Facts and Physics

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Together with Per Nystrom, I (Dr. Vikrant Venkataraman) explore the concept of 'The Optimal Grid' and what the electricity system must look like in an increasingly renewables dominated world. What are the bottlenecks with the legacy electricity grids? Why is every country building electricity grids the same way and is there a better way to design electricity grids which will lower costs all along the electricity supply chain? Listen to the episode to learn more.

In the episode there is a part where we touch upon three images. You may access the three images from the following links. The listing of the images below is according to the sequence in which they are discussed in this episode.

Image 1 - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-10/renewable-energy-spilled-as-generation-outgrows-demand-/105929716

Image 2 - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-baxter-a141a1b_what-is-the-real-price-of-uk-wind-and-solar-share-7461349314334969856-d0pZ/

Image 3 - Figure 24, page 53 from https://www.aemo.com.au/-/media/files/electricity/nem/planning_and_forecasting/nem_esoo/2025/2025-electricity-statement-of-opportunities.pdf

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In this episode, I (Dr. Vikrant Venkataraman) together with Prof. Robert Steinberger-Wilckens explore what lessons have we learnt from decades of fuel cell and hydrogen development. We touch upon as to why fuel cells have failed to gain a significant market share in the current markets?, what is missing to enable this technology to become mainstream? and also a range of broad hydrogen and related energy topics.

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One of the strongest and most frequently repeated claims of SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) technology is its fuel flexibility. But are SOFCs really fuel flexible? Which fuels can they work with commercially? What are the complexities involved when designing and deploying commercial SOFC systems and what new fuel flexibility definition will help the SOFC industry and community understand this better?

Find out more in this podcast episode.

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Introduction to why this podcast exists and what is the aim of this podcast.

Physics sets the boundaries, Engineering determines what can be built within them and Economics determines whether it survives outside the laboratory.