The Energy Gang

The need for flexibility on the grid has exposed the issues in current rate structures. It’s common knowledge that data centers use a lot of energy, and will use even more in the future as AI applications develop. One thing is not clear, though: who will end up paying for all that extra electricity? US utilities typically used to receive perhaps one or two large customer requests – meaning 20 megawatts or more – each year. Now, they may be receiving one or two of those requests every week. The need for increased electricity supply means increased investment in generation, transmission and distribution. And that investment has to be paid for. So who is going to end up picking up the tab? To find out more, Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Dr Melissa Lott, a professor at the climate school at Columbia University, and Brian Janous, co-founder and CEO of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, which develops sites that can support large energy-dense users such as AI data centers and chip manufacturing plants. With 12 years previously leading energy strategy for Microsoft, Brian is well placed to answer the big questions on energy demand, investment and customers’ bills. With Melissa and Ed, he explains how the industry can balance the need to increase supply with the need to achieve decarbonization targets. What role does flexibility play in a highly electrified system, and how can it be leveraged to enhance grid reliability and resilience? Can the ambitious sustainability goals of tech companies like Microsoft and Google be achieved in the face of their rapidly growing demand for power, and what compromises might need to be made? And is nuclear power a source of 24/7 clean energy that could plug the demand gap? The gang debate its efficacy as a long-term solution to the energy needs of Big Tech. Meeting the energy demand for AI is a complex topic. The Energy Gang will be exploring it further in a special episode recorded live at New York Climate Week, September 22-29. If you can’t make it to New York for what is one of the energy industry’s biggest events of the year, subscribe to the show so you don’t miss the discussion. Ed and regular guest Amy Myers-Jaffe of NYU will be speaking with Caroline Golin, Chief Sustainability Officer at Google, and Kate Gordon, the CEO of CA FWD, a statewide organization dedicated to building a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy in the state of California. Subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode. Find us on X – we’re @theenergygang To keep up to date with everything we talk about on the show, sign up for our weekly Inside Track newsletter. You’ll get extra analysis from Wood Mackenzie and be notified when a new episode of the podcast is out. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The (shrewdly named) Inflation Reduction Act has been called the most significant climate legislation ever passed in the US. When it did pass, in 2022, the critical vote was cast by senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. Now in office as an independent, he and Republican senator John Barrasso from Wyoming came together to put forward a bill which advanced out of the Senate committee stage earlier this month. It’s meant to clear away some of the regulatory and legal obstacles that delay and deter infrastructure projects, including renewable energy and power transmission lines. It’s faced criticism from environmental groups but support from the American Clean Power Association and the oil and gas industry. To unpack what it means for the rollout of renewables, Ed Crooks is joined by Melissa Lott, professor at The Climate School at Columbia University in New York, and Emily Grubert, an Associate Professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame University. Together they examine the bill, and discuss the impact it could (if passed) have on production targets for wind and solar on federal lands. In January President Biden paused approvals for pending and future applications to LNG exports. The proposed Manchin/Barrasso bill would end this pause. Emily gives her take on this; she wrote recently that the US needs a ‘a coherent national strategy for the role of natural gas in the US energy system’. What does that strategy look like? Plus, the gang debate what needs to happen for carbon removal to make a real impact on net zero goals. Emily says that ‘market-based, unconstrained, and for-profit CDR presents fundamental and predictable risks for climate and justice goals.’ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Proposed permitting reforms could accelerate both renewable energy projects and new fossil fuel infrastructure. Is that a good deal for the climate? The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is seen as the most significant climate legislation ever passed in the US, because of the array of new, expanded and extended tax credits it offers for low-carbon energy. But when it was passed in 2022, the critical vote in the Senate was cast by Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, and he always saw the IRA as just Part One of a two-part strategy. The second part would be to reform the processes for approving new infrastructure projects, to make it quicker and easier to deploy low-carbon energy technologies. The quid pro quo would be that the reform would also expedite the production and processing of fossil fuels. Senator Manchin is co-sponsoring a bill to deliver those reforms with Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, and their proposed legislation has been making progress in the Senate. It has faced criticism from environmental groups, but found support from both the renewables and oil and gas industries: the American Clean Power Association and the American Petroleum Institute. To unpack what the proposal could mean for the future of energy in America, Ed Crooks is joined by Melissa Lott, professor at the Climate School at Columbia University in New York, and Emily Grubert, an Associate Professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame University. Together they examine the bill and discuss the impact it could have both on wind and solar power, and on gas pipelines and LNG plants. One provision in the bill would end the Biden administration’s “pause” on new approvals for LNG exports. Emily has been studying the issue, and shares her views. She wrote recently that the US needs a new “national strategy” for the role of gas in the energy system. What might that strategy look like? Plus, the gang debate what needs to happen for carbon removal to make a real difference to achieving our net zero goals. Emily warns that for-profit carbon dioxide removal “presents fundamental and predictable risks for climate and justice goals”. What are those risks, and – given that carbon removal looks likely to be needed – how can we minimize them? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Complex, outdated, expensive: concentrating solar power used to be a clunky way of harnessing the sun. What’s changed to now make it viable? Concentrating Solar Power, or CSP, takes energy from the sun, converts it to heat, and uses it to drive a turbine to provide renewable electricity. It has more moving parts than photovoltaic (PV) solar – which has none – so there is more that can go wrong. But it has the big advantage that the heat can be stored for days, weeks and even months, meaning that CSP can support grid stability even when the sun isn’t shining. Its real competition isn’t PV solar, but other “clean firm” power sources such as geothermal. The US Department of Energy is funding 25 projects in this area, with almost $100 million to research and develop CSP technologies. To discuss the technology and the viability of a process that’s been trying to get off the ground in the US for decades, Melissa Lott and Amy Myers-Jaffe are joined by Dr Matt Bauer from the Solar Energy Technologies Office. They explore the different generations of CSP technology, with Gen 3 focusing on higher temperature heat and more efficient power cycles. The steep learning curve and capital intensity of CSP plants is a particular barrier to deployment at the moment, as is the risk associated with building large thermal plants. The potential for CSP to bridge seasonal energy storage gaps is there; unlocking it is the problem. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the world struggles to co-operate on the energy transition, international trade rules can be a foundation for the new low-carbon economy. Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Amy Myers-Jaffe, Director of New York University’s Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, and new guest on The Energy Gang: Dan Esty, who is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. Dan goes a long way back in clean energy: he was on the US delegation that negotiated the original Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1992. And he has recently been working for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, to develop a sustainability strategy for the global trading system. Dan argues that the trade system may be the best way to get everyone in the world, and businesses in particular, to “lock arms and move together” to decarbonize the global economy. The goal is to make sure that “no one's competitively disadvantaged by stepping out in front of the pack when it comes to this movement to a clean energy future." Ed, Amy and Dan explore this concept in this week’s show. The trade system provides a structured framework of rules that can enforce environmental standards globally. By integrating these standards into trade policies, countries can be encouraged to adopt low-carbon technologies without fearing competitive disadvantages. Businesses and countries are reluctant to switch to clean energy if they think their competitors won't do the same. Trade rules can make sure everyone plays fair. What’s more, a reformed trade system that promotes clean energy technologies can also create economic opportunities around the world. The gang discuss how new rules could help developing countries. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author of ‘The Price Is Wrong’, Brett Christophers, joins the show to discuss the theories in his book. On a recent episode of the show, host Ed Crooks was joined by Melissa Lott and Joseph Majkut to discuss two books that were generating a lot of interest in energy circles. One of those, The Price Is Wrong, argues that inadequate profitability is the key reason why the transition to low-carbon energy is not moving fast enough to address the threat of global warming. There are plenty of interesting and provocative points raised in the book, so it made sense to hear them direct from the source. Ed and Melissa are joined by author and academic Brett Christophers to dissect the main points: the challenges and obstacles faced by renewable energy projects in terms of profitability and investment, and the true impact of these on progressing the energy transition. Christophers says that low returns in renewables are a result of competition, volatility in wholesale power markets, and the design of energy markets – ‘returns are lower in renewables because there’s too much money chasing too few projects.’ Ed and Melissa weigh in with their thoughts on this. Plus, they discuss the importance of market design, the role of power purchase agreements, and the need for stability in renewable energy projects. There’s a definite need for more stability-providing sources to make renewable energy projects bankable on a larger scale. Are PPAs the answer? Listen back to the review of The Price Is Wrong with Ed, Melissa and Joseph here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-capitalism-save-the-planet/id663379413?i=1000658599656 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this third special episode of the Energy Gang from the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York, we focus on the crucial theme of financing the energy transition. We discuss how various stakeholders are addressing the financial challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Our first guest is Utopia Hill, the Chief Executive of Reactivate, a Chicago-based company developing renewable energy projects for low to moderate-income