Podcasts about wind energy

Climate Week in New York was supposed to be about climate. Instead, the conversation kept being pulled back to energy security, resilience and the growing sense that the world has entered a more volatile era. Conflict in the Middle East, drone attacks on critical infrastructure, the weaponisation of energy supply, and the surge in power demand from AI are all forcing policymakers, companies and investors to ask a harder question: how do you build an energy system that can absorb shocks without pushing costs even higher for consumers?In this special live edition of Energy Gang, recorded at NYU, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe and three guests with very different vantage points on that question: Neil Brown, managing director at KKR; Anna Shpitsberg, Wood Mackenzie's head of global power and renewables research; and Sarah Kapnick, global head of climate advisory at JPMorgan. Together they explore how geopolitics, technology and climate risk are colliding to reshape the energy agenda.Neil argues that the attacks on Gulf infrastructure mark a strategic break with the past: energy systems are no longer exposed only to familiar market risks, but to cheaper, more agile forms of disruption that can inflict outsized damage. He makes the case that the Gulf states have shown real resilience through defence spending, sovereign capital and economic diversification, but warns that the deeper problem is political. In his view, the prospect of a durable settlement in the region looks remote, raising the risk that energy markets are entering a prolonged era of instability rather than a temporary shock.Sarah and Anna widen the lens. Sarah argues that resilience now means more than access to fuel: it means the ability to keep supplying energy through geopolitical, technological and climate volatility. Anna points to Ukraine's experience to show why distributed systems can recover faster than large centralised assets, while also stressing that resilience is not the same as self-sufficiency. Building a more secure system may require domestic capacity, strategic partnerships, industrial policy and a willingness to pay for optionality at a time when affordability pressures are already intense.That tension runs through the whole discussion. AI and data-centre growth are lifting electricity demand, but no one is certain how fast that demand will materialise, how efficient future computing will become, or where investment should land first. The result is a more complex energy system with fewer easy answers: decentralisation can reduce single points of failure but create new cyber risks; trade policy can support domestic manufacturing but raise prices; and climate policy becomes much harder to sustain when voters no longer feel they can afford the transition. The stakes, the panel argues, are no longer just about decarbonisation in the abstract, but about whether energy systems can stay secure, investable and politically durable in a more dangerous world.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.

Beim Extremwetterkongress in Hamburg diskutierten Klimaexpertinnen und -experten den Weckruf des Hitzesommers 2026. Ihre Botschaft: Der Meeresspiegel steigt, die Nordsee erwärmt sich weiter, und der Küstenschutz braucht mehr Investitionen.Ein weiteres Thema in der Hansestadt: die Zukunft der Köhlbrandbrücke. CDU und Handelskammer fordern eine temporäre Ersatzbrücke, damit der Hafen nicht ins Wanken gerät, sollte die alte Brücke vor Fertigstellung des Neubaus schlappmachen. Finanz- und Verkehrssenator halten dagegen.Nach 165 Tagen auf See ist die "Gorch Fock" nach Kiel zurückgekehrt. NDR-Reporter Andreas Schmidt ist für eine Fernseh-Doku zwei Wochen auf dem Segelschulschiff der Deutschen Marine mitgefahren. Für ihn besonders beeindruckend: das klare Bekenntnis vieler junger Kadettinnen und Kadetten zu Deutschland und seinen demokratischen Werten, die sie bereit sind, im Ernstfall auch zu verteidigen. Außerdem: ein Erfahrungsbericht über Segeltraining auf der Alexander von Humboldt II, das weltweit erste dauerhafte Flaschenpostamt im Museumshafen Övelgönne, die Fachmesse WindEnergy in Hamburg zwischen Aufbruch und Sorgen, ein Besuch an Bord des Dampfschiffs Schaarhörn - dessen Eigner, die Stiftung Hamburg Maritim, ihr 25-jähriges Bestehen feiert -, das Jubiläum des Kult-Shanty-Chors "De Tampentrekker", ein Blick auf die zunehmenden GPS-Störungen in der Ostsee - und eine Gratulation zum Geburtstag: der Sänger Freddy Quinn feiert am 27. September seinen 95. Geburtstag.Moderation: Jan WulfThemen dieser Ausgabe (in Podcastreihenfolge)

