They called the film Avengers: Infinity War the most ambitious crossover event in history. We can’t quite make the same claim, but at Wood Mackenzie’s 2025 Solar and Energy Storage Summit, we did record a crossover episode. Sylvia Leyva Martinez, Wood Mackenz’s principal analyst for solar power and host of Interchange Recharged, is joined by Ed Crooks, host of Energy Gang, to discuss the future of energy, and of the electricity grid in particular.

They are joined by Rob Chapman, Senior Vice President of Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions at the non-profit research group EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, which aims to help power society toward a reliable, affordable, and resilient energy future. 

Rob talks about a key theme in his work: the importance of flexibility on the electricity grid. Increased reliance on solar and wind power has created challenges in keeping the grid balanced and the lights on. Surging demand for electricity for new data centres to train and run AI models is giving rise to a whole new set of issues. More flexible demand and supply on the grid is increasingly valuable. But where can it come from?

Data centres don’t usually offer a lot of flexibility in their operations. People want to use ChatGPT and watch Netflix even at night and when the wind is low. So what can the hyperscalers do to create flexibility? Are virtual power plants an effective option? And how can the energy industry improve collaboration to find solutions that promote the clean energy transition while keeping prices down?

You can find Energy Gang wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Interchange Recharged with Sylvia Leyva Martinez for deep dives into the innovations that are accelerating the energy transition.

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Wood Mackenzie’s 18th Solar and Energy Storage summit is back, in Denver this week. If you can’t make it, don’t worry – we have all the debate and key insight you need to know here on the podcast. Recorded live on day 2 of the summit, host Sylvia Leyva Martinez talks to key industry leaders in solar and storage to answer these questions:

What’s best practice for battery asset management? To answer this Sylvia is joined by Jenny Fink, Director of Asset Management at KeyCapture Energy. They discuss the need to synchronise market operations, analytics and site management. What’s the biggest challenge involved in maintaining safe and efficient battery operations? 

How can developers and investors deal with market volatility? Petter Skantze is VP of Infrastructure Development at Nextera Energy. He talks to Sylvia about challenging load demands; stakes are higher now as project delays are a block to economic growth. Compared to legacy fossil fuels, solar and storage development lead times are many times faster – so why aren’t we seeing accelerated deployment?

Finally, Sylvia talks with Jeff Cramer about the benefits of community solar. Jeff is President and CEO of the Coalition for Community Solar Access, and he explains how community solar has grown from a niche offering to a key benefit to consumers. New York and California are leading the charge with programs that incentivise community solar with distributed energy sources. 

This episode is brought to you by Foss & Company - a leader in tax equity investing. At the forefront of clean energy finance, Foss helps developers and investors unlock capital for solar and energy storage projects across the U.S. If you're navigating the tax credit landscape or looking to maximize project returns, partner with the experts. Visit fossandco.com to learn more.

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Wood Mackenzie’s 18th Solar and Energy Storage summit is back, in Denver this week. If you can’t make it, don’t worry – we have all the debate and key insight you need to know here on the podcast.

Recorded live on day 1 of the summit, host Sylvia Leyva Martinez talks to four industry leaders in solar and storage to answer these questions:

Can the U.S. solar industry keep up with demand amid trade wars and policy chaos? Discussing this is David Carroll, ENGIE’s Chief Renewables Officer. He warns that policy uncertainty and tariff whiplash are stalling U.S. solar investment. Sylvia and David look at sodium-ion batteries; are they a safer option? Plus, more domestic energy storage is needed amid growing calls for stable tax credit policy to meet growing electricity demand. A must-hear for developers navigating today’s volatile energy landscape.

What about VPPS? Can they scale fast enough to provide a real alternative? Answering this is Sarah Noll, She shares insights on regulatory challenges, customer trust, and tech adoption, showing how the Arizona Public Service is turning grid flexibility into a real growth strategy.

Are storage operators leaving millions on the table because they don’t understand their own batteries? That’s the big question Shyam Srinivasan, CEO of Zitara, answers with Sylvia. He reveals how poor software integration is holding back storage performance. As storage scales rapidly, Shyam stresses the need for better diagnostics and real-time decision tools to optimise revenue, reliability, and resilience - especially in merchant markets.

