This Spring, Laurent Segalen was invited by Solar Power Europe to moderate a panel, during the Solar Power Summit, around the theme ”Winning the Flex challenges”. The Speakers were: Andrea Wechsler, Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Germany Paula Rey Garcia, Acting HoU Renewables & Energy System Integration, DG ENER, European Commission Nick Bitsios, Head of Brussels Office, Metlen Juan Rivier Abbad, Head of Global Renewables Regulation, Iberdrola Vlasios Souflis, COO EMEA, Lightsource...
Aug 11, 2025•40 min
This is Summer time, so we publish some contents that we have created on other channels A few weeks ago, Gerard came on the ”Clean Titans” The YouTube channel “Clean Titans” focused on clean energy, is hosted by Sam Evans, known as The Clean Energy Guy. His content dives into clean energy topics with enthusiasm, aiming to educate and inspire viewers about sustainable solutions. Gerard talks about “Energy Disruptions” and you can watch him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5LGTcT-EOw...
Aug 04, 2025•1 hr 10 min
On July 7th, Gerard and Laurent were invited to appear on the U.S. podcast Open Circuit , alongside Jigar Shah, Katherine Hamilton, and Stephen Lacey. It was an emotional reunion—Jigar and Katherine were part of the original Energy Gang , the very show that inspired us to create our own. We had a rich, two-part conversation. The first part revisited the Spanish blackouts, a topic we had already explored in Episode 185. The second part delved into Europe’s energy security and the evolving dynamic...
Jul 28, 2025•32 min
Texas is an oddity in the western electricity world: fastest growing load, ultra-low prices, crazy development of renewables. Texas consumes now more power than France, despite having only half the population. Prices are a factor 4 lower compared to 20 years ago. And 90% of additional load has been provided by Wind and Solar, despite the permanent attacks from the fossil fuel lobby. To make sense of the current situation in Texas, and also talk about the future, with unbelievable projections, fu...
Jul 21, 2025•26 min
Laurent had the pleasure and privilege of sitting down with Markus Rauramo, CEO of Fortum, during the Eurelectric “Power Play” conference in Brussels this June. Fortum, the Finnish energy company also active in Sweden and Poland, finds itself right on the front line when it comes to tensions with Russia—not exactly your average utility boardroom drama. The conversation kicks off with Markus’s recent election as President of Eurelectric, taking over from none other than Leo “the Great” Birnbaum, ...
Jul 14, 2025•25 min
What Really Happened During the Iberian Blackout This Spring? And How Should We Make Sense of the Conflicting Reports? To shed light on the events, Gerard and Laurent are joined by global energy expert Steve Berberich , who served as President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) from 2011 to 2020. Steve led CAISO through the August 2020 blackout in California and now serves as President and CEO of Onward Energy. We begin by placing the Iberian blackout in a broader cont...
Jul 07, 2025•25 min
Six years ago, Simon Moores, CEO of Benchmark Minerals Intelligence shook the world in a now legendary testimony in front of the US Senate. Then, Simon predicted the exponential growth of batteries and the control that China was starting to exert of the supply chains. Fast forward today, we bring in, Caspar Rawles, Simon’s trusted lieutenant, and COO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence to assess how Simon’s predictions panned out. What was prophetic and what never materialized. Benchmark Mineral I...
Jun 22, 2025•33 min
Laurent remembers vividly his trip to Sofia Bulgaria in winter 2009 when the Russians had cut the gas for Bulgaria during a -15C winter. Russia was already playing hard ball because of (guess what) a financial disagreement with Ukraine. The blackmail lasted 3 weeks, and the poor Bulgarians were cutting the trees from their equivalent of Hyde Park or Central Park not to freeze to death. Lots of progress has been made since then, and Eastern Europe is an emerging bright spot of development for Ren...
Jun 15, 2025•27 min
We have recently witnessed spectacular black outs: South Australia 2016, Texas Uri 2021, California 2020-21-25 and Iberia 2025. We are not even mentioning fragile grids in the Global South. We will do an episode on those blackouts later this year. The U.S. electrical grid, now over a century old, struggles to meet modern demands. Utilities are slow to adapt, and supply chains are congested, posing challenges for accommodating new load developments like datacenters and AI while ensuring reliable,...
Jun 09, 2025•32 min
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) recently released a widely publicized report titled “The Climate Paradox” , which has garnered significant positive attention from outlets such as the Guardian, the BBC, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and much of the European press. Beginning with the statement, “Climate action has reached an impasse,” the report, authored by Lindy Fursman (who holds a PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley), outlines several key “facts” that have been effectively deb...
