Switched On

Reducing methane emissions and carbon intensity of upstream operations are two main objectives of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative, or OGCI, a coalition of 12 of the world's largest oil companies brought together to drive the industry toward meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. This week, Switched On speaks with its chairman, Bob Dudley, about the organization, its mission, and le...

To keep up with regulations around products -- on sourcing, greenhouse gas emissions, safety -- and to answer questions from consumers, companies need a lot more visibility on their supply chains. This week, Switched On speaks with Kirti Vasta, Digital Industry Analyst for BloombergNEF. She will tell us about new developments in track and trace, and how implementing advanced technologies and syste...

Green bond issuance has hit the trillion-dollar mark, but this year appears to be the year of social bonds, up 376% in the first half of 2020 to $41.9 billion. This week Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF analysts Maia Godemer and Mallory Rutigliano about the state of sustainable finance. They will tell us about the many types of available financial products, who's using what, and trends in this...

Grid operators in California face increasingly frequent decisions to abandon their operational commitment to 24/7 availability and cut service to retail customers in regions threatened by wildfires. This week Switched On speaks with Logan Goldie-Scot, head of clean energy research at BloombergNEF, and Yayoi Sekine, who leads decentralized energy coverage, about the challenges of maintaining the ut...

Many issues are at stake in the November U.S. election, including energy and climate. This week Switched On speaks with Head of Americas Ethan Zindler, and Stephen Munro, senior policy analyst for BloombergNEF, about what wins on the Republican or Democratic side could mean for these issues. Their wide-ranging conversation speculates on the Paris Climate Agreement, the Green New Deal, coal, electr...

Generous policy support in in a handful of markets has led to a rush to deploy energy storage projects. But the eagerness to deploy quickly resulted in shortcuts with alarming outcomes. There have been 29 fires at battery storage facilities in South Korea since 2017. Whether or not this should raise red flags for players is a bit more complicated. This week Switched On speaks with decentralized en...

Food delivery services have an impact on vehicle miles traveled, at least right now. But will food delivery services be around long enough to make a dent in this metric in the long term? This week Switched On speaks with intelligent mobility analyst Andrew Grant about food delivery and the market dynamics in that sector. He'll also tell us more about why food delivery is important for BNEF to unde...

For universal electrification to become reality by 2030, some 238 million households will need to gain electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and island nations. Mini-grids can serve almost half of this total – an estimated 111 million households. This week, Switched On speaks with Takehiro Kawahara, head of Frontier Power for BloombergNEF, and senior modeling analyst Ulimmeh Ezekiel, abou...

We all know wind and solar are intermittent -- at some point the sun stops shining and the wind stops blowing. But is wind and solar power reliable? The answer seems to be that at least with a battery, yes, it is. This week Switched On speaks with Nat Bullard, chief content officer for BloombergNEF, about the future of renewables on the grid. We discuss renewables reliability, competitiveness of g...

Mexico became one of the hottest markets for clean energy development. Newly open Mexico attracted billions in investment driven by three highly successful auctions that are tied to more than 8GW of new wind and solar capacity. But policy under president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, has taken a U-turn. Since taking office in late 2018, AMLO has cancelled Mexico’s renewable energy auctions...

Lower manufacturing costs, innovative launch vehicles, miniaturized sub-systems and new sensor technologies have resulted in a surge in the number of satellites orbiting earth. The more than 1,300 small satellites orbiting earth means we can now scan any given location on the planet multiple times per day -- and not just with cameras, but with sensors that measure atmospheric pressure, temperature...

The European Commission on 27 May proposed 1.85 trillion euros in stimulus spending over the next seven years, 25% of which must go to things classified as ‘green’. Notable parts of the proposed spending include building renovations to improve efficiency, a massive roll-out in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and enough spending on hydrogen to make it competitive a lot sooner than it woul...

