Energypreneurs

Simon English has spent 15 years inside Australia's electricity distribution networks, and he's been asking them an awkward question: what actually counts as an outage now? With hundreds of thousands of home batteries installed, he reckons around a quarter of a million households no longer notice when the grid goes down. In the 2022 Brisbane floods his was the only house in his cul-de-sac with power for three days, so he knocked on doors and invited the street round to charge their phones. We talk about why networks are paid to build the road rather than to have it used, why the dumbest part of the grid is the transformer on your street, and why you might get two cents for your solar from the grid but thirty from next door. Simon also explains why he'd rather hire people from casinos, airports and prisons than from inside the industry. Come and listen. I think it'll change how you think about reliability. Simon English is a Brisbane-based distribution network specialist who has worked with around two-thirds of Australia's distribution networks, as an employee and as a consultant. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In the last year, Karim's 40-year IT company hired zero entry-level graduates. Every job junior coders used to do, AI does now. Karim and I studied high school together in Dhaka in the late 1970s. This episode I recorded driving him through Manila in a Tesla, and he joined the second half over a free one-hour video call from Dhaka. Neither one of those things existed outside Star Trek when we graduated. His company works with the World Bank, ADB, UNDP, WHO and UNICEF. We talk about what happens to a 40-year business — and a 40-year friendship — when AI takes over the work at the bottom of the ladder, and the question I keep coming back to: does AI narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, or widen it? The best moment in the whole conversation: my 75-year-old cousin in Bangladesh, diagnosing a sick chili plant by talking to ChatGPT in Bangla. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Disconnecting your house from the gas network costs you about $250. The gas companies say the real cost to them is $900. Somebody has to cover the difference, and Ben Potter has been watching the argument about who. Come and talk energy with me.  Ben spent a quarter of a century at the Australian Financial Review and has covered the energy transition for most of the last fifteen years. We get into Victoria turning off the gas and the death spiral in its distribution networks, why he thinks the pipeline owners are telling the regulator one thing and the public another, and why the same argument is not being had about closing coal stations. We also get into what privatisation actually got wrong (not the selling), why green hydrogen went on the back burner, why carbon capture never scaled, and whether electricity ends up as a flat monthly subscription. And right at the end, his father — a chemical engineer who tried to tell the State Electricity Commission how to burn brown coal better, and was told they had a thousand years of it in the ground. Ben Potter is a contributing editor at The Energy (theenergy.co), after 40 years in journalism and 25 at the Australian Financial Review. Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Australian wholesale power can trade anywhere from minus $1,000 to $23,000 a megawatt-hour, and it re-prices every five minutes. Marija Petkovic models what happens to that market as ten gigawatts of batteries arrive in it. Come and talk energy with me. We get into why the spreads open as renewables come in and close again as storage is built — and why Marija thinks that's the market working exactly as it should, not failing. Battery revenues in Queensland have already fallen 70% in a year, with not one coal plant gone yet. We also get into the chicken-and-egg nobody wants to own: state governments want the oversupply before they'll let coal close, and investors want the price signal before they'll build it. Plus why Queensland owning its own coal fleet gives it options no other state has, why nobody gets the spreadsheet out before buying a home battery, and what it was like being told at university that if renewables ever reached 20%, the sky would fall. Marija Petkovic is Founder and Managing Director of Energy Synapse, a market modelling and analytics firm working with developers and investors in utility-scale clean energy. Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Reah Sy has spent two decades building communications strategy for some of the world's largest institutions — ADB, the IMF, and multinational corporates. She's seen the shift from TV and print to social media, from reactive crisis comms to always-on reputation management, and now to an AI world where the line between real and fake is disappearing. We talk about what it takes to build a voice when everyone has one, why bots attacked ADB's annual meeting and what she did about it, how institutional climate communications has been quietly muzzled by geopolitics, and why AI won't take your job — but the person next to you who uses AI will. Reah Sy is a Communications Officer at the International Monetary Fund, previously a Social Media Communications Officer at the Asian Development Bank. Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Australia's electricity regulator just cut wholesale prices 10% — because solar and batteries have penetrated the grid so deeply that supply is outrunning demand. In Southeast Asia, people are still paying 80 US cents a kilowatt-hour for diesel-generated power, with 40% of some island populations having no electricity at all. Mark Lister has worked on clean energy transition across both worlds. We talk about why the energy transition is happening fast in Australia and almost nowhere else, why AI is replacing knowledge but not the financing gap, and what it will actually take to move things in markets that are stuck. Mark Lister is Managing Partner at Asia Clean Energy Partners and co-organiser of the Southeast Asia Corporate Decarbonisation Exchange (CDX). Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Chris Cooper co-founded Orchestra Technologies, software that models and operates commercial and industrial energy projects — solar, batteries, EV charging, virtual power plants. More than 35,000 projects have run through it. His argument is uncomfortable for anyone selling battery revenue. The speculative front-of-meter income — frequency services, wholesale arbitrage — gets cannibalised as more batteries arrive. FCAS in Australia is already not what it was. As he puts it: batteries eat battery revenue. Which matters, because if that income is what justifies the project, the whole case is dead on arrival. Then the behavioural problem. Australia has a lot of home batteries and only about one in ten is connected to a virtual power plant, because people don't want someone else controlling their battery — even when they're paid for it. And a car is worse, because you need it charged when you need it. We also get into behind-the-meter versus front-of-meter markets for listeners outside Australia, and what a commercial or industrial site should actually do first. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Is the electricity grid really becoming optional? In this episode, Sohail Hasnie explores how rooftop solar, home batteries, EVs and vehicle-to-grid technology are changing the relationship between households and the traditional electricity grid. Using Australia, Hawaii and Pakistan as examples, the discussion examines self-consumption, battery storage, virtual energy networks, grid "death spirals," and the growing ability of homes and neighborhoods to generate, store and manage their own electricity. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