Windpower Monthly took to the conference floor to ask delegates what they have learned so far from attending WindEnergy Hamburg 2026.Delegates, including GWEC policy analyst Joyce Lee, talked about fostering a spirit of collaboration between global regions, the need to see more women represented on conference panels and the sheer number of firms involved in the construction of wind projects.The interviewees also spoke about their personal motivations for joining the wind industry and what it means to them.This episode was produced by Inga Marsden, Hannah Holt and Giorgiana Mamuzelos.Windpower Monthly is the official podcast partner of the WindEnergy Hamburg conference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A fresh shock to global energy markets has pushed an old question back to the center of the climate debate: When supplies tighten and prices rise, do governments double down on the transition, or reach for the fastest fossil fix? From the Strait of Hormuz to rising demand for cooling, the pressure is no longer just about fuel availability. It is about whether power systems can stay secure and affordable while demand keeps climbing and decarbonisation deadlines get closer.In this special Climate Week NYC episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, Kayte O'Neill, chief executive of the UK's National Energy System Operator (NESO), and David Calabrese, Executive Vice President at Daikin US Corporation. Together, they test whether efficiency, electrification and long-term system planning can offer a credible response to a crisis that is global, political and increasingly shaped by both AI and air-conditioning demand.Damilola argues that the discussion cannot be reduced to a rich-world debate about prices and reliability. Nearly 600 million people still lack access to electricity, and 2.4 billion do not have access to clean cooking. In that context, the real risk is not simply a temporary return to fossil fuels in advanced economies, but a much larger lock-in of diesel and petrol generation across emerging markets. Her case is that energy access and energy transition have to move together, supported by integrated national plans, targeted finance and more support for clean distributed systems such as solar, storage and inverters.Kayte makes the case that decarbonisation and system reliability are not competing goals if the grid is planned properly. She points to the UK's progress in moving away from coal, its high share of renewable generation, and the growing importance of demand flexibility as new loads arrive. With data centres and cooling demand reshaping power curves, the question is not only how much new generation gets built, but how intelligently demand can respond. David brings that argument down to the appliance level, arguing that heat pumps, inverter compressors and more efficient cooling systems can cut energy use while also helping the grid by acting as flexible load rather than blunt spikes in demand.What ties the discussion together is a shared insistence that the short term cannot be separated from the long term. Crisis management that relies only on more supply risks entrenching the very vulnerabilities the energy transition is supposed to solve. But a clean system will not build itself: it needs policy support, workforce training, flexibility, and capital that reaches the places where future demand growth will be greatest. That is the real stakes question for policymakers now, not whether to choose between security, affordability and net zero, but whether they can still design systems that deliver all three.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.