May 26, 2025•20 min
KKR is a Private Equity giant whose involvement in the Energy/Infrastructure sector has grown bigger over the decades. Energy/Infrastructure investments now represents approx 10% of their global Asset under Management of c.700bnUSD. KKR’s approach combines several strategies which are developed in different vehicles from run of the mill yield funds to more risky platforms. Since the beginning of the decade, KKR has invested billions in the acquisitions of assets in the sector (Zenobe, Avantus, A...
May 19, 2025•27 min
On one hand, tariffs are causing significant disruption in the global automotive industry. On the other, the electric vehicle (EV) market continues to surge, seemingly unaffected. According to the latest Q1 2025 data from Rho Motion, 4.1 million EVs were sold globally in Q1 2025—a 29% year-over-year increase compared to Q1 2024. Growth is particularly strong in China (+36%), followed by Europe (+22%) and North America (+16%). To help make sense of these opposing dynamics—and to assess which OEMs...
May 12, 2025•31 min
Laurent and Gerard sit down for an in-depth (and at times fiery) conversation with Ben Backwell, Chair of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), to unpack the current state of the wind industry. Ben joins from Brazil, where preparations for COP30 are already underway. As GWEC has just released its flagship Global Wind Report 2025 —a must-read for anyone serious about the energy transition—they reflect on wind power’s progress. While the sector has continued to grow, it's been outpaced by solar a...
May 05, 2025•26 min
There's been a great deal of excitement and curiosity surrounding the idea of a Transatlantic Interconnector. So, as co-founders, Laurent Segalen and Simon Ludlam, alongside their adviser Gerard Reid, have decided to release a special episode to bring our listeners up to speed on where things currently stand. While we can’t dive into our discussions with governments and system operators—those are protected by NDAs—rest assured, those conversations are very much underway, as you might expect. To ...
Apr 28, 2025•36 min
As we start receiving data for the year 2024 in terms of Energy Production and Consumption, it is time to have a forensic analysis of the global Energy Complex in 2024. Last month we had the always comprehensive IEA Global Energy Review, and now to go deep into Electrification, we just received the Ember's sixth Global Electricity Review. We brought in two of its three authors: Dr Katye Altieri and Nicolas Fulghum to discuss the main finding. We’re sorry Euan Graham, the third author, could not ...
Apr 14, 2025•31 min
Capitalizing on the Infrastructure giants’ Blind Spots: How can a specialised PE fund thrive under the new US Administration? The Energy Transition encompasses more than just power and AI. We have chosen to explore the niche yet crucial areas of waste gas, biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and emissions capture. At the heart of this journey is Cresta, a $2 billion specialist fund positioned at the intersection of Private Equity and Infrastructure. Chris Rozzell, the fund's Managing Part...
Apr 07, 2025•30 min
Early March, Gerard and Laurent were invited by the Cambridge University Energy Technology Society (CUETS) for a live session of Redefining Energy. In front of hundreds of attentive students, they had a comprehensive debate with Pr. David Cebon about the Electrification of Trucks. What are the issues (technical, economic) and what are the proposed solutions from Electric roads to batteries? We enjoyed sharing with an enthusiastic crowd at St John's College, Cambridge and give a special thanks to...
Mar 31, 2025•31 min
The XXIst century economy will be powered by 'critical minerals' such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earths. China has spent the past 20 years building a dominant position across the supply chain for these metals. The rest of the world is finally waking up to the economic and geopolitical challenges that this presents and is actively trying to secure the supplies of critical minerals by creating non-Chinese supply chains. Gerard and Laurent sat down with Richard Tite, Chief Investment Offi...
Mar 24, 2025•33 min
Laurent welcomes Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric, to discuss Energy Security, Resilience and Flexibility though the impact of E-Mobility. Energy Security has become a critical issue, especially with the recent sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea by Russian and Chinese vessels, extreme weather events knocking out a third of the Irish Grid, and Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Kristian shares the story of his harrowing visit to a power plant in...
Mar 17, 2025•25 min
It has become a tradition to welcome Luca Pedretti, Co-Founder of Pexapark, to the show to discuss the evolving PPA market, especially now that Pexapark has released its annual State of the Market report. Laurent and Gerard are joined by Luca to highlight the key insights from this year’s findings: Corporate PPA demand remains stable, but with new entrants More deals, but smaller sizes: The number of transactions increased by 16% (+37 deals), even as total volumes declined. Innovative deal struc...
