Energy Unplugged by Aurora

We have a very special episode for you this week on Energy Unplugged. Our CEO John Feddersen is talking to Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG about the role of the world’s largest utilities in decarbonising society. This is one of a series of episodes featuring energy transition leaders who will be speaking at our Spring Forum 2021. The Forum takes place in London on Wednesday 29th September. For more...

Our Managing Director in Australia - Hugo Batten is joined by Anna Skarbek, the CEO of ClimateWorks Australia, a not-for-profit decarbonisation think tank.  Anna has been the CEO of ClimateWorks Australia for almost 12 years now and she has had a number of Board roles in Australia, from CEFC to Impact Investment Group to the Carbon Market Institute. She has been hugely influential in Australia’s d...

In this episode, our CEO John Feddersen is joined by Bruce Riley – Managing Director for Infrastructure and Project Finance at NatWest. The focus of the show is the evolving role of project and infrastructure finance in the energy transition.  Bruce leads one of Europe’ largest and most influential energy infrastructure and project finance teams and he’s a veteran in Europe’s project finance indus...

Ed Birkett, Senior Research Fellow in the Energy and Environment unit at the Policy Exchange & Rachel Fletcher, Director Regulation and Economics at Octopus Energy join our Research Director Richard Howard for this week’s Energy Unplugged episode.  The conversation focuses on the challenges around energy market design in a Net Zero world. Ed wrote a report last year called ‘Powering Net Zero -...

Our Head of Commissioned Projects in Central Europe, Hanns Koenig speaks to Alexander Voigt, CEO of STOFF2 & Board Member and Founder of HH2E.  Alexander is one of the pioneers of the global energy transition. He has studied physics and started his career at an engineering bureau working on solar thermal solutions. He has founded several companies in the energy sector such as Solon in the sola...

Our Head of Commissioned Projects in Central Europe, Hanns Koenig is joined by one of the key executives in European hydrogen - Sopna Sury, Chief Operating Officer for Hydrogen at RWE Generation.  Previous to the current role, Sopna spent ten years in roles that have spanned leading Strategy and Regulatory Affairs at RWE Renewables, Energy Services and Infrastructure at Uniper, and Business Develo...

In this episode, our CEO John Feddersen is delighted to be joined by Stef Murphy and Paro Konar, Directors of Industrial Energy at Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).  Stef and Paro are job share directors for the Industrial Energy Directorate which provides focus and leadership of BEIS strategy, policy development and delivery on industrial energy issues, and also ensu...

Our Head of Iberia, Ana Barillas speaks to Federico Giannandrea, Partner and Head of Continental Europe at Foresight, a sustainability-led listed infrastructure and private equity investment manager.  Federico joined Foresight in 2010 and leads Foresight’s infrastructure investments in continental Europe and the business development for infrastructure globally.  Ana and Federico discuss: •How is r...

Our Managing Director in Australia - Hugo Batten speaks to Andrew Butler, Managing Director at Nectr – an Australian energy retailer that’s a subsidiary of the Korean group Hanwha.  Andrew has successfully led three retail energy start-up ventures - Australian Power & Gas, Alinta Energy and now Nectr and he’s also spent time in telco and infrastructure more broadly.  Hugo and Andrew discuss: •...

Dolf Gielen, Director of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Innovation and Technology Centre joins our Research Director Richard Howard for this week’s Energy Unplugged podcast.  Dolf has been with IRENA for over 10 years, having previously been Chief of the Energy Efficiency and Policy Unit at UNIDO, and spending a number of years with IEA – starting as a Senior Energy Analyst and...

In this episode, our CEO John Feddersen is joined by a leading thinker on South Eastern European energy - Julian Popov.  Julian is former Minister of Environment of Bulgaria, European Climate Foundation (ECF) fellow and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Buildings Performance Institute Europe. He has been voted twice as one of the most influential voices in European energy by EURACTIV.  Joh...

Our CEO John Feddersen speaks to Guy Newey, Strategy and Performance Director at Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) - an independent, not-for-profit centre of excellence that bridges the gap between industry, government, academia and research.  ESC has recently published its report called ‘Rethinking Electricity Markets – EMR 2.0’, an initiative aiming to develop proposals to reform electricity markets...