Farm margins are tight, but there are still programs designed to help producers invest in energy efficiency and infrastructure. Bethany from GDS Associates says EQIP continues to fund projects, while REAP had been paused as changes were made under the new administration. At the time of the interview, GDS said they were hearing REAP was expected to reopen in the fall.One of the biggest takeaways is understanding the difference between the programs—and not starting too soon. With EQIP, Bethany advises producers not to change anything until they've received approval. REAP can offer more flexibility once a complete application is officially in the system. EQIP generally works from a defined list of eligible energy improvements, while REAP can accommodate a broader range of projects and technologies.Those projects can include everything from high-efficiency grain dryers and replacing PTO augers with electric grain legs to dump pits, dairy robots, manure systems, poultry barn improvements, solar, wind, digesters, and geothermal. GDS stresses that not every technology makes financial sense on every farm, so the first step should be evaluating the economics rather than chasing a grant simply because money may be available.GDS also provides energy audits, feasibility work, and grant writing. Before a farmer spends the money to pursue an application, the team can use USDA's scoring process to estimate how competitive the project may be. In several states, GDS says it even has funding available to provide some of these services at no cost. The goal is simple: determine whether the project makes financial sense, identify available assistance, and help farmers keep more money in their operation. Want Farm4Profit Merch? Custom order your favorite items today!https://farmfocused.com/farm-4profit/ Don't forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen! Website: www.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode link: https://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail address: Farm4profitllc@gmail.comCall/Text: 515.207.9640Subscribe to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitllc Connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/Farm4Profit Media is not a financial, legal, or tax advisor. Content is provided for informational purposes only, and we serve solely as a platform for third-party opinions. Any actions taken based on this content are at your own risk. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colombia's power system was built around a powerful advantage: abundant hydropower backed by domestic gas, delivering electricity that was relatively cheap, relatively clean, and largely local. But that model is coming under pressure from two directions at once. Climate volatility is making dry years more dangerous, and gas is no longer the easy fallback it once was. As a potentially severe El Niño approaches, the central question is no longer just how much installed capacity the country has on paper. It is whether the system has enough firm, flexible energy to meet rising demand without driving up prices or risking shortages.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Álvaro Villasante, Vice President of Business Management and Innovation at Grupo Energía Bogotá, to examine how that shift is changing the energy debate in Colombia. Their core argument is that hydropower remains a strategic strength, but it can no longer be treated as a sufficient foundation on its own. As gas production declines and imports become more important, the backup system is getting more expensive and more exposed, turning what used to be a relatively stable balance between hydro and thermal generation into a more fragile equation shaped by infrastructure, timing, and security of supply.A large part of the discussion focuses on what can realistically be done before the next stress event arrives. Álvaro argues that long-term renewables auctions are directionally right, but they do little to solve an immediate risk window running through 2026 and 2027. In the near term, the priorities are more practical: manage reservoirs carefully, accelerate gas-import infrastructure, and treat demand response and energy efficiency as system tools rather than side issues. The broader lesson comes from Brazil, where a more diversified generation mix and stronger transmission buildout have made it easier to move power across regions and absorb volatility, offering a useful contrast for a Colombian system still trying to catch up on grid investment.The episode also broadens the conversation beyond market design and megawatts. Álvaro makes the case that energy security is ultimately about people: whether infrastructure reaches communities, whether electricity remains affordable, and whether reliable access is treated as a development priority rather than an abstract policy goal. The takeaway is that Colombia's next energy challenge will not be solved by one technology alone. It will be decided by how quickly the country can move from discussion to execution on gas, transmission, renewables, storage, and demand-side measures before climate pressure exposes the full cost of delay.You can learn more about the solar schools Alvaro speaks about in this episode here: https://www.grupoenergiabogota.com/actualidad-geb/comunicados-2022/aulas-solares-interactivas-apuesta-de-innovacion-del-geb-para-cerrar-brechas 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.