Mar 03, 2025•26 min
As urgent calls for climate change action continue, an energy supercycle is underway, driven by the increasing need for electrification and digitalization, particularly in high-growth sectors like AI and data centers. Securing a reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy supply to meet this demand is crucial. At the 2025 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos, Hitachi, Ltd. Executive Chairman Toshiaki Higashihara and Hitachi Energy CEO Andreas Schierenbeck, with Elisabeth V. Vardheim (St...
Feb 24, 2025•26 min
2024 has been another exceptional year for the battery industry. We have invited Aaron Wade to discuss the various technological and economic aspects of this rapidly expanding universe. Aaron is a rising star in the battery world. Not only is a key member of the Volta Foundation, but he is also Business Development Lead at Gaussion, a U.K. start up that improves charging capacities in batteries. The Volta Foundation just released its monumental 516 pages report, covering industry, technology, re...
Feb 17, 2025•30 min
While Gerard Reid was at Davos, schmoozing with world leaders, Laurent Segalen was invited by Luca Pedretti on the Pexapark podcast. They had a conversation around where to invest in the Energy Transition. Laurent has designed a typology of possible investments from the least desirable to the essential. 1) Aspirational 2) Shoehorn 3) Compliance 4) Profitable 5) Salvation Laurent describes his numerous investments and how this framework has helped him deliver consequential returns....
Feb 03, 2025•18 min
As the price of gas and LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) becomes a key factor for the value of the world’s energy, we have decided to bring in a top gas expert to explain where the market is and how is it going to evolve. Seb Kennedy is a leading market analyst and Founding Editor of Energy Flux ( www.EnergyFlux.news ), an independent newsletter that analyses global gas and LNG markets through the lens of Europe's energy transition. We review the numerous phases that the market has faced since the be...
Jan 27, 2025•33 min
For the first episode of 2025, Gerard and Laurent have the pleasure of welcoming Shanu Mathew. Shanu is a Senior Vice President at Lazard Asset Management and Portfolio Manager/Analyst on US Sustainable Equity. We are going to analyse the performance of “Cleantech” Equities throughout 2024 and discuss what to expect for 2025. Let’s be honest: 2024 was an annus horribilis for “Core” Cleantech with major indices (S&P Global Clean Energy Index) down 20%. But 2024 was also an exceptional year fo...
Jan 13, 2025•30 min
Happy new year to all our listeners. It has become a tradition for the first episode of the year: Gerard, Laurent and Michael present their 2025 Predictions in the Energy Transition. Here are the predictions that were made a year ago. 1) Stellantis will outsource its EV production in China 2) Politics: Elections in 2024 could derail the Energy Transition 3) Oversupply of everything energy related – Prices are going down 4) Stronger top-down governance of Transmission and Interconnection 5) The r...
Jan 02, 2025•27 min
Merry Christmas. This is our last Episode of the Year where Laurent and Gerard summarise what impressed them, surprised them and shocked them. AI, Hydrogen, Renewables, USA vs Europe vs China, Climate. What worked, what did not work. 2024 is a year that will be remembered at pivotal in so many aspects. We salute our friends, our influencers and unveil our book of the year: “The coming wave” by Mustafa Suleyman, not purely about Energy, but about the digital transformation that is revolutionising...
Dec 23, 2024•18 min
Gerard delivered a master class at TedXBerlin about the four forces driving the Energy Revolution Solar, Batteries, Electronics and China. It is called “Welcome to the Era of Energy Disruption” An excellent introduction for tomorrow’s world. You can watch Gerard on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXwGvLj4rak
Dec 16, 2024•14 min
Just Climate is a 1.5bnUSD vehicle established by Generation Investment with the mission to invest in the highest impact solutions that can radically reduce or remove emissions. They occupy the “missing middle” between VC and PE-Infra allowing growth, FOAK and deployment. Their positioning comes on the heels of VCs such as Prelude Ventures, Energy Impact Partners or Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Laurent and Gerard invite its co-CIO, Shaun Kingsbury, the “inventor” of North Sea Offshore Wind when...
Dec 09, 2024•30 min
Northvolt, once the poster child of the European battery industry, shocked the world last month by filling for Chapter 11 in the United States. The Swedish battery start-up burned through billions of euros in capital from investors such as Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs, and others, with little to show for it. Laurent and Gerard conduct a postmortem on this debacle of epic proportions. With access to confidential sources within the company and its supply chain, they arrived at the same conclusions as...
Dec 02, 2024•17 min
