Redefining Energy

Laurent and Gerard have a rapid overview of what’s going on regarding the Energy Transition in China and its political implication in the West. Record production of this, record production of that, overcapacity everywhere… We babble a lot, rant a bit, and conclude that we need to invite a real expert on the show.  

What is the value of green electrons? Hard to say. Depends where, depends when. What is sure is that, in view of recent regulations and corporate commitments, they must be tracked. From an annual basis, we are now moving to an hourly basis, under the thrust of corporate initiatives like the GhGProtocol, RE-100 and EnergyTag. Behind this movement, BigTech such as Microsoft and Google see a need to...

This week, Gerard and Laurent have been invited to a private event organized by Aquila Capital in March 2024, during the Global Infrastructure Conference, where they debate with Markus Wandt, CIO Aquila if “Renewables are still an Infrastructure play?”

The main hindrance to the development of renewables is the connection queue. Basically, grid operators tell developers “Sorry guys, we’re full”. A recent study by RMI has proven that this is simply not true. Grid operators are either too conservative or not incentivized to take more load. Old solutions. Old thinking. Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) are hardware and software solutions that are d...

This week, Gerard and Laurent talk about the 3 big energy gatherings that happened this week. Houston (CERAweek), Bilbao (WindEurope) and Berlin (Global Infrastructure Summit). Laurent and Gerard were in Berlin and report what they saw and heard. In a simple sentence à la John Wick “Yes, I think I’m back”  

“It’s hard to play a good game when you have been served weak cards”. This is the perennial challenge of Japan when it comes to the Energy Transition. And the game is getting harder when your two main choices, nuclear and hydrogen, are proving extremely costly in a world of cheap renewables. How robust is a business model based on a protected internal market with high margins and limited competiti...

This week, Gerard and Laurent talk about Conferences / Exhibition that they recently attended and what they have learned there. Gerard was in Germany’s E-World while Laurent was in London’s Energy Storage Summit. And they act as mirror opposites: "back in business" in Germany while the storage in London realises that the Champagne year of 2022 cannot easily be repeated. The storage industry nevert...

The two limiting factors for a faster deployment of EVs are the price of vehicles and “range anxiety”. While the former is being addressed by an ever-growing number of cheaper models available on the market, the latter is also experiencing a revolution. You would believe that such an opportunity would be grasped by Utilities. Surprise! They didn’t move. Oil companies have started investing, but at...

This week, Gerard and Laurent talk about three great reports that have recently been published and deliver some world-class data about past achievements, current status and the direction of travel. As a sign of things to come, European Carbon has lost 36% since the beginning of the year. We are here saluting Ember and their power/emission statistics – European Electricity review https://ember-clim...

To discuss everything that’s going on in the PPA market (and a lot of things are happening), Gerard and Laurent bring back the excellent Luca Pedretti, CEO and co-founder Pexapark. Pexapark is the leading swiss-based intelligence platform on PPA in Europe. With Luca, we have an extensive conversation about the recent evolutions in the PPA market. Trends, duration, size, shapes, types of contracts,...

This week, Gerard is out, so Laurent does the Minutes with Michael Barnard, host of our sister show Redefining Energy – Tech. On the menu this week, an overview of the decarbonisation of shipping. What will be electrified? What role for Hydrogen, Green Ammonia, Methanol and Biodiesel? And the answers are hybrid and multi-fuels. Links to Michael’s articles on the subject in Forbes https://www.forbe...

At COP28 was endorsed the concept of “tripling renewables” – all good, but a lot of people forgot to mention the rest of the sentence which is “and doubling of Energy Efficiency”. In the latest IEA report, there is a 400bnUSD Energy Efficiency pie, almost at the level of Oil Upstream, and more than into Grids. Nobody talks about it. Buildings, Industrial, Transport. Electrification, Heat Pumps. So...

Why has the fund raised by infrastructure fund drastically collapsed in 2023. Is it linked to lackluster returns in a high interest rate environment? At the same time, we have seen numerous acquisitions of mid size infrastructure specialists by larger global asset managers, case in point the very spectacular purchase of Global Infrastructure Partners by Blackrock (or is it a reverse take over?). W...