As federal support for climate action in the US is cut back, a difficult question is coming into focus: what happens to clean-energy projects that still make economic sense, but no longer have Washington behind them? For low-income communities in particular, this is not just a policy story. It is about electricity bills, resilience during storms and heatwaves, access to financing, and whether practical projects such as solar, storage, and efficiency upgrades can still get built.Host Ed Crooks is joined by Amir Kirkwood, Chief Executive of the Justice Climate Fund, and Melanie Allen, Chief Executive of the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice. Together, they explain how a network of community lenders, philanthropies, green banks and local partners is trying to keep momentum alive even as federal climate funding is frozen, litigated or wound back.A central theme of the conversation is that the real constraint is not just ideology or even demand for clean energy, but the structure of finance. Amir argues that many community projects do not need breakthrough technology so much as access to affordable capital and better risk sharing. His case is that catalytic tools such as credit enhancements, loan-loss reserves and blended capital can still unlock much larger pools of private investment, even if they cannot fully replace the scale of federal support that the Inflation Reduction Act was meant to provide.Melanie brings that argument down to ground level with examples of what those projects look like in practice. In Texas, local “hub homes” equipped with solar panels and batteries are giving neighbourhoods places to charge phones, run medical devices and stay cool during outages. In North Carolina, a stalled solar project for a wastewater facility was revived through a mix of local partnership and creative financing. In Georgia, a church cut its monthly energy bill sharply after installing solar, storage and EV charging. Across those examples, the point is the same: in many communities, clean energy is advancing less as an abstract climate commitment than as a practical answer to affordability, reliability and local resilience.That tension between climate ambition and kitchen-table economics runs through the entire discussion. Both guests argue that people move first for pocketbook reasons, and that the strongest case for these investments is often lower bills, stronger community institutions and better protection against system shocks. The politics may have changed in Washington, but the local need for cheaper, more reliable energy has not. In that sense, the conversation suggests that the next phase of US climate action may be driven less by federal grants and more by the ability to assemble credible local deals that solve several problems at once.But Melanie and Amir are also clear-eyed about the limits of that approach. Philanthropy can be catalytic, not substitutive. Tax-credit changes, direct-pay deadlines and higher supply-chain costs are all making projects harder to close. The question, then, is whether this emerging blend of community finance and private capital can keep enough projects moving to prove the model at scale. What is at stake is not only the pace of decarbonisation, but whether the benefits of the energy transition will still reach the communities that need them most.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The pressure on the power system is no longer theoretical. AI, data centers, electrification, and new industrial load are arriving faster than utilities can build generation and transmission through conventional timelines. One of the least glamorous but potentially most consequential answers to that problem is how to get more capacity out of the wires already in the ground and hanging overhead. Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by JD Sitton and Theodore Paradise of CTC Global to examine why advanced conductors are moving from a niche grid technology to a mainstream tool for utilities under pressure to deliver speed, affordability, and reliability at the same time. They explain how replacing traditional steel-core conductors with carbon-core alternatives can sharply reduce sag, increase thermal performance, and in many cases double capacity on existing rights-of-way without rebuilding towers or waiting a decade for a new line.The conversation explores why that matters now. As Theodore argues, the grid was already under strain before AI accelerated the problem, with aging generation, load growth from electrification, and mounting congestion already testing the system. What changes in this moment is the pace. A reconductoring project can be completed in roughly 18 months, compared with five to seven years for a rebuild and 10 to 15 years for a new parallel line. JD and Theodore make the case that this speed advantage is not just about meeting data-center demand. It is also about cutting costs, easing permitting friction, reducing community opposition to new infrastructure, and improving safety by lowering the risk of heat-driven sag and vegetation contact. Crucially, the episode asks what reliability should mean in a grid era defined by bigger load swings, tighter operating margins, and rising public scrutiny over cost. From wildfire resilience to real-time line monitoring and the ability to operate with greater confidence under stressed conditions, advanced conductors are presented not as a silver bullet, but as a proven, underused tool that could help utilities move faster and make better use of capital already committed to the system. The larger question running through the episode is whether the industry will look back on this moment and conclude that one of the simplest grid-capacity solutions was available all along.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Electricity markets are under renewed pressure. Surging demand forecasts from data centres and other large loads are colliding with anxiety over reliability, rising consumer bills, and the pace of new investment. In markets such as PJM and ERCOT, those tensions are turning an arcane debate about market design into a live political question: can competitive power markets still deliver affordable, reliable electricity in a period of rapid growth?Host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Amy Myers Jaffe are joined by Stacey Doré, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President for Public Affairs at Vistra, one of the largest competitive power producers and retailers in the US. Drawing on Vistra's growth from Texas utility successor to multi-state owner of gas, nuclear, coal, solar and battery assets, Stacey makes the case for competitive markets as the best way to drive efficient investment, innovation and customer value.The discussion starts with a challenge to the dominant narrative around load growth. Stacey argues that some of the most eye-catching forecasts for new demand are overstated by speculative projects and duplicative queue requests, and that the grid already has enough existing generation to serve most near-term growth for the vast majority of hours in the year. In her view, the real bottleneck is not an absolute lack of power, but the failure to connect new load to the grid quickly enough, alongside delays in transmission, distribution and interconnection processes.Are competitive markets sending the right signals to build what is needed next? Stacey says yes, pointing to rising capacity and energy prices in PJM, bilateral contracts with large customers, and a wave of announced investment in new and upgraded generation. She argues that the better near-term solution is not to force every new large load to wait for one-for-one new generation, but to connect customers faster, use co-location where possible, and rely on demand flexibility, backup generation and storage to manage the system's few true peak-stress hours.Amy pushes on the consumer side of the equation. Even if competition can work, who pays when prices rise, and are current cost-allocation rules fair to households? The conversation digs into the distinction between wholesale generation costs and the rapidly rising transmission and distribution portion of electricity bills, with Stacey arguing that getting more large loads onto the grid would help spread fixed system costs more broadly. Amy counters that cost allocation may be the first reform policymakers need to tackle if they want to protect residential customers while accommodating a new wave of industrial and data-centre demand.What emerges is less a simple argument for or against deregulation than a sharper question about what the grid actually needs now: faster interconnection, better load forecasting, clearer price signals, and a more honest debate about who should bear system costs. Whether policymakers double down on competition, let regulated utilities build more rate-based generation, or rethink cost allocation altogether, the stakes are clear: keeping the grid reliable while bringing on new demand without pushing affordability further out of reach.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

