280 million EV’s worth of battery material is sitting on the ocean floor, but do we need to mine it?

The end is nigh for the internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles will be phased in across the next decade, with two-thirds of vehicles sold in the US by 2032 mandated to be electric. In California, 100% of cars will need to be electric by 2035. As a result, demand for the critical metals that are needed for EVs is forecast to increase significantly. 

Every solution creates its own challenges. Electrification is one of the answers to the net zero question, but it’s created an issue in itself – where are we going to get the minerals? 

On this episode, we are joined by Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company. They estimate that there are quantities of metals equivalent to 280 million EVs (comparable to the total US fleet today), sitting on the seabed. Deep see mining is a new frontier – but do we need to start scouring the ocean floor when there’s an abundance of metals on the surface? How ecological is the practice? 

Also joining the discussion to answer these questions is Robbie Diamond, Founder, President and CEO of SAFE. SAFE is an advocacy group for US energy security and economic resiliency by reducing dependency on overseas energy supply. They work to ensure that the US and allies secure key aspects of the technology supply chain.

Deep sea mining represents a significant opportunity to alleviate supply chain constraints. The mining, done in international waters, presents a few advantages: minimal impact on ecology (though this is debated, and addressed on the show today), avoidance of issues related to cross-continental delivery and rapid utilisation of resources due to lack of infrastructural hurdles.

Despite the potential of deep sea mining to diversify supply chains, there has been some resistance from NGOs and other conservation groups who are hesitant about the potential environmental impacts. Understanding the benefits of deep sea mining and, as we do on the show, confronting its potential drawbacks is crucial.

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The energy transition can’t be solved simply by focusing on infrastructure, digital solutions or investment alone. These three parts of the puzzle need to fit together. 

The federal government recognises this; at the end of June the Environmental Protection Agency, funded by the IRA, dedicated $7 billion to community solar projects. These projects will focus on supplying solar to lower-income neighbourhoods. This paradigm shift to the community and individual consumer level is welcome news to Michael Pinto, CEO of CleanWatts. 

They’re a cleantech company focused on the local energy market – utilising the power of solar farms and AI to provide clean energy to communities. Based in Portugal, they’ve seen a significant increase in community-based renewable energy initiatives. What lessons have they learned in Europe that can be replicated in the US? 

We guide you through a conversation to answer exactly that. Michael explores some of the major stumbling blocks and hurdles facing communities trying to access solar power, and how CleanWatts and others are overcoming them. 

In addition to looking for ways to improve energy efficiency, CleanWatts also perceives AI as an essential tool in managing and predicting future energy needs. These digital innovations enable a higher level of control, providing a more stable and resilient grid system in the face of the huge changes the energy transition places on the existing infrastructure.

Two significant challenges that the industry faces are regulatory frameworks and supply chain dependencies. Speedy regulatory approvals for local energy generation constructs are critical to accelerating the energy transition. The latest announcement of funding from the US government could be a significant step on this path. 

Coupled with mass-scale infrastructure solutions, local demand-side activation needs to grow rapidly. 

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Back in May, we heard from two climate economists – Gernot Wagner and Bruce Usher, both from Columbia University. Together we explored the flow of capital going into the four largest sources of renewable energy: hydrogen, nuclear, solar and wind. Examining where the money is coming from and where it’s going?

It's coming primarily from venture capitalists, but in the last two months there’s been significant changes and evolutions in the industry. 

As we accelerate towards our net zero future, with the goal set for 2050, total capital investment necessary to achieve it has been estimated at $275 trillion. Between 2010 and 2019, investment in renewables topped $2.6 trillion, so with three decades to go we need to increase that amount a hundred-fold.

Today, we get another perspective on the financing for the energy transition. Serge Tismen is Managing Director and Global Head of Clean Energy Transition at Citi in New York and joins David to discuss the market as he sees it. 

Is this $275 trillion figure accurate? Serge explains that it could be 270 trillion, but some have estimated it at 120, or 195. What are the key criteria that investors are looking at when considering new projects and infrastructure? A year on from the IRA are we continuing to see impacts in the same sectors? 

Diversification is key. Investment in mining for critical minerals, battery recycling and the steady growth of new technologies such as geothermal all need to be considered. Serge examines it all. 

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Changes to the way emissions are reported will have a big impact on renewable investment.

It might be the most important piece of sustainability material in corporate and climate work that no one’s ever heard of, and it drives a huge amount of corporate behaviour. 

