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Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
As the renewable energy and storage industries grow, and enter more hostile geographies, asset resilience is becoming an increasingly pressing concern. Developers, owners and lenders want to know how solar, storage and other facilities can increase their resilience to the growing risks of physical threats such as hailstorms and wildfires. The rush to add capacity to meet surging demand from new data centres is adding to the pressure, making calculations about the value of asset reliability increasingly complex.In this special episode, host Ed Crooks speaks with Mike Perron, Renewable Energy Market Lead at FM, and Cassian Walker, Operations Vice President and Renewables Engineering Manager at FM, one of the world's largest commercial property insurers. They explain how insurers are starting to build resilience into renewable project design far earlier in the development process, and why that has become a financing issue as much as a technical one.For solar power, that means understanding the inherent physical risks such as hail, then deciding what combination of tracker systems, stowing technology and panels is right for the location. The same equipment that performs adequately in California or New Jersey can become a major liability in Texas or Arizona.Cassian explains how modern trackers can tilt panels away from an incoming storm to turn a direct hit into a glancing blow. Mike contrasts a devastating nine-figure loss at one Texas site with a far smaller loss at another facility that successfully stowed. Those resilience strategies can work only if the system is designed for the local wind and hail conditions, and the performance of the equipment has been tested and verified.From there, the conversation broadens to the economics. Insurance can account for a large share of a project's operating costs, and lenders are asking harder questions about resilience before they finance new builds. FM's case is that better engineering, better hazard modelling and earlier involvement from insurers and independent engineers can lower lifetime risk and improve financial performance, even if they raise up-front costs.Today, renewable developers still often treat insurance as a late-stage procurement exercise, after key technology decisions have already been locked in. Mike and Cassian argue that that is changing, but the industry is still early in that learning curve. As renewables become more important to the power system, those questions will only get harder to avoid.This episode of Energy Gang is sponsored by FM. As one of the world's leading commercial property insurers, FM combines engineering expertise, scientific research, and data-driven insights to help organizations understand, mitigate, and prevent loss before it occurs. From utility-scale solar and battery storage projects to thermal power generation, manufacturing operations, and other critical infrastructure, FM helps organizations build stronger, more resilient businesses. To learn more about FM's engineering-based approach to resilience, visit FM.com. For additional insights on risk, resilience, and business continuity, subscribe to FM's Sound Policy podcast. FM. Protect Your PurposeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Electricity demand is rising, capital is tightening, and nuclear is back in the conversation as utilities, governments, and large power users look for firm low-carbon supply. But the central question is not whether advanced nuclear can attract interest. It is whether any new design can get far enough ahead on cost, manufacturability, and fuel strategy to break from the economics that have constrained conventional nuclear for decades.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Thomas Jam Pedersen, co-founder and CEO of Copenhagen Atomics, to examine one of the more unconventional answers now being put forward: thorium molten salt reactors built around low-pressure operation, standardized manufacturing, and a fuel strategy that could use spent nuclear fuel alongside thorium. Their core argument is that most of the nuclear sector is still trying to improve on a legacy light-water model that may remain too expensive, too complex, and too slow to scale against the pace of future energy demand.A large part of the discussion focuses on what that alternative looks like in practice. Pedersen argues that operating at atmospheric pressure changes the cost and engineering profile of the reactor itself, making smaller units easier to manufacture and potentially easier to deploy repeatedly. He also lays out why Copenhagen Atomics sees spent fuel not only as a waste problem but as a potential input, provided it can be recycled economically and paired with thorium to achieve higher fuel efficiency. The commercial model follows the same logic: standardize the reactor unit, let customers source the rest of the plant locally, and avoid the bespoke, first-of-a-kind economics that have burdened much of the sector.The episode also looks ahead to the harder constraints that will determine whether that thesis holds. Licensing remains slow and expensive, investor appetite is still shaped by the long history of political and regulatory risk in nuclear, and even successful advanced designs are unlikely to make a meaningful dent in global electricity supply before 2035. The takeaway is that the real test for advanced nuclear is no longer just technical credibility. It is whether a new generation of reactor companies can prove they have found a model that lowers cost, reduces deployment risk, and makes nuclear scalable in a very different energy market.This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Gas is back at the center of the energy debate. Surging demand for electricity to power new data centres, and growing fears about global energy security resulting from the conflict in the Middle East, are raising some urgent questions for the US gas industry. Consumers want to know whether the US can produce enough gas for the world without losing the price advantage that has benefited American consumers for many years? Can a new era of gas growth strengthen energy security abroad and support cutting-edge technological innovation at home, while also maintaining affordability for most Americans?Host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe of NYU are joined by Toby Rice, Chief Executive of EQT, one of the largest natural gas producers in the US. Toby argues that America has the resources both to meet rising domestic demand and to supply much more gas to international markets, without sending prices soaring. He sets out EQT's case for US gas to drive growth, affordability, reliability and geopolitical influence. He also makes the case for the environmental benefits of gas as a replacement for coal in power generation.The Trump administration often talks about “energy dominance”. Toby says. He prefers to describe the goal as “energy abundance”.US gas prices have been low by international standards for most of the past 20 years. The big question is whether that price advantage can persist, in the face of rising LNG exports and growing power demand from AI. Ed raises the prospect that continued growth in demand for gas could eventually push up domestic prices, weakening one of the US economy's biggest competitive advantages.Toby's answer is that the shale resource base is deep enough to respond. He argues that at the right price signal, producers can bring on enough supply to support both the domestic market and a much larger export system. He also makes the case that increased US LNG export capacity can strengthen American energy security by creating more flexibility in times of stress, rather than simply exposing Americans to global volatility. Amy highlights the increased global focus on energy security. If countries are becoming more anxious about imported energy after recent geopolitical shocks, will they still want more LNG, even if it comes from a reliable supplier such as the US? Or will they step up investment in domestic alternatives, including renewables, batteries, nuclear, and even coal?Finally, Toby talks about his work with Energy Corps, the nonprofit organization he founded to bring energy abundance to emerging markets. It aims to deploy technologies including renewables, gas and propane for clean cooking, to increase access to modern energy, and demonstrate ways to improve the quality of life for billions of people around the world.More information about Energy Corps is available at its website: www.energycorps.com This episode of Energy Gang is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
President Trump took a swipe at the Secret Service as he claimed a military plane that secretly flew him out of Turkey last month was “at greater risk” of being targeted, while also insisting it was the Secret Service that made the call. He told reporters he only followed what agents and the military wanted, saying they had arranged an “equal safety” change. When pressed, Trump suggested the aircraft he was put on would be more likely to be the one attackers might go after.On the election front, the progressive candidate in the Wisconsin governor's race fell to the more mainstream Democratic candidate. The My Pillow guy Mike Lindell was too crazy for Minnesota voters. Despite being endorsed by Trump, Lindell was defeated in his attempt to govern Minnesota. We'll examine the election results. Guests on the show today include John Rothmann. Our friend and former KGO host now hosts his own podcast "Around the Political World With John Rothmann"Author and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton will stop by to talk politics. https://www.jysexton.com/booksSubstack - https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/Then, we save the planet with eco-journalist Belinda Waymouth. She'll discuss jellyfish, hippos and exciting developments in battery storage with "It'is the Planet, Stupid!"The Mark Thompson Show 8/12/26Patreon subscribers are the backbone of the show! If you'd like to help, here's our Patreon Link:https://www.patreon.com/themarkthompsonshowMaybe you're more into PayPal. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=PVBS3R7KJXV24And you'll find everything on our website: https://www.themarkthompsonshow.comThe Mark Thompson Show has an official new Facebook page. Please join! Here's the link: https://m.facebook.com/TheMarkThompsonShow/Show sponsors:coachellavalleycoffee.com - use code MarkT at check out to save 10%
Solar demand remains strong, storage is scaling fast, and inverter technology is becoming more central to how modern power systems actually function. But the conversation around inverters is no longer just about efficiency, bankability, or price. As these devices take on more intelligence — managing batteries, supporting grid stability, and communicating more directly with the wider system — they are also being treated as a new point of strategic vulnerability. In both Europe and the US, policymakers are starting to respond accordingly.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Joe Shangraw, research analyst at Wood Mackenzie covering solar inverter markets, to examine what that shift means in practice. Their core argument is that inverter policy is moving beyond trade protection and into a more complicated mix of cybersecurity, industrial strategy, and grid risk. They unpack why Europe's March decision to block public EU funding for projects using Chinese-made inverters matters beyond its immediate scope, and why the region's dependence on Chinese vendors — especially in utility-scale string inverters and integrated battery-plus-inverter systems — makes any attempt to diversify more complex than simply switching suppliers. A large part of the discussion focuses on the FCC's July decision to add foreign power inverters to its Covered List, where the real issue is not just whether the headlines overstated the impact, but how narrowly or broadly the rule will ultimately be applied. Shangraw explains that the current language appears closely tied to communications hardware, especially wireless-enabled devices, which creates a more nuanced picture than an outright market shutdown. That distinction matters because it affects not only which new products fall in scope, but how developers, manufacturers, and asset owners start thinking about software updates, grid-code compliance, and long-term procurement risk. The challenge is no longer just cost competitiveness. It is whether an inverter can remain usable, updateable, and policy-safe over the life of the asset.The episode also looks ahead to the next set of decisions facing the industry: whether Europe expands restrictions beyond publicly funded projects, how quickly US and allied manufacturers can localise enough of the supply chain to qualify under tougher domestic-content rules, and where practical bottlenecks are most likely to emerge. The takeaway is that inverter policy is becoming a test case for a much bigger energy-transition problem: how to reduce genuine security risks without creating new deployment constraints. For developers, manufacturers, and policymakers alike, the inverter market is no longer just a technology contest. It is becoming a test of how the energy transition handles security, industrial policy, and system reliability all at once.The report and note and Sylvia refers can be found here: Solar Solar Inverter Market Share Report 2026Ban on inverters from high-risk countries, led by China, to affect 14% of EU solar demand through 2030This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
About 15% of the power produced by Irish wind farms in the first half of the year was thrown away because the network was not strong enough to move it, according to Wind Energy Ireland.So, do we need to do more to strengthen our energy grid there so we can survive any incoming financial shocks?Joining Shane to discuss this Lisa Ryan, Professor in Energy Economics at the UCD School of Economics and the UCD Energy Institute.