CEO Mark Tanton explains how, because Eskom could not progress with its grid plans, Red Cap Energy developed a parallel 132kv transmission line running near the Tsitsikamma River area up to Port Elizabeth.

Why are Republicans holding a convention in a midterm year? Because it costs $250,000 to sit at a table with Donald Trump. Brian Derrick reads the Dallas price list out loud and explains what the first GOP midterm convention is actually for.The Republican National Committee gathered at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on September 9 and 10 for the first midterm convention in modern American history. Trump speaks both nights. A roundtable with him runs $250,000 per person and a photo is another $88,600. JD Vance's roundtable is $75,000 with a $35,000 photo. Brian explains why holding it in Texas is the entire point, and why Republicans in competitive districts are quietly staying home.Then Rockbridge. AXIOS reported this week that the secretive donor network Vance co-founded in 2019 threw the pre-convention party in Dallas, drawing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Senator Eric Schmitt and Dallas donor Ray Washburne. Brian reads it as a preview of the 2028 campaign Vance is already building.On the legal side, two courts split on Missouri's congressional map within an hour of each other. Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the state's emergency application, leaving the 2022 map in place for November, and then a federal judge in Missouri ruled the gerrymandered map must be used. Brian explains why Oath has been anchoring on flipping 11 House seats instead of five, and why the slow churn of the courts is still working in our favor with ballots already moving. North Carolina became the first state in the country to mail them on September 4.Also: New Hampshire picked its nominees. Chris Pappas won the Democratic Senate primary and will face former Senator John E. Sununu in November. Stefany Shaheen edged Maura Sullivan in the First Congressional District. Your Oath Candidate of the Week is Will Lawrence, the Sunrise Movement co-founder running against Representative Tom Barrett in Michigan's Seventh, a Trump-leaning district that just nominated a real progressive. Then a Good Vibe Goodbye from New York City, which is on pace for the fewest murders and shootings in recorded history. Brian has a name for it.New episodes of Vibes Only are available for download first thing every Thursday morning and Glennis is back next week! Hit FOLLOW and we'll keep you informed for the midterms.EPISODE RESOURCES/LINKSOath Candidate of the Week: Will LawrenceReporting Referenced: AXIOS on Rockbridge and VanceGood Vibe Goodbye: Violent Crime in NYC Hits Historic LowSend us a text!Watch us on YoutubeFollow us on Instagram Oh, we're on TikTok tooFollow Brian on IG Follow Glennis on IG