For three and a half years we've charged our car from an ordinary power point. Two kilowatts — about a kettle. Thirty-two thousand kilometres, roughly four megawatt-hours, less electricity than one Australian house uses in a year. I set off this morning thinking seven-kilowatt home chargers should be restricted. By the end of the drive I'd changed my mind, and the reason is the three hours of free midday power retailers now have to offer. I brought Grok along to check my arithmetic. At one point it agreed with a number I'd got wrong. Come and check your own numbers with me, not the ones in the LinkedIn posts. This picks up where Ep 350 left off, Matt Rennie told me three EV chargers in one street can be a problem for a transformer. I think the answer isn't fewer chargers. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Matt Rennie said something that stopped me. The entire growth of Australia's grid — two to three gigawatts a year — is going onto rooftops, between 10am and 4pm. That leaves the other eighteen hours as a separate problem, and nobody has solved it yet. Then it got sharper. When his team asked a California control room what EV uptake was doing to the network, someone said it was like watching transformers pop like popcorn in a pan. Come and think it through with me. Matt Rennie is founder of Rennie Advisory — 110 people across six cities. Previously EY's global leader for utilities, strategy and transactions. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

John Mather has worked in electricity markets in more than a dozen countries. He started at PowerGen in 1990, weeks before privatisation, when the UK was inventing the first electricity market anyone had built. He was in the room for the Longford gas crisis in Victoria. So when he says the two nuclear plants Britain is currently paying EDF to build will be white elephants by the time they commission, it's worth hearing why. His argument: the technology has moved too fast for centralised generation to make sense. Australia's rooftop solar penetration is unmatched anywhere in the world, South Australia leads on home batteries, and the wholesale price here is heading to zero or near zero for ten or twelve hours a day. That changes what a grid is for — and it makes energy-intensive industry a mobile asset that will follow cheap power. We also get into why private companies adopt new energy technology faster than public ones, why the UK is falling behind Australia on EVs, and what "peak" and "off-peak" even mean once storage is everywhere. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Many of the home batteries Australians are buying under the federal scheme won't pay for themselves. Jon Sibley says so plainly — and he's not against them. He designed rebate programs for a living, and bought one himself in 2017. If the numbers don't explain why 450,000 households have done this, something else does. We buy what our neighbours have, what governments put money behind, what becomes a thing you have. Which raises a real question: are subsidies buying hardware, or buying legitimacy? Then the part that does stack up. Time-of-use tariffs are "okay, but wrong most of the time." Dynamic pricing is better — but only with automation, because nobody thinks about their dishwasher at 4pm. And under a dynamic tariff, a car battery stops being an income stream and becomes a physical hedge against price spikes. Jon Sibley is a consultant working on consumer energy resources integration. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Everyone knows greenwashing. Helen Neal is more worried about its opposite — green hushing, where companies making real climate progress stay silent because the risk of getting a claim wrong now outweighs the benefit of talking at all. A 20-year communications specialist who once brought the first EVs into Europe, she's sharp on why "business sense" beats "moral duty," where greenwashing actually comes from inside a company, and why you should never test a sustainability claim on a general AI — including what her team built instead. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Bruce Nordman spent decades at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working on demand flexibility. He returns with an argument that cuts against most of what the industry is building: the grid should stop at the meter. Everything behind it — solar, batteries, water heaters, EVs — belongs to the customer, coordinated by one mechanism: price. Not aggregators. Not cloud platforms. Not utilities micromanaging your devices. — Standards vs. platforms: what VPPs make you pay for — The case for low-voltage DC — solar is DC, batteries are DC, so why convert twice? — Why under 5% of Californian EV owners let the utility touch their charger — The Bell Labs story: how the smartest engineers alive dismissed the internet Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

