Petrostates, electrostates, and the energy transition. Gerard Reid of the Redefining Energy podcast visits the Energy Gang

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Aug 19, 2025

Gerard Reid, co-host of the Redefining Energy podcast and energy finance expert, emphasizes the critical divide between petrostates like the U.S. and electrostates like China in the global energy transition. He asserts that AI will reshape the energy landscape, with countries adapting varying strategies to meet electricity demands. The discussion includes the rising significance of clean energy investments, the shifts in U.S.-China dynamics, and the challenges of transitioning infrastructure to support burgeoning technologies like electric vehicles.

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ANECDOTE

A Factory Visit Changed His Mind

Gerard first dismissed solar after visiting a small factory, then changed his mind after meeting the entrepreneur.
That encounter launched his long career focused on solar and the energy revolution.

ADVICE

Build Companies That Scale Electrification

Scale businesses that enable electrification and grid modernization to capture both impact and profit.
Focus on M&A and capital matching where demand for rapid deployment is highest.

ADVICE

Apply AI To Material And Battery R&D

Use AI to accelerate material science and battery R&D to drive faster cost declines and performance gains.
Integrate AI into manufacturing R&D to scale improvements across PV and battery chemistries.

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Is the global transition to low-carbon energy accelerating or slowing down? One answer is that it depends where you look. In the US, energy policy has shifted away from support for low-carbon technologies, but China is continuing with record installations of solar, wind, and batteries, and record sales of EVs. With AI emerging as the central arena for great power completion, which model will work best at providing the power the new technologies need?

The AI revolution will be the most transformative change in human history. That’s according to Gerard Reid, this week’s guest, a veteran energy commentator and co-founder of the advisory firm Alexa Capital. Gerard, who also co-hosts the podcast Redefining Energy, says he thinks AI will reinvent the world’s energy system. There is a widening gulf between ‘petrostates’ such as the US, which are rich in oil and gas and favor fossil fuels, and the ‘electrostates’, led by China, which is dominates global manufacturing for technologies such as solar panels, batteries and EVs.

Europe, which is relatively resource-poor, is following China’s path out of necessity, while India and others weigh up which model to adopt. Gerard, host Ed Crooks and regular guest Amy Myers-Jaffe debate the different approaches that different countries are taking to build secure energy systems that will be able to meet growing demand for electricity for AI.

Electricity is now the ultimate security priority, demanding grid upgrades, new technologies to support resilience including vehicle-to-grid, and new strategic partnerships. Gerard argues that OPEC’s current strategy suggest it sees oil demand peaking soon. As the world adopts Chinese EVs and other low-cost, low-carbon technologies, some big questions are becoming increasingly urgent. Will the US continue to cling to fossil fuels? Will cheap solar upend electricity industries around the world? And above all, will the race for strategic and economic success be won by whichever country integrates AI, low-cost power, and resilient grids first?

Ed Crooks is Vice Chair for the Americas at Wood Mackenzie. Amy Myers-Jaffe is the Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab.

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