In 1998, the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard launched, and set out a standard for businesses to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions. Like financial accounting standards, the GHG Protocol influences corporate behaviour such as investment decisions. So, a planned revision of the rules for reporting Scope 2 emissions is a significant event. The new standard, expected to take effect in 2025, could have a big impact on corporate investment in low-carbon energy around the world. 

Now, a consortium of some of the world’s biggest funders of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, such as Amazon and Meta, are looking to refine the current rules with the goal of increasing the accuracy of reporting. Together with 8 other companies, including Intel and Heineken, they’ve co-founded the Emissions First Partnership, which is advocating for changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. 

We are joined by Jake Oster, Director of Energy and Environmental Policy at Amazon Web Services, and Peter Freed, Head of Energy Strategy at Meta, to explain the goals of the EFP and why updating accounting standards is so important.  

The EFP says that changes to the GHG Protocol Scope 2 emissions reporting is a crucial step to addressing the climate crisis and decarbonizing the power system. Investment in new renewable technologies from corporates, as a result of the accounting standards being updated in the past decade, is increasing.

Pre 2015, before the current market-based methodology was in place, there was about a gigawatt of installed capacity coming from PPAs. Today, there’s more than 100. The pace of progress in the energy transition is accelerating as reporting standards are refined and the EFP aims to continue this progress.  

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Solar is attracting the power generation industry’s best talent. As solar and storage enter a new era of applied strategy, better analytics and tools are accelerating growth. Pine Gate Renewables is aiming to ‘get solar done’ by providing renewable energy to local communities across the country.

On today’s episode of the Interchange: Recharged, we are joined by David Groleau, Senior Vice President of Origination at Pine Gate. Together, they explore how unprecedented demand and regulatory integrations are transforming solar and storage in the US.

Plus, more of the best discussions from a packed Solar and Energy Storage Summit in San Francisco. We are joined by solar and storage experts with a focus on community and social enterprise, live from the Wood Mac event, including:

• Patrick Regan of Crossroads Solar
• Bill Jordan of community initiative Share the Sun
• Eric Hafter from Origami Solar
• Nate Webb of Passage Studio & Robert Cross from Cross Consulting Services

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Pine Gate Renewables is a fully integrated renewable energy company powering the nation's energy transition with trusted utility-scale energy and storage solutions. Building projects from a community mindset, Pine Gate is committed to delivering sustainable value where we live, work and operate. Visit pinegaterenewables.com/learnmore

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We are in San Francisco, bringing you the second of three special episodes recorded live at Wood Mackenzie’s Solar Energy and Storage Summit.

From the live podcast studio in the Gold Ballroom at the Palace Hotel, we brins you the best bits from a packed second day of presentations and interviews with leading solar policymakers, innovators and specialists. The focus shifts today to storage: how can domestic manufacturing be incentivised? What is required to nurture the development of a thriving localised storage component supply chain? What are the opportunities and challenges for long-duration energy storage implementation?

Join us and five expert guests, as they explore the trends in storage tech, solar finance and managing storage operations.

Make sure you subscribe to the show so you don’t miss our third and final episode of this special series, coming soon and featuring more interviews with solar and storage industry leaders and some bonus behind-the-scenes content.

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Pine Gate Renewables is a fully integrated renewable energy company powering the nation's energy transition with trusted utility-scale energy and storage solutions. Building projects from a community mindset, Pine Gate is committed to delivering sustainable value where we live, work and operate. Visit pinegaterenewables.com/learnmore

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We are in San Francisco, bringing you the first of three special episodes recorded live at Wood Mackenzie’s Solar and Energy Storage Summit. 

From the live podcast studio in the Palace Hotel, we bring you the best bits from a packed first day. Interviews with leading solar policymakers, innovators and specialists uncover the latest trends in the US solar market. One year on from the IRA and the implications for solar are still being discussed. What other policy will help accelerate the adoption of solar? What permitting reform is needed to drive innovation in storage and batteries? 

Join us and five expert guests, as they explore the trends in solar finance, the growth and outlook for US manufacturing, and the forecasts for the solar supply chain. 

Make sure you subscribe to the show so you don’t miss our recap of Day 2 of the summit, focusing on the innovations behind the latest storage technology.

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Pine Gate Renewables is a fully integrated renewable energy company powering the nation's energy transition with trusted utility-scale energy and storage solutions. Building projects from a community mindset, Pine Gate is committed to delivering sustainable value where we live, work and operate. Visit pinegaterenewables.com/learnmore

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In the US last year, solar PV capacity totalled 142 GW, enough to power 25 million homes. Falling costs, advancements in storage and cell technology and supportive government policies drove record growth in 2022. This was an 11% year on year increase. Residential solar in 2022 had a record year, with nearly 6 GW of installations, a 40% increase on 2021.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. We saw some downturns in other market segments as supply chain issues caused delays and roadblocks to adoption. Utility-scale solar was down over 30% year on year, but despite these challenges, the IRA and other market forces have created upside to long-term solar forecasts. Over the next decade, the industry will grow five-fold. 700 GW of total capacity could power more than 125 million American homes.

