The price of emissions in the world’s largest compliance carbon market –the EU’s Emissions Trading System– has fallen sharply so far in 2024, driven by economic uncertainty, weaker industrial activity and lower gas prices. S&P Global Commodity Insights' experts Eklavya Gupte, Coralie Laurencin, Michael Testa and Scott Chen discuss the reasons behind this decline, the outlook for EU ETS prices, and what this slump could mean for short- and long-term climate and energy policy. Related price as...
Mar 19, 2024•25 min
This week, Energy Evolution reports from CERAWeek, S&P Global's flagship energy conference. Our first conversation from the 'Super Bowl of energy' is with Arshad Mansoor, president of the Electric Power Research Institute. With AI changing the energy landscape at lightning speed, grid flexibility is increasingly indispensable, Mansoor tells podcast co-host Taylor Kuykendall. Given that, innovation and deployment of small modular reactors and hydrogen cannot come fast enough, Mansoor says. Su...
Mar 19, 2024•19 min•Ep. 119
Energy Evolution podcast co-host Taylor Kuykendall interviews researchers behind S&P Global Commodity Insights' Top Ten Cleantech Trends in 2024 for insight into what might be at the front of mind as energy leaders from around the world converge in Houston for CERAWeek 2024. This show's guests are Cormac Gilligan, an associate director at S&P Global Commodity Insights who focuses on solar and energy storage research, and D'avack Francesco, principal analyst, global power and renewables, ...
Mar 15, 2024•21 min•Ep. 118
What industries produce the most greenhouse gas emissions, and how are they changing as the energy transition proceeds? What are the major technological and policy solutions to cutting emissions in the iron and steel, chemicals, and cement and concrete sectors? Energy Evolution correspondent Camellia Moors spoke with Jeff Rissman, senior director for industry at Energy Innovation, about his new book on industrial emissions and emissions mitigation strategies, Zero-Carbon Industry: Transformative...
Mar 13, 2024•28 min•Ep. 117
As electric vehicle and clean energy technology demand ramps up, so is interest in sourcing the critical minerals they need from recycled materials. Energy Evolution correspondent Camellia Moors spoke with guests Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO, president and co-founder of rare earths recycler Cyclic Materials, and Julian Proelss, director of business management battery recycling at chemical company BASF, about how these materials are extracted from old equipment and used in new batteries. Subscribe to Ene...
Mar 08, 2024•23 min•Ep. 116
Green tech, mining and energy company Fortescue announced in January that it plans to create an advanced manufacturing hub in Detroit, joining a host of companies starting up or expanding EV battery production facilities around the US. What does Fortescue’s announcement mean for the Michigan EV battery supply chain, and how is the state working to encourage similar projects? How do investments in US EV battery production stack up against those around the world? Energy Evolution correspondent Cam...
Mar 01, 2024•23 min•Ep. 115
The price of solar photovoltaic modules has declined around 40% in the past year due to high production in China. In this episode of Energy Evolution, we're exploring whether cheaper panels are unlocking the business case to build utility-scale solar in the Nordic region. With much fewer sun hours and ample wind and hydro, these northern European countries are no solar hubs – but this is starting to change. Energy Evolution correspondent Camilla Naschert spoke to Warren Campbell and Peter Tornbe...
Feb 23, 2024•21 min•Ep. 114
On this episode Energy Evolution podcast interviews Alfred Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Crux, about the shift towards clean energy and the tax credits offered by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA is creating hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits for companies that deploy renewable energy. Transferable tax credits enable companies to sell those credits and access capital quickly. Crux is a platform for developers, tax credit buyers, and financial institutions to transact and m...
Feb 16, 2024•17 min•Ep. 113
In this episode of the Energy Evolution podcast by S&P Global Commodity Insights, Dan Testa and Taylor Kuykendall speak to Troy Demmer, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer for Gecko Robotics, and Gilman Callsen, CEO and Founder of Rho Impact, about the use of robots in power plant inspections for sustainability. These robots can identify potential problems in power plants, allowing for preventive maintenance and reducing the reliance on backup generation sources, thus lowering emissions. Rh...
Feb 09, 2024•27 min•Ep. 112
In the Energy Evolution podcast, Dan Testa and Taylor Kuykendall interview Jonathan Martell, COO of Mohave Electric Co-Op, and Larsh Johnson, CTO of Stem, to discuss rural power generators using artificial intelligence to help transition to clean energy. The guests discuss the challenges and solutions for increasing the share of renewables in the co-op retail energy mix, and a new solar-plus-storage project recently announced by Mohave. Please subscribe to Energy Evolution to stay current on the...