US electricity prices are rising at well above the general rate of inflation. The data center investment boom, by adding to electricity demand, points to further upward pressure in the future. Consumers are feeling the strain, and they want politicians and regulators to do something about it. One proposed solution is that the rules around competitive power markets need radical reform. In this episode, the Energy Gang looks at PJM, the largest power market in the US, and debates a possible way to add to electricity supplies without pushing bills even higher.Host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe of NYU are joined by Carim Khouzami, Executive Vice President for Transmission and Development at Exelon, one of the largest US utility groups. Carim explains why the landscape of the US power industry has changed fundamentally over the past five years: electricity demand is rising at a pace the sector has not seen in decades, driven by data centres, electrification, and broader economic growth. And that demand surge is colliding with an electricity system that was designed for a very different era.Competitive markets such as PJM were meant to bring down costs for consumers and send the right signals to the industry for new investment. But Carim argues that in many markets, those signals are no longer working as intended. Customers are seeing higher bills and the reliability of the system is under threat. Reserve margins are getting tighter, and the industry is struggling to bring new generation online quickly enough.PJM offers one of the clearest examples of how those tensions are playing out. The region is grappling with soaring demand, especially from data centres, while trying to manage affordability and reliability at the same time. Carim, Amy and Ed explore why PJM has raised concerns with among state governors, federal regulators and the White House. And they explain why its challenges echo similar problems elsewhere.The central issue is about the market structures that will be best able to meet those challenges in the future. How can the next wave of infrastructure can be built in ways that support both the reliability and the affordability of electricity supplies? Carim makes the case that regulated utilities such as Exelon, which are often prevented by state rules from owning generation capacity, should be allowed to run their own power plants. His proposal opens up a wider debate about the future of power markets and electricity systems generally. There is plenty of evidence that competitive markets have delivered benefits for consumers. But can they meet the needs of the new world of AI-driven demand growth? And if not, is utility ownership of power plants the right solution? Amy highlights the risks of overbuilding new power plants, and asks whether alternative solutions such as batteries are being given a fair chance to compete.Carim defends his proposal as the best way to secure reliability and value for customers. The current model is not working, he says, and reform is now the best option. PJM, as it has operated until now, may not be ready for the demands that AI, electrification and the energy transition are about to place on it. Politicians and regulators across the US and around the world will be watching to see how it responds.This episode of Energy Gang is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Stephen Grootes speaks to Peter Venn, CEO of Seriti Green, about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Mpumalanga to view the first 25 wind turbines of Seriti Green’s flagship renewable energy project, which will initially generate 155 megawatts of clean energy and form part of a broader development set to produce around 900 megawatts in total. The Money Show is a podcast hosted by well-known journalist and radio presenter, Stephen Grootes. He explores the latest economic trends, business developments, investment opportunities, and personal finance strategies. Each episode features engaging conversations with top newsmakers, industry experts, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and politicians, offering you thought-provoking insights to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Money Show Listen live Primedia+ weekdays from 18:00 and 20:00 (SA Time) to The Money Show with Stephen Grootes broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/7QpH0jY or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/PlhvUVe Subscribe to The Money Show Daily Newsletter and the Weekly Business Wrap here https://buff.ly/v5mfetc The Money Show is brought to you by Absa Follow us on social media 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/Radio702 CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Copper is moving from background commodity to frontline constraint. Demand is rising fast, high-grade deposits are getting harder to find, and the lead times for bringing new supply online remain brutally long. That matters not just for renewables and electrification, but for the basic energy resilience of modern life: the wires that keep lights on, water running, refrigeration working, and data centres scaling all depend on a metal the industry already knows is becoming harder to source.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Liz Dennett, founder and CEO of Endolith, whose career spans Wood Mackenzie, AWS, and NASA-linked astrobiology research, to explore a biological approach to one of mining's toughest problems. Endolith uses microbial communities, what Dennett calls “the world's oldest miners," to help recover more copper from low-grade ore in existing heap leach operations. The company's core thesis is that copper supply can be made more elastic not by rebuilding mine sites from scratch, but by layering biology, sensing, and robust data architecture into brownfield operations that are already running. Liz explains how that works on site: low-grade ore is stacked into large heaps, irrigated with sulfuric acid, and treated with microbes that accelerate the chemical pathways needed to liberate more copper into solution. The appeal is not futuristic moonshot capex, but a modular, plug-and-play system designed to fit into existing mine infrastructure with minimal downtime. The discussion looks at why that matters economically. Endolith is targeting ore bodies and waste streams that are currently too messy, too low grade, or too contaminated to recover efficiently through conventional routes, including arsenic-rich material that can be especially problematic for smelting. In lab settings, the company has seen significantly higher recovery, and even modest incremental gains in the field could translate into a meaningful unlock when the underlying mine and processing system are already built.The conversation also asks why biomining may be having its moment now, after decades of false starts. Liz argues that the breakthrough is not microbes alone, but the combination of microbial science, cloud-scale data systems, and faster experimentation that lets teams build and iterate far more effectively than even a few years ago. From there, the conversation broadens into the strategic question underneath Endolith's business: how to increase copper supply in a world where demand is being pushed simultaneously by grid build-out, industrial electrification, and the explosive growth of AI infrastructure. The episode closes on the trade-offs that follow from that reality, from financing hard-tech mining solutions to building companies in sectors where the need is obvious, the customers are conservative, and proof matters more than hype.This Horizons episode Liz refers to can be found here: https://www.woodmac.com/podcasts/horizons/red-metal-green-demand/This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The country continues to lose large amounts of wind energy because the electricity grid isn't strong enough to carry it. To explain this in detail Lisa Ryan, Professor of Energy Economics at UCD's school of Economics.
New analysis from Wind Energy Ireland shows that significant volumes of renewable electricity generated by Irish wind farms could not be used because the electricity grid wasn't strong enough carry it. Justin Moran, Director of External Affairs at Wind Energy Ireland, spoke to Anton and discussed the rapid growth of wind energy in Ireland
New analysis from Wind Energy Ireland shows that significant volumes of renewable electricity generated by Irish wind farms could not be used because the electricity grid wasn't strong enough carry it. Justin Moran, Director of External Affairs at Wind Energy Ireland, spoke to Anton and discussed the rapid growth of wind energy in Ireland
President Donald Trump makes a major White House announcement on American nuclear innovation, advanced reactor pilot programs, and clean energy dominance! ⚛️ Join Alex R. Wagner on No News is News for live reactions, press Q&A analysis, and full coverage of today's top stories.
Alexandra Fasulo, freelancing and side hustle commentator, author of Freelance Your Way to Freedom, and owner of the weekly gig economy news reporting newsletter, the Forum, joined us on the Guy Benson Show today with guest host Tom Shillue to talk about clean energy. She breaks down why there's a resistance in upstate NY against 18 planned solar farms, how it would affect her farmland, the land of other farmers in the state, and how solar panels are made. Listen to the full interview with Fasulo below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The old joke about nuclear fusion power is that commercial deployment is 30 years in the future: it always has been and it always will be. It may be time to retire that joke. Private fusion companies have now raised billions in capital, and pilot plants are moving from slide decks and plans into steel and concrete. The questions now are not so much around whether fusion power can ever work, and more about how soon it can reach the grid, and at what costHost Ed Crooks and regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Global Energy, Climate, & Sustainability Lab at NYU are joined by two fusion industry leaders to discuss the rapid progress they are making. Andrew Holland is founder and chief executive of the Fusion Industry Association, and Bob Mumgaard is chief executive of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, one of the companies vying to have the first commercial fusion power plant in operation.Andrew lays out the state of the sector. There are 56 private fusion companies globally, which between them have raised more than $14 billion in private capital. And there is a growing conviction inside the industry that commercial fusion could arrive in the early 2030s. Bob explains why Commonwealth believes SPARC, its demonstration project in Massachusetts, and ARC, its planned power plant in Virginia, can help make that timetable real.Fusion has moved beyond the era when government science programs defined the pace of progress. Research backed by governments and universities has played a vital role in moving the technology forward, but Andrew argues that competition, venture capital and milestone-based development have changed the industry's tempo. Crucially, the industry has not put all its eggs in one basket. Multiple companies are pursuing different technical paths, including both laser-based approaches and magnetic confinement systems, in a race to commerciality. Bob offers the clearest lay explanation of what fusion power means in practice. Commonwealth Fusion Systems uses a tokamak, which is essentially a magnetic bottle that holds a star inside it. Fusion creates heat, which can be used to run a steam turbine. Unlike wind and solar, fusion does not depend on weather or geography. Unlike fossil fuels, it does not rely on continual fuel deliveries.The episode also explores why fusion developers believe the technology could avoid some of the political and regulatory burdens that have constrained nuclear fission power. Because fusion reactions are hard to start and easy to stop, the risks are fundamentally different from those of a conventional fission reactor. Bob and Andrew argue that this changes everything from plant safety to siting to licensing, and could make fusion much faster to deploy if the technical hurdles are cleared.They also discuss what it will take to build an industry, not just a few prototypes. Amy pushes on fuel cycles, lithium, superconducting tape and supply-chain readiness. Bob argues that these challenges are real but manageable, and Andrew points to the growing ecosystem of manufacturers now positioning themselves for a future fusion market. The wider point is that fusion is increasingly starting to look like a manufacturing and industrial-policy story, not just a laboratory science story.That leads to the biggest question of all: if fusion works, how much could it matter? Bob sketches outcomes ranging from a valuable but still niche source of clean baseload power to a genuinely transformative technology. Andrew goes even further, arguing that fusion could decouple energy from geography and geopolitics in a way no fuel-based system ever has. If the industry's ambitions are realized, within the next ten years fusion could emerge as a commercial energy source with real consequences for grids, markets and global power. This episode of Energy Gang is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The National Competitive and Productivity Council has called for the speedy delivery of Ireland's offshore wind energy projects. As it stands, Ireland's only offshore wind farm, Arklow Bank Wind Park, ceased operations last year. To establish where we stand, Paul was joined by Caroline O'Doherty, Environment Correspondent with the Irish Times.
Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, an event that poses formidable logistical challenges. To put it in terms that will be familiar to many Americans, it is the equivalent of seven Super Bowls happening every day, in one of the world's biggest urban economies. That means huge demands on the city's transport and energy systems. But it also creates a rare opportunity to use the games as a catalyst to accelerate investment that could leave the city cleaner, more resilient and better connected long after the closing ceremony.In this episode, host Ed Crooks talks to Matt Petersen, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, or LACI. Matt explains how LACI has been using the run-up to the Games as a convening point for public and private sector action. The focus has been on transportation electrification, clean energy deployment and building infrastructure that can help Los Angeles cope with an influx of visitors while improving the quality of life for residents in the long term.Transport is key. Los Angeles is sometimes described as the car capital of the world, and transport will be the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the Games. EV sales and charging infrastructure are growing fast. Even so, LACI's modelling suggests that Los Angeles still needs more people using buses and rail, as well as better first-mile and last-mile options, from e-bike share to EV car-share schemes, if it wants to hit its climate targets.The conversation also explores the less visible systems that support electrification and emissions reductions for transport. Matt points to the electrification of freight, the build-out of charging depots, battery-backed fast charging, and experiments with flexible grid connections that can bring new infrastructure online faster. Those developments are central to whether Los Angeles can make room for more EVs and rising power demand without waiting years for grid upgrades.Too often, host cities for the Olympics promise transformative benefits that never fully materialise. Matt's case is that Los Angeles has a better shot than most, partly because it is not building a wave of new permanent venues, and partly because the most important investments are in systems the city needs anyway: electric buses, cleaner freight, charging networks, transit improvements, shade for riders in extreme heat, and cleaner air in communities that have long borne the brunt of pollution.Can a deadline like LA 2028 accelerate progress on some of the hardest problems in urban decarbonization? For Matt, the real prize is not a few weeks of smooth operations during the Games, but a lasting legacy of economic opportunity and lower emissions.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Wind remains fundamentally healthy: electricity demand is rising, decarbonised power is still needed, and both Europe and the US continue to pull new projects forward, albeit for different reasons. But the industry's center of gravity is shifting. The conversation is no longer just about building faster or installing more megawatts. As turbines get larger, OEM competition broadens, and project economics tighten, the consequences of failure are becoming much harder to ignore.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Alexis Grenon, CEO of Onyx Insight, and Olly Litterick of Tokio Marine GX to examine what that shift means in practice. Their core argument is that the wind sector is moving from a development-at-speed mindset toward operational efficiency, where every dollar of ROI matters and risk has to be quantified far more precisely. They unpack why insurers still struggle with newer turbine classes despite two decades of renewables underwriting: the machines are scaling faster than the loss history, the supply chain maturity is lagging to price them confidently, and in wind, bigger hardware often means not more failures, but far costlier ones when they do occur.A large part of the discussion focuses on blades, where exposure and difficult inspection regimes make early detection especially valuable. Grenon argues that the industry has relied too heavily on periodic inspection and not enough on continuous monitoring, contrasting the lack of standardised turbine monitoring with the smoke detector logic used elsewhere in insurance. The promise of better instrumentation, integrated SCADA and condition data, and physics-informed AI is not simply smarter dashboards. It is the ability to detect structural issues earlier, prevent minor damage from escalating into six-figure or seven-figure failures, and make better-informed decisions about maintenance, underwriting, and asset life.The episode also looks ahead to the next set of decisions facing wind owners: how to handle aging fleets, when to extend life versus repower, and how much independent real-time data can change the balance of power between owners, OEMs, and insurers. The takeaway is that better data and earlier visibility can help the industry move from reactive maintenance and blunt underwriting toward a more preventative, risk-based model, one that should improve insurability, reduce downtime, and make the next phase of wind deployment more durable.This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand -- a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies, twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition — from growth-stage startups to globally recognized industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising, and community engagement — they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course -- they speak your language on day one.If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them at twentytwoandbrand.com/woodmac.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Whoever you ask, you are likely find broad agreement that the world needs more energy infrastructure. Whether you are worried about ensuring secure supplies, powering new data centres, or cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the answer is most often going to be investing in new assets: power plants, transmission lines, factories, pipelines, ports… the list goes on. But all too often, getting big projects built is painfully slow, expensive and unpredictable. It is particularly difficult in high-income countries, and perhaps in the US most of all.For this episode, host Ed Crooks and regular guest Dr. Melissa Lott are joined by Craig Albert, the President and COO of Bechtel, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies. Together, they discuss the critical problems that get in the way of infrastructure projects, and what businesses and governments can do to get past them.First off, Craig acknowledges that the problems in the system all reflect good intentions. Communities, safety, the environment and local impacts all deserve scrutiny. The problem, especially in the US, is that the process used to take all those factors into account when approving large projects is slow, fragmented and uncertain. The result is that it pushes up costs, delays revenue, creates financing risk, and ultimately slows progress towards energy security and a lower-carbon energy system.The conversation digs into the role of trust and certainty in decision-making. Once a project has been assessed and approved, how do you stop it from being endlessly revisited? Craig argues that some aspects of the US system create particular difficulties. Other developed countries have shown that infrastructure projects can be brought in on time and on budget. Craig cites the Western Sydney International Airport project, which moved from site selection to full construction approval in just two and a half years. In the US, he says, the same process could easily take eight to ten.The discussion then turns to nuclear power, and the lessons from the two new AP1000 reactors built at the Vogtle plant in Georgia. Craig calls Southern Company and Georgia Power “national heroes” for taking on the first greenfield US nuclear project in decades, but he is candid about what went wrong. His biggest takeaway is the importance of deeply integrated EPC: engineering, procurement and construction working as one system from the start. He also stresses the need for earlier investment in workforce training, stronger supply-chain visibility and better sequencing to reduce costly reworks.From there, Ed and Melissa widen the lens to look at other energy sectors. Craig explains why the US LNG industry offers a more hopeful model of projects delivered without huge cost overruns and multi-year delays. In that industry the construction companies are building repeated, standardised projects, with integrated delivery, and a relentless focus on finding and fixing bottlenecks. Bechtel has delivered dozens of LNG trains, he says, all on schedule and within budget, while still improving speed from one project to the next. Similar lessons apply in solar, where scale, automation and better execution are helping push installation rates sharply higher.But policy and project design are only part of the story. Craig argues that workforce is the other great constraint. If every new power plant, grid upgrade, semiconductor fab and airport ultimately depends on skilled craft labour, then the US has to start treating those jobs with the respect they deserve. Restoring the status of skilled trades is not just a cultural issue. It is essential to the country's ability to build, Craig says. The closing message is both practical and cautionary: if the US wants more energy security, more electricity for AI and data centres, and faster progress on decarbonisation, it has to get much better at building. That means fixing permitting, reducing project uncertainty, investing earlier in supply chains, and treating skilled labour as a strategic asset, rather than an afterthought.This episode of Energy Gang is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As AI systems scale, the infrastructure challenge is no longer just about chips, models, and software performance. It is increasingly about the physical systems that allow computation to happen at all: power delivery, cooling, water access, and the speed at which new capacity can be brought online. Power conversion is becoming a much more important design question. As racks move from conventional power densities toward megawatt-scale configurations, every inefficiency in the electrical pathway becomes more consequential. For stakeholders across the energy sector, that makes AI infrastructure more than just a datacenter story. It is also a story about grid constraints, industrial load growth, thermal management, and how developers can design facilities that are efficient enough, flexible enough, and resilient enough to operate at the scale AI now demands.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Nick Wright, Vertical Solutions Manager at Siemens. Their conversation explores why the growth of the AI factory is pushing operators to rethink traditional electrical architecture, especially the number of conversion steps required to move power from the grid to the chip. Nick explains why conventional AC-heavy setups are under pressure as compute loads become denser, more dynamic, and more power-intensive, and why more direct AC-to-DC pathways are drawing increased attention. The episode also examines what that shift means in practice: less energy lost in conversion, less excess heat to manage, different implications for cooling design, and a growing role for higher-voltage DC systems, digital twins, monitoring technologies, and new protection equipment. Along the way, the discussion widens beyond the building itself to consider how AI facilities may evolve into more grid-aware assets, capable of interacting more intelligently with the broader energy system rather than functioning simply as passive loads.For developers, IPPs, utilities, financiers, and infrastructure planners, the episode offers a clear signal that power architecture is becoming a strategic decision much earlier in the project lifecycle. One of the key takeaways is that this is not a simple story of DC replacing AC. The more relevant point is that as racks scale, reducing unnecessary conversion steps can improve efficiency and system performance in ways that matter economically at very large scale. But the conversation also makes clear that conversion efficiency is only one part of a much broader infrastructure equation. Access to reliable power, water availability, cooling strategy, workforce readiness, supply chain bottlenecks, equipment lead times, and safety considerations all shape whether a new AI facility can be delivered on time and scaled over the long term. The players most likely to succeed will be the ones that stop treating power as a late-stage procurement issue and instead plan holistically across energy, compute, operations, and grid interaction from the beginning.This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand -- a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies, twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition — from growth-stage startups to globally recognized industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising, and community engagement — they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course -- they speak your language on day one.If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them at twentytwoandbrand.com/woodmac.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