One in three Australian homes now has solar on the roof. Nobody built a power station to make it happen — millions of households just did it themselves. That's the largest distributed energy build in history, and it started as a rounding error. In Brief 03, we distill hundreds of expert conversations into one argument: solar didn't win on policy or ideology. It won because it got cheap, then kept getting cheaper. We cover: — How solar became the cheapest electricity humanity has ever generated — Why Australia's rooftops are the template for everywhere else — What breaks when the sun does the work — and why storage is the answer 340+ conversations. 1 brief. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Back in 2018, Ozzeir Khan ran an experiment at the Asian Development Bank: could AI predict GDP better than the bank's PhD economists? It came remarkably close. The economists' verdict — if you can't explain it, it's no good, even if it's right. Eight years on, that argument is over. We talk about what generative AI is doing to document-centric institutions — development banks, law firms, investment banks — and who it displaces first. Ozzeir's answer is uncomfortable: not just the entry-level roles, but the middle management layer, and it's already showing up in the Amazon and Microsoft layoffs. Also: why the skill that matters now is asking better questions rather than finding answers, and why the biggest disruption he sees is to his own profession — software engineering. Ozzeir Khan is Director and CIO | Operations and Country Engagement at the World Bank, previously Director of Digital Innovation at the Asian Development Bank. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Most energy retailers earn more the more you use. Octopus Energy built its business on the opposite idea — that a utility should help you spend less. Eric Davids, who leads US strategy, explains how: "plunge pricing" alerts at 50–70% off when renewables are abundant, EV tariffs that cut peak demand 42% and save around £650 a year, and the striking claim that a simple behavioural nudge, at scale, can replace a gas peaker plant. Figures are from Octopus's UK operations. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

There are 200 cars parked outside right now. Each carries a 60–80 kWh battery. Together, that's a small power station sitting idle. That's Vehicle-to-Grid — and it's closer than most people think. In Brief 02, we distill hundreds of expert conversations into one argument: your EV isn't just transport. It's a battery on wheels that can power your home, stabilise the grid, and earn you money while it sits in the driveway. We cover: Why V2G will spread like SMS did — slowly, then all at once What happens when millions of EVs start feeding electricity back The economics that make it inevitable 340+ conversations. 1 brief. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Australia's home battery market is booming — but the gap between the sales pitch and the lived reality is wider than most people think. Christina Li works at the frontline of battery adoption, with visibility across customers, retailers, installers, DNSPs and VPPs that very few people have. We dig into what's really driving uptake, what's stalling it, why some households see payback in under four years while others can't make the numbers stack, and what the rise of VPPs means for the value of a battery sitting in your garage. If you've ever wondered whether a home battery actually makes financial sense — this is the conversation to have. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Nick Abson made pop videos for Queen, then children's puppets, then built Europe's largest fuel cell company, which was later killed off. At 79, his argument is that a community could build its own fuel cell and run on nothing but its own waste. His figures are unverified, and the units aren't built yet, but it is one of the more unusual conversations I've had on the show. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

