Energypreneurs

Robert Siy is a columnist and advocate for sustainable mobility in the Philippines. In today's episode, we get to hear his view on why electric vehicles are only part of the solution for the Philippines. We discussed the main challenges in changing our policies and systems (05:00 min), the flooding by the motorcycles and financing options (12:00 min) for electric vehicles.

We explored investment opportunities (18:00 min), especially retrofit of existing vehicles (20:00) and business model for public transport (26:00 min) and policy options (34:00 min) for the government, and immediate opportunities (41:00 min)

Please join us in this conversation to find more.

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Today, Emily So, a renewable energy specialist with the Asian Development Bank, shares her professional transformation from working in a think-tank to a startup to finally a development professional today.

In this episode, we hear about her challenges in installing solar power in luxury lodges in Africa, poor off-grid locations in Bangladesh, and countries across the Pacific. She explains why and how the smaller Pacific countries are introducing solar power and batteries to tackle climate change. Emily explained why development organizations need to invest more in innovative systems and projects to tackle climate change.

To find out more, including how she got convinced of the need for the urgency of tackling climate change while stranded on a remote island, please listen in:

Please listen in to find out more.

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Today, we tap into the experiences of Darshak Mehta, a technical guru of climate change accounting and an energy efficiency veteran of the 90s. Our conversation tried to decipher the ecosystem of technical terms: Green House Gas Accounting, Clean Development Mechanism, and reference to many guidelines and International Protocols that created this ecosystem.

We tried to explain these items in terms of simple numbers and examples. What is the voluntary mechanism, why does it get complicated, and how does it link back to the Paris Agreement and the countries that have made it.

Please listen in to find out more.

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Manuela Prina explains how to anticipate the skills that may be necessary for the future. She works for the European Training Foundation, an European Union agency specializing in human capital development policies, especially education and training, vocational and technical education, and labor market policies.

Today, we talked about upskilling and reskilling, including skills that may be essential to support the energy transition. According to her, skill development is not only the concern of the public sector; private companies, especially the employers of the future, need to play a vital role.

Her message: we need to prepare young minds for the future, and investment in education is critical.

Please listen in to find more.

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Yuji Tsujiki, the CEO of "forestdigital, inc.", explains how his new startup can organize a trip to your favorite Japanese forest without leaving your living room, corporate relaxation room or a hospital bed or from anywhere.

Yuji's Tokyo-based startup specializes in Virtual Reality. With the help of their intelligent software and cloud computing, they can capture and "replay" the forest experience—the sound, smell, and high quality surround video anywhere.

In today's episode, we discussed his vision, the technology platform, and the entire process of 'capture" and "delivery". The idea of this product came from extended lockdown periods stopping everyone from visiting a real forest or any scenery. Since we can't go to the forest, why can't we put it indoors? Armed with a range of short-throw state-of-the-art laser projectors, Yuji sees opportunities at restaurants, cafes, malls, meeting rooms, houses, and even hospitals.

Although his company operates only in Japan, he expects to expand everywhere soon.

Please listen in to find out more.

https://forestdigital.org/

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Emilie Smith, the CEO of ExO Works, is in the business of transforming business with a purpose. Her motto is to accelerate technology adoption into society; exactly how a few developers started companies like Google, Airbnb, Uber, and Facebook and eventually defined today's way of life, transforming many things in their ways. In this episode, Emilie shared how her company helps clients to innovate and scale fast. Companies with all the data and the system fail to innovate because the culture of open communication may be lacking, and how companies fail to hire the right people. Changing people's minds and ideologies is very hard and dangerous for companies, especially post-pandemic when people started rethinking their careers during the pandemic. Please listen in to learn more about the exciting projects Emilie and her team are working on currently solar, batteries, and green energy. Connect with Sohail Hasnie:

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Jason Rush, ADB's Team Leader for Communication, Knowledge and External Partnerships in Southeast Asia, started his career as a lawyer in the United States. He then moved to Asia, focused on communication work in UNICEF, others before joining the Asian Development Bank.

In this episode, Jason explained the impact of analog to digital transformation in large organizations. While communication has changed from one to one community meetings handling out brochures to talking thousands of people over Zoom across the globe, large organizations had to re-think communication strategy and their views about social media.

Our need to communicate better is ever more important now, especially for climate change and any successful initiatives. He explained why making communication easier to internalize, digest, and make it interesting is also essential. His message: climate change is real, and due to the pandemic, a lot has opened their eyes to what is happening, and with the proper communication, we might make a real change.

Please listen in to find out more.

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Emily Morris returned as a guest and updated me on Emrgy's latest projects and their expansion in New Zealand, South Africa, and Asia. She explained why she is convinced that the future of electricity is distributed. We discuss why the levelized cost of micro-hydropower could be between 2 to 6 cents a kWh, while the capital cost is relatively high ($1500 to $4000 per kW). We analyzed situations where micro-hydro hybrid systems can replace many small diesel generators.

Please listen in to find out more.

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Dr. Vinod Nair is currently the Chief Technical Officer and co-founder at FaradPower, Inc., developing advanced battery materials from agricultural waste.

In this episode, he explained one of his innovations to use anode made from domestic waste and replace graphite, the hard carbon material.

Vinod also touched on the idea of DC vs AC electricity, and in his view it was a "historical mistake" to opt for AC electricity. We touched on many other fun ideas.

Please join to find more.

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A long-term renewable energy and storage veteran, James Hamilton, shared his industry insight today. He leads the technology innovation and hydrogen team in BayWa Renewable Energy.

In today's episode, James shared his renewable energy journey, especially his views on our path to net zero. He argues, solar, wind and batteries are great, but they won't be able to deliver a 100% decarbonized economy so hydrogen definitely will have a role. Then we got into the mixed feelings about the hydrogen boom we are seeing today, what are the technical limitations and where we need to focus and much more.

Please listen in to find out more.

Connect with Sohail Hasnie:

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