US residential electricity prices have risen by more than 40 per cent since the start of 2021, which is much faster than general inflation. Utilities requested a total of $31 billion in increased rates last year, double the amount in 2024. And investor-owned utilities are planning to spend $1.4 trillion on capital projects over the next five years – enough on one calculation, to build almost 2,000 Hoover Dams at today's prices. So why are American electricity bills going up, and what can be done to provide some relief for hard-pressed consumers?In this episode, host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Dr Melissa Lott are joined by Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a nonprofit launched in 2024. Charles's focus is on US states' Public Utilities Commissions: the roughly 200 commissioners across the country who oversee around $200 billion in annual spending and ultimately determine what consumers pay. He calls them the “US Supreme Court justices of energy”.The discussion opens with questions of consumers' perceptions, and how they align with reality. The data show that in the past few years, electricity bills have been rising, on average, explaining why the issue has been rising up the political agenda.Recent Ipsos polling commissioned by PoweLines found that four in five Americans feel powerless about energy costs. The proportion who believe their state officials are serving their interests as consumers fell from 38 per cent to 29 per cent in a single year. Charles calls this "a new politics of electricity." It is a domain that until recently sat outside mainstream political attention, but now reaches governors' offices and the White House.Charles and Melissa then unpack what is actually driving the increases. Melissa walks through the top five cost drivers identified in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's analysis: fuel and wholesale supply, distribution costs, generation capex, transmission costs, and cost recovery from extreme weather events. Charles points beyond the line items to a fundamental issue: the traditional utility business model, which structurally rewards capital spending. The question about the impact of data centers is unavoidable. Charles breaks it down: until now, data centres have not been a meaningful driver of price increases across most of the country. But that does not mean they will not be in future. PJM's capacity auction, where prices have rocketed, is one early signal that the picture is starting to change.Charles offers three solutions. First, get more out of the existing grid, which is currently running at roughly 50 per cent utilisation, through technologies he describes as "ibuprofen for the grid." Second, modernise the utility business model, potentially drawing on the UK's totex approach, where utilities can earn a return on operational as well as capital spending. Third, improve grid planning, particularly how load is forecast and how integrated resource plans are built.Melissa zooms out to remind listeners what is actually at stake. Borrowing a line from Amory Lovins, she says: "I don't care about my electrons. I care about cold beer and hot showers." The question is not just about price, but about whether households can keep their homes safe and liveable year-round. You can learn more about PowerLines at PowerLines.org. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Once upon a time, conservative ideologues opposed government interference in the holy magic of the marketplace.Take energy policy, for example. Right-wing cheerleaders of fossil fuels demanded that government must keep its fat thumb off the scale of free market competition between Big Oil and those frilly new “alternative” sources of energy.Where did those market “purists” go? Into the White House, the Cabinet, and Congress – where they've mutated into big government bullies, attacking renewable energy enterprises while hyping and subsidizing the corporate profiteers of dirty energy. Trump himself hasn't merely put his thumb on the scale, he's hauled his entire hulk onto it!For example, this month he lavished a $700-million gimme of our tax dollars to prop up coal production, a dirty fuel the market is abandoning.Wait, there's more: he paid another 700+ million of our dollars to Invenergy, an offshore wind energy firm – not so it could produce electricity, but to cancel four wind farms it had planned to build. Yes, he paid the company to not produce wind energy! Trump declared that even though wind power is less costly than coal, he found windmills “ugly.”So, here's my advice to the wind industry: Gold-plate your turbines and label them “Trump Towers.” And maybe stage a series of cage fights on some of them. Trump is all about hype and spectacle – so there you go.Meanwhile, the actual marketplace is loudly saying “no” to fossil fuels and YES! to renewables. Get this: Wind now routinely surpasses coal as a supplier of electricity to America. And, last month, solar power also surpassed coal. Political bullying aside, renewables are the future.Do something!At a time when the federal government is actively dismantling progress on climate change, the NDRC is calling for states to lead the way—and tracking the work that's being done. Start with this news update from them, and then take action.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe
In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Mike Ratliff, co-founder and CTO of GridVar, to talk about the role software plays in the changing energy infrastructure. With over 30 years of experience in technology, Mike shares the path that took him from the early internet and cloud computing into energy and utility software, along with what he has learned about staying adaptable as the industry continues to shift. Mike explains why building software for the power grid comes with a very different set of constraints than building a typical web application and breaks down some of the challenges utilities are facing, including grid interconnection delays, power quality, increasing energy demand, and the growth of distributed energy resources. We also discuss demand response, microgrids, virtual power plants, battery storage, and how software can help utilities better understand and manage a grid that is becoming more complex. Mike also explains why Elixir and the BEAM are a strong fit for always-on energy systems, how an Erlang MQTT server first led him into the ecosystem, and what it takes to introduce Elixir inside an established organization. The episode closes with a broader look at AI-assisted development, the value of domain expertise, and why technical leaders still need communication, judgment, and a compelling story to move important ideas forward. Key topics discussed in this episode: Mike Ratliff's path from software to energy technology Lessons from three decades of technology industry change The value of generalists in modern software engineering Why good technical judgment remains difficult to replace Building software that interacts with physical infrastructure Why utility technology adoption can move slowly Understanding today's grid interconnection backlog Power quality challenges affecting new grid connections Using simulation to accelerate utility engineering studies Centralized and distributed approaches to grid management How solar energy creates the duck curve Using demand response to balance electricity consumption Edge devices supporting real-time grid coordination Microgrids and resilience in distributed energy systems Cybersecurity considerations for increasingly connected power grids Preparing utility infrastructure for extreme weather events Battery storage and the growth of renewable energy How virtual power plants coordinate distributed resources Why Elixir works well for energy software BEAM reliability for always-on utility infrastructure Discovering Elixir through Erlang and MQTT Building an early virtual power plant with Elixir Making the business case for an Elixir migration Why technical leadership also requires effective storytelling Links Mentioned: GridVAR https://www.gridvar.com/ GridPoint https://www.gridpoint.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Iberian_Peninsula_blackout Demand Response: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response Virtual Power Plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_power_plant Microgrid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgrid Volts podcast: https://www.volts.wtf/
This week the guys discuss some of the refreshing their older cars need. Foo chasing a reoccuring evap check engine light in the Dodge pickup. Foo wants to know if piece of mind has been achieved withthe Mustang purchase. People don't care to work on their cars much anymore. Takling the misconceived notions around EV ownership. Oil is NOT forever, and why isn't solar being installed in every parking lot and over every EV charging station? New show recommendations. Plus more!
A year ago the data centre conversation was about scale. Increasingly it is about what happens when the announcements meet the physical grid. New capacity is being announced at roughly 435 megawatts a month, enough to power a city of 400,000 people, but two-thirds of that committed load tends to disappear the moment utilities ask for a financial commitment behind it. AI training facilities create load profiles that drop 30% in five minutes, or 190 megawatts in three. The grid's mechanical inertia is retiring just as hyperscaler ambition accelerates, and regulation is lagging on both sides of the meter.In this episode, interim host Bridget van Dorsten returns the microphone to host Sylvia Leyva Martinez. The two recap six months of the show through clips from Chris Seiple (Wood Mackenzie), Tom Falcone (Large Public Power Council), Akeel Bhateja (Bloom Energy), Kay Aikin (Dynamic Grid), Kristina Carlquist and Christian Payerl (ABB), Shannon Miller (Mainspring Energy) and Nick Chaset (Octopus US), and map out the questions that will shape Sylvia's return.The central tension of the past six months: announcements are racing ahead, but utilities, regulators and the physical grid cannot move at hyperscaler speed. A data centre can be built in two years. New generation takes five to ten. That mismatch is why developers have stopped waiting on the grid: 35% of US data centre project capacity announced in 2025 was planned with around-the-meter generation, and 92% of bridge prime power deals are now struck before the end tenant is signed, inverting the usual logic of infrastructure development. But collocated power is still, in Bridget's framing, a science project. The load behaviour demands a coordinated portfolio: supercapacitors and UPS catching millisecond swings, synchronous condensers supplying inertia, fuel cells and linear generators offering modular, fuel-flexible bridging power as a hedge against demand risk. Nick Chaset's intervention cuts the other way: the UK already hosts the world's largest residential virtual power plant, and the cheapest megawatt is the one you don't build. The episode closes on duelling forward views, Tom Falcone's cooperative optimism against Kay Aikin's affordability death spiral, with the question of who ultimately holds the bag if the announcements don't materialise still unresolved.Sylvia sets out what she wants to explore next: the regulatory contradiction where utilities support bring-your-own-generation but cannot guarantee protection from curtailment; renewables supply constraints and the transformer and labour bottlenecks that affect every fuel source equally; the return of energy security as a framing now that "energy transition" has fallen out of political favour in the US; and the community opposition data centre developers are only beginning to grapple with.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Methane is the second-most important greenhouse gas, after carbon dioxide. It has accounted for roughly 30% of human-induced global warming since the 19th century. But it is also a valued commodity, used to heat homes and cook food, provide raw materials for industry and keep the lights on. Every molecule leaked is energy wasted and money lost. The IEA estimates that about 200 billion cubic meters per year could be saved for productive uses by reducing leakage and flaring in the oil and gas industry. That is roughly one fifth of US supply, over a third of the global LNG trade, and nearly twice the volume exported through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025. Half of all abatement opportunities have a positive or zero net cost. The technology to cut emissions by 75% exists today. So why are methane emissions from oil and gas still so large?Host Ed Crooks is joined by TJ Conway, Principal at RMI's Climate Intelligence Program, to explore what it will take to tackle the problem. TJ walks through RMI's approach: first, better understanding where emissions are and how large they are, including the role of super emitters, sources above 100 kilograms per hour that can account for half of total leakage, and then driving change through market mechanisms, corporate engagement, finance, and capacity building. He then talks about the key issue for future methane emissions reductions: the demand side. Creating a functioning market for differentiated, lower-emissions gas requires that buyers, including utilities, industrial companies and hyperscales using gas-powered data centres, can credibly account for those purchases in their emissions inventories. That architecture is still being built.Ed and TJ also dig into the EU Methane Emissions Regulation, now entering its implementation phase ahead of methane intensity thresholds taking effect by 2030. The technical challenges are considerable: tracing emissions from source to importer through complex supply chains like the US pipeline network, where a single LNG cargo may blend gas from low-intensity offshore fields and high-intensity Permian basin production. RMI has proposed a hybrid traceability approach to solve those challenges. The episode also covers methane abatement finance. Financial institutions with climate goals are now often relucatant to invest in oil and gas operations, even for emissions reduction. RMI's Methane Finance Working Group, launched at COP28 alongside the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, has developed guidance for financing structures to overcome that obstacle. It aims to unlock financing to meet a need estimated at 100 to 200 billion dollars.TJ closes with an optimistic message: emissions remain stubbornly high, but the institutional infrastructure built over the past five years now provides the foundation for action. The goal remains a 75% reduction, and the tools exist to get there. Rocky Mountain Institute was founded during the energy crises of the 1970s, with a simple idea: better energy systems can deliver both economic and environmental benefits.Nearly 50 years later, that mission has never been more relevant. As businesses and governments navigate rising electricity demand, supply-chain uncertainty, and the push to decarbonize, RMI helps turn complex energy challenges into practical solutions.From grid modernization and industrial decarbonization to clean transportation and building efficiency, RMI works across sectors to accelerate the energy transition in ways that improve resilience, affordability, and energy security.Learn more at rmi.org.