AI is turning compute into a strategic resource, and the scramble to secure GPU capacity is starting to look a lot more like a commodity market than a traditional cloud-services business. As data-centre developers, lenders and energy companies try to price the next wave of AI demand, a new question is coming into focus: Can the industry build the kind of benchmark and hedging tools that already exist for oil, gas and power? Host Ed Crooks is joined by Peter Keavey, Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products at CME Group, and Carmen Li, Founder and CEO of Silicon Data. Together, they explore the case for a futures market in GPU compute: a financial product designed to bring more transparency, liquidity and risk management to one of the fastest-growing corners of the AI economy.Carmen explains how the market works today. Most users are not buying chips outright; they are renting access to GPU capacity by the hour, often through longer-term agreements with hyperscalers, neo-cloud providers and data-centre operators. That market is already large, global and increasingly active, but it remains fragmented and opaque, with prices varying by provider, chip type and contract structure, and much of the trading still happening through bilateral deals and requests for quotes.Peter sets out the logic for moving from that over-the-counter world to an exchange-traded one. In his view, a GPU futures contract could do three things at once: reduce counterparty risk through central clearing, concentrate liquidity in a transparent order book, and create forward benchmark prices the wider market can use. The proposed product is financially settled against an index of spot prices, translating an hourly rental market into a standardised monthly contract that could eventually extend several years forward.The bigger issue, though, is energy. Power is not the whole cost of GPU compute, but it is the most volatile variable input, which means a GPU hedge could eventually sit alongside gas and power hedges for data-centre operators, lenders and infrastructure investors. The discussion keeps returning to what that means for markets such as Texas and Virginia, where the AI build-out is already shaping decisions on generation, grid access and where capital should go next.Both guests stress that this is still a young market, but already a volatile one. Rental rates have swung sharply as chip scarcity eases and then tightens again, while banks, traders and developers are trying to make long-dated decisions without a reliable forward curve. If this market develops the way Keavey and Li expect, GPU futures would not just serve traders: they could become an important signal for anyone trying to judge how durable the AI boom really is, and how much energy the system will need to support it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a decade of flat demand, power markets are being forced to absorb a very different problem: rapid load growth arriving faster than transmission, large-scale generation, and utility interconnection processes can respond. The focus shifts from utility-scale procurement to the distributed edge of the system, where commercial and industrial solar, community solar, batteries, and microgrids may prove to be some of the fastest tools available for adding capacity, managing costs, and improving resilience.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Tim Montague, host of Clean Power Hour and a longtime C&I solar operator and advisor, to unpack what distinguishes distributed generation from utility-scale solar in practice. Tim explains why the differences are not just about megawatts, but about interconnection, contractor capability, state policy, and execution risk. He also lays out how the phase-down of the ITC and the July 4 Safe Harbor deadline sharpened those differences: sophisticated developers with capital and pipeline visibility bought themselves runway through 2029, while smaller players that missed the deadline now face a much tighter path to commercial operation.The conversation then turns to the economics and mechanics of the market. Tim argues that state-level frameworks remain decisive for C&I and community solar, pointing to states such as Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Colorado, and New Mexico as the sector's core proving grounds. From workforce rules and training pipelines to tax-credit capture and commercial lending, he describes a market that is far more fragmented than utility-scale power, but also more flexible. Financing can range from a local business borrowing through its existing commercial bank to larger developers using institutional capital to safe-harbor equipment and scale portfolios, while PPAs remain available but often introduce longer, more complex contracting cycles.Crucially, the episode looks at why distributed energy is moving from a niche resilience play to a system-level answer for affordability and speed to power. Rising electricity prices, data-center demand, and long utility interconnection queues are improving the case for solar-plus-storage behind the meter and at community scale. Tim makes the case that batteries, community solar, distributed computing, and eventually community-scale microgrids can complement, not replace, utility-scale buildout by delivering capacity where it is needed faster and with more local value. The core question running through the episode is whether the next phase of the energy transition will be defined not only by bigger projects, but by a more distributed grid architecture built for flexibility, resilience, and cost control.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.