For almost a decade I've been convinced electricity will end up free — free the way the internet is free. Last week I charged the car for nothing at a shopping mall, same as I would from my own solar, and drove north out of Manila. The trip cost nothing at all. Fifty minutes on where that leads, and an argument with Tesla's AI about a future where knowledge is free too. Only I have finite energy. The AI can go forever. Come find out how far. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Australia's aggregated EV fleet capacity is expected to exceed Snowy Hydro 2.0 by the early 2030s. The government spent $12 billion on Snowy Hydro. The EV battery potential is sitting in driveways across the country — for free. But only if we can enable bidirectional charging. Portia Rooney spent three years working on exactly that — and took a Churchill Fellowship to Europe and China to study how the world's most advanced V2G programs actually work. Her verdict: the technology is ready. The OEM approval, interoperability and harmonisation of standards and regulations are the missing pieces. In this conversation: AC vs DC bidirectional charging, why a Nissan LEAF got bricked trying to do V2G, why power companies are going to have to adapt their business model and why the distributed Lego-block model has no single point of failure. "It doesn't have a central point. If you've got a transmission line transporting energy, there's a single point of failure. This doesn't." Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Ben Hutt runs Janus Electric — converting big diesel prime movers to electric for the same price as a diesel engine rebuild. In North America alone there are four million of these trucks. It would take the OEMs 50 years to manufacture that many new electric replacements. Conversion is the only realistic path. Battery swapping in four minutes. 450km range. 25 trucks sold with zero subsidy. And a business model that works like a Netflix subscription. "Australia needs to get better at exporting technology — not just digging stuff up out of the ground and putting it on a boat." Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Stella Whittaker spent four years doing a PhD on one question: why is it so hard to raise money for climate adaptation — the part of the climate crisis that's already happening? Her answer is in this episode. And it starts in Copenhagen, where three extreme flooding events in a row caused billions in damage and forced a city to redesign itself from the ground up — 300 projects, new street layouts, underground car parks built to double as flood infrastructure, all funded through a tariff on water. Stella is Lead of Climate Transition at Haskoning and was part of a €10 million European research project with 50 partners and 20 pilot municipalities. She now works to bring those models to Australia and the Asia-Pacific. We cover: why adaptation finance is the Cinderella of climate finance, what a real adaptation project actually looks like and how it gets funded, why Danish banks missed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the world in adaptation bonds, and how developing countries can use the UNDP guide and Cities Climate Finance Laboratory to actually mobilize money — not just write reports. "It is possible. We just need to take a little bit of extra time and effort." Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Skip Bowman is an organisational psychologist who started interviewing energy leaders for a book on green leadership — and kept running into one question he couldn't answer: why does energy get more expensive when renewables are the cheapest ever created? Three years later, the answer became a book called "In the Dark." His conclusion: you will never get cheap power unless you take it. In this conversation: sky farming as the only job in a jobless economy, why there is no electricity generator trying to reduce your costs, the $21 billion in citizen capital Australia deployed without noticing, and why solar opens the account, the battery leverages the potential, and the EV sends the check.  15 to 20% return on investment. If you don't take it, somebody else will. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Two weeks after a dropped call cut our first conversation short, Tim Ryan is back — fresh from Race for 2030's Consumer Grid Summit with 40 of Australia's top energy minds. In this conversation: why VPPs are "a shell game" for businesses trying to control your battery, the NMI number sitting in your switchboard that could work exactly like a phone number once did, and why Tim believes energy will eventually work the way WhatsApp does — invisible, automatic, and nobody thinks about it. We also get into Project Edith, why retailers want to "hasten slowly," and why Tim is convinced this future is coming whether the incumbents like it or not. "It's there and it's possible. The question is how long it takes to get cheaper — and how businesses modify their approach on the way." Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Tim Ryan has spent decades thinking about energy markets — and he talks about them the way most people talk about sport. In this conversation we get into the Cheaper Home Battery Program's 450,000+ installations, why "self-consumption" isn't selfish, and why the old rule that electricity can't be stored is quietly becoming obsolete. We cover vehicle-to-grid ownership battles, why retailers are hiking daily fees right as consumers start saving, and why Tim believes the energy industry is about to have its own WhatsApp moment — the kind of shift that makes the old way of doing things look as outdated as a 1980s long-distance phone call. This conversation got cut short by a dropped connection. Stay tuned for Part 2. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Bambang Susantono has had three careers that would each be a full life's work — Vice Minister of Transportation for Indonesia, Vice President of the Asian Development Bank, and then the founding head of Nusantara, Indonesia's new capital city. In this conversation he explains why Nusantara studied three other purpose-built capitals — Astana, Brasília, and Canberra — to learn what not to do. His verdict on Myanmar's Naypyidaw, a city with five-star hotels and 20-lane roads: "the community doesn't have the soul." We also get into facial recognition and surveillance technology in modern cities, why AI should remain a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity, and a near-death experience surviving a cyclone in Samoa that reshaped how Bambang thinks about climate resilience. "Building forward better" — not "build back better." That's Bambang's principle, and it's the thread running through everything he's built. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Patrick Strom has spent 25 years in the wind industry, from prospecting sites to predictive maintenance on turbines the size of skyscrapers. His message is simple: renewables don't need subsidies anymore. They're winning on cost, full stop. In this conversation: why offshore wind's real bottleneck isn't catching the wind but absorbing it onto the grid, why concentrated solar power was "the wrong answer to the right question," and why 60% of decommissioned wind turbines in Denmark get a second life rather than the scrap heap. We also get into the lithium recycling myths fossil fuel defenders love to repeat, why insurance companies sometimes refuse to cover problems you can predict, and why offshore wind farms are quietly bringing fish habitats back to life. "It's pumped out of the ground, it's refined, it's burned, and it's gone." That's the fossil fuel business model. Here's what replaces it. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Bruce Nordman spent nearly 40 years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory asking one question: what if we ran electricity the way we run the internet? His answer reframes everything. A notebook computer is already a nanogrid — it can run on battery or grid power, and it distributes electricity to every USB device plugged into it. Scale that idea up, add a price signal that machines (not people) respond to, and you have a model for the entire electricity grid — one that works the same way whether you're in California or an off-grid village in Sub-Saharan Africa. We cover the three things every grid actually needs to coordinate — energy, power, and capacity — why Bell Labs dismissed the internet before it existed, and why Bruce believes electricity technology is still trapped in the 19th century. This conversation ends on a teaser: direct current power distribution, and why your house might one day run almost entirely on it. Part 2, coming soon. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs  