Finally, Samantha Frisk from Pivot energy sits down with Sylvia to look at models for community solar development. Sam explains how early engagement, local benefits like agrivoltaics, and trusted partnerships can turn sceptical communities into solar advocates - proving clean energy can uplift as well as decarbonise.

This episode is brought to you by Foss & Company - a leader in tax equity investing. At the forefront of clean energy finance, Foss helps developers and investors unlock capital for solar and energy storage projects across the U.S. If you're navigating the tax credit landscape or looking to maximize project returns, partner with the experts. Visit fossandco.com to learn more.

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Over the past couple of years unprecedented low prices for solar panels have spurred incredible growth. But there’s a big shift underway. 

In this special episode of the show, recorded live from the stage at Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit 2025, host Sylvia Leyva Martinez, Principal Analyst at Wood Mackenzie, sits down with Ben Sigrin, Senior Product Manager at GridBeyond, to make sense of the turbulent market. 

With nearly 44 gigawatts of new solar expected this year, developers are under pressure to make faster, smarter decisions. GridBeyond helps solar and storage players optimise in real time, turning market volatility into opportunity. How do they do it? Are there other ways for off takers to get some certainty? Smart site selection is one of them, but what informs those decisions? Plus, hear the lessons from global solar markets that developers are bringing to the US.  

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“If you don't think in 15 years that we're going to value decarbonisation, or if you're worried about the 45Q, it's pretty tough to write that multi-billion dollar cheque,” says Peter Findlay, Director of CCUS Economics at Wood Mackenzie. In this week’s Interchange Recharged, Peter sits down again with host Sylvia Leyva Martinez to look at the challenges for new CCUS projects. It’s tough, as Peter says, because of the regulatory frameworks, financial mechanisms and incentives that currently exist in the US. 

To look at these and go deep on the legal barriers for CCUS deployment, Peter and Sylvia are also joined by Liz McGinley, partner at Bracewell Law Firm. Liz leads the firm’s tax practice and the energy transition team, and is renowned for her expertise in carbon capture and IRA tax credits. 

Liz discusses the intricate details of tax credits and regulatory updates while Peter reflects on the financial challenges of decarbonisation projects. In this episode:

• What will future legislative shifts mean for the industry’s growth? 
• How might regulatory shifts under the Trump administration impact clean energy and CCUS projects, including potential changes to clean hydrogen, fuels, and power regulations?
• How do the costs and complexities of pre-combustion and post-combustion CCUS projects differ, and how are financial incentives structured for each?

For more detailed analyis, check out the Lens reports from Wood Mac. Lens is a data analytics platform with sector-specific insights to help you power your Business Intelligence tools. Find it at woodmac.com/lens

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The US is projected to add an additional 26 GW of solar capacity in 2025. Solar has been one of the energy transition’s biggest success stories, but there are dark clouds gathering. Uncertainty is the biggest barrier to deployment at the moment: there’s potential changes coming with federal tax credits and trade policies (some of which are already having an impact), and the perceived risks are high for investors of solar projects. 

To find out how developers and manufacturers are mitigating these risks, Sylvia Leyva Martinez, principal analyst covering solar markets at Wood Mackenzie, is joined by Mike Hall, CEO of Anza Renewables. Mike talks through the data he’s analysing; Anza is seeing supply chains diversify and financial incentives like the ITC Adder helping developers.  

Despite efforts to bolster domestic manufacturing, China continues to dominate the global solar market. What are the impacts of Trump’s tariffs on domestic manufacturing? With a quarter of the year already gone, what have we seen in solar investment? How can long-term planning be done when so much is up in the air?

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In 2025, the US will consolidate its position as a blue-focused hydrogen market, driven by policy developments under a second Trump administration. A surge in blue hydrogen investment – with at least three large-scale blue hydrogen projects reaching FID – will see the US emerge as the world's leading blue hydrogen producer. So what about the much-hyped green hydrogen? Has the industry given up on it? 

To find out, host Sylvia Leyva Martinez, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, is joined by hydrogen analyst Bridget Van Dorsten. Bridget explains why, despite massive project announcements, only a fraction of hydrogen projects have actually moved forward. What are the biggest roadblocks to deployment? Already in 2025 we’re seeing financing hurdles, off-take uncertainty, and the challenges of scaling both green and blue hydrogen. To unpack the financial hurdles, Carl Cho - Director of Clean Energy Finance at Citibank – also joins the show. He breaks down the "hype cycle" surrounding hydrogen and why investors are hesitant to commit to long-term deals. 

