Redefining Energy

At Cop26 was launched the Global Methane Pledge to catalyse action to reduce methane. The problem is that no one really knew how much methane leaked nor who emitted what. Even the emitters didn’t have a clear view of the problem.

First came satellites, that provided a regional assessment of the problem. But they only solved a fraction of the equation. In order to get more granular and be able to precisely identify methane leaks and attribute them, new technologies had to be applied. Sensors are now carried by planes, drones or are stationary. And their constant monitoring finally allows the methane to be tracked at a micro level. The combination of those different technologies has revolutionised the tracking of methane leaks and help fix them.

We have the pleasure of welcoming an old friend of the show, Gregg Rotenberg, a 20-year clean tech veteran and CEO Kairos Aerospace. Kairos is the global leader in mitigating methane emissions. Kairos and alongside others like MIQ, is firmly leading the methane chase.
And it’s just the beginning, because, if the US is starting to fix the problem, other countries like Venezuela, Mexico, Turkmenistan, Iraq or Libya couldn’t care less and are totally irresponsible when it comes to methane. Certainly, a good subject of discussion for COP28.
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Useful links;
https://kairosaerospace.com/
https://www.basinwide.org/


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The Episode is delivered in partnership with the Energy Institute. www.energyinst.org
A supporter of the Methane Guiding Principles and Aiming for Zero initiatives, the Energy Institute and its industry partners are working to make energy lower carbon, safer and more efficient.

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The Episode is sponsored by PV CASE. PV CASE is the ultimate design software for solar PV developers from the earliest stages of planning all the way to the procurement phase.
https://pvcase.com/RedefiningEnergy

Geothermal has been around for decades and always considered part of the Energy Transition. Unfortunately, its development has been limited to very specific geographical location (US West Coast, Iceland, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia), basically the Ring of Fire. Those historical techniques, called “hydrothermal” have proven quite niche and, in the US, only represented 4GW of capacity or less than 0.32% of the global fleet.
We believe the whole sector is on the cusp of an exponential growth, as new drilling techniques are now arriving at maturity. “Advanced geothermal”, based on the Oil & Gas expertise in fracking and horizontal drilling can be installed pretty much everywhere. It aims to provide much-needed 24/7 clean electricity and heat at competitive costs and small footprint. The recent successes of a start up called Fervo Energy have been very publicized.
There are also space-age new technologies like plasma and loop. Such a great universe of possibility.

Our guest, Cindy Taff is a seasoned geothermal developer who leads a startup called Sage Geosystems. Sage is a Houston-based technology company focused on energy storage and geothermal solutions for a sustainable energy future. Their long-duration energy storage solutions are ready to scale now at a cost that beats pumped hydropower storage and lithium-ion batteries. Prior Sage, Cindy had a 35-year career in the O&G industry, most recently as VP of Shell's global Unconventional Wells operations where she led a team of over 350 Shell staff and 1,200 contractors across five countries.

Alongside Wind and Solar, Geothermal was the missing piece to recreate Earth, Wind and Fire, the holy trinity of renewables. But it’s all going to change from now on.

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After a decade in obscurity, carbon offsets have resurrected in recent years as more companies are targeting net zero. Volumes and prices have picked up in 2021-22 to create a 2bn USD market that some institutions predict could rise to 50bnUSD by the end of the decade. But the market is non-regulated, very opaque and shrouded in incomprehensible jargon.
Sounds familiar? Is carbon the new crypto? Are bad credits a bug or a feature of the system? Why do Companies think that carbon credits could be a solution on their net-zero journey?
There are very heated debates around Carbon Credits/Carbon Offsets. They are loathed by very opiniated experts following spectacular failures or blatant frauds. On the other hand, some reasonable people are trying to sort out the mess while establishing, in the absence of any national or international regulations, what could differentiate a “good credit” from a “bad credit”.
We bring in one the savviest expert of the voluntary carbon markets, Guy Turner, who will lay out the controversies and explain what a good credit is. Guy Turner, one of the original members of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, owns and runs Trove Research. Trove Research is the most respected and comprehensive source of information on the Carbon Market.
With Guy we go from detailed concepts to the big picture and try to avoid the alphabet soup which has plagued the industry. A great conversation to set things in perspective.
Useful links

• Who do define good credits: www.icvcm.org
• How to REALLY become carbon neutral https://vcmintegrity.org/
• Guy Turner’s company: https://trove-research.com/

The show is powered by AXPO, green electricity provider for decades.