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There are two great forces reshaping the world of energy today. The AI boom and the wave of investment in new data centres have sent power producers scrambling for generation capacity to meet soaring electricity demand. At the same time, the severe disruption to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has put security of supply at the top of every importer's agenda. In this special episode, recorded at Wood Mackenzie's Gas, LNG and the Future of Energy Conference in London, host Ed Crooks speaks with three guests about what these twin pressures mean for gas. They discuss demand for gas for power, the sources of supply that could provide energy security in volatile times, and plans for tackling the increased greenhouse gas emissions that could result from increased consumption.First, Ed sits down with Neal Kalita, senior director of global energy management at NTT Global Data Centers, one of the world's largest data center developers. Neal explains why "speed to power" is a priority, and why gas plays such a key role in providing the reliable 24/7 firm capacity hyperscaler clients require.Relying on gas as a key component of the power generation mix means managing a complex set of issues around supply security, demand management and long-term investment. Neal explains how NTT thinks about commodity risk, the trade-offs involved in power supply agreements, and why on-site gas generation may be not just a bridge solution but long-term infrastructure for the electricity system. He highlights the key drivers that are changing the data centre industry, including rising GPU power density, AI-driven volatility in load, and climate-related grid reliability concerns. He also discusses NTT's participation in a demand response programme run by Voltus, which helped stabilise the grid when Winter Storm Fern hit Virginia in January.Next, Ed hears from Keith Shoemaker, Chief Commercial Officer at Coastal Bend, which is developing a new LNG liquefaction project at Corpus Christi, Texas. Coastal Bend is aiming to have the first project in the US to integrate carbon capture and sequestration into its design. Combined with the procurement of upstream gas with low methane leakage and flaring, that should make for the lowest carbon-intensity LNG in the world, Keith says. Crucially, the project can match competitor prices without charging a green premium. The US 45Q tax credit will cover the operational spending (Opex) for the transport and sequestration of the carbon, and costs will be kept down by using brownfield maritime infrastructure that is already in place. Regulation will still be essential in creating a market for lower-emissions LNG. Keith sets out an idea for making that work in the EU: linking the new Methane Emissions Regulation with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to create an "avoided carbon" currency that LNG importers could use to offset CBAM fees on other products such as cement, steel and fertiliser. That way, the methane regulation would change from a stick to a carrot for the LNG industry.Kristy Kramer, Head of LNG at Wood Mackenzie, closes the episode by assessing how the three trends of AI demand, energy security and decarbonisation fit together. She discusses the big question: has the conflict on the Middle East changed the world completely, forever. It may play out like the Covid pandemic. Huge changes were predicted, and although there were some permanent impacts, in other areas the world has gone back to the way it was before. Politics will change from week to week, or even from hour to hour, but geology and economics don't, and over time the fundamentals will reassert themselves. Kristy and Ed reflect on what that means for the future of energy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Click here to donate $5 on Left of Lansing on Patreon!https://www.patreon.com/15494297/joinHere's the Left of Lansing "Friday Short" for June 12, 2026.Michigan continues to be one of the top states for solar installations even as The Trump Regime's been busy gutting solar and wind energy projects.At a time when the country needs as much energy as possible, and for cheaper prices, The Trump Regime is doing everything in its power to keep forcing fossil fuels on the working class. It's just more evidence showing how The Regime works more on behalf of The Epstein Class (which includes oil and gas industries), than it does for working Americans. Please, subscribe to the podcast, download each episode, and give it a good review if you can!leftoflansing@gmail.comLeft of Lansing is now on YouTube as well!Music provided by Wanderbeats. To hear the latest project, visit Space Leopard on various streaming sites, or visit: https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceLeopardClick here to donate $5 on Left of Lansing on Patreon!https://www.patreon.com/15494297/joinNOTES:"Solar energy remains in demand, particularly in Michigan, industry group reports." By Kyle Davidson of Michigan Advance "Michigan lost billions in climate-related investments in Trump's first year." By Kelly House of Bridge Michigan "The Trump admin paid a French company $1 billion to not build offshore wind farms. Blue states are suing." By Ella Nilsen of CNN "Michigan House votes to undo Michigan clean energy standards." By Colin Jackson of Michigan Public Radio News #podcast #politics #Progressive #Democrats #CleanEnergy #WindEnergy #Solar #FossilFuels #Trump #Michigan #Republicans #CorporateGreed #CorporateCorruption #GovernmentCorruption #Oil #IranWar #WorkingClass #Economy #Jobs #Inflation #Prices #Energy #Authoritarianism #Democracy #WorkingClass
Today, wind power accounts for just under 10% of all electricity globally, around the same as solar, recently overtaking nuclear power. 20 years ago, the figure was under 1%. In that time, the sector's leadership has moved around from Europe to the US to Asia, but one specialist European manufacturer has stayed in the leading group throughout: Vestas — a member of the global wind energy aristocracy. This week on Cleaning Up, Michael Liebreich is joined by Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas, to discuss the extraordinary growth in the wind energy industry, the challenges it faces with rising interest rates and political hostility, and where the best place to build turbines is in 2026. Together they do some myth-busting and answer: If wind is so great, why does it need subsidies? Is wind pointless because it's intermittent? Are turbines killing all the birds? What happens to the turbines at the end of their lives? Leadership Circle: Cleaning Up is proud to be supported by its Leadership Circle. The members are Actis, Alcazar Energy, Arup, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cygnum Capital, Davidson Kempner, Ecopragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information about the Leadership Circle, visit cleaningup.live Links: Vestas' website: https://www.vestas.com/en/pages/campaigns/sustainability/200-gw Henrik Andersen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-andersen-/ WindEurope 2026: From crisis to confidence — https://windeurope.org/news/windeurope-2026-from-crisis-to-confidence/
When data centers come to town, power bills go up, the water supply gets squeezed, and emissions start to rise. It's no wonder seven in ten Americans don't want one in their backyard. In the midst of this AI gold rush, many tech companies are taking advantage of communities, health, wealth, and safety for promises of a better future. But communities aren't taking the bait. In this episode, we talk about the real life effects of AI infrastructure and hear how it's affecting folks in our community. We get the stats on this booming industry and what's at stake. We hear from Abre' Connor, the civil rights attorney leading the NAACP's lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI — a data center that's now running 59 methane gas turbines in a Mississippi community, breaking a law that's been on the books since the 1970s.And we ask the uncomfortable question: could all this energy hunger actually accelerate the renewable transition? Is the AI revolution happening to us or for us? And what can we do about it? Episode rundown: (00:53) - On thing we can agree on (09:14) - The ripple effects of the AI boom (14:35) - The NAACP Lawyer Taking Elon Musk's xAI (27:59) - Can the Grid Save Us? (43:52) - Keep Making Noise
The conflict in the Middle East has created severe disruption to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, taking roughly 20% of global supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) off the market. It has been a reminder that hundreds of millions of people rely on the international gas trade to heat our homes, fuel our industries and keep our lights on. And that trade is highly vulnerable to sudden shocks. In this special episode, recorded at Wood Mackenzie's Gas, LNG and the Future of Energy Conference in London, host Ed Crooks speaks with industry leaders and experts about the forces that are changing the gas business. Security of supply and affordability are now the top priorities for policymakers and business leaders around the world. But climate change has not gone away, and greenhouse gas emissions are going to be an increasingly significant issue in the future. Balancing those three imperatives is the trilemma that the energy industry has to solve.First, Ed talks to Anita Odedra, of the LNG platform MidOcean Energy, to discuss the critical role of geography. When energy supplies from the Middle East are disrupted, assets elsewhere in the world take on a greater importance. Joining Anita is Dr Valentina Kretzschmar, of Wood Mackenzie, who puts the shock from the Iran war into the context of a decelerating energy transition in the West. She walks through the EU Methane Emissions Regulation and why it is so hard to work out exactly how much escaped methane is associated with a cargo of imported LNG. And she talks about how the real threat to fossil fuels is cheap Chinese clean energy technology. Arturo Gallego, of Centrica Energy, is another industry leader who is attempting to balance consumers' immediate demands for reliable, affordable energy with long-term climate goals. He warns that if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, Europe will struggle to find the gas it needs next winter, and high prices may be necessary to destroy demand. He makes the case for LNG as a transition fuel and for tackling greenhouse gas emissions step by step.TJ Conway, of the think-tank RMI, closes on a practical note. His work has focused on the technical solutions that make the EU methane regulation workable. He argues that his proposed framework could allow the EU to continue importing US gas, while still sending a signal that methane performance matters.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The energy transition conversation focuses on what connects to the grid. Far less attention goes to whether anyone is coordinating what those assets do once connected. AI training runs swing hundreds of megawatts in seconds as GPUs checkpoint and restart a profile that looks like a generator tripping offline. At distribution level, millions of inverter-based resources create localised variability that overwhelms individual circuits even when aggregate models look healthy. The planning tools in use today were designed for neither problem.Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Kay Aikin, CEO and Founder of Dynamic Grid, energy engineer, grid architecture advisor to the DOE-supported GridWise Architecture Council, and contributor to the UN Environmental Program's building decarbonisation work. Kay unpacks what an AI training facility actually does to the grid with full GPU load for hours or days, then a drop to ten percent in seconds during checkpointing. She talks about how at the scale now planned, the Stargate project in Texas alone could represent ten percent of ERCOT disappearing in four seconds. The behaviour is stochastic and cannot be modelled with traditional statistical tools. At distribution level, virtual power plants responding to wholesale signals without circuit-level visibility can create competing oscillations, the kind of emergent dynamics that contributed to the Spanish grid failure.The proposed fix is an AI controller at the substation, sending price-based signals and flexible operating envelopes to large assets and VPP operators, giving them twenty-four-hour forecasts and real-time circuit visibility. Total cost: under a hundred thousand dollars installed. The reason it isn't everywhere is cost-of-service regulation. Utilities earn returns on deployed capital, so a million-dollar transformer replacement is more profitable than software that eliminates the need for it.Without new approaches, rebuilding the US distribution grid could cost up to ten trillion dollars by 2040. Kay is developing grid utilisation metrics with regulators in Maine, Virginia, and Maryland to incentivise extracting more from existing infrastructure. The episode closes on the need for distribution system operators and the affordability death spiral that looms if the structural incentives don't shift. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
