Watt Matters: The FORESIGHT energy transition podcast

The energy transition is taking place in a complex world of ongoing historic geopolitical tensions and financial divides between countries. Lisa Fischer from climate think tank E3G joins the Watt Matters team to discuss decarbonisation policymaking in a complicated and adversarial world. The world needs to decarbonise if it is to limit drastic global warming. However, this is happening in the cont...

2024 is likely to be the year of elections, with just under half of the world’s population expected to head to the polls, according to Bloomberg. That includes major players in energy and climate, like the US, India, the EU and, potentially, the UK. These elections will take place in a world where the climate crisis and the energy transition are becoming ever more apparent in people’s lives, but a...

The US’ electricity system is complicated, with each of the 50 states setting its own rules for how markets work, how power is priced and who manages customer relations. But amid the complexity, Octopus Energy US sees a big opportunity to continue its UK success story across the pond and help US customers benefit from decarbonised electricity. According to Michael Lee, the CEO of Octopus Energy US...

There are no studies where absolute zero emissions can be reached with reductions alone, meaning carbon removals are crucial to reaching ‘net’ zero emissions, according to the IPCC. After the world has reached that point, any remaining emission would need to be countered by an equivalent removal from the atmosphere. Because of this, the world of carbon removals is rapidly growing in importance, fr...

Public transport operators are highly visible to the wider public. Increasingly their services are being electrified or run on clean energy. In this special live episode, Watt Matters delves into the procurement issues these operators are facing when it comes to low-carbon solutions. The transport sector is a crucial area of the economy that needs to decarbonise. As public transport operators face...

Since 2015, Poland has been governed by the Law and Justice Party, which has been sceptical about EU climate policy and been at loggerheads with Brussels over rule of law, leading to the suspension of EU funds, including those earmarked for the green transition. This could all be about to change following October’s national election, where the opposition parties together won more support than the...

Every year, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) puts together a report, looking at the cost of renewable power production. 2022’s shows that, despite inflation, the cost has dropped. According to the report, the global weighted average levelised cost of electricity from new utility-scale solar, onshore wind, bioenergy and geothermal production fell. Thanks to the rise in fossil fuel...

In a special live recording of the podcast, Michael Liebriech, Katharina Umpfenbach and Dennis Hesseling join the team to discuss shifting the energy infrastructure of today into a decarbonised system of tomorrowSufficient and effective physical infrastructure—either electricity cables or gas pipelines—is vital for a successful energy transition. But the planning and building of any new such infra...

The energy crisis put a spotlight on energy usage for British consumers as soaring bills dropped through letterboxes across the country. Renewable solutions can help tackle high prices, as well as lower emissions, and companies like Scottish Power are trying to roll these out. Heat pumps, solar panels and other solutions offer healthier home environments, lower energy bills and higher home values,...

The energy transition is a big puzzle for Australia, an important player in the fossil energy world, with large coal and gas reserves. It ranks eighth highest globally for emissions per capita and first for coal power emissions per capita, according to Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project. In the last few years, the country has seen a surge in solar energy as fossil fuel price...

In the past 12 months, the energy transition has had some successes: the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and the EU’s response in the form of the Net Zero Industry Act are both designed to turbocharge green investments. But there is still the overwhelming feeling that progress is slow. With the recent wildfires in Greece and the repeated “hottest month on record” headlines, the urgenc...

As we move into the second half of the year, a key trend of the first part of 2023 is the confidence that surrounds the solar sector. With a number of new policy packages announced over the past 12 months, the industry is buoyed by new momentum. In its latest Market Outlook, SolarPower Europe, a trade association, revealed that 239 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity was installed in 2022, with...

The European Union is currently working on a law to monitor and tackle methane emissions, which have a significant impact on the climate and have, so far, been somewhat overlooked in EU legislation. There are moves, both internationally and on the EU level, to tackle these emissions, including a pledge made at COP26 to reduce emissions by at least 30% by 2030, based on 2020 levels. The EU’s Methan...

The smart use of energy within buildings could help support the energy transition. Most of us spend most of our time in buildings, and they are responsible for a huge share in overall emissions. The smarter use of energy, installation of smart controls and energy efficiency could help buildings play a role in the energy transition, and provide some additional benefits to its users: all of us. In t...

A number of synergies have yet to be unlocked between district heating and cooling networks and industries, with both sectors looking to decarbonise. Both sectors are highly complementary. The ability to recover excess heat from industrial processes—and more recently the likes of data centres—is opening new opportunities to help decarbonise district networks by supplying sustainable heat to reside...

A growing trend within the energy transition is the use of energy communities – collectives of neighbours or nearby residents and end-users coming together to promote and source renewable energy for their own benefit. Yet this shift away from the traditional centralised energy system brings with it its own set of challenges. Our guest on the podcast this week is Anna Francis, a project manager wit...

The decarbonisation of heating is as important as any other sector in the energy transition but is perhaps sometimes a little overlooked. The sector’s main tools to help remove carbon emissions from space heating are heat pumps and the rollout of the technology is quickly gathering pace, particularly in Europe, but regulatory and technological barriers remain. The guest on the podcast this week is...

Greenhouse gas emissions are a global problem as carbon dioxide, and the heating side-effects caused by it do not respect national frontiers. This means that a country or region that may have the best decarbonisation intentions will only partly achieve its objectives if the rest of the planet is not playing by the same rule book. An innovative and, in some circles, controversial new climate superw...

Any discussion of energy efficiency immediately conjures images of how our homes can use power better or more economically. But this ignores the whole commercial and industrial sectors and how businesses and corporations can improve the efficiency of their activities. This week's guest is Toby Morgan from Climate Group, a non-profit organisation that helps businesses in their decarbonisation quest...

The world of PPAs is complex, particularly for corporations seeking to secure and decarbonise their power sources. But as demand for clean capacity from businesses grows, so must the PPA market. Maintaining the fluidity of the market and ensuring everyone can get a slice of the pie if they want to is a challenge for operators, developers and regulators. In a special live recording of the podcast a...

The wind industry should be experiencing a golden age. As one of the world’s cheapest forms of new generation, with a renewed global focus on energy security, and the need to decarbonise, wind energy is often the go-to technology of choice. But orders for new machinery were down in 2022, and western original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have issued warnings for a difficult 2023. A similar story...

The branches of the burgeoning green hydrogen sector are spreading slowly around the world. This creates huge uncertainty but also significant opportunities for businesses and governments the world over to leverage a whole new industry. The guest on this week’s podcast is Sara Edmonson from Australia-based developer Fortescue Future Industries—a company that solely focuses on green hydrogen and am...

As Europe emerges from the long dark winter days, many grid operators around Europe are breathing a sigh of relief. A milder winter than expected meant there wasn’t the need for increased levels of fossil fuel generation to meet heightened demand. A new report by environmental think-tank Ember found wind and solar technologies generated a fifth of EU electricity in 2022—a new record—and for the fi...

European energy markets are at a crossroads: on the one hand, they need to face the immediate shocks posed by the ongoing energy price crisis. On the other hand, the EU’s electricity market is gearing towards reform in 2023, which should make it fit to deliver a decarbonised power system by 2035.The need for a strong, stable and resilient energy market in the short term must also consider long-ter...

The Inflation Reduction Act is the largest climate and energy package in the history of the United States. It will unleash some $370 billion for energy and climate, and it will touch every sector of the economy, from manufacturing to renewable energy communities or environmental justice. The IRA could launch America back into international leadership in climate mitigation, says Katherine Hamilton,...