Plus, Bridget and Carl look at the economics of hydrogen production, the learning curve of building large-scale infrastructure, and whether small, localised projects could be a better approach. They also debate economies of scale vs. economies of production and how hydrogen might fit into the future of energy. Sylvia thinks it could be better suited to a localised role in microgrids, industrial hubs, but what about data center energy demands? 

For more on this, check out the Lens Hydrogen report from Wood Mac. Lens is a data analytics platform with sector-specific insights to help you power your Business Intelligence tools. Find it at woodmac.com/lens

Follow the podcast wherever your listening so you don’t miss our next episode – out every second Tuesday from 7am ET.

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Former President Biden's final days in office involved signing an US$840 million energy contract with Constellation - a statement of intent for the US’s largest nuclear supplier. Since then, what’s changed with nuclear policy? 

To find out, host Sylvia Leyva Martinez – a principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie – welcomes Maria Korsnick, President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute to the show.  

Maria says that despite uncertainties, there's no reason large reactors couldn't achieve costs as low as US$60 to US$80 per megawatt-hour. Utilities are eyeing an additional 100GW of nuclear power by 2050 – driven in large part by demand from data centers and the tech giants. So how is the industry going to meet this demand? New technology? More permitting reform? More investment? 

Join us as Maria reveals the industry's strategic momentum and the pivotal role nuclear plays in providing round-the-clock, highly reliable and cleaner energy. Engagement with both state and tech sectors could shift nuclear from perceived outsider to mainstream option. 

Expect in-depth analysis on how the US is positioning itself to meet skyrocketing energy demands, especially from the ever-expanding tech sector.

Follow the show wherever you get podcasts, and we’ll be back in two weeks time, Tuesday at 7am.

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The fires in Los Angeles of January 2025 were devastating. They were also made about 35% more likely due to climate change.

This is true all over the world; a recent study authored by Research Fellow Pierre Masselot at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that rising temperatures could kill an extra 2.3 million people in Europe by the end of the century. Sylvia Leyva Martinez, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie and host of Interchange Recharged, talks to Pierre at the start of the show about the study, and the implications of a rapidly heating environment for US energy. 

Those implications were made clear in January – and it emphasised the need for increased climate resilience: it’s a dynamic process rather than a static outcome and involves both mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (adjusting to the impacts already in motion). In short, communities and economies need more robust frameworks to deal with climate change. Nuin-Tara Key is Executive Director of Programs at California Forward. California Forward builds strategies for businesses and governments in the region to improve climate resilience.

How do they do it? How can climate resilience be strengthened in uncertain economic and political times? How can we balance mitigation with adaptation? Sylvia and Nuin-Tara talk it through.

Join the conversation with us - we’re on most social platforms at @interchangeshow. We’d love to get your feedback.

If you haven’t heard it already, check out our sister podcast Energy Gang. We had Kate Gordon, CEO at California Forward, on a special episode recorded at New York Climate Week, which explored many of the themes we talked about today and plenty more.’

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How a major US utility plans for sustainable growth.

The US is on track to see over 25% growth in annual clean energy installations this year, despite uncertainty around permitting and grid connections. The new Trump administration threatens much clean energy legislation, so how can the industry plan ahead? Annual clean energy installations are set to average 102 GW over the next 11 years, quadruple the 26 GW averaged over the past decade. The narrative around energy demand must acknowledge long-term trends, not just recent spikes.

Utilities recognise the need for increased transmission investment. Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO at one such utility - EDP Renewables North America. Together they try and find the certainty in the uncertainty that lies ahead. The IRA is, as Sandhya says, a beautiful canvas. Is it about to torn down? 

 They discuss the growing demand for renewable energy, and the challenges faced by the grid. Are the economics of PPAs aligning to perhaps provide a path forward? Power purchase agreements are becoming more critical as companies lock in prices. Energy security is still top of mind, as is the need for a balanced energy mix to meet demand. Plus, Sylvia and Sandhya debate the significance of domestic manufacturing, the role of off-takers and the need to get communities onside when planning large energy projects.

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