Insider's Guide to Energy

She is the Chair of the The Federation of Green Youth and Students in Finland and councillor of Espoo, the country’s second largest city, and proclaims nuclear energy to be our best transitional source of power. Peppi Seppälä certainly has a busy life and the fact that Finland has licenced the world’s first long-term storage facility for highly radioactive nuclear waste has increased the attention on Finland and her especially. Listen in, to find out how she aims to reach net-zero with Espoo by 2030 using Microsoft data centers as a source of heating power and why a career in policy making can be very rewarding.  Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peppi-sepp%C3%A4l%C3%A4-352254159/ https://twitter.com/seppala_peppi https://www.instagram.com/peppi.seppala/ 

This week Chris, Johan and Marcelo are joined by Marianne Jenssen, the Director Markets at Nord Pool AS. Nord Pool runs the leading power market in Europe, which offers efficient and secure trading across Europe. The four discuss the challenges of the power market and new up-to-date products that shape the future of power trading. Listen in to find out more about the role of market-based transparent prices and how Nord Pool establishes the prices in the electricity market.  Nord Pool’s homepage:  https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/ 

One of the hard-to-decarbonize sectors is the heavy-duty trucking industry. Now, in a novel approach to permit these vehicles to run on hydrogen, Ted and his team at Verne are bringing a cryo-compressed hydrogen storage solution to the market. Ted shares his path from a chemistry degree to founding a company with his two colleagues. Listen in to find out how the hydrogen industry and policy is evolving in the US and why networking is an essential part of accelerating a young company.  Links:https://www.verneh2.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/verneh2/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-mcklveen-08023448/ 

Using concentrated solar power, carbon dioxide and water, Synhelion produces solar fuels for cars and jets. Lukas Geissbuehler, head of thermal systems, has been part of the company since the very beginning. He shares the story how he initially tested the thermal storage in a garage and what the transition from university to the start-up sphere has been like. Listen in to find out why he sometimes misses research and how Synhelion aims to also decarbonize the cement industry.Links:https://synhelion.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/synhelion/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-geissb%C3%BChler-113251169/  

Ever wondered if it's possible to buy your neighbour’s excess solar energy?In so-called energy communities, energy prosumers can share their energy amongst themselves. Anselma Wörner, co-founder of Exnaton, tells us how they are using this concept to create new business models together with utilities all over Europe to maximize the local consumption of decentralized renewable energy production. Listen in to find out what it's like to transition from the academic to the start-up sphere and why the liberalization of energy markets is essential for the energy transition.Links:https://www.exnaton.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/exnaton/https://www.linkedin.com/in/anselma-woerner/

Together with Chris, Luca introduces the team around Jill, Joshua and Manuele that worked together for this mini-series. Chris shares the story how he and Luca came up with the idea and why this mini-series speaks to such a critical crowd. Listen in to find out what learnings the co-hosts take away from this journey and why every recent graduate and aspiring energy leader should tune in. https://www.linkedin.com/company/insiders-guide-to-energy/ 

This week Chris is joined by Jemma Green, the Executive Chairman & Co-founder at Powerledger. Powerledger uses blockchain technology for energy and environment commodity trading. The two discuss how households and organizations can trade excess solar power peer-to-peer and how blockchain technology helps to securely track local energy trading.  Listen in to find out more about the innovative environment commodity trading platform and its role in the democratisation of the energy market. Powerledger’s homepage:  https://www.powerledger.io 

This week, Marcelo Ortega is joined by Tom Weirich Marketing Head at EDP Renewables North America, a leading company in renewable energy and the world’s fourth-largest wind energy producer. Tom explains how marketing in energy requires developing customer journeys for different stakeholders and how an honest dialogue is the best approach to tackle NIMBYism. Tom also shares how the passing of one of his mentors inspired him to write a book about pioneers in the renewable industry in hopes of preserving their stories and inspiring new generations and current industry players to take a risk. 

This week Chris and Johan are joined by Jeff McAulay, the COO & Co-Founder at Energetic Insurance. Energetic Insurance develops new risk management products to enable growth in the renewable energy industry. The three discuss how to deploy more capital in the solar industry and how to cover payment default risk. Listen in to find out more about the role of insurance companies in accelerating the clean energy transition and how to reach viable projects due to counterparty credit risk.  Energetic Insurance’s homepage:  https://www.energeticinsurance.com 

This week live from the DISTRIBUTECH trade show, Chris is joined by Bryan Friehauf and Phil Gruber, both working for Hitachi Energy. The three talk about how software and various sources of data can help utilities determine the state of health of their assets such as solar power plants, substations and transmission grids. Listen in to find out more about asset performance management why the real challenge is not gathering data but drawing conclusions and recommendations from it. Hitachi Energy's webpagehttps://www.hitachienergy.comHitachi Ventara's webpagehttps://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html