Feb 02, 2024•23 min•Ep. 111
At the COP28 climate conference in December, more than 20 countries—including the US, the UK, France and Sweden—signed a declaration committing to a tripling of nuclear capacity by 2050. Correspondents Camilla Naschert and Camellia Moors spoke with experts across the nuclear energy and uranium mining industries about the declaration. Listen in to hear Antony Froggatt at Chatham House, Kirsty Gogan at TerraPraxis, Timothy Fox at ClearView Energy Partners, and Ross McElroy at Fission Uranium talk ...
Jan 26, 2024•24 min•Ep. 110
The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization that analyzes the global energy sector and offers policy recommendations, has announced that renewable energy is expanding faster than at any time in the last three decades, with 507 GW of renewables installed in 2023 alone, almost 50% more than the previous year. Our correspondent Camilla Naschert speaks with Commodity Insights reporter Alex Blackburne about what the report means. Meanwhile, co-host Taylor Kuykendall ...
Jan 19, 2024•16 min•Ep. 109
The Energy Evolution podcast explores the challenges and changes facing the transition to cleaner energy. One challenge is obtaining the materials necessary for the transition, such as lithium, copper, and rare earth metals. Space mining is a potential solution, with companies investing in research and development to mine asteroids and other celestial bodies for valuable metals and resources like water. The technology for space mining is in its early stages, and there are challenges, such as log...
Jan 12, 2024•18 min•Ep. 108
As the dust settles after COP28, with world leaders finally agreeing to shift energy systems away from fossil fuels, scrutiny of the climate impact of energy policy is set to intensify in 2024. The thorny issue of finance is likely to dominate the climate debate this year, and with economic and geopolitical uncertainty still dominating the headlines, energy markets are in for a bumpy ride. In this episode of the Platts Future Energy podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights' experts Anna Mosby,...
Jan 09, 2024•25 min
In this episode of Energy Evolution, hosts Dan Testa and Taylor Kuykendall dive into the latest trends in the energy transition and their impact on the energy and mining sectors as we kick off 2024. Joining them are correspondents Camilla Naschert and Camellia Moors, who share their insights on the rapidly changing landscape of energy production and consumption. With the world moving towards more sustainable energy sources, the hosts and correspondents discuss how companies in the energy and min...
Dec 29, 2023•14 min•Ep. 107
In this episode of Energy Evolution, reporter Taylor Kuykendall interviews Ken Rabedeau, the Chief Technology Officer for Energy, Transportation and Public Sector at Nokia. Ken discusses Nokia's role today in the energy transition and how communication technology is helping industries such as the electricity, oil, gas, and mining sectors, to build more sustainable and cleaner business practices. Ken also shares insights on the concept of Industry 4.0 and how it empowers critical industries to bl...
Dec 22, 2023•19 min•Ep. 106
There's just over a year to go until the EU introduces its sustainable aviation fuel mandate. S&P Global Commodity Insights' Seb Lewis, associate director for biofeedstocks and biofuels consulting, speaks with Stephen Li, associate director for biofuels research and analysis, and Simone Burgin, associate editor for biofuels pricing. The team discusses the current state of the SAF market and HEFA fuels, developments in advanced biofuels and PtL pathways, feedstocks, and the current state and ...
Dec 19, 2023•28 min
Wind turbines are widely recyclable – apart from their large rotor blades. As more wind farms get decommissioned, more blades end up in landfill or get burned, making recycling one of the industry’s biggest PR and sustainability challenges. Developers also pay increasing attention to emissions in the production of steel for towers. Two start-ups, Germany’s Voodin Blades and Sweden’s Modvion, say they have found solutions – by making the components entirely out of wood. Energy Evolution correspon...
Dec 15, 2023•29 min•Ep. 105
Scope 2 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, heat, or steam. In this episode of Energy Evolution, hosts Dan Testa and Taylor Kuykendall bring on guest Marek Zhang, vice president of operations and service delivery at CFEX, to discuss the company's decarbonization platform that helps businesses account for and track Scope 2 emissions. Zhang explains the challenges surrounding Scope 2 emissions, such as limited control, complex accounting a...
Dec 08, 2023•15 min•Ep. 104
This episode of Energy Evolution is all about utilities' capital plans and how they are adapting to the current economic climate. The episode features Darren Sweeney, a senior reporter in the S&P Global Commodity Insights newsroom, who attended the Edison Electric Institute Financial Conference in Phoenix and interviewed executives from Duke Energy, Exelon, and NiSource about their plans for the future. The executives discussed how they are navigating the energy transition and working to kee...
