Energy Transition Now Podcast Series 2

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Series 2

The second series opens with Duncan McLachlan and Safina Jivraj from project architects and system integrators io consulting. We discuss how you design or adapt projects to make them compatible with a lower carbon future.

Duncan and Safina highlight the net-zero commitments io consulting have made and the impact this has on the work they do. We discuss the options and limitations for greenfield and brownfield projects in targeting net-zero – including having the right mindset in your approach, as well as the need to collaborate to realise the opportunity. Duncan and Safina also delve into practical examples in the hydrocarbon and hard-to-abate sectors, explaining why taking a systems thinking approach is so critical for success and in managing the complexity, while avoiding unintended consequences.

In Episode 10 of the Energy Transition Now podcast, David speaks with Siobhan Clarke from bp Launchpad following the acquisition of its 7^th portfolio company – Blueprint Power – supporting the move to an electron economy.

David and Siobhan discuss how to accelerate innovation to achieve a net-zero world, and how software, hardware and digital assets can be brought into the energy industry to enable that. They explore bp Launchpad’s high conviction investment model, whose goal it is to scale businesses by taking a majority stake, and bringing in the right people, skills, governance and flexibility.

One of the key technologies that could play a vital – if not essential – role in making net-zero emissions by mid-century possible is carbon capture utilisation and storage; CCUS. This week, Kentaro Hosomi of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) joins the podcast for Episode 11 and speaks to the importance of technology and innovation in decarbonising our economies and the potential for CCUS.

Kentaro explains how MHI is helping its customers to decarbonise, and more broadly, the global economy. Kentaro discusses how MHI are doing this, through a range of technological solutions such as carbon capture, particularly with industries with hard to abate carbon emissions. An example of this being the largest being a coal-fired plant in the United States, which is as of today, the largest single carbon capture plant in the world, using MHI technology.

In this week’s Energy Transition Now podcast, David speaks with Jamie Beard – a passionate advocate for geothermal energy as the baseload-capable clean energy of the future.

David and Jamie explore the huge potential that geothermal energy has in decarbonising both heat and electricity, and why geothermal is now gaining traction again after an initial lukewarm start. They discuss the opportunities and challenges to scaling the sector, as well as where more time and money needs to be spent to launching geothermal on the ‘curve of the shale boom’. Crucially, Jamie explains the role of the oil and gas sector in achieving this success and how geothermal energy should be seen as the future of oil and gas industry.

In this week’s podcast Marek Kubik, a founding member and MD of energy storage company Fluence – which recently floated on the NASDAQ – shares his insights into ‘electron time machines’, or batteries, within the broader context of energy storage.

David and Marek discuss the role of batteries in the evolving power system, including the broad set of use cases, commercialisation routes and the pairing of batteries with other technologies. Marek explains why lithium-ion batteries have become the dominant energy storage type, driven by their versatility and ability to solve current market needs, as well as the growth of EVs that have helped scale the technology. We also touch on the subject of the sustainability of the industry, including the mining of the necessary raw materials and the role of recycling.

This week in Episode 14 we turn the tables and have Gareth Hector – Westwood’s Head of Marketing – speaking with David Linden. Gareth and David listen back over selected clips from previous episodes, as David explains what he thinks have been the key highlights and themes that have come out of Series One and Two of the Energy Transition Now podcast.

Recorded on Tuesday 9th November, 2021.