communities in the US. Utopia shares insights into how Reactivate is creating inclusive solutions that ensure the benefits of the energy transition reach underserved populations. Next, we speak with Nia Jones, the Environment and Climate Director of the African-American Alliance of CDFI CEOs. Nia emphasizes the importance of partnerships and cooperation among businesses, governments, and non-governmental organizations in advancing the energy transition. She discusses how her organization is working to deliver renewable energy to people who might not otherwise have access to it. The scale of the financing required for the energy transition means that the private sector will have to play a key role. Valerie Smith, Chief Sustainability Officer at Citi, joins us to explore what this means for a major international bank. She tells us how Citi is contributing to sustainable finance initiatives around the world. For additional perspectives on the role of finance, we hear from Eric Cohen, Head of Green Economy Banking at JP Morgan Chase, and Greg Randolph, Managing Director of New York State’s NY Green Bank. They share their views on how financial institutions to supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy, and what more could be done to accelerate that progress. Many thanks to Utopia Hill, Nia Jones, Valerie Smith, Eric Cohen, and Greg Randolph for their invaluable contributions to this discussion. You can find Ed and the show on most social media platforms: we’re @theenergygang on X. Subscribe to the Energy Gang on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss the next show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this second special episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, recorded at the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York, we speak with leaders at some of the key companies shaping the energy transition. We hear about how they are tackling the challenge of meeting rising demand for electricity while at the same time reducing emissions. Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, talks about his ambitions in the US market, which are centered around selling the company’s Kraken technology platform to utilities. He highlights the global potential of digitalization in propelling the energy transition forward. The transition towards renewable energy is governed not only by technological progress, but also by regulatory and policy frameworks. Our second guest, David Carroll, Chief Renewables Officer at Engie, talks about how legislation including the Inflation Reduction Act, and regulatory initiatives such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Order No. 1920, can catalyze the adoption of renewable energy sources. Next we talk to Ana Quelhas, Managing Director of the Hydrogen Business Unit at EDP Renewables, about the role of hydrogen in the shift away from carbon-intensive energy. Some of the hype around low-carbon hydrogen has been dying away over the past year or two. But Ana Quelhas argues that, if done right, hydrogen can still be an important part of a zero-carbon energy system, for uses where direct electrification may not be feasible. And finally, Bill Newsom, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Power Americas, tells us about what the energy revolution means for equipment suppliers. His company is developing and deploying solutions that address the demand for “clean firm” power that is available round-the-clock, through hydrogen and carbon capture. He talks about the prospect that these technologies could help provide the massive increase in 24/7 low-carbon electricity that will be required for new data centers and factories, and to charge electric vehicles. Look out for the next special episode from day three of the conference, available on Friday June 28. You can find Ed and the show on most social media platforms: we’re @theenergygang on X. Subscribe to the Energy Gang on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss the next show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a special episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, recorded at the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York. It has a great lineup of speakers from the worlds of business, finance, and government, giving us an opportunity to talk to some of the key people who are driving the energy transition. One of the panellists on the first day was Kristina Skierka, CEO of Power for All, a campaign group working on energy access in low-income countries. Host Ed Crooks talked with her about how decentralized renewables can reduce energy poverty, and how partnerships between business, philanthropy and government can help countries make progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Power for All is working on what it calls its “Utilities 2.0” initiative, looking for ways to combine centralized and decentralized energy to create robust, integrated systems that will improve service delivery and stimulate increased demand. Another session at the event was a technology showcase, where we heard from companies developing innovative ways to cut emissions. One of them was Cella, which has a new method for permanent carbon removal. Its approach accelerates the natural geologic process that turns carbon dioxide into a mineral: it injects captured carbon dioxide into volcanic rocks, where mineralization permanently locks it underground. Ed talked with Corey Pattison, Cella’s co-founder and CEO, and they discussed the different methods of carbon mineralization, the geology needed for the process to work, and the potential advantages for this method over conventional carbon dioxide storage. There was also a Town Hall session for attendees, allowing open discussion on any topics the participants wanted to bring up. Ed raised a question suggested on LinkedIn, about the potential trade-off in the transition between speed and scale in the deployment of low carbon technologies, and energy equity. We report back on some of the responses to that question. Look out for the next special episode from day two of the conference, available on Thursday June 27. You can find Ed and the show on most