Dec 01, 2023•16 min•Ep. 103
Waste feedstocks in the form of Used Cooking Oil and Palm Oil Mill Effluent have been hitting headlines in the biofuels sphere – touted as the next generation of energy feedstocks. Feedstock flexibility appears to be a dominant trend over the next few years, and legislations across many countries look set to propel demand of waste-based feedstocks. In this podcast, Asia’s managing editor Takmila Shahid, markets editor Nurul Darni, together with Head of Asia agriculture and metals news team, Roha...
Nov 29, 2023•26 min
The growing use of renewable energy and the phasing out of fossil fuels is creating a large flexibility gap that needs to be filled by clean technologies such as energy storage. Long-term storage technologies are critical to solar and wind power, addressing the challenge of intermittency. While lithium-ion stands as the incumbent, scaling it for extended durations proves costly. Alternative solutions poised to fill this role will need to demonstrate scalable manufacturing and large-scale deploym...
Nov 22, 2023•25 min
In this week's episode of Energy Evolution, the hosts discuss a new series of articles out of the S&P Global Commodity Insights' newsroom that examines how some of the largest companies in the world are working to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. Co-hosts Dan Testa and Taylor Kuykendall summarize some of the findings of the team's reporting before interviewing correspondents Camellia Moors and Camilla Naschert about their reporting on net-zero efforts in the European powe...
Nov 17, 2023•26 min•Ep. 102
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is seen as an essential enabler of international emissions trading, providing countries and businesses with a key pathway to meet and accelerate their climate goals. However, many key decisions and rules around the use of Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 need to be clarified at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in order to move carbon markets forward. S&P Global Commodity Insights' experts Dana Agrotti, Vandana Sebastian and Eklavya Gupte explore some of the compl...
Nov 15, 2023•25 min
On this episode of Energy Evolution, we are talking about carbon offset markets and oil and gas retirement credits. What function do these tools serve in the broader decarbonization push, and how exactly are we calculating them anyway? What are the policies needed to make these offsets and credits work appropriately? How useful are these mechanisms in comparison to directly reducing emissions? Listen in to find out! Today’s speakers include Brad Handler, Program Manager for the Sustainable Finan...
Nov 10, 2023•34 min•Ep. 101
Wind turbines are essential tools for the transition to cleaner energy systems, but as the buildout progresses, questions around their biodiversity impact on land and offshore are becoming louder. Many new projects face legal challenges over the protection of birds in particular. In Europe, the energy crisis following the war in Ukraine has led policymakers to reduce the compliance burden for new projects on land. Offshore, biodiversity advocates warn that a vast wind buildout risks the extincti...
Nov 03, 2023•22 min•Ep. 100
Energy Evolution and Capitol Crude join forces to co-host today's episode, all about artificial intelligence being deployed in the energy and mining sectors. This week's guests are some of the journalists from the S&P Global Commodity Insights newsroom who worked together to write an expansive series of articles on the impact of AI. The pieces look at predictions around how much electricity demand AI will generate, the ways AI is improving productivity, resource discovery and trading, and mo...
Oct 27, 2023•22 min•Ep. 99
Former New York Rangers goaltender Mike Richter has a long list of achievements on the ice, from winning a Stanley Cup to an Olympic silver medal. But in this episode of Energy Evolution, he joins to discuss his post-hockey career and current role as president of Brightcore Energy, which provides energy efficiency retrofits for the commercial sector, including innovative geothermal heating and cooling systems for buildings in dense, urban environments. Richter also shares thoughts on lessons fro...
Oct 20, 2023•35 min•Ep. 98
In this episode of Energy Evolution, the team talks about gender diversity in the boardrooms of energy companies. Thought gender parity was already in reach? Well, think again. Women hold less than 20% of c-suite leadership positions in utilities in the US and Europe, a data analysis by S&P Global showed. Abbie Bennett and Camilla Naschert, reporters covering the energy transition, discuss some of the key barriers to career progression and ways companies can improve gender diversity. We also...
Oct 13, 2023•15 min•Ep. 99
In this episode of the Energy Evolution podcast by S&P Global Commodity Insights, co-host Dan Testa interviews Will Hazelip, president of National Grid Ventures, U.S. Northeast, about the company's involvement in offshore wind along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, renewable projects in the Midwest, and electric transmission projects in Europe. Hazelip emphasizes the need for offshore wind to meet decarbonization goals in the U.S. Northeast and in Europe, and discusses the challenges faced by offsho...
Oct 06, 2023•25 min•Ep. 98
