Energypreneurs

Daniel Hersson and innovation go hand in hand. His early work on innovation is now switched to support climate-friendly venture capital investments. ADB Ventures provides capital and support to early-stage, climate-focus tech start-ups from all around the world. They are helping entrepreneurs build long-term relationships faster and create value.

In this episode, we also discussed how ADB Ventures are different from other venture capitals. We also talked about case studies and start-ups ADB Ventures helped through the years. In this episode, Daniel shared what they do at ADB Ventures, and what specific elements he and his team look for in an investment proposal. Please join in to find out more.

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Leandro Leviste, the CEO of Solar Philippines, started his solar venture in 2013 when the Philippines had less than 10 MW of installed solar power. Today his ambitions are big: he wants to build solar plants on his 10,000-hectare land through partnerships and enable the transition from coal and gas. Although Leandro started from a mindset of distributed generation, today he believes in large centralized battery and solar installation because of economies of scale and other factors.

From the proceeds of his early investments in Solar City and Tesla, Leandro went to big plants —not rooftop solar but large centralized systems, and he explains why in our discussion. We touched on the prospects of electric vehicles and batteries in the Philippines and the 10,000 MW of solar that the country's system will need by 2025, which will be only 100 Watt per capita solar installation. Please join in to find more from this interesting insightful conversation with Leandro.

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Sebastian Groh, the Managing Director at SOLshare, shares his journey from an investment banker in Europe to the CEO of an off-grid solar company in Bangladesh and its evolution over the past years. His interests are in distributed energy, e-mobility and energy storage. He explains how he became an "entrepreneur" by accident. Sebastian's business is focused on peer-to-peer grid trading excess electricity to the neighbours. His business has also evolved to smart battery networks for the 1.5+ local "Teslas" of Bangladesh. We also talked about his future expansion plans to different countries, given the success in Bangladesh. Please listen in to find out more.

Connect with Sebastian Groh on LinkedIn

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Janice Baird is currently the Principal at Earth & Every, an environmental advocacy start-up. Her passion: seeking regulatory best practice for major projects, with a focus on energy and fossil fuels. Her team works with communities across the board—from affected areas to concerned citizens.

Today we heard from Janice about her exciting work with conservation organizations and some of the projects they are currently working on--mostly on gas projects in regional Australia. We explored how changes in land use can contribute to the extinction of different species.

We talked about the situation in Australia, how energy infrastructure can affect wildlife and their habitat and the importance of community consultation. Janice also discusses biodiversity offsets and how they are commonly used in Australia.

Please listen in to find out more

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Dr. Priyantha Wijayatunga, Chief of the Energy Sector Group, of the Asian Development Bank and I discuss the behind the scenes activities and thinking, which became the recently approved Energy Policy of ADB. We analyze the impact of this new energy policy on the generation, transmission, distribution segments of the power sector and the importance of climate change.

Please listen in to find out more.

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Dr. Cindy Tiangco's 25-year work experience includes 10 years in ADB leading clean energy projects—solar PV, mini-grids and battery energy storage systems in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu. In some countries in Central Asia she is the "Mother" or "Queen" of Solar. In this episode, Cindy explains the transformation she has seen in the clean energy journey from landlocked and fossil fuel-rich Centra Asia to small pacific island economies surrounded by vast oceans. How a simple solar roadmap paved the transformative paths in larger economies like Uzbekistan. How we can bring scale by adding demand in these small countries and their ambitions for a hydrogen economy.

(Note from Cindy: around 38:02, 1992 was Rio not Kyoto) Please listen in to find out more.

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What a high-energy discussion on innovation? How to choreograph elephants to dance and create a trend. How to amplify the benefit of innovation by aligning them with megatrends. In this episode, Dan brought his perspectives from his 40+ years of system automation and transformational change in different industries. Jen brought her perspectives from the humanitarian sector, working globally.

We slowly converged into electric vehicles—the battery on wheels—and their contribution to tackling climate change, and global transformation. Dan discussed how the rules of the game changed over the years. We collectively touched upon the technical innovation and the permanent changes brought about by the pandemic.

Please listen in to find out more.

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Dr. Michael Friedman is a medical doctor and medical epidemiologist. As the Country Director, CDC Bangladesh, as his last posting, he was at forefront of Bangladesh's battle with Covid-19.

After 25 years, with the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC), he is exploring the next chapter of his life—contemplating what to do next, specifically initiatives on global warming.

As an epidemiologist, he looks at health and health issues from a broader standpoint, taking into account the whole society or community. In this episode, we discussed our changed attitude towards climate change because of Covid and the pondering we all did. We discussed air pollution, education, mental health, lessons, and innovations that he saw.

Join in to find more.

References:

• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193572)
• https://vimeo.com/560689556)

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In this episode, I was able to hear two scientists' views on the future of electric batteries, their safety, and racing.

Dr. Xu's research group focuses on Lithium-ion battery safety, design, and development of multifunctional energy storage systems among others. Dr. Mesbah Uddin, Professor, and Director of NC Motorsports and Automotive Research Center at the University of Charlotte.

We discussed internal and external stress on batteries, and how short circuits can lead to thermal runaway—or very fast temperature increases—that can eventually lead to a fire in a battery even when the car may be just parked and not even running. What are the probabilities and what are the battery safety options that protect us from those risks. How the industry is operating without a single overall safety standard and why it is important to stick to large brand batteries.

He explains why the cycle life of the solid-state batteries will be much lower than today's Lithium battery. Dr. Mesbah Uddin explains how the racing industry is slowly taking an interest in electric vehicles and much more…

If you want to get a thorough understanding of battery safety and racing, please listen in.

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Elaine Chen co-founded BillionWatts Technologies, a subsidiary under Billion Electric Corp, with a focus on solar PV and energy storage-related products and solutions.

Today, we discussed with this high-energy young entrepreneur the details of today's energy transformation in Taiwan and its key drivers.

Elaine shared the future of Taiwan's energy sector and their capacity expansion plans—a huge target of 20,000 MW of solar and 7,000MW of wind by 2025. We learned how the sector is moving from its imported coal and oil-based energy sector to indigenous renewable energy. We also talked about how the transformation will affect the demand for rooftop solar and on-grid battery storage.

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