social media platforms: we’re @theenergygang on X. Subscribe to the Energy Gang on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss the next show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two books that are essential reading for energy wonks give contrasting views on how to tackle climate change. The hot book in the energy world right now is Brett Christophers’ The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet. It’s a detailed look at the structural issues in electricity markets and the challenges of generating returns on renewable investments, arguing that inadequate profitability is the key reason why the transition to low-carbon energy is not moving fast enough to address the threat of global warming. It’s a provocative thesis that has sparked heated debate, on both sides of the debate. If you work in the energy business, you need to get to grips with the argument, even if you ultimately think it’s wrong. In this episode, Ed Crooks is joined by Melissa Lott, Professor at Columbia University’s Climate School, and Joseph Majkut, director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to discuss the question of whether private investment and market forces can bring about the reduction in emissions that the world needs. They also review another important book that has broadly the opposite message: Akshat Rathi’s Climate Capitalism – Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions. That book focuses on the real examples of progress in the energy transition. At a time when the pace of the energy transition globally may be faltering, and the 1.5 degrees limit to global warming is getting further and further out of reach, Climate Capitalism shows just how much change and innovation there is in the industry. Bill Gates says it’s an important read for anyone in need of optimism. In spirit, at least, it seems like a very different message from The Price Is Wrong. But are the fundamental conclusions of the two books really so different? Ed, Melissa and Joseph discuss whether there might be some common ground there after all. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Regulators are trying to clear the path to the grid that clean energy needs. To go from an electricity system based on coal and gas to one based on solar and wind, the US needs a very different power grid. On some estimates, annual installations of new transmission capacity need to double. To help build the grid that a new clean electricity system will need, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been working on regulatory reforms, intended to smooth the path for new investments in transmission lines. Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe of New York University and Shanu Mathew of Lazard Asset Management, to unpack the latest orders from FERC. What are the regulators trying to do, and why do some people object to their plans? And what will the proposed reforms mean for the energy transition in the electricity sector in the US? It has been a busy few weeks for big announcements in energy. A new round of tariffs on clean energy products from China was announced this month by President Biden, with rates of 100% on electric vehicles, 50% on solar modules, and 25% on lithium-ion batteries. The goal is to revive clean energy manufacturing in the US, but critics say the tariffs could be counter-productive, because they will drive up the cost of low-carbon technologies for American businesses and consumers. One important gauge of the state of the energy transition is the health of investment in low-carbon stocks. The news on that over the past couple of years has not been great. So what are the markets telling us about the future of clean energy? Shanu gives us his analysis, and joins Amy and Ed to debate investor sentiment and what it means. For more analysis and to keep up-to-date with everything that happens with the Energy Gang, sign up for the newsletter at woodmac.com/the-inside-track See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI is driving up demand for electricity. How can we meet that demand with clean energy? It has been a big theme on the Energy Gang this year: the massive additional demand for energy that could be created by data centers for artificial intelligence. It’s an emerging issue that threatens to cause new challenges for the world’s attempts to achieve net zero goals. So it is a great opportunity for us to have on the show a representative from Google, a company that relies heavily on data centers and is at the forefront of the AI revolution. It also has some ambitious decarbonization goals: the aim is to power the company’s operations entirely with clean energy by 2030. Maud Texier is the global director of clean energy and decarbonization development at Google. She joins Ed Crooks and Amy Myers-Jaffe to explain how she sees the path to achieving that goal by 2030. Google’s objective of 24/7 clean energy requires sourcing renewable power that aligns with its consumption patterns. That means not just buying enough renewable energy to match its usage over the course of a year: every kilowatt-hour consumed must be carbon-free. It’s a challenging goal that it driving Google, like other companies with similar objectives, to explore new ways to generate power, store energy and manage the grid. Google is looking at or already investing in a range of innovative energy technologies, including enhanced geothermal, hydrogen, long-duration storage and advanced nuclear. Big energy users such as Google can do a lot to shape the evolution of the energy industry. But policy support is, as ever, crucial to achieving net zero goals. How is Google engaging with policymakers and regulators to help support the deployment of clean energy? New standards in the European parliament, aimed at improving energy efficiency, include mandates for data centers to report their performance. Are we moving towards an era of more stringent regulation of energy use for data centers and other large loads? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has a grandstand view of the energy transition. Where is it going next? Jigar Shah, one of the originators of the Energy Gang, now runs the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, playing a key role in advancing clean energy projects. By helping to bridge the gap between R&D and large-scale deployment, it encourages private sector investment and supports the administration’s work to achieve its net zero goals. Jigar was appointed Director of the LPO in March 2021 with a brief to “to rev those engines back up” after a quiet period under the Trump administration. He returns to the Energy Gang to discuss the progress he has made so far, and the goals he is working towards in the future. In particular, he talks about the hot topic of the moment in energy: how to meet increased demand for electricity driven by data centers for AI, new factories, and electric vehicles. Much of the new load being added to the electricity system will not be flexible. Data centers mostly need to be available 24/7. So how is the grid going to manage these growing demands? Host Ed Crooks is also joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe, Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice & Sustainability Lab, to discuss Jigar’s views on the solutions to these challenges. Topics covered include Virtual Power Plants, enhanced geothermal and advanced nuclear. Those latter two are among the handful of sources of energy that we usually think about when we are discussing “clean firm power”. Geothermal in particular is generating a lot of buzz lately. What will it take to get it deployed at scale? Is it pulling ahead of advanced nuclear in the race to commerciality and large-scale deployment? The Energy Gang will be recording live from the Global Energy Transition event in June in New York. To secure a discounted ticket, use the ENERGYGANG500 discount code. Visit https://events.reutersevents.com/energy-transition/global-energy-transition-new-york to book. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fossil fuels still dominate the world’s energy supplies. Do we need different terminology to talk about what’s happening? We talk about “the energy transition” all the time. But is that language misleading? 20 years ago fossil fuels were 85% of the world’s energy, today they’re just a few percentage points less. If there is a transition to low-carbon energy, it is happening only slowly, and it needs to move much faster to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. The world has made huge strides in both the cost and deployment of renewable energy, but can we really say that we are in a transition away from fossil fuels? Host Ed Crooks is joined by Melissa Lott, a professor at Columbia University’s Climate School, and Amy Myers Jaffe, director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, to discuss the way the language we use shapes our ideas about energy policy. Amy quotes her Tufts University colleague (and previous guest on the show) Kelly Sims Gallagher: “climate doom and gloom really disregards the progress that's been made”. That progress includes 56 countries, between them responsible for over half of global emissions, passing direct climate mandates to limit greenhouse gases. But despite all that action, we still get the great majority of our energy from fossil fuels. The gang debate whether the current global shift towards low-carbon energy represents a real "transition", or maybe even a “transformation”. Or is it merely an addition of new energy sources on top of the existing ones such as oil and gas. Ed, Amy and Melissa debate the feasibility of achieving net zero by 2050, considering the political and economic hurdles ahead. Innovations including carbon pricing, electrification, and advances in renewable energy technologies will play prominent roles in shifting us towards cleaner energy systems. Will they be enough? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Conversations from the Gulf Coast Power Association conference. This bonus episode of the Energy Gang was recorded live during the spring meeting of the Gulf Coast Power Association in Houston, Texas. Host Ed Crooks is joined by Beth Garza, President of the Gulf Coast Power Association, Frank O'Sullivan, Managing Director for Clean Energy at S2G Ventures, and Ken Medlock, Senior Director at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. The GCPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting a strong energy industry in the Texas and Gulf Coast region. First up Ed speaks with Beth about the increase in electricity demand in the region. Unlike most of the US, the Gulf of Mexico coastal region has already been seeing growth in demand for electricity over past couple of decades. But now there are signs that this growth is being kicked into a higher gear as a result of a wave of new data centers, manufacturing facilities and LNG plants. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in this new era. Increasing strain on the Texas grid is one problem. The catastrophic consequences of Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, in part caused by failures in natural gas supply and gas-fired generation, exposed how the system was unprepared for such an event. Beth Garza discusses the changes that have been made in the three years since then, and how the industry can tackle the new challenges facing the grid. Plus, Frank O’Sullivan and Ken Medlock join Ed on stage for a panel discussion on strategies for integrating new technologies as the demand for power rises. They debate the key trends in electricity demand growth, and the ability of Texas as a deregulated competitive market to respond to these new opportunities and difficulties. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As half the world heads to the polls, how important will the results be for efforts to cut emissions? Over half the world lives in a country that will be holding an election this year. The votes come at a time when resistance to the energy transition is building in many parts of the world, as concerns around energy security grow and some of the challenges of decarbonization come into focus. In the US, a finely-balanced election offers voters two sharply differing visions of the energy future. But there are other places around the world where elections could also shape the direction of energy policy, including the EU, where parties that are skeptical of climate action are on course to win an increased number of seats in the European Parliament. To explore the ramifications of these key elections around the world, host Ed Crooks is joined by Energy Gang regular Amy Myers Jaffe, director of New York University’s Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, and by Vijay Vaitheeswaran, global energy & climate innovation editor at The Economist. The show is recorded live from NYU, as the gang take part in discussions on the outlook for elections and energy policy in 2024. Together they debate the potential consequences of the US election for issues including permitting reform clean energy tax credits, and look at some other significant votes around the world, in India, Mexico, the European parliament among others. While other countries are arguing over the right course for energy policy, China is betting big on low-carbon technologies, adding a huge amount of manufacturing capacity in solar, EVs and lithium ion batteries. Those are what the Chinese government calls “the new three” sectors, intended to drive export growth, and they are having a far-reaching impacts on energy all around the world. The Biden administration has pinned its climate policy on using support for low-carbon energy to incentivize manufacturing investment and create well-paying jobs. But with China adding so much capacity in key sectors, sending prices for products such as solar panels tumbling, the challenges facing that strategy are growing. That is an issue that will play out in elections in the US and elsewhere this year: what does it mean for clean energy globally if China continues to dominate the competition? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Big power users are getting together to accelerate the development of advanced clean energy technologies. The hottest topic in energy right now is the expected surge in demand for electricity. Data centers for AI, new factories, and electric vehicles are driving power consumption higher in the US, after about 15 years of stagnation. Solar and wind power can meet some of that increased demand, but many users, including data centers, want clean electricity round the clock. So there is a new urgency in the need for new clean energy technologies, including advanced nuclear, next-generation geothermal, low-carbon hydrogen, and long duration storage. Unlike wind and solar, these emerging technologies have not yet been deployed at scale, and they are generally have much higher costs. There is a chicken-and-egg problem: costs will only come down as these technologies scale up, but companies are reluctant to deploy them because they are too expensive. Now Google, Microsoft and Nucor have come up with an idea that could be at least part of the solution. They are collaborating on new commercial structures to help new clean energy technologies scale up and reduce the risk for investors. To discuss that plan, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Dr Melissa Lott, professor at the climate school at Columbia University, and Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin. Michael is also chief technology officer at Energy Impact Partners, which is a $3 billion venture fund that invests in some of these emerging technologies. Together they debate the consequences of that surging demand for electricity, and the role of new technologies in avoiding disastrous outcomes for our international climate goals. They also talk about another promising source of clean energy: natural hydrogen, which is found in geologic reservoirs rather than being made from water or from methane. The US Geological Survey estimates there could be 5 trillion tons of natural hydrogen in rocks around the world; a vast, untapped energy reserve that could significantly contribute to meeting global low carbon hydrogen needs. Given that a world with net zero emissions could use about 500 million tons of low-carbon hydrogen a year, that is a very exciting resource base. But is it really plausible that natural hydrogen could be viable as a significant contribution to clean energy supplies? The energy gang has some answers. There’s an urgent need for innovative solutions to tackle rising energy demand. Join the discussion on X – we’re @theenergygang See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI isn’t just threatening to take our jobs, it’s also draining our electricity. Data centres centers used to have power demand measured in the tens of megawatts. Now they are in the hundreds of megawatts, and the new ones that are being proposed have demand in the thousands of megawatts: gigawatts. At the Distributech conference in Feburary, Harry Sideris of Duke Energy said it used to be a big deal when they had a customer wanting to add 10MW or 20MW of load. Now they have several planned data centers for AI needing 1000MW each. How is this additional demand being met? The good news, from a climate point of view, is that part of the answer is going to be a lot more solar and wind power, and energy storage. The bad news is that, according to the plans that US utilities are setting out, there are going to be more gas-fired power plants, too. US gas-fired generation capacity is on course to rise by 25% over the next 15 years, and although those plants will increasingly be used mainly to back up variable solar and wind power, they still mean that the chances of achieving net zero emissions from electricity by 2035 look slim. On this episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe, Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, who returns to the show to explore the feasible paths to net zero in light of increased energy demand. Also joining this week is Samantha Gross, Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Together they debate the outlook for electricity demand, and take stock of the implications for theclimate goals of the Paris Agreement. One big question: Is it time to give up on the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C? The world looks like crossing that threshold soon. In fact, on one measure, we have already crossed it. The 1.5 degrees C limit has been seen as essential to avoid the worst effects of climate change. But John Kerry, who just stepped down as President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, said recently that the world was on course for more like 2.5 degrees of warming. Many businesses still have alignment with a 1.5 degree scenario as one of their climate goals. Ed, Amy and Samantha discuss whether it’s time to face reality and set new goals that are more likely to be achievable. And finally, more evidence that despite all the negative commentary around EVs, on a global scale the industry is doing just fine. In China, sales are surging and prices are falling. Sales of what China calls “new energy vehicles” – that is, battery electrics, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles – were up 37.5% in the first two months of 2024 compared with the same period of 2023. In that period – January and February of 2024 – those New Energy Vehicles took 33.5% of the car market. The prices are on the way down too. Reuters has calculated that BYD has cut the prices of its EVs by an average of 17%. This seems like great news for cutting emissions and eventually decarbonizing road transport. But what does it mean for the car industries in other countries? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This bonus episode of Wood Mackenzie’s The Energy Gang is our third from the Distributech conference in Orlando. Distributech is the leading event for the electricity transmission and distribution industry in North America. It gave our host Ed Crooks a fantastic opportunity to talk to many of the leading figures from the industry, including those who provide technology for moving and managing electricity, and those who use that technology to serve their customers. In this episode, Ed is joined by Ali Ipakchi, Executive VP of Smart Grids and Green Power at OATI, a grid technology company. Ali was at Dtech in 2014, and some of the issues he was talking about then seem familiar still today. So what has really changed in technology for the power industry since then? Ali talks about how ideas and technologies that were cutting-edge and radical a decade ago are now becoming mainstream. Ed also sat down with Don McPhail, who’s Business Manager for energy and decarbonisation at Uplight, a software company that serves utilities. They talked about the importance of demand management, the integration of distributed energy resources, and the automation of customer engagement processes as examples of key factors for developing a more flexible and resilient power grid. Finally, Ed talked to two of Wood Mackensie’s delegates at Distributech: Fahimeh Kazempour, head of grid modernisation, and Elham Akhavan, senior research analyst specialising in grid edge and microgrids. They share their impressions of the events, highlight some of the ideas and innovations they found most interesting, and explore the implications for the wider questions of the energy transition. They also address a critical question in the hectic, exciting conversation about the power industry: how much of it is hype, and how much reflects real change? Fahimeh asks the question: whatever happened to the Blockchain? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang: what the history of innovation in solar power and batteries can teach us about the right ways to support clean energy breakthroughs. As the world moves towards a more sustainable energy future, government support is essential for research to develop new technologies, and for investment to deploy them at scale. But policymakers often seem to be blundering in the dark, grasping for policies that they hope will have the outcomes they want. So how do we know which strategies will be most effective for encouraging the progress we need, both to bring down the costs of existing technologies such as solar and wind power, and to create new breakthroughs in areas such as long-duration battery storage and nuclear power. On today’s episode, host Ed Crooks and regular guest Melissa Lott are joined by newcomer Jessika Trancik, a professor of energy studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to discuss the progress of clean energy technologies. Jessika explains what we can learn from the success stories of the past half-century, such as solar panels and lithium ion batteries. Her work shows that a combination of government backing for R&D and market incentives for investment has been critical in driving innovation. In industries such as solar panels and batteries, where costs have plummeted, support for research and market signals such as feed-in tariffs have complemented each other, fostering competitive innovation in the private sector and delivering rapid progress in critical technologies. The gang discuss electric vehicles as one example of a technology that is receiving plenty of government support. Melissa discusses some new data on US emissions, showing that while there was a decline overall last year, the transport sector saw an increase. Even so, there are plenty of positive signs for the transition in the data, she says. While the shift to EVs may slow, it is still moving forward. Jessika wrote recently that “switching to an electric vehicle is one of the most impactful changes that an individual can make to reduce their personal contribution to climate change, and she explains that view. The costs of clean energy technologies aren’t limited to the price of the hardware. Soft costs, encompassing such items as labour, planning, permitting and logistics, can constitute a significant portion of the total expense. Inefficiencies in regulatory processes and in information-sharing can amplify these costs and contribute to delays in the adoption of new technologies. Jessika has been researching into soft technologies, which can include things like software, process knowledge and project management methods, to see how they can contribute to cost reduction and project acceleration. She talks about her work, which you can find out more about on the MIT website at news.MIT.edu. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.