"The Bacon of The Grid... Making Everything Else A Little Bit Better" With Malcolm Woolf, National Hydropower Association

We are so excited to share today's episode featuring Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). The NHA represents over 300 member-companies including public and investor-owned utilities, independent power producers, developers, equipment and service providers, and other groups interested in advancing America's hydropower industry. Together, NHA members own and operate approximately 85% of the waterpower generating capacity in the US. We were thrilled to visit with Malcolm and hear more about the work he and his team are doing to advocate for hydropower. 

In our conversation, Malcolm kicked off with an overview of the hydropower industry and its important role in stabilizing the grid, the different types of power sources (classic large dams, run-of-river, pumped storage and marine energy), the current opportunities for expanding hydropower, an overview of pumped storage technologies, permitting issues and the need for funding to address the existing fleet, the pros and cons of the IRA for hydro, common misconceptions of hydropower, the hydropower industry's biggest pain points, Malcolm's perspective on hydropower and the manufacturing sector, on-site hydropower applications, global hydropower usage, efforts to engage with communities that have historically shown concern about hydropower, dam safety and maintenance, offshore technology, scale and efficiency for hydro technologies, and the various types of NHA member companies. We end with Malcolm's ten-year vision for hydropower. We were so excited to finally be spending some time on this very important clean energy resource. Thanks very much Malcolm for joining! 

In our upfront discussion, Mike Bradley shared an update on PPI and CPI prices compared to October and highlighted volatility in crude oil price, movement in WTI pricing, and notable events from the past week including California gas prices and Denbury's recent CCUS update. Colin Fenton provided a read-through on liquidity in global markets and the relative responses to the incoming inflation, labor, and manufacturing data across precious metals, equity indices, oil and gas, and fixed income instruments. He also walked us through the latest data on the slump in U.S. gasoline consumption and what it likely portends for a broader drop in global liquids demand in 2023. Brett Rampal also joined the crew to discuss the recent US fusion energy milestone and give key context around what it means for the promise of fusion power. 

Thanks to you all!