Energy Transitions

Addressing the energy trilemma of security, affordability and sustainability, while ensuring a healthy planet and better life for its inhabitants, will require more than good leadership. It will require great leadership and collaboration, which we have never seen before. In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Dr Angela Wilkinson, Secretary General and CEO of the World Energy Council, maps a divergent, uncomfortable but critical path to great leadership in energy and beyond. Dr Angela Wilkinson shares her multi-dimensional and people-centred insights by answering the following questions about leadership in energy: How does the leadership in the energy transition differ from traditional leadership qualities? What are the differences between good leadership and great leadership? Why is it important to recognize emerging leaders who may not be well-known or celebrated in the energy transition space? How can leadership qualities in the public, private, and civic sectors be blended to drive effective energy transitions? What does it mean to have a "communal cookery kitchen" approach to leadership? How can the energy transition be redesigned for people and the planet? How does the people-centric approach to energy transition align with the goal of engaging a wider and more diverse pool of leaders and participants? Why is it important to include future generations in the dialogue and decision-making processes surrounding energy transitions? What role does emotional intelligence play in effective leadership? How can the energy transition movement promote collaboration and diverse perspectives to drive meaningful change? This episode is brought to you in partnership with the World Energy Council leading up to the 26th World Energy Congress in Rotterdam, 22-25 April 2024. Register to be a part of the conversation

A just transition to decarbonisation is more than merely an abstract concept. It’s a complex issue based on human rights and if ignored will result in real world consequences for vulnerable people and species.In fact, many scholars refer to this as a ‘wicked problem’ – a problem that is incredibly difficult to solve because of the very complex and often undefined nature of it. In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Susie Ho, Director of the Monash Innovation Guarantee, Monash University and Gerry Nagtzaam, Associate Professor at Monash University, unpack what it means to achieve a just transition to decarbonisation. They elaborate on the different groups that will be most impacted by climate change and the critical importance of agreed definitions to achieve policy cohesion and ensure no one is left behind. They describe the concept of climate justice and its various forms, with Ho explaining that there are many different forms of justice, such as inter generational justice, something the youth are championing. “Today’s youth are going to see more severe climate impacts than any generation before and as custodians of the future what is our responsibility to them not only in terms of protecting earths life support systems and their health and wellbeing but also in terms of preparing them to lead through this change.” Added Nagtzaam: “When we have this debate we often characterise it as we did with sustainable development, as a human problem, but it isn’t. There are myriad other species on the planet that climate change is going to affect as well.” Both Ho and Nagtzaam also speak to the recent big issue at COPs being loss and damage, with Ho highlighting that while a great deal of funding has been mobilised, “the money that’s been pledged so far is several magnitudes short of where we should be”. Susie Ho and Gerry Nagtzaam have coauthored a book with Diane Kraal, Katie O'Bryan and Jadranka Petrovic titled: A Just Transition to Decarbonisation: Themes of Loss and Damage, Transport, Nature and Youth. This Palgrave Macmillan title tackles the challenge of a just transition to decarbonisation based around four UN COP themes.

A minimum of controls and a maximum of simplicity used to be the defining characteristics of wind turbines. However, over the past few decades, turbines have become highly sophisticated and are now the world’s biggest rotating machines. In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue speaks to two pioneers of the wind industry. Referred to as the Godfathers of wind, Denmark’s Henrik Stiesdal and Britain’s Andrew Garrad, winners of the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, describe how turbines have advanced over the years. From building turbines in their parent’s fields in the 70’s, these two stalwarts have been on the boundary of what is possible, contributing to and witnessing wind turbines become an important contributor to the electricity supply and having a greater impact on the grid. “Gradually, as the turbines got bigger and bigger, they also became more and more complicated…going from something like a tractor in the early 80’s to more like a giant helicopter now,” explained Garrad. The old turbines were heavier, whereas now they are lighter and smarter with enhanced controls, said Stiesdal. “They did not become more complicated just because engineers like to make them like that…they got more complicated partly because we needed them to change their behaviour,” he added. Stiesdal and Garrad explain why bigger isn’t always better and why the industry now needs to focus on increasing efficiency and reliability rather than size. They also discuss why floating offshore wind will provide the next quantum leap in wind turbine technology.

The cleantech investment space is an ever-evolving and complex ecosystem, with increasing pressure to innovate and an increasing need for investment to bring new technology to fruition. And while there have been some big investments over the past decade, a liquidity crunch, rising interest rates and geopolitical tumult are making the cleantech investment landscape tricky to navigate. In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Joseph Jacobelli, managing partner of Bougie Impact Capital and host of The Asia Climate Capital Podcast, delves into identifying and mitigating the risks impacting the cleantech investment space. Jacobelli unpacks the importance of policy and government support in fostering investor confidence and explains why China continues to dominate the space. He also answers the question about which technologies are gaining the most attention from investors and why. "What make investors most comfortable are those technologies with a long track record...and whose levelised cost of energy per unit of electricity produced is falling relatively quickly..."