America is facing an energy supply crisis created by surging demand for electricity from data centres. A transition to a lower-carbon system requires massive investment in new clean energy infrastructure. But legal and regulatory structures mean that developing projects in the US is often an uncertain, drawn-out and expensive process.To take just one example, new transmission infrastructure is vital for connecting renewable generation to concentrations of electricity demand. But the last time the US added more than 1,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in a year was 2016.In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Representative Scott Peters to discuss what Congress can do to help fix that. Scott is a Democratic member of the House of Representatives and a co-sponsor of the bipartisan CERTAIN Act, a new bill that attempts to take some of the risk and unpredictability out of the legal procedures for project development.Along with regular contributor Melissa Lott, Partner for Energy Technologies at Microsoft, they discuss whether reform of the permitting system can really help expedite investment in new energy projects. And they assess how likely it is that Congress will be able to make a deal and get a more streamlined system passed into law. The conversation starts with NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. Passed in 1970, it is the bedrock for environmental permitting for infrastructure projects. It is also the most litigated environmental statute in the US. A major project can take four years to prepare an environmental impact statement, with another four years of litigation to follow. As Scott points out, when NEPA was written there were few other environmental protections. Now there are dozens, yet the review process has only grown more burdensome.Melissa frames the core tension: NEPA was designed to inform decisions, not make them. But open-ended review processes have effectively become the decision, determining which projects live or die.Scott explains the current state of the legislative landscape. There are three key elements of a potential bipartisan agreement on reform. The CERTAIN act sets regular permitting milestones and protects issued permits from arbitrary revocation. The SPEED Act, which has already passed in the House, limits the need for environmental reviews, shortens timetables, and restricts the scope for subsequent challenges in the courts. And there are moves for new legislation specifically to support development of electricity transmission. A final deal in Congress is likely to include all three elements. Melissa discusses whether federal reform alone can transform the pace of delivery. Ed raises the question of whether the legal rights and political authorities enshrined in the US system mean that infrastructure development must always be a costly and protracted business. He cites Wood Mackenzie data showing US solar costs are more than double those in China. Scott counters with Texas, where a free-market approach has driven rapid renewable deployment, not because of climate concerns but because the market demanded it.The politics of permitting reform have shifted. Republicans wanted to limit the federal government's ability to block oil and gas projects. Now many Democrats support curbs on the executive's power to obstruct renewable energy development. The issue has risen up the political agenda after the Trump administration moved to block offshore wind projects already under construction, and delayed permits for onshore wind.Scott closes by arguing that this is the best opportunity for lasting permitting reform that he has seen in his 14 years in Congress. This episode is sponsored by Bechtel.Nuclear is back — and Bechtel is helping build what comes next. For more than 70 years, Bechtel has helped shape the nuclear industry, from work on the world's first commercial nuclear reactor to designing, constructing, and servicing more than 150 nuclear plants worldwide. Bechtel has helped bring more than 76,000 megawatts of nuclear power online globally. Today, Bechtel is helping deliver the next generation of nuclear energy — from large-scale plants to small modular and advanced reactors — using the company's decades of mega-project delivery experience to bring new nuclear online safely, reliably, and at scale. Learn more at bechtel.com/nuclear See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The era of stagnant electricity demand in the US is over. Data centres, electrification, and reshoring of manufacturing are driving a surge in demand that is stronger that anything that anyone currently working in the industry has yet seen in their professional lifetimes. The question of which market and regulatory structures are needed to respond to this new and fast-changing world is now at the centre of the policy debate.Host Ed Crooks is joined by Drew Maloney, President and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade body representing America's investor-owned utilities, which together serve more than 70 per cent of the US population. Drew argues that the current moment is exposing a fundamental divide in the US power system: vertically integrated, regulated utilities can plan generation, transmission, and distribution over 20-year horizons, while competitive markets like PJM are struggling to send the investment signals needed to get new power plants built.The conversation starts with one of the hottest topics in US politics: affordability and household electricity bills. There are some misconceptions about electricity bills that have gained traction with the American public. Drew points to EEI research showing that 34 states have kept increases in electricity rates below general consumer price inflation over the past five years. And he adds that the states where prices are rising fastest tend to be in deregulated markets, where capacity costs are climbing but no new generation is being built.Ed draws on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2025 study of electricity bills and data centres (You can read that study here.). That study found that demand growth alone did not explain rising bills, and that the drivers vary significantly by region, from wildfire mitigation costs in California to capacity market dynamics in PJM and New England.They move on to another hot topic in the industry today: whether data centres and other large loads should go “off grid” and rely entirely on local on-site generation. Drew pushes back against the narrative that this model is now becoming widespread, arguing there is more talk than action. Building duplicative generation to create “five nines” reliability for a data centre is expensive, and can still be unreliable without grid backup. It also pulls investment and workforce away from the shared infrastructure that benefits all customers. Most data centres want grid access, even if some are pursuing hybrid approaches in the interim until their hook-ups to the network can be connected.The episode also covers FERC Chairman Laura Swett's emerging approach to market intervention, the prospects for bipartisan permitting reform in Congress, and the ratepayer protection plan brokered between the White House and the major hyperscalers. Drew closes with an optimistic long view: the current moment, though it needs careful management, could be an opportunity to transform the US grid for the better.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As coal and gas plants retire, the energy transition conversation focuses on replacing their generation capacity. What gets far less attention is the loss of the physical properties those machines provided for free: inertia that stabilises frequency, fault current that supports voltage during disturbances, and reactive power that regulates voltage across the network. These services come from the physics of enormous spinning rotors synchronised to the grid, responding instantaneously, without sensors, software or control loops. As inverter-based resources replace them, that mechanical immune system disappears, and a new, extreme stress test is arriving at the same time in the form of AI data centres whose loads can swing by hundreds of megawatts in a fraction of a second.Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Kristina Carlquist, General Manager of Synchronous Condensers at ABB, and Christian Payerl, Sales Manager of Synchronous Condensers at ABB, to unpack why a technology that has existed for as long as the grid itself is now experiencing a revival.Christian explains the three ancillary services the grid is losing, inertia, short-circuit current and reactive power, and why inverter-based generation does not replace them. Grid-forming batteries can be programmed to simulate inertia, but each charge-discharge cycle degrades lifetime, overload capacity is limited to microseconds, and the models needed for accurate grid simulation are often tied up in manufacturer IP. Synchronous condensers respond on physics alone, in both directions, with no degradation and no modelling uncertainty. The recent blackout in Spain illustrates what happens when that gap is left unfilled.Kristina walks through the commercial traction. ABB's partnership with VoltaGrid on isolated data center microgrids has grown from an unexpected inbound enquiry in late 2024 to dozens of synchronous condensers delivered. On the grid-connected side, the Faroe Islands have deployed four units with a fifth on the way as part of their push toward 100% renewables, already achieving multi-day periods of fully renewable operation. ABB is also working with Korea's Jeju Island on its first flywheel-equipped deployment. The demand pattern is widening: islands integrating renewables, TSOs managing weak grid regions, mines electrifying operations, and now data centre developers who had never considered grid stability equipment before.The episode closes on regulation and standards. Christian, who participates in international standards work through CIGRE, notes that there is still no international standard for flywheel safety and that the treatment of inertia as a paid service varies dramatically by country. While inertia is compensated as a paid service in the UK, in Sweden it is treated as free – rotating machines providing it receive no income stream for doing so. As data center load grows faster than regulation can respond, both guests argue that the answer is not one technology but a combination, provided the industry, utilities and policymakers can align on what the grid actually needs to remain stable.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The war with Iran has put a spotlight on the security and resilience of energy and supply chains around the world. In this second special episode from the ACORE Finance Forum in New York, host Ed Crooks explores what that means for the US power industry, at a moment when rising electricity demand was already putting the grid under strain.Lori Ann LaRocco, a trade and supply chain expert and author of Trade War: Containers Don't Lie, explains the global impacts from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. She tells us that there are 70,000 products made from petrochemicals, including the components that go into solar panels, the chips for data centers, and your cell phone. Supplies of those products are being crunched because of the disruption to exports from the Gulf. Some are already in short supply. Even if the strait reopened tomorrow, the physical realities of repositioning tankers, clearing mines and restoring export infrastructure would mean supply chains would take at least a year to normalise. Her advice: know your supply chain not just to the first tier, but to the fifth, sixth and seventh.José Antonio Miranda, chief executive of Avangrid, talks about the opportunities and challenges created by rising electricity demand. He says investment needs to start now and keep going. His one word advice for policymakers: certainty. Investors have the capital and the expertise to deliver the new grid and generation capacity that policymakers want, he says. What the private sector cannot work with is retroactive rule changes and unpredictable permitting outcomes.Harry Krejsa, director of studies at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology, is a former official in both the Trump and Biden administrations who is focused on the relationship between energy and national security. He argues that worries about depending on China for clean energy technology often conflate two issues: cybersecurity risk, and supply chain dependency. His principle is guard the smart stuff, buy the dumb stuff, and build the future.Kara McNutt, Wood Mackenzie's head of power and renewables consulting for the Americas, shares her concerns about grid reliability. The share of dispatchable generation on the US grid is declining as coal-fired power plants shut down and new wind and solar capacity is added. Nuclear is genuinely exciting, with the global SMR pipeline nearly doubling in the past year, but it is a 2030s story rather than a solution for today.Benoy Thanjan, founder of Reneu Energy and host of the Solar Maverick podcast, is a solar developer. He is seeing surging interest in behind-the-meter storage, driven in part by concerns about energy security and resilience brought to the surface by the Iran war. The FEOC (Foreign Entities of Concern) rules, intended to stop unfriendly countries benefiting from US tax credits, remain a real point of friction. Customers want US-manufactured equipment, but the price gap between compliant and non-compliant products is still very large.Ray Long, president and chief executive of ACORE, closes by sharing his key takeaways from the forum. He says three things need to change to remove obstacles to investment: federal permitting reform, clear FEOC guidance from the Treasury, and faster approvals from the Departments of Interior, War and Energy for new projects. Follow the show wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode. Let us know what you think. We're on X, at @theenergygang.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