A higher carbon price and cheaper gas have made coal-fired power less competitive in Europe. Reduced demand from the pandemic have made it almost impossible for coal to keep up. This week, Switched On speaks with energy transition analyst Katherine Poseidon, and power analyst Andreas Gandolfo about how several countries have gotten away from coal entirely since the pandemic started -- a trend that...

We hear a lot about growth in the electric car market, but what about electric two- and three-wheelers? In 2040 about half of the 1.25 billion mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles out on the road will be electric, and most of these will be in Asia. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF mobility analysts Nick Albanese and Allen Abraham about the future of two- and three-wheeled transport. Th...

Lithium is used the world over for electronics and, increasingly, electric cars. There is a supply and security risk in that most of this lithium comes from just a few countries, and those are not where the phones and cars get made. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF metals analyst Sharon Mustri about growing demand for unconventional lithium. Alternative lithium resources that put th...

Companies can do everything they can to reduce their carbon footprint, and most often it is still not enough to cover all their emissions. After everything they can do themselves, they can buy carbon offsets -- investments in projects that reduce CO2, like tree-planting or cook stoves. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF sustainability analyst Kyle Harrison. about growing demand for th...

Carbon capture, utilization and storage -- taking CO2 out of the air and putting it underground or into products. The sector has had a few false starts, but appears it could be having a revival. In this episode, Switched On speaks with Julia Attwood, head of advanced materials research for BloombergNEF, and advanced materials analyst Ryan Anderson about the current state of play in CCUS. They will...

Solar on cars has been around for a long time. But until recently, it has either been pure gimmick or used to power small auxiliaries -- not the drive train. In this episode, Switched On speaks with Hugh Bromley, head of consumer research at BloombergNEF, about solar cars. He will tell us about how they are starting to power the wheels, even if just a bit. This episode is based on a report titled...

In this episode, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF head of digital industry research, Claire Curry, and digital industry analyst Kirti Vasta. Claire and Kirti tell us about digital strategies in the time of Covid-19. Some companies are all-in on their digital strategies. Others have pedaled back, and are retrenched in what they know best. A few are even giving away software, on the hopes that n...

In this episode, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF head of clean energy research, Logan Goldie-Scot, and head of transport, Colin McKerracher. Logan and Colin give the bird's-eye view of how Covid-19 will shape the year in clean energy and transport. Supply and demand balances are definitely disrupted, but order backlogs, existing stockpiles and construction queues, could provide significant bu...

In this episode, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF head of research, Albert Cheung, and head of policy, Vicky Cuming. Albert and Vicky tell us about how electrifying more sectors of an economy can enable countries to make substantial progress toward carbon neutrality. BNEF calls it "sector coupling", and it brings both new industrial opportunities and a significant increase in total power gener...

In this episode, Switched On speaks with Ali Izadi-Najafabadi, head of Asia Pacific research for BloombergNEF. He'll tell us about China starting to get back to work -- how it seems ready to go, but is waiting on the rest of the world to catch up. BNEF users can follow ongoing Covid coverage at bnef.com/series . This episode of Switched On is hosted by Mark Taylor. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

What do you do when a pandemic upends every one of your forecasts and expectations for the future? This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF Head of Research, Albert Cheung, about making sense of things during Covid-19. He’ll walk us through how we started to get our heads around the problem, and the frameworks BNEF analysts developed to explain what’s happening and accommodate the ever-changing imp...

To stay competitive in a world where commodity prices fluctuate and environmental pressures grow, for miners, going digital is no longer a question of if or should, but a question of when, or how. This week Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF Digital Industry analyst Danya Liu about recent advances in mining digitalization. She’ll walk us through the ways miners are incorporating sensors, robots,...

Generation oversupply, not enough transmission, and offtaker risk are just a few challenges facing clean energy developers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite these obstacles, projects continue to get built a faster rate than almost anywhere in the world. This week, Switched On speaks with energy analyst Antoine Vagneur-Jones, from BloombergNEF's EMEA team, about clean energy proliferation in this regi...