Home to one of the most diverse marine energy testing facilities in the world, the Orkney Islands are a picture of natural beauty, as well as green energy innovation. The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) began testing technology in 2004 and since then, the Centre and the industry have developed in leaps and bounds. In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue speaks to Neil Kermode, Managing Director of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), about the origins of tidal and wave energy and how EMEC has played a role in the development of the marine energy sector. "People realised the best way to try and bring an industry forward is to have a test centre where you can get ideas out of the lab or out of the bathtub and get them to into saltwater..." In the 20 years that the test centre has been functioning, 35 different types of technology from 22 different developers across 11 countries have graced the waters around Orkney. The centre has seen a great deal of progress. One of the first milestones saw the world's first floating deepwater offshore wave machine generate power into a national grid. EMEC has also been making hydrogen from power generated by an Orbital Marine turbine and is generating synthetic fuels using air-captured carbon, something that holds great promise for aviation. Listen to this episode to hear what's next for tidal and wave energy.

The energy sector is facing multiple challenges that require innovation that goes beyond technology. From energy security to economic turbulence and a changing energy mix, it has been a bumpy road for the energy industry in the past few years. In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue spoke to Claudia Blanco of GE Vernova about the role of policy, technology and specifically leadership in solving these challenges now and for future generations. During the conversation, that took place at Enlit Europe 2023 in Paris, Blanco speaks passionately about the progress that has been made so far, for example in terms of making gas plants hydrogen-ready. However, she also addresses the fact that there is a significant skills gap and that she believes that there is a lot to be done to make the industry more attractive.

Fusion energy has moved from the realm of science to being an energy force with tangible benefits to society. In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue speaks to Christopher Mowry, CEO of Type One Energy and Chair of the Fusion Industry Association, about why he believes fusion is finally ready to take its place in the energy mix and why the power source is the ‘vaccine of climate change’. “It causes me to consider how the world mobilised to develop a vaccine against Covid and when the chips were down, government worked with private sector and academia to produce in one year, something that usually takes a decade.” Mowry explains that the technology exists, but as with the Covid response, we now need the social mobilisation and acknowledgement to really drive fusion acceptance and deployment. “Theres no practical way to achieve net zero globally in the energy space without fusion being part of the future energy mix,” stated Mowry. Despite the technological maturity, Mowry explains there are still policy and supply chain developments needed to make fusion a reality. However, he is optimistic that the first pilot fusion power plant under contract will be finalised by the end of this decade, putting fusion electrons on the power grid by the mid 2030s.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue speaks to Jeff Earl, Director of Business Development at Sapphire Technologies, about the latest innovative turboexpander technology and the promise it holds for the decarbonisation journey. Unpacking the latest trends, Earl talks about turboexpanders, a specific kind of power generating equipment that converts pressure energy into electricity through an inlet and outlet. Unlike combustion turbines, this technology has no ignition, which means there are no CO2, NOx or SOx emissions. Earl explains that this power generation equipment is not only carbon friendly, but that the levelized cost of electricity generated is also competitive contributing to a strong business case. This episode is brought to you by Sapphire Technologies; which develops, manufactures, and sells energy recovery systems for hydrogen and natural gas industrial applications.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, we hear from industry experts at Nokia, Dominique Verhulst, Global Head of Utilities, and Hansen Chan, IP Networks Product Marketing, about how IEC 61850 is revolutionizing the utility industry. Many utilities are integrating utility-scale and residential distributed energy resources (DERs) into their electric grids at an unprecedented pace. Meanwhile, the time-division multiplexing (TDM) technology they use for communications in intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) such as relays and remote terminal units (RTUs) approaching end-of-life. In response to these changes, more and more utilities are turning to IEC 61850 to introduce automation and digitalisation to their electric grids. This episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast is brought to you by Nokia, a multinational B2B technology innovation leader in networking, powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, providing leading end-to-end grid communications and analytics solutions to meet the unique mission-critical needs of power and water utilities and renewable energy.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue had a candid conversation with Javier Cavada, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Power EMEA, about why speed and scale must be the focus points of our decarbonisation mission.  Cavada spoke to the progress being made in achieving greener power generation, making it clear that all, rather than a select few technologies will help us achieve our energy transition goals. He emphasised that renewable energy is disrupting our energy system, but that this disruption can be managed by making incremental changes, changes that must be driven by unified action. Without unity, stressed Cavada, we can not meet our net zero goals.  “The amount of change is to be massive… change of the patterns of behaviour of the society, and to do that we need to change politics… this is something individual countries, cities, companies can not do by themselves…" Listen to the full episode to learn more about Javier Cavada's view on how to shift from a hydrocarbon-heavy energy system while maximising existing assets, and how the war in Ukraine has emphasised energy sovereignty and impacted decarbonisation. Also, Cavada shares his book recommendations, which may surprise you.   Javier Cavada will be speaking at Enlit Europe taking place in Paris, 28-30 Nov, where he will be discussing Europe’s gas and hydrogen strategies to achieve energy transition.