Keep in touch and have your say 24/7 - www.portugaltalkradio.comTop news on an intense mainland Portugal heatwave with temperatures up to 42°C alongside continued expansion of onshore wind energy as Portugal pursues 2030 climate goals and net-zero by 2045. Sharing headlines including a missing 23-year-old last seen in Lisbon, a woman's death in an Albufeira hotel with a partner detained, book vouchers exceeding 52,000 issued, and opportunities for Portuguese companies in Ireland, plus weather and currency updates. Munson previews recent uploads (a Tavira coach-trip video, Portugal's first neurodivergent festival, and a central Portugal real-estate report) before interviewing climate campaigner and former green energy consultant Stuart Boyle. Boyle discusses human-induced climate change, the IPCC, El Niño, increasing extreme events, and practical resilience steps after Storm Kristin, emphasizing local preparedness, community support, and Portugal's progress toward renewable power.00:00 Show Intro And Top Story01:06 Headlines Weather And Currency03:01 Stay For The Main Show03:07 Recent Uploads And Podcasts05:30 Today Theme Its Hot Now What07:32 Guest Joins Stuart Boyle08:42 Stuart Climate Activism Background11:56 Extreme Weather And Portugal Reality16:44 Trusting Science And The IPCC18:35 El Nino Explained And Global Impacts21:58 What Can We Do Resilience23:24 Act Local Think Global24:22 China Tech Changes Costs25:59 Storm Kristen Lessons26:58 Home Resilience Checklist30:20 Community Mutual Aid32:03 Post Industrial Future35:27 Portugal Renewable Advantage37:46 Politics Bills And Voting40:39 Wrap Up And A TeamBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-good-morning-portugal-podcast-with-carl-munson--2903992/support.Get help moving to and living in Portugal

Climate Change in Portugal (2026): El Niño, Storm Kristin, and Building Local ResilienceIn a 2026 conversation based in Portugal, Stewart and Carl discuss human-induced climate change, how the topic has become politically polarizing, and why they look to climate science - especially IPCC reports - while acknowledging public distrust of “science.”They compare their environmental backgrounds and focus on practical implications of worsening extremes, referencing Storm Kristin (power and internet outages, water issues) and an incoming heat spike into the 40s. Stuart explains weather vs climate, outlines how El Niño works and why its current intensity is unprecedented, and links rising greenhouse gases to increasing uncertainty and extremes affecting Portugal (including drought risk in the south).They emphasize balancing local action with political engagement, suggesting resilience measures like solar lights, backup generators, water storage, community networks, and alternative communications (Meshtastic), while noting Portugal's renewable progress and ongoing energy pricing/regulation issues.00:00 Naming Climate Change00:09 Early Activism Roots01:53 Friends of the Earth Era03:11 Portugal Extremes Today05:00 Host Climate Journey06:19 Weather Versus Climate08:11 Trust and the IPCC10:01 El Nino Explained12:03 Greenhouse Gas Basics13:23 Local Resilience Actions13:50 Pragmatic Not Evangelical15:49 China and Renewables Shift17:26 Storm Kristen Lessons18:24 Backup Power Basics18:55 Water and Community Barter19:40 Off Grid Communications20:15 Blackouts as Lessons22:20 Climate Upsides and Tradeoffs23:29 Post Industrial Disruption24:45 Lifestyle Change Reality Check26:54 Portugal Renewable Potential29:12 Politics Prices and Regulation32:05 Wrap Up and Community Plug33:59 Portuguese A Team OutroBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-good-morning-portugal-podcast-with-carl-munson--2903992/support.Get help moving to and living in Portugal

Portugal heatwave from today, as wind power grows. Temperatures to reach 40°+ in places!On Wednesday 2nd September 2026, Carl Munson's Good Morning Portugal! news leads with an intense heatwave, with temperatures expected to reach 42°C in several mainland regions, while Portugal's onshore wind capacity has grown by 199 MW this year as the country pursues 2030 climate targets and net-zero emissions by 2045. Other headlines include a French mother seeking news of her 23-year-old son last seen in Lisbon 10 days ago, police investigating the death of a woman in an Albufeira hotel (partner detained), the book-voucher programme exceeding 52,000 vouchers, and growing opportunities for Portuguese companies in Ireland. Guest Stuart Boyle joins to discuss “It's hot - now what?”#GoodMorningPortugal #PortugalNews #Heatwave #WindEnergy #ClimatePlan #StuartBoyle #LisbonMissing #Albufeira #BookVouchers #Portugal2026Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-good-morning-portugal-podcast-with-carl-munson--2903992/support.Get help moving to and living in Portugal

