Redefining Energy

Gerard and Laurent take a look at the 2020’s and discuss what could be the biggest changes in energy.
Will Tesla continue its meteoric rise? How will carbon be priced or taxed, with what potential impacts? Will grids turn smart? How cheap solar and storage will become? Will we see the emergence of environmental protectionism? Is Bill Gates doing useful investments in Clean Tech? Will Energy and Data converge? What will be the role of Hydrogen? Do alternative technologies, such as wave, tidal, small hydro, floating offshore wind and small nuclear stand any reasonable chance? Will Blockchain and crypto become mainstream?… And finally, will the Oil sector resist the Revolution to come.
Wild or sensible predictions, but always with humor and common sense.

Gerard and Laurent review the incredible decade of the 2010’s, one in which the US shale boom has transformed the energy landscape from being threatened by a supply deficit to a global glut. At the same time, falling prices in solar, wind, LEDs and battery storage as well as advances in digitalization have triggered an extensive decarbonization of the power sector.
There were also dramatic events like Fukushima which killed the nuclear renaissance as well as worrying trends such as the relentless growth of Emissions.
But the 2010’s picture would not be complete without disruptors such as Aubrey McClendon and Charif Souki, who led the Shale Revolution and its export around the world, and last but not least Elon Musk who singlehandedly launched the EV revolution.

Gerard and Laurent address the critical role of Datacenters in the new Energy landscape. Datacenters, Internet's backbone, have become significant Energy guzzlers in the past decade, with their consumption multiplied by 5.
We interview Marc Oman, Senior Energy Lead at Google and Vanessa Miler-Fels, Renewable Energy & Sustainability Strategist at Microsoft, and learn how tech giants have become prominent drivers of the Energy Transition through their Green Power Purchasing Strategy.
Along the way, Google, Microsoft and peers have taken over the yesteryear governmental programs and now provide Wind and Solar developers with long term revenue certainty that help develop new Renewable Energy Assets across the globe.
But Gerard and Laurent recognize that dealing with Techgiants may come with string attached: credit support, reverse auctions and proxy PPAs are hard to fathom for a lot of Clean Energy developers.
Techgiants have opened a path for other Corporates, through initiatives like Re-Source, RE-100, to expand the Green Energy revolution in the 2020’s. New platforms such as Zeigo and Pexapark are bringing transparency to this new market.

Marc Oman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcoman/
Vanessa Miler-Fels : https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-miler-fels-03851231/
Zeigo: https://zeigo.energy/
Pexapark: https://pexapark.com/
Re-Source: http://resource-event.eu/

Gerard and Laurent discuss the daunting challenge of electrifying Africa. We interview Thomas Gottschalk, founder and ex CEO of Mobisol, a German Start-Up which provided off-grid power to one million Africans over the past 10 years. But, along the way, Mobisol burnt up 100mUSD and Thomas saw his personal health eventually deteriorate.
In September 2019, Mobisol has been purchased by Energy giant Engie. Thomas - who had resigned a few month beforehand - is rebounding in a new venture and is relentlessly pursuing his global dream of providing world class technology to the poorest while building a sustainable business around it.
Laurent and Gerard analyse the rise and fall and rebirth of this visionary entrepreneur.

Happy 1 year anniversary to the podcast! In this episode, Gerard and Laurent review the state of play of the Electric Vehicle (EV) market following a visit at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Who are the leaders, the no-shows and the laggards? Is the German Auto Industry catching up on Tesla? How is shaping up their collaboration with Asian battery producers? What to think of Chinese start-ups? How will software and mobility impact the industry in the coming years… and a lot of other analyses of the EV industry and where it is heading.