechanisms like the Texas Energy Fund loan program helping? Where do renewables and storage fit into this? And how does Texas compare to other competitive power markets trying to encourage new dispatchable generation?

This episode features a recording from the Gulf Coast Power Association's fall conference in Austin, where Dan Testa hosted a live discussion on these issues with guests: David Dardis, chief external affairs and growth officer at Constellation Energy; Elaina Ball, chief strategy officer at CPS Energy, the municipal utility for San Antonio; and Mason Lester, a principal analyst on the North American power team at S&P Global Energy.

In this week's episode of Energy Evolution, host Eklavya Gupte takes stock of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism nearly a year into its definitive phase, and asks a pointed question: Is it working? To answer it, he is joined by Alwyn Hopkins, director and sustainability leader for Industrials and Energy at EY UK; Dan Maleski, director at the EY Global Tax Center of Excellence; and Irina Breilean, senior carbon price reporter at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. Together, they examine how punishing default emissions values are rewriting the economics of steel, fertilizer and other carbon-intensive imports, how traders are building proxy hedges to manage exposure to volatile EU carbon prices, and why 2027 will mark a decisive shift from compliance accounting to live cash flow pressure. The episode also looks beyond Europe, tracing how CBAM is accelerating the development of carbon pricing regimes from India to Brazil, and what the UK's own version of the mechanism, launching in January 2027, means for global trade flows.

In this week's episode of Energy Evolution, host Camilla Naschert turns the spotlight on Big Tech as part of S&P Global Energy's annual series examining how the world's largest companies are faring on their paths to net-zero emissions. The AI infrastructure boom has driven the sector's energy appetite to new heights, and its carbon footprint is rising in tandem. Tech reporter Stefan Modrich of S&P Global Market Intelligence surveyed the top 30 IT companies by market cap, tracking targets across scopes 1, 2 and 3. He found genuine ambition sitting uneasily alongside a commercial race to secure power at any cost. Senior reporter Karin Rives completes the picture from the utility side. Five years into her survey of the 30 largest US electric utilities, she found two-thirds are either not on pace to meet their climate goals, have delayed them or have scrapped them entirely. Some companies cited reliability and affordability as justification, while others are pressing ahead with new gas capacity to keep pace with a surge in electricity demand.

Europe's increasingly digital power system faces a rapidly evolving mix of cyberattacks, physical sabotage and supply-chain vulnerabilities, with artificial intelligence amplifying both the risks and the defenses.

Host Camilla Naschert speaks with Eurelectric CEO Kristian Ruby and European Initiative for Energy Security Executive Director Albéric Mongrenier about how utilities are responding to AI-enabled threats, state-backed and non-state actors, and attacks on critical infrastructure.

They examine whether Europe's regulatory framework and security investment are keeping pace, how operators should approach equipment and vendor risk, and why stronger civilian-military coordination will be essential to keep the lights on.

The US offshore wind sector is facing a new front in its battle with the Trump administration: lease buyouts. In this episode of Energy Evolution, renewables reporter Noah Schwartz tells host Camilla Naschert about federal deals that allow offshore wind developers to cancel leases in exchange for fossil fuel investment commitments and government reimbursement.

S&P Global Energy offshore wind analyst John Murray explains the financial and regulatory pressures facing developers, while former Bureau of Ocean Energy Management head Liz Klein discusses the legal challenges, state-level opposition and national security arguments surrounding offshore wind.

Dozens of North American private startups and established companies, state agencies and academic institutions are racing to develop and commercialize an advanced nuclear reactor. Whether these companies, and the advanced nuclear sector at large, can succeed depends on numerous factors, including the capital plans of large tech companies, favorable federal policy and the strengths of individual reactor designs.

So which companies are currently winning the race to commercialize an advanced reactor design?

In this episode, Dan Testa discusses the state of the advanced nuclear sector with contributor and S&P Global Energy reporter Abbie Bennett. Bennett also interviews Craig Bealmear, CFO of advanced reactor developer Oklo Inc., to get an inside view of the industry.

Diesel markets are entering their most stressful stretch of the year as record prices, thin inventories and disrupted supply flows collide across the Americas. In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, Jeff Mower speaks with Janet McGurty, Kauanna Navarro and Carlos Castillo about how constraints in Russia and the Middle East have pushed US Gulf Coast refiners into the role of global swing supplier, why Brazil is relying more heavily on US and Indian cargoes, and how limited refinery spare capacity leaves markets with little room for error.