As the growth of the EV market and Energy Storage continues unabated, we wanted to know what the current State of Play in the Battery industry is.
In 2023, China dominates the Li_Ion battery market and its main companies, BYD and CATL are – alongside Tesla – blazing the trail of new technologies and performances. Are there options beyond Lithium? How much progress have the battery technologies recently made? Where is the path forward for all the announced chemistries? Is vertical integration a real trend? Can the US and EU catch up?

We discuss with Cormac O’Laoire, Managing Director at Electrios Energy, a Hong-Kong based expert; it becomes obvious that China and the rest of the world are on the cusp on diverging, adopting different technological pathways in term of Battery Chemistry. We talk about LFP/LMFP – Lithium Ferro Phosphate / Lithium Manganese Ferro Phosphate vs NMC – Nickel Manganese Cobalt. We talk about Sodium-Ion, Solid State… We talk prices. We try to foresee what will stay and what will go.

A fascinating deep dive with one of the world’s most recognised expert on battery supply chain. Who will win, who will catch-up, who will lose. We see clearer after this thorough conversation with Cormac.

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We thank our long tem partner Aquila Capital whithout whom this show wouldn't probably exist.

Live from Brussels, on the 20th of June 2023, we were invited to interview Leonard Birnbaum. Since he came last on the show (Ep50), the whole Energy Sector has been through hell with Russia invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent near-death experience of 2022.
Leonard Birnbaum is the CEO of the giant German Utility E.ON and also president of Eurelectric, the sector association which represents the common interests of the electricity industry at pan-European level.
We have a very lively debate about how E.ON survived the energy crisis. What changes he had to be undertaken, how luck played its part, but also the “need for speed”.
Other key lessons were the end of tolerance for weaknesses, the acceleration of digitisation and total engagement with their customers. We then moved the conversation to the proposed reform of the Energy Market that regulators are keen to put in place. Is it too little too late or, on the opposite, a solution in search of a problem.
In its manifesto, Eurelectric wants to focus in the coming years on three priorities:

• Security of supply
• Stronger & more digitised infrastructure
• Fairness of the distribution of risks & benefits between the stakeholders

Leo advocates for flexibility mechanisms rather than capacity mechanisms and support full traceability via 24/7 green certificates.
Finally, when you add the electrification of transport, the key word is Flexibility, as the electrification can either be fast or global, but cannot be both at the same time. Compromises will have to be made.
A great thanks to Kristian Ruby, Bruce Douglas and Emily O'Leary for making this moment possible.

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This podcast is powered by Axpo an international leader in providing sustainable energy solutions for the future. In the Nordics, Axpo has been a pioneer within Trading and Origination services for the last 20 years.

Steel is essential for the equipment of the Energy Transition (Wind, EVs) but at the same time bears a very significant carbon footprint: 1.8tCO2/t steel. Pushed and/or incentivised by policies in the US and EU, the Steel industry must innovate to reduce its CO2 emissions which today represent 7%-8% of the world’s carbon dioxide.
ArcelorMittal (the world biggest steel company outside China) is in the thick of it. It is not just writing reports but investing through its own VC fund called XCarb Innovation Fund. Through XCarb ArcelorMittal invests tens of millions of dollars in three major routes: Clean Electrification, new DRI (Direct Reduction of Iron), and Smart Carbon.
So, we are going to talk about all future technologies that will help decarbonise the Steel sector: Advanced Nuclear, Long Duration Storage, Hydrogen, Carbon Capture Utilisation as well as a lot of other innovations in the making. Our guest is the very talented Irina Gorbounova, VP M&A at ArcelorMittal, and head of the XCarb fund. It is key to have an investor with a dual background, both VC and industrial, at the time of VC funding in down 75% yoy.
Can we decarbonise Steel, with what technology? At what costs? On which horizons? Irina tackles with scientific precision all those questions. The word “hard to abate” might soon be a thing of the past for the Steel Industry. Maybe, we will just have to say: “takes time and resources to abate… but we’ve got this”.


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When we discussed Form Energy, we meant to say storage of 100 hours plus which is 10 times cheaper than lithium based one.
Thank you for your understanding.