The numbers are staggering. The “magnificent seven” Big Tech companies are expected to have combined capital spending of about $800 billion this year. Data centres' electricity demand is soaring, and hundreds of billions of dollars more are being mobilised to invest in power infrastructure to meet that demand. In this special episode, recorded at the ACORE Finance Forum in New York, host Ed Crooks speaks with five guests at the heart of the revolution in energy finance: bankers, a deal lawyer, a data centre operator and a head of policy. James Wright, Managing Director and Head of US Corporate Banking at CIBC Capital Markets, explains the connection between power, data centres and AI with an analogy borrowed from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Think of AI as a layer cake, with power as the base, data centre infrastructure above it, then hardware, then AI models, and the applications as the icing on top. For banks like CIBC, it is those bottom two layers that matter most. James explains how power developers and data centre builders are increasingly converging. Gas, solar and battery storage are driving the bulk of activity in new power generation, though gas turbine supply chains remain severely stretched. “Powered land” projects, created as sites to attract data centre developers, are a popular idea at the moment. But many of them are highly speculative. James estimates that for every twenty conversations, perhaps a couple result in a financeable transaction. Another hot topic is of behind-the-meter generation and co-located power. James sees it happening, but only at the margin. Grid connections are still the ultimate goal. Adam Altenhofen, Senior Vice President for Impact Finance at US Bank, brings a different perspective on energy finance. US Bank has deployed more than $33 billion in renewable energy since 2008, primarily through the tax credit programmes for solar, wind and battery storage. The wind and solar tax credits are winding down, but projects that start construction before 4 July this year can still be placed in service through to the end of 2030. The storage tax credit was preserved through to 2036. Behind-the-meter generation, Adam argues, presents a fundamental challenge to the project finance model. If the load disappears, so does the revenue. And unlike for a grid-connected project, there will be no readily available alternative revenue streams to fall back on. Guarantees covering the full duration of the power supply contract are the floor, not the ceiling, for what lenders would need to get comfortable, Adam says. Mona Dajani, Global Co-Chair of Infrastructure, Energy and Real Estate at the law firm Cooley, sees something structural changing. Hyperscalers are now behaving like utilities, she says. They assess data centre locations based on access to power, reliability and duration of supply. Meanwhile, some utilities are becoming more like infrastructure platforms, building unregulated arms and investing in new technologies to serve growing demand. A cultural gulf used to separate the tech and energy industries. But as they have come to understand their mutual interdependence over the past few years, more constructive collaborations have emerged. Jon Edwards, Executive Vice President and Head of Capital Markets at the data centre developer Switch, offers the operator's perspective. Switch currently consumes roughly one third of Nevada's total power supply and operates at 100% green power. Jon explains how the company decoupled from the utility grid for generation purposes back in 2015, buying its own generation while still using the utility for transmission and distribution, and how that model helped reduce Nevada consumer electricity prices by double digits in 2025. He is another sceptic about behind-the-meter power: it is useful as a bridge in some circumstances, but grid-connected utility power remains the primary and preferred solution for serious, long-duration data centre operations. On the financing side, Jon discusses Switch's recent $2.6 billion letter of credit facility, designed to give utilities the financial certainty they need to invest in new infrastructure, knowing they can be confident the data centre load will be there. The episode closes with Lesley Hunter, Senior Vice President for Policy at ACORE, who sets the policy backdrop against which all of this activity is playing out. ACORE's latest investor survey makes for sobering reading: 69% of capital providers who replied to the survey said they thought the US industry had in the past year lost attractiveness compared to clean energy sectors in other countries. The same proportion, 69%, expect a further relative decline over the next three years. Lesley identifies two main pain points: the still-unresolved foreign entity of concern rules (FEOC) for tax credit eligibility, and the Department of Defense slow-walking agreements needed for wind development that has held up more than 160 projects. Her message for policy-makers is that regulatory stability is vital. “The core ask of the industry right now is to ensure that players have the rules of the road,” she says. “That those rules won't change mid-stream, and they are able to deploy capital, and trust the federal government when making these long-term investments in US infrastructure.” Follow the show wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Ten weeks into the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The ceasefire is officially holding, but occasional attacks on ships and installations continue. A difficult question is coming into focus: what if the strait never fully reopens?Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of the Global Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab at NYU, alongside two guests. Edward (Eddie) Fishman is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Choke Points, a history of economic warfare. Christopher Aversano is Wood Mackenzie's Director of Maritime Partnerships, returning to give the view from the shipping industry.Chris reports that the number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz had risen from around 10 a day at the low point to roughly 25 a day, but then dropped off again as tensions escalated and the threat of renewed fighting rose. Even at their best, the number of transits has been just a fraction of the 150-170 a day that was normal before the war began at the end of February.Some ships are still making it through the strait. Some LNG carriers have “gone dark”, shutting off their transponders, later reappearing weeks later on the other side of the world. Ship owners are pragmatic, Chris says, and high commodity prices create a strong financial incentive for tankers to pass through the strait when they can. But questions of insurance, crew safety, and freedom of navigation through the strait remain unresolved.Eddie says the US decision on what to do next is like a choice between two doors . Door one would be a negotiated deal that leaves Iran as gatekeeper of the Strait of Hormuz. Door two would be full-scale military intervention, which seems politically impossible. With neither option palatable, the result is drift. His base case is that Iran retains permanent control. A toll of $2 million per ship passing through the strait could generate $30-100 billion a year for Tehran, potentially exceeding its oil export earnings. The drones needed to enforce the closure can cost as little as $20,000 each.Amy argues the full impact of closing the strait has not yet hit. Emergency releases of oil from reserves, shadow cargoes from sanction ed countries that were already on the water, and seasonal refinery maintenance have all cushioned the blow. The real test comes in the weeks ahead, as those buffers run out. Ed argues that if the strait stays closed for six more months, oil at $150-$200 a barrel may be needed to balance the market, with a global recession as the likely consequence.The conversation broadens into the geopolitics of the dollar. Eddie explains why the US currency remains the backbone of global trade, involved in 90 per cent of all foreign exchange transactions, and why that gives the US government powerful strategic leverage. Amy suggests that China may see US entanglement in the strait as strategically useful, draining American resources without it lifting a finger.The episode closes with a warning. Eddie argues the weaponisation of American economic power against allies as well as adversaries risks fragmenting the global trading system further, with potentially disastrous consequences. History shows that when states cannot secure resources through open exchange, they tend to be tempted into conquest.‘Chokepoints : American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare' by Edward Fishman, published by Penguin, is available from bookstores now. This episode is sponsored by Bechtel. Nuclear is back — and Bechtel is helping build what comes next.For more than 70 years, Bechtel has helped shape the nuclear industry, from work on the world's first commercial nuclear reactor to designing, constructing, and servicing more than 150 nuclear plants worldwide. Bechtel has helped bring more than 76,000 megawatts of nuclear power online globally. Today, Bechtel is helping deliver the next generation of nuclear energy — from large-scale plants to small modular and advanced reactors — using the company's decades of mega-project delivery experience to bring new nuclear online safely, reliably, and at scale.Learn more at bechtel.com/nuclear See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
Utilities are under pressure to deliver generation that is dispatchable, affordable, and clean enough to satisfy increasingly stringent environmental rules, notoriously hard to do in one asset. As renewables grow, the gas turbines and engines that have historically filled the gap come with a NOx problem, a CO2 problem, or both. Hydrogen offers a path through, but the supply isn't there yet. So what do you build today?Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Shannon Miller, CEO of Mainspring Energy, and Will Hazelip of National Grid Ventures, to dig into a technology most listeners haven't heard of and the first commercial hydrogen-powered deployment of it. Mainspring's 250-kilowatt linear generator is being installed at National Grid's 1,500 MW North Port facility on Long Island, in partnership with NYSERDA, the Long Island Power Authority, and Stony Brook University.Shannon explains how Mainspring redesigned the generator using the power electronics that drive solar inverters, batteries and EVs, replacing mechanical systems with software, eliminating the flame, and operating at temperatures low enough to take NOx out of the equation. An adaptive pressure cycle, software-controlled in real time, runs the same hardware on hydrogen, compressed natural gas, biogas, propane or blends, with no hardware change. The 250 kW form factor matters too: efficiency holds across the full load range, fleet redundancy replaces single-asset reliability risk, and deployment is a concrete pad plus electrical and fuel hookups rather than a multi-year build.Will frames the project against the regulatory backdrop. Long Island sits in a non-attainment zone for NOx, and New York's path to a carbon-free grid requires what the state calls a dispatchable emissions-free resource. The unit will run for 12 months on green hydrogen and on compressed natural gas, with Stony Brook measuring emissions and efficiency, NYSERDA watching for regulatory design, and National Grid building operational experience for the rest of its ageing fleet.The economic case rests on the alternative. New-build hydrogen-capable gas turbines run $3,500–$4,000/kW on capex (per Wood Mackenzie), with delivered power costs reaching $300–$900/MWh once hydrogen is layered in. Shannon's point is that committing to a single-fuel turbine only pays off if the fuel actually arrives at the scale and price you assumed. With hydrogen supply uncertain, that's a stranded-asset risk linear generators avoid by running on whatever fuel is available today. Will adds the carbon-market angle saying that as carbon pricing develops, real-time fuel switching becomes an optimisation lever, not just a hedge.Then there's the supply reality. Total US hydrogen production today isn't enough to fuel a single 500 MW power plant, and with 45V tax credit requirements tightening and federal climate policy in flux, the gap between hydrogen ambition and supply isn't closing fast. Will's suggests starting with the fuels that exist today and scale into hydrogen as supply grows.The episode closes on demand. Mainspring's factory produces 325 MW a year today and can roughly double in 12–15 months, with pull from industrial customers, data centres and AI infrastructure, and utilities at once, driven by the same problem: nobody can get power fast enough.This episode is sponsored by GridBeyond. Energy asset owners face a critical challenge: how to optimize performance and drive new revenue in competitive, fast-moving markets. GridBeyond solves this through AI-powered forecasting, energy trading and optimization. GridBeyond's platform delivers: Precision forecasting to anticipate market opportunities Intelligent market access across multiple revenue streams Real-time control that responds instantly to market conditions Optimization that combines AI insights with expert oversight Whether you're managing batteries, gas peakers, hybrid sites, or complex multi-asset portfolios, GridBeyond helps you turn assets into high-performance revenue machines. The proven platform has helped businesses across the energy sector maximize returns and accelerate their energy transition. Want to learn more? Visit go.gridbeyond.com/recharged https://go.gridbeyond.com/recharged See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
The past year has been challenging for electric vehicles. In the first quarter of 2026, US EV sales were about 27 per cent below their level in the first quarter of last year. But the ride-hailing industry still sees a future that is electric, autonomous, and shared, and is placing a multi-billion dollar bet on it. Ride-hailing services such as Uber could be one of the key sectors supporting the electrification of road transport in the years to come.In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers Jaffe, director of NYU's Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, and two guests from Uber. Andrew Cornelia is the company's global head of electrification and sustainability, and Samarth Kedrawal is its global head of fleet and autonomous vehicles. Andrew and Samarth make the case for why the shift away from the internal combustion engine as the dominant technology for road transport is a question of when, not if. And the fuel price shock resulting from the conflict in the Middle East may be shortening the timeline.Uber's EV strategy is about more than just going green, Andrew says. In markets where the economics work, including London, Paris, and São Paulo, EV drivers are earning more and spending less, and riders are consistently rating the electric experience among the best of Uber's services. Charging remains the biggest barrier, partly because the infrastructure has been chronically underbuilt. Finding a free public charger can be a problem, especially for the drivers who need them most because they live in urban centres without access to home charging. It can also be expensive: public charging can account for up to 40% of the total cost of ownership of an EV.Uber is now signing agreements with charging network operators to underwrite new infrastructure in exchange for preferential pricing for its drivers. The company is also helping drivers spread the upfront cost of home charger installation, and reports that the switch is saving some drivers close to $8,000 a year.Autonomous vehicles (Avs) are even more capital-intensive. Samarth describes an AV operation that in power demand terms looks like a series of small data centres: sites drawing three to eight megawatts, using tightly sequenced charging algorithms to maximise utilisation.Like hyperscalers waiting on grid connections for their data centres, Uber is in some markets using gas to provide a temporary power supply, bridging the gap while it waits for the utility to wire it up. The utilities have been willing partners, Samarth says, but the demand for charging infrastructure is significant. The conversations are becoming more complex, as EV charging lines up alongside data