After two years of irrational exuberance, we are back to earth when it comes to Cleantech investment. On the menu this week, Gerard and Laurent are reviewing the Cleantech 100 report (15th edition). The overall ecosystem is down 40% yoy, but it has also cleaned the foam and is now revealing the future. We discuss the 5 sub-sectors (agriculture, transportation, materials, resources, and energy) Our...

Long term renewables assets portfolios provide stable returns. In most of the world, they are held by pension funds, insurance companies or big infrastructure funds. We have the exception of the UK with listed Infrastructure funds, also known as Yieldcos. For more than a decade, Yieldcos have been the backbone of the Energy Transition investing. To explain what are listed Infrastructure funds, we...

First Episode on the Redefining Energy MINUTES on the main channel. On the menu this week, an update of nuclear and offshore wind , two important (but minor) sources of carbon-free energy. And some news on the scandal at Cummins, and their pollution cheating device, costing them 1.6bnUSD. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/cummins-take-about-204-bln-charge-fourth-quarter-2023-12...

Happy new year to all our listeners. It has become a tradition for the first episode of the year: Gerard and Laurent present their 2024 Predictions in the Energy Transition. And we brought in our friend (and co-host of our sister show RE TECH) to spice up the conversation: Michael Barnard. Michael also acts as referee to score the predictions that were made a year ago. Record installation of every...

Final Episode of 2023 (and last one for the MINUTES on their own channel). All episodes will be on this channel going forward. Here are the Redefining Energy Awards for 2023: Company of the Year - BYD Start Up of the Year - PV Case Deal of the Year – Tesla and NACS Trade of the Year – Short Gas TTF Scandal of the Year – Venture Global and the 200 LNG cargoes heist Person of the Year – Jigar Shah S...

Last episode of the Year. And what a year. We passed 1m downloads since inception. In 2023, we will have 470k downloads up 34% compared to 2022. Gerard and Laurent saw the Weaponisation of Energy coming: two years ago in Oct 2021, we did Episode 60 called “the Natgaspocalypse”. That was 5 months before the invasion of Ukraine. Two years into weaponizing energy, it is time to look back and assess....

This Sunday, a Special Episode. We are going live to COP28 in Dubai. Our special guest is Bruce Douglas, CEO Global Renewable Alliance, who is spearheading the effort around the key message “Double down, Triple Up” or how we will decarbonise by tripling renewables by the end of the decade. Bruce tells us how it is on the ground, how he is having the busiest week of his life, and how the positive m...

In the past 5 years, we have seen an incredible rise of Energy Storage (ESS) on numerous Grids. Those markets, whether in Europe (10GW) or in the USA (16GW), have been created by the magic formula where entrepreneurship blended with new technology. For Laurent and Gerard, there is not better guest to discuss the phenomenal growth of the ESS than Dr Alex O’Cinneide . Alex is the Founder and CEO of...

Why should the 97% of non-French listeners of the podcast be interested in the fate of the French nuclear fleet? With 60GW and 56 reactors, the French nuclear fleet is critical to the very existence of a European Power market as it represents 10%-15% of the electricity consumed on the continent and much larger share if you only account for zero carbon sources. And its “health” is a key component o...

We hear a lot about Climate Tech, and the VC investments about to revolutionize and accelerate the Energy Transition. Gerard and Laurent wanted to know more. And there is no better place than Silicon Valley to hear it directly from the source. What are the trends? Where to invest? What strategy? There is no better guest than Dr. Carolin Funk, Partner at Blue Bear Capital, to provide an exceptional...

Honestly, we have struggled to find a suitable title for this Episode. We thought of and then abandoned catchier titles such as “Withering Wind”, “Have we reached peak wind?” and even “Wind – WTF”. Finally, we settled for a more optimistic headline. Still, after a great decade, the Wind industry is facing serious head winds. After 2020 and 2021: record years – almost 100GW (incl 10% - 20% offshore...

The smaller the grid, the higher the price. Islands have been plagued forever by a higher price of power. This is an inherent consequence of their small scale. Add on the top some natural catastrophes, and you end up with a poor and costly service for consumers. The good news is that there is a new generation of Utility managers which has started to tackle the problem. Of course, results are unper...