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Thanks to our partner for the Episode: Pexapark

And get our new media pack by emailing at [email protected]

What a pleasure, what an honor to have the original Energy Gang on our show to celebrate our 100th Episode.
The wit of Katherine Hamilton and the laugh of Jigar Shah were our inspiration 5 years ago when we got drunk at the Red Lion pub near Piccadilly to launch our show. The “ambitious” business plan was to create a tiny European copycat of the Gang. 900k downloads later, this is where we are.
Katherine Hamilton is Chair at 38 North Solutions, a public policy firm focused on clean energy and innovation, and one the main artisan of the Inflation Reduction Act; Jigar Shah is Director at the Loan Program Office at the US Department of Energy, managing hundreds of billions USD to finance the Energy Transition.
The topic of this special show is the following: Let’s assume we are in 2030, Elon Musk is on Mars, did the energy transition work? Our conversation encompasses the decarbonisation of the grid, the future of Nuclear and Geothermal, the electrification of transport, Hydrogen, and many other topics.
In the end, we deliver a positive message: “We are succeeding the Energy Transition thanks to the thrust and imagination of the new generation.”

The electricity network is the bloodline of the economy. It is a very complex system, built over decades, with layers of technologies and it has to be reliable 24/7. We hardly talked about this network of wires and cables a few years back but now, in the context of the energy transition, it plays a critical role in solving the three main challenges: the three D’s – decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitisation.
Operating the grid 365/24/7 is not a simple task, as the primary objective of any electricity network is reliability; any structural change is like trying to change the engines of the plane while it is flying.
How can the network evolve to answer the challenges of the energy transition? How fast does it evolves? How can new transmissions be developed? How are the issues identified and what does the future looks like? How do network managers around the world collaborate and share best practises?

To answer those questions, we’ve had a fascinating conversation with Fintan Slye, Executive Director of National Grid ESO, the Electricity System Operator for Great Britain’s national electricity network. Fintan has been Executive Director of UK National Grid ESO since 2018. Prior to this he was CEO of the EirGrid Group, the electricity system and market operator in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He has previously worked for McKinsey & Company and ESB Group.

This is Episode 99 and we promise you a big surprise for our Episode 100. Don’t forget our sister shows: the weekly fast Redefining Energy Minutes and the deep-dive Redefining Energy Tech with Michael Barnard.
Once again, we thank Aquila Capital for their continuous support.

How to optimise a fleet of hundreds of solar parks? And the work needs to start once the asset has been energised...and continue for decades. Plus, as with an iceberg, most of the work is below the surface.
How to manage this complexity, what lessons can be learned from one territory to another? How are the teams trained? What is the impact of digital to optimise the economic performance?
We have the pleasure of welcoming Adele Ara, Head of Global Business Operations at Lightsource bp, where she has worked for nine years.
Lightsource bp is a global leader in utility-scale solar development and management. A 50:50 JV between the Energy Giant BP and the founding team, Lightsource bp is the largest solar developer in Europe and the third largest in the world outside of China. They operate more than 300 installations (from 5GW to 500GW) in 19 countries, a portfolio of 8.8GW of solar today with the aim of reaching 25GW in 2025.
Adele shares with us her vision of excellence, and… there is definitely a secret sauce.
Hint (in that famous quote from Peter Drucker): “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”

Our partner for the episode
FEBESOL is one of the fastest growing solar companies in Germany. FEBESOL delivers residential PV systems with outstanding quality, and also installs batteries, EV chargers and heat pumps.

The Power Markets have been created thirty years ago to respond to the Energy Deregulation drive. They have recently faced crisis, such as the Ukraine Russia war or storm Yuri in Texas, with power prices going crazy and creating a lot of financial distresses for certain producers and consumers.
Meanwhile, we see the development of renewables that increase the volatility and remove the traditional reference to marginal pricing linked to fossil fuels. How to characterise the problems?
Do power markets need a reform or a revolution? How can flexibility be bolstered? Can a fossil-fuel free system still deliver a marginal price? Are governments too heavy handed?
All those questions are put together and debated with our guest Stephen Woodhouse, Director, AFRY Management Consulting. Stephen has 25 years’ experience in the electricity business and has headed AFRY’s global work on energy market design for many years and is internationally recognised as an expert in energy market reform and the energy transition. AFRY Management Consulting is a leading advisor for the transitions of the energy, bioindustry, infrastructure, industrial and future mobility sectors.
Conclusion: let’s only touch the power markets with “fear and trembling”

We thank our partners from Aquila Capital for supporting out show