Rethink Energy Podcast

In this week's episode , the Rethink Energy team discusses: Oregon-based startup Origami Solar's plan to manufacture steel solar module frames for the US market - and how that matches up to aluminum. Archer Aviations' electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are to be used as air taxis alongside Southwest Airlines' operations at Californian airports - but finding a pr...

In this week's episode , the Rethink Energy team discusses: Microquanta's perovskite test in Quzhou City indicates that even single-junction perovskites have an advantage over silicon PV with their performance under heavy cloud cover Shell's SAF facility pause calls into question the future of SAF, with cost concerns liable to see it lose market share in the future market to hydrogen

In this week's episode , the Rethink Energy team discusses: China's battery industry advance now includes the Chinese government assuming direct ownership of the rare earths sector. Fervo Energy commissions a 400 MW geothermal plant in Utah, the state's first - with EGS technology enabling geographically broader options for the geothermal industry. The 2024 US election is a threaten to...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: South Korean nuclear power's reported cost of just $40 per MWh on the Korea Power Exchange strikes a stark contrast with US newbuild nuclear LCOE of $180 per MWh based on the Vogtle 3&4 construction cost blowout - several explanations have to be brought to bear to explain this vast discrepancy. South Korea's nuclear power ambitions are...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: The latest SNEC Exhibition in Shanghai, the biggest conference in the solar industry, shows that technological upgrading continues, with some silicon PV modules over 25%, and the first perovskites brought to market by Microquanta and Utmolight in the BIPV sector. Norway's hydropower fleet is getting gradually outscaled by rising electricity de...

Conrad Oakey of Novatech Automation, which runs 25% of US substations, joins us to discuss grid automation. The US grid is seeing a resurgence of demand growth amidst supply chain re-onshoring, EV adoption, and data center build out. It's also changing in quality, with demand and supply becoming much less predictable over time. "You have to electrify and automate everything in order to re...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: New Zealand has lifted its ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, with the government expecting $6 billion investment - a similar sum would build 1 GW of wind-solar for each million citizens. GCL Technology is to build an FBR granular polysilicon factory in the UAE - one of several proposals from Chinese solar manufacturers made over the past 12...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: The EU's adoption of the Net Zero Industry Act is still just a preliminary step, allowing national subsidies for manufacturing - we remain sceptical. Solar wafer production, for example, is better off under the low cost conditions of India. Shell has contracted UK equipment manufacturer Ceres to develop a pressurized solid-oxide electrolyzer (...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: The Biden Administration doubles down on solar tariffs - but the more important move to protect US solar manufacturing is a new round of Department of Commerce anti-dumping investigations. Gotion has joined its fellow Chinese giants in releasing a fast-charging lithium iron phosphate battery, stating that this will deliver 500km range off a 10-min...

Neil Spann, CEO of Power Roll, joins us to discuss the British startup's microgroove technology. The main development angle which the company is pursuing for these microgrooves is a unique photovoltaic cell-module architecture which can be used for thin-film solar - for now, that means perovskites. We discuss the state of the solar market, of the Building-Integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) sector,...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Several liquid carbon dioxide energy storage (LCES) projects have now come online in the past few years - with perhaps 1 GWh total worldwide of what may constitute a more efficient and powerful version of compressed-air technology. Pink hydrogen production agreements have become a minor trend for scandinavian nuclear power plants. Nuclear's st...

Philip Hodges, Country Market Director Energy UK at engineering and consultancy company Ramboll, joins us to discuss heat pump adoption in the UK - and related topics of building energy efficiency, district energy, and industrial decarbonization.

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: China and the US are both set to double both their rate of battery installations and their cumulative battery capacity on the grid in 2024 - making batteries the third main type of renewable energy project development alongside wind and solar. The US sanctions on Russian uranium fuel - and how Kazakhstan's mined uranium can still find its way...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Rethink Energy's latest forecast, predicting that VPPs take a major role in the energy transition, with efficient use of battery energy storage ultimately requiring the complex forecasting of demand and supply which VPP software offers BHP's bid to buy Anglo-American, which would have given the former over 10% of global copper supply Why l...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Silver paste usage in the solar industry continues to rise, but the steeper the silver shortage gets, the more alternatives like copper metallization and zero-busbar are incentivized. Interest rates have obstructed new investments including in copper mining - but the Federal Reserve intends to take rates down from 5.5% to 3.5% this year. Tesla&#39...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: New sanctions have required the Chicago Metal Exchange and the London Metal Exchange refuse any new Russian copper, aluminum, and nickel - but this won't cause a price shock at all comparable to the first sanctions rounds. The prices of polysilicon and solar modules fell yet again, ending four months of price stability and prompting us to ask...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: The conclusions from the Hydrogen Europe conference in Amsterdam, including why gaseous hydrogen will take longer than liquid to get online in the market. The Department of Energy's $1.5 billion funding for a nuclear plant recommissioning in Michigan - which will give the facility a total 80 year lifespan. Janet Yellen's China trade visit,...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Huamin Technology's 40 micron thickness photovoltaic wafer, prompted by ferce cost competition in the solar industry - compare to 140 micron thickness in the industry as a whole. Chinese EVs are forecasted to grow to 25% market share in the EU this year, with no good options for European authorities trying to decide on a trade and reshoring st...

TandemPV's CEO Scott Wharton joins us to discuss his efforts to bring a perovskite tandem solar module product to market in the near future in the US, with utility-scale developers likely to be the first customers. We cover degradation and other technical hurdles, plus how perovskites fare in the current solar market situation - with steep silicon PV cost declines, trade barriers with China, a...

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: an astonishingly low $299 per kW pricetag for a 500 MW wind farm in Inner Mongolia - and while that's the record, there are others for just $320 per kW, which means LCOE has halved in a couple of years. The first E-diesel production facility in Texas, launched by Infinium, using a green hydrogen supply combined with C02 from Howard Energy Part...

EnergyVault's Marco Terruzzin joins us to talk about his company's long duration gravity energy storage, lithium-iron batteries, and hydrogen storage - all backed up by the VaultOS management system.

In this week's episode the team discusses: First Solar CEO Mark Widmar's warning that Chinese manufacturers are significant beneficiaries of the Inflation Reduction Act's 45x incentives, effectively making the US itself another location hosting downstream Chinese solar manufacturing. A startup has demonstrated 10-year lifespan for its SOEC electrolyzers, which are more efficient and co...

In this week's episode the team discusses: The new polysilicon factory ($1.3 billion, 100,000 tons, 40 GW) which is under construction in Oman, and who is likely behind it. Airbus's head of ZEROe hydrogen demonstrators, Mathias Andriamisaina, has stated that the company will need to make a choice between hydrogen combustion and fuel cells by some time in 2026 to 2027.

In this week's episode the team discusses: The scale of solar manufacturing in 2023, with Chinese outputs up by 67% to 622 GW at the wafer level, while its wafer exports - almost the sole supply source for all solar cell manufacturing in the rest of the world - are up by over 90%. Multiple delayed green hydrogen investments and negative coverage may open a space for blue hydrogen, while still...

ESS Inc's European Director Alan Greenshields joins us to talk about the role long duration energy storage has to play in the energy transition, and LEAG's major shift towards decarbonizing Germany's coal fleet with green power and batteries.