In the AI revolution, one of the critical constraints is how much additional electricity can be made available to power new data centers. And it is often argued that one of the key constraints on the growth of electricity supply is capacity in the equipment supply industry. The rate at which electricity supply can grow is determined in part by how fast the equipment industry can supply new turbines, transformers, switchgear and circuit breakers.In this episode Roger Martella, Chief Corporate Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at GE Vernova, one of the world's largest suppliers of electrical equipment, joins the show to explain how the company is meeting the challenge of soaring demand. Roger talks to host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Melissa Lott, Partner for Energy at Microsoft, about his route from industrial Pennsylvania to the leadership team at GE, via the Environmental Protection Agency. And he explains why, when the old conglomerate GE broke up, he chose to go with the energy business. The company is driven by a sense of purpose, he says: bringing electricity to the world both raises living standards and supports decarbonization.Electricity demand growth created by new data centers for AI is one driver for GE Vernova's rapidly growing order book, but not the only one. The company is also responding to other sources of growing demand around the world, including the need to strengthen energy security in Europe and to support economic growth and development in emerging Asia.In the US, GE Vernova has announced $1.3 billion in investment and 1,800 new manufacturing jobs, to support expanded production of switchgear, circuit breakers and turbines. It plans to increase its turbine manufacturing capacity from 18 gigawatts a year to 30 gigawatts a year by 2030.Roger rejects the idea that equipment supplies are the main bottleneck restricting electricity supply growth. Other issues, including permitting and grid interconnections, are more fundamental difficulties for project developers. If anyone has built a turbine stand, but doesn't have a turbine to out on it, he says, he will find a turbine. Ed raises the issue of the industry's cyclicality. The gas turbine market has been through boom and bust in the past, and the uncertainty over the future of AI naturally raises the question of whether we are in another bubble today. Roger's answer is that the company is looking at the range of needs that are driving electrification, not making a bet solely on AI.As its production increases, GE Vernova needs to hire more workers. Roger, Ed and Melissa discuss the familiar consensus around skilled trades. Just about everyone agrees that America and other countries need more electricians, plumbers and welders to deloiver the build-out of infrastructure. But skills shortages persist. So what are the solutions that would actually increase the workforce in these sectors to meet demand? Are pay, job security, training and the status of industrial work being addressed in the right ways?One of the more exciting technologies for meeting electricity demand in the 2030s and beyond is the new generation of nuclear plants using small modular reactors (SMRs). GE Vernova has a new nuclear plant using SMRs under construction at Darlington in Ontario, and is targeting commercial operation by 2030. Ed pushes on the key question: can SMRs move from a promising concept to a repeatable, cost-competitive business? Roger says the first project has to be a proof point. The nuclear business cannot be run as a hobby, he says. The lessons from the first-of-a-kind Darlington plant must be used to drive down costs for subsequent units.The discussion also covers High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission and cutting-edge technologies for grid management, including uses for drones and AI. Roger ends with a message to policymakers: the missing ingredient is policy durability. If the industry is to invest enough to meet long-term needs, it has to have policy frameworks that survive political cycles, court challenges and changes of administration.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.

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Comprehensive coverage of the day's news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice. “o'odham_land” by Meditations on the Collapse, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 New Fed chair Warsh says he wants to give markets fewer clues about plans to address inflation, hints at interest hike; California sues Trump administration over moves to roll back state's offshore wind energy progress; Tohono O'odham Chairman Jose gives update on border wall construction, trespassing on tribal land; Faith organizations, immigrant activists holding vigils against construction of detention center near Gilroy, AG Bonta has challenged project in court; Saturday marks International Day against Nuclear Tests, Sunday is International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances The post Tohono O'odham Chairman Jose gives update on border wall construction on tribal land; California sues Trump administration over moves to roll back state's offshore wind energy progress – August 28, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

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.

In this episode, Amy heads to Columbia County to separate fact from fiction about wind energy… and learn a thing or two about cows. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Jerry Cigelske, 2nd generation Wisconsin farmer  

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.