John Lin grew up Dutch-Chinese, worked strategy at the Netherlands' biggest e-commerce company, and spent years telling his McKinsey colleagues that everything they called "the future of commerce" had already happened in China. Nobody listened. He was right. He now does 50 keynotes a year telling European boardrooms the same thing about EVs, AI, and energy. In this conversation, Xiaomi built a car factory in 180 days and took 200,000 pre-orders in 3 minutes for a car nobody had seen. AI agents ordered 10 million bubble teas in nine hours. Driverless cars with blue light indicators are on the streets right now. And a $70,000 phone-brand EV just demolished a $1 million Ferrari at the drag strip. The quartz crisis is coming for every industry. The question is which side of it you're on. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Originally published as Episode 230 — this conversation has only become more relevant since. Michael Barnard is a climate futurist who builds decade-by-decade projections of the energy transition through 2100. He doesn't claim to be right. He claims to be less wrong than most. In this episode: why hydrogen demand will fall, not rise — and why the narrative that sustained it for a decade is now collapsing. We also cover Pakistan's 22 gigawatt rooftop solar surprise, battery swapping for two and three-wheelers, containerized batteries sailing fully charged from China to Rotterdam, and why V2G is a rounding error for 90% of the world. The 2035 hydrogen study from Sweden's RISE Institute says it all: hydrogen won't pencil out for road transport — anywhere. Denial is also a river in Egypt. Watch the original: https://youtu.be/m0pXZsTjGqg?si=2h2fbLv8VRo_wH63 Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Hamish McKenzie is Deputy Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Grattan Institute. His team just published a landmark report on Australia's gas transition — and the findings are stark. Gas use has peaked across every sector. In the National Electricity Market, gas generation is down 61% since 2014 and now just 4% of the grid. More households are leaving the gas network than joining it for the first time ever. The bigger problem isn't that gas is declining. It's that nobody is managing the decline — no legal definition of decommissioning, no coordinated phase-out plan, and networks shutting down with six months notice. We also cover V2G, the home battery boom, hydrogen's real use case, and why Australia is the most advanced country in the world on household energy transition. Cooking with gas used to mean everything was fine. Times have changed. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Jess Hunt has spent 25 years redesigning electricity markets. She was involved in the Hornsdale Big Battery — the world's first grid-scale battery — and now consults for governments and regulators across Australia. In this conversation: the duck curve is dying, eight-hour battery storage is making gas redundant, and South Australia's latest firming tender went entirely to batteries. Gas companies weren't successful. We also get into free electricity, $23 per kilowatt-hour price spikes, and why your EV could pay for dinner on a peak demand night. South Australia is the world's renewable energy laboratory. Here's what they've learned. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Why is the energy transition inevitable? Not just desirable, but inevitable. In this first module of the Energypreneurs Masterclass, I curated five conversations from 300+ episodes to answer that question. You'll hear from a trucking entrepreneur, a clean energy analyst, a physicist, and an InsurTech founder, each telling the same story from a completely different angle. This masterclass is free for 3 months. 8 modules total. Hosted by Sohail Hasnie, 40 years in the power sector, former Asian Development Bank energy specialist. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