So what can we expect from solar over the next 10 years? Just how bright is Solar’s future. In this episode of the Interchange recharged we’re joined by Abigail Hopper, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and John Berger is founder and CEO of Sunnova (a leading residential solar and storage provider).

This edition of the podcasts uses data from the US Solar Market Insight®, a quarterly publication from Wood Mackenzie and SEIA®. Each quarter, we collect granular data on the US solar market from nearly 200 utilities, state agencies, installers, and manufacturers. This data provides the backbone of this US Solar Market Insight® report, in which we identify and analyze trends in US solar demand, manufacturing and pricing by state and market segment over the next five to ten years. You can download a free executive summary or buy the full report on our website.

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When can we expect to see a lithium-ion battery that costs half as much as today, charges an EV in minutes and is made from recyclable materials?

Accelerating the energy transition requires more and more electrification every year. Powering our micro grids, electric vehicles and devices with the most efficient batteries possible is crucial. One of the main issues with batteries today is they emit a lot of heat; energy is wasted as its expelled, leading to inefficiencies, not to mention safety concerns. KULR, a maker of energy management platforms and batteries, think they have a solution. On the Interchange today, we are joined by Michael Mo, CEO of KULR. They combine battery safety with advancements in AI-powered data analytics to manage energy more efficiently. Michael discusses the advancements in battery technology and how they can accelerate electrification. 

It’s not just batteries that will benefit from advanced cooling and AI – energy storage will also see the benefits. High-powered battery cells, stacked in a configuration of 18 units, provide safe energy when its needed. These modular based storage cells KULR says will be cooled by a thermal management system. Michael explains how it works.

The real-world uses for the next generation of batteries, from aviation to space exploration (Michael gives us some details on the KULR/NASA partnership never previously released), could deliver on the biggest need we have in the energy transition: fast-charging, safe, powerful, recyclable batteries.

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Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit is back, taking place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 21 and 22. Join expert solar and storage analysts for discussions with leading grid-scale utilities, solar and energy storage developers and federal policy makers.  

How is the IRA catapulting the development of solar and storage in North America? How can we continue to build a productive environment for solar and energy storage as we move forward with the energy transition? What is required to nurture the development of a thriving localized storage component supply chain?  

Expect two days of panel discussions, presentations and workshops, as we explore the opportunities for solar and storage in the coming decades.  

If you are interested in sponsoring or attending find out more on woodmac.com/events/solar-energy-storage-summit 

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Solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear – we need more investment in these renewables, but where can the money come from? 

In 2022, worldwide investment in renewables hit almost half a trillion dollars. Investment in solar – the largest sector - jumped 36% to 308 billion. Investment in wind – the second largest – remained stable at 175 billion. Overall investment in the energy transition topped 1.1 trillion dollars. The amount invested in new renewable projects is at the highest level in history – but it’s still not enough. For us to achieve net zero by 2050, it’s estimated we need between 3-5 trillion dollars a year going into the industry.  

On the Interchange today, we look at the flow of money needed across renewable projects. We focus on hydrogen, nuclear, wind and solar: the four horsemen of the energy transition. Joining us on the show are two of the leading climate economists in the US, both from Columbia University, Gernot Wagner and Bruce Usher. Gernot is a senior lecturer at Columbia, and he explores the policy decisions and economic barriers to the mass adoption of renewables in the US. Bruce lectures as Director of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia’s Business School, and he explains why hydrogen is such a promising piece of the energy transition puzzle.  

Together they look at the investment going into the four main renewable energies and analyse what more needs to be done to get clean energy investment to the level it needs to be.  

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show and follow us on Twitter – we’re @interchangeshow 

Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit is back, taking place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 21 and 22. Join expert solar and storage analysts for discussions with leading grid-scale utilities, solar and energy storage developers and federal policy makers.  

How is the IRA catapulting the development of solar and storage in North America? How can we continue to build a productive environment for solar and energy storage as we move forward with the energy transition? What is required to nurture the development of a thriving localized storage component supply chain?  

Expect two days of panel discussions, presentations and workshops, as we explore the opportunities for solar and storage in the coming decades.  

If you are interested in sponsoring or attending find out more on woodmac.com/events/solar-energy-storage-summit 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.