centres to queue for connections to the same distribution networks.The conversation also opens up a longer-term question: could a large enough fleet of parked autonomous vehicles one day act as a virtual power plant, selling stored energy back to the grid during peak demand? The answer is yes, eventually. But the immediate priority is more basic: making sure there are enough chargers available so the cars can actually turn a profit today.The episode closes with a discussion of Chinese EVs and what trade barriers are really costing consumers. Andrew says that EV adoption among Uber drivers is moving fastest in markets where low-cost Chinese vehicles are available. Latin America, Brazil in particular, is the next major frontier. In the US, the lack of those low-cost EVs is a barrier to making the economics work for Uber drivers.Both guests believe the industry will be bigger, the cost per mile lower, and the share of electric miles far higher. The direction is not in doubt, they say. The question is how fast the infrastructure, the policy environment, and the economics can move to meet it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Empty gigawatt factories, product recalls, participation rates that never materialised, and a policy environment that has now stripped the green premium entirely. The electrolyzer industry has had a brutal few years and most of the companies that raised hundreds of millions on the back of the hydrogen hype cycle are now sitting with fixed costs they cannot sustain and field deployments they are not proud of. Host Bridget van Dorsten speaks with Raveel Afzaal, CEO of Next Hydrogen, one of the few electrolyzer manufacturers that chose to watch from the sidelines while competitors scaled into the storm. Raveel describes the decision in blunt terms: in 2021, when cost of capital went to near zero and capital discipline evaporated, Next Hydrogen looked at the macro signals; rising inflation, rising interest rates, a market telling them their Hyundai partnership was worth a 5% share price drop, and chose to extend their runway from 18 months to five years. That meant hard capital allocation decisions, and the answer was to invest in the product, not the factory. The conversation goes deep into a problem that rarely gets discussed publicly: the commercialisation valley of death. Getting to a working prototype is celebrated, but the productisation phase, technology readiness levels five through seven, is where the funding gap is most severe and the cost shock is greatest. Costs typically rise three to five times from prototype stage, revenues do not yet exist, and neither government programmes nor conventional investors are structured to bridge it. Raveel explains why so many companies that made it to prototype stage never made it to commercial deployment and what surviving that valley actually required. Raveel also pushes back on a common framing around Chinese versus Western electrolyzers. His argument is that the quality question is not a national origin question , it is a materials question. What membranes, what bipolar plates, what catalyst, what functional safety architecture? Next Hydrogen's own answer to those questions is unusual: replacing nickel bipolar plates with large injection-moulded specialty engineered plastics, eliminating corrosion risk entirely and reducing cost through higher material utilisation rather than lower-grade materials. The company holds 40 patents on a cell architecture designed from the outset for direct connection to variable renewables, a design decision made in 2008, when the rest of the industry was still building for baseload. The episode closes on what the next two to three years look like for electrolyzer manufacturers. Raveel's view is that consolidation is coming, but many companies won't survive long enough to be part of it, their fixed costs are too high and their runway too short. The companies that survive will be those with variable cost models, disciplined project selection, and a genuine answer to three questions: Can you access excess electrons? Can you deliver containerised, plug-and-play solutions that control total installed cost? Can you reliably handle the intermittent operations that direct renewable connection demands? Next Hydrogen is betting the answer starts with getting the cell design right first. Today's episode is sponsored by GridBeyond. Energy asset owners face a critical challenge: how to optimize performance and drive new revenue in competitive, fast-moving markets. GridBeyond solves this through AI-powered forecasting, energy trading and optimization. GridBeyond's platform delivers: Precision forecasting to anticipate market opportunities Intelligent market access across multiple revenue streams Real-time control that responds instantly to market conditions Optimization that combines AI insights with expert oversight Whether you're managing batteries, gas peakers, hybrid sites, or complex multi-asset portfolios, GridBeyond helps you turn assets into high-performance revenue machines. The proven platform has helped businesses across the energy sector maximize returns and accelerate their energy transition. Want to learn more? Visit go.gridbeyond.com/recharged https://go.gridbeyond.com/recharged See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
When the workings of an electricity market come to the attention of the White House, it's usually a sign that something's wrong. Back in January, 13 state governors went to the White House to agree plans for PJM, the largest electricity market in the US. The market is scrambling to find more energy supply to keep up with the boom in data centers, while holding down ratepayers' bills. Managing the PJM grid is one of the toughest jobs in the US power industry. And these days it is being carried out in the full glare of political and public scrutiny.If you want to understand the pressures bearing down on the US electricity, PJM is the place to look. It is the largest grid in the country, serving 67 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia. And it is some of the world's most intense hotspots for new data center development, including the famous “data center alley” of northern Virginia, which takes roughly 90% of the country's internet traffic . When things get complicated for PJM, they get complicated for everyone.On this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Asim Haque, Senior Vice President for Governmental and Member Services at PJM, and by regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe, Director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University. Together, they unpack how PJM got itself noticed by the White House, and how its problems can be tackled.Asim explains the organization he works for. PJM is a nonprofit that operates the grid, runs the electricity market, and plans the transmission system. It is regulated by FERC, but also accountable to a thousand-plus members across 13 states, each with its own energy policies, its own governor, and its own politics. That structural complexity is central to why running PJM is so challenging.Those problems converged from two directions: decarbonization and data centers. The result has been soaring prices in the PJM capacity market. And when those prices were capped, the alarms about a future reliability crisis started flashing red.The White House responded by convening all 13 governors of the states covered by PJM, and produced a statement of principles for bringing new generation capacity into the market. As Asim explains, these principles lie behind the plan for a backstop reliability procurement, designed as a one-time mechanism to bring new electricity supply onto the system quickly.There is also an expectation that data centres will bring their own generation; and a "connect and manage" framework for those that don't. The key feature of that: data centers can have their supply curtailed before residential customers lose power. The White House and the governors agreed that the bill for grid and generation improvements to meet rising demand should be paid by the data centers. It sounds straightforward, but is it really? Asim explains his perspective.The episode also examines the deeper design questions about PJM's capacity market: whether a three-year forward procurement window can send the right signals for the long-term investment the grid now needs. Amy brings the consumer and policy lens throughout. Are the complexities of cost allocation and market design inherent to the electricity system, or are they manufactured and even sometimes exaggerated? And can they sometimes militate against lower-cost solutions such as renewables and batteries?Asim ends by offering some advice for other grid operators. If you are not going to gate demand, you need a connect-and-manage approach; if you are not going to gate demand, it will get expensive; and if it is going to get expensive, you need to decide who pays. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Millions of enrolled devices, 60 utilities, and the participation rate gap that's been embarrassing the US market for a decade. US residential virtual power plants have been a promising idea that's consistently underdelivered — participation rates below 5%, fragmented apps, siloed programmes, and utilities that have simply never had to compete for a customer's attention. Meanwhile, Octopus Energy has built the world's largest residential VPP in the UK, with EV driver participation rates of 50 to 70%. The question has always been whether that model can travel to a market where most customers have no supplier choice at all. Bridget van Dorsten speaks with Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, about the acquisition that represents Octopus's biggest bet on answering that question: a majority stake in Uplight alongside Schneider Electric, giving Octopus access to established relationships with more than 60 US utilities — including eight of the ten largest. Nick argues the participation gap isn't really a cultural problem or a technology problem. It's a regulatory design problem. US flexibility programmes have been built device by device, forcing consumers to juggle multiple apps and enrolments — and in some cases prohibiting them from combining assets across programmes. Octopus's answer is one app, a 30-second sign-up, and a value proposition framed entirely around what consumers actually care about: lower bills. Can that translate through a utility partnership channel rather than a direct retail relationship?The conversation also tackles the data centre dimension. Nick makes the case that residential flexibility isn't a separate story from the large load interconnection challenge — it's part of the solution. If utilities can statistically guarantee load reductions from tens of thousands of enrolled homes during peak hours, they may be able to connect larger data centre loads at smaller interconnection points. And in many hours when a data centre might otherwise ramp down, it could simply be cheaper to pay consumers to flex instead. Octopus's model is built on trust earned through direct consumer relationships. Can that translate through a utility intermediary at scale, across 60 different utility cultures without losing what makes it work?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The world changed forever on February 28th, 2026. The consequences of the Iran war will take many years to play out. But one fact already seems clear: we are not going back to the world that existed before the conflict began.To assess what the war means for the future of oil, gas and power, host Ed Crooks is joined by three of the most experienced voices in the geopolitics of energy. Regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe is the Director of NYU's Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab. Samantha Gross, returning to the show, is the Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. And Amos Hochstein, appearing for the first time, is a Managing Partner at TWG Global and former senior energy advisor to President Biden and the US State Department.Their conclusion is stark: this is the worst energy crisis the world has ever seen. The shared view is that the disruption we are seeing now is more serious than the oil shocks of the 1970s, and broader in its reach than anything markets have had to price in living memory. The loss of global oil supply from the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz is bad enough, but the effects do not end there. As well as 10-12 million barrels a day of crude supply, the world has lost 20% of its LNG supply and about 30% of its urea, used for fertilizer. We are seeing cascading shortages of products that you might never have connected to the Gulf region, from hospital gloves to semiconductor-grade helium.So why haven't prices yet reflected the full scale of the shock? Amos Hochstein draws a distinction between a risk environment and a disruption environment. Markets know how to price risk, he says, but they do not know how to price physical shortages. Meanwhile, the belief that President Trump can end the war on his own timeline is creating a dangerous feedback loop: markets stay calm because they think the president will intervene; the president sees calm markets and feels no urgency to act. But Samantha Gross argues that President Trump doesn't get to decide when this ends. The Iranians do.The disruption is already hitting unevenly. Sri Lanka has moved to a four-day working week. Thailand has asked workers to stay home. Airports across Asia are shutting down, not because jet fuel is expensive, but because they don't have any. As Amos Hochstein warns, the impact isn't growing in a straight line: it's exponential. Poorer nations are absorbing it first, but the consequences will continue to spread.The episode also looks beyond the immediate crisis to the longer-term implications. Amy Myers Jaffe predicts an acceleration of investment in new energy technologies, including nuclear fusion. Amos Hochstein maps out the infrastructure changes that he thinks will be needed, including investment in new pipelines so that oil and gas exports from the Gulf can bypass the Strait of Hormuz completely. Building all that new infrastructure would be a massive undertaking, but he thinks the world will come together to back it, because it relies on energy from the Gulf for so much. A fundamental rethinking of supply security is under way.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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