The Philippines imports $15 billion worth of oil every year. 4 million tricycles burn a significant share of it. Paul Johnston is the CEO of Pure EV, 350 electric tricycles operating across the Philippines, 92% utilisation, drivers taking home 30% more income. The technology works. The numbers work. We go into the unit economics, the financing barriers, the charging infrastructure, and why converting Jeepneys is a maths problem and not a technology problem. The question is want. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

The Philippines has one of the best renewable energy laws in the world, one of the highest electricity tariffs relative to income, and 278 island communities still running on diesel. Something doesn't add up. Ruth Yu Owen — CEO of UpGrade Energy Philippines, chair of two national energy committees, and one of the most connected people in Philippine clean energy — joins Sohail to explain why political will is the only variable that matters, and why this crisis might finally supply it. Solar. Batteries. EVs. The technology is ready. The question is whether the Philippines moves in months or decades. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guests are Sayeed and Zahir, two experienced engineers and infrastructure specialists who discuss Bangladesh's development journey across water, transport, urban planning, and renewable energy. The conversation explores lessons from large infrastructure projects, the importance of bottom-up development, the future of solar energy in Bangladesh, and how small entrepreneurs and informal businesses continue to drive economic growth and social impact. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs  

South Australia is producing 150% of its electricity demand from solar. Australia installed 10% of global battery capacity in a single month — for a country that represents 1% of the world's population. Something extraordinary is happening down under, and Daniel Perotti is in the middle of it. Daniel leads future mobility and electrification projects at RAA, South Australia's automobile club. In this conversation we explore why energy is heading toward free and abundant, how electric vehicles and rooftop solar are becoming one system, and what it means when your car becomes your power plant. We also get into autonomous driving, the death of range anxiety, and why the petrol car may be unsellable within a decade. If you think the energy transition is still decades away, this episode will change your mind. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs  

In this episode of the Energypreneurs Podcast, Raju Mandhyan discusses authentic influence, leadership, and staying true to your values in a rapidly changing world. Raju shares powerful personal stories and practical insights on what it means to influence others ethically, make difficult decisions, and draw clear boundaries in life and work. The conversation also explores the role of storytelling, the impact of artificial intelligence, and why authenticity matters more than ever. If you're interested in leadership, personal growth, and meaningful influence, this episode offers timeless lessons you can apply immediately. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