Our Nordics Lead Alexander Esser speaks with Harald Överholm, CEO and co-founder of the leading solar Power Purchase Agreement provider in the Nordics - Alight (previously Eneo).  Harald has been an advisor to WWF, the Swedish government and the Stockholm Environment Institute, as well as a former board member of Swedish Solar Energy. He is a Cambridge alumni with a PhD focused on market developme...

In this episode, Our CEO John Feddersen speaks to Pat O'Doherty, CEO of the leading Irish utility Electricity Supply Board (ESB).  Pat was appointed CEO of ESB in 2011 and to the ESB Board in 2013. He is Director of Energy UK and until very recently he was President of Eurelectric - the sector association which represents the common interests of the electricity industry at pan-European level.  Joh...

Welcome to our 50th official Energy Unplugged episode! Our Head of Digital Solutions Mateusz Wronski is joined by the creator of the renewables division at one of the largest energy companies in the world - Julien Pouget, Senior Vice President for Renewables at Total.  Julien joined Total in 2016, after two years of service as Senior Advisor to the President of France, François Hollande where he w...

Our CEO John Feddersen speaks to Henrik Tordrup, Partner at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).  CIP is one of the leading clean energy investors globally, having recently raised a EUR 7 billion renewable energy investment fund. Henrik is a veteran of Europe’s offshore wind boom of the past decade and has deep expertise on the emerging energy transition in the US.  John and Henrik discuss: •...

Our Research Director, Richard Howard speaks to Henry de Zoete, Co-founder of the energy switching service provider - Look After My Bills.  Henry has a career background working as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education prior to his success with Look After My Bills – which secured the best deal in the history of the UK Dragons’ Den business pitch competition. The company is now ow...

Our Head of Iberia, Ana Barillas is joined by Dulce Mendonça, Director and Fund Manager at InfraRed Capital Partners.  Dulce joined InfraRed in 2013 and is currently focusing on business development and origination of infrastructure investments in Europe. After attaining an M.Sc in Business Administration from ISCTE Business School in Lisbon, she began her career in investment banking before movin...

Our Head of Commissioned Projects in Central Europe, Hanns Koenig is joined by Dr. Brigitte Knopf, Secretary General of the Berlin-based climate research institute MCC (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change).  Brigitte is one of Germany’s leading experts on climate change and has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Council of Experts on Climate Change by the German Federa...

In this episode our CEO John Feddersen speaks to Greg Jackson, the Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, one of the UK’s largest energy supplier businesses, and award-winning for its status as a provider of 100% sustainable energy.  Octopus Energy Group recently announced the acquisition of its sister company, Octopus Renewables, bringing the retail and the generation side of energy together under on...

Our Research Director Richard Howard is joined by Dr. Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM Power Plc to discuss one of the biggest players to emerge in new energy policies: green hydrogen.  Graham joined ITM Power 12 years ago, previous to which he worked with National Power, and spent 11 years in the power industry developing energy storage and generation technologies. ITM Power is a leading manufacturer of...

This week on Energy Unplugged we have a special episode on modelling energy markets and the broader complexities of modelling for future scenarios.  Our Head of Digital Solutions Mateusz Wronski chats with Jonathan Black, our Head of Modelling. Jonathan’s role is to set the vision and strategy for our market models and their developments. Besides managing our international team of modellers he has...

Our Nordics Lead Alexander Esser speaks with Lisa McDermott - Executive Director Renewable Project Financing at ABN AMRO Bank.  Lisa started her career as a lawyer at Clifford Chance, specialising in tax, M&A and fund structuring. Since 2004 she has held a number of senior origination, structuring and management roles within various structured finance disciplines. ABN AMRO is one of the earlie...

Our Managing Director in Australia - Hugo Batten is delighted to be joined by Professor Tim Nelson - Executive General Manager, Energy Markets at Infigen.  Tim is an Associate Professor at Griffith University and writes prolifically on Australia’s energy transition. Recently purchased by Iberdrola, Infigen is an Australian wind, gas and battery player, and also a retailer.  Hugo and Tim discuss: •...

Our CEO John Feddersen is joined by Jonathan Maxwell, CEO and founder of Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL).  Jonathan has over 25 years’ experience in international finance, infrastructure and private equity. Since its 2007 establishment, SDCL has launched energy efficiency project investment funds in the UK, Ireland, Singapore and New York.  John and Jonathan discuss: •Jonathan’s motivat...