Jeff Wolfe, a pioneer of rooftop solar in the U.S., joins Energypreneurs to discuss the rapid evolution of solar, EVs, and battery storage, and what it means for the future of the grid. From $20 per watt solar to near-zero marginal cost electricity, this episode explores how energy is becoming decentralized — and why even a small shift could disrupt the entire utility model. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Jyoti Bisbey, a climate finance expert and former World Bank professional, discussing climate finance, adaptation vs mitigation, sustainable infrastructure, clean mobility, and the future of global development. She also shares career insights, leadership lessons, and perspectives on AI and sustainability. Please join to find more.  Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs  

In this episode, I reflect on the growing energy security crisis in net energy-importing developing countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines. Drawing from a recent visit to Dhaka, I share the powerful image of a mile-long fuel queue and paints the contrasting Picture of using electric vehicles powered by rooftop solar as a practical solution for many. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Penny Estrada, Chief Growth Officer in a global freight forwarding business. She shares how constant disruptions, rising fuel costs, and supply chain bottlenecks are reshaping logistics. Penny highlights the hidden operational strain behind these challenges, the shift toward sustainability and electrification, and the growing need for risk-aware decision-making. She also explores nearshoring, the Philippines' reliance on imports, and opportunities for building more resilient, locally driven economies. Please join to find more. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Jasteanne "Jazzy" Benito, a survivor of Typhoon Haiyan who shares her firsthand experience of one of the most devastating storms in history. She reflects on how living through the disaster at just 16 shaped her views on climate change, resilience, and personal responsibility. From losing her home and rebuilding her life to becoming a successful entrepreneur in real estate, Jazzy's journey is a powerful story of transformation. She also shares her message to young people—to create, not just consume—and to take an active role in shaping a better future. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Pratish Halady, Regional Head for Private Sector Development (Southeast Asia) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He shares how ADB is bringing together green finance and private sector investment to accelerate the region's energy transition. We dive into real-world examples—from EV charging infrastructure and geothermal development to blended finance and policy reform—showing how markets are created and scaled. The conversation also explores energy security, electrification, and the role of regional initiatives like the ASEAN Power Grid in building a more resilient, low-carbon future. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Monalisa Dimalanta, former Chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission, who shares insights into the Philippines' evolving energy sector. We discuss the gap between strong renewable energy policies and execution, high power costs driven by fossil fuel dependence, and the challenges in off-grid island systems. Monalisa highlights opportunities to scale solar, storage, and hybrid solutions, alongside the need for regulatory reform. Looking ahead, she explores a future where electricity shifts from per-kilowatt-hour pricing to a service-based model. Please join to find more. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs Read More  

In this episode, our guest is David Beeton, CEO of Urban Foresight and a pioneer in electric mobility. He shares insights on the evolution of electric vehicles, the shift toward autonomous transport, and how cities can build smarter, more sustainable mobility systems. We explore key drivers of EV adoption—cost, convenience, and culture—alongside emerging trends like mobility-as-a-service, AI integration, and new financing models for infrastructure. David also highlights the critical role of policy, business models, and urban design in shaping the future of transportation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in EVs, smart cities, and the future of mobility. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

David Osmond breaks down how wind energy works, why turbines are getting bigger, and how wind complements solar power. He also explains how batteries, EVs, and smart grids can enable up to 98% renewable energy while debunking common myths about wind power. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Guillaume Rémy, who explains how carbon credits can accelerate electric mobility adoption and unlock new revenue streams. We explore Article 6 carbon markets, EV monetization strategies, and how climate finance can support scalable, low-carbon transport solutions in emerging markets. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs

In this episode, our guest is Jay Gordon, discussing Australia's shift from gas to electricity, driven by rising costs, energy security, and net zero goals. He explores electrification, rooftop solar, batteries, and EVs, and how households are becoming key players in the clean energy transition. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs