Energy Gang

In March of 2020, Covid shut down economies, closed off supply chains, and sent unemployment to historic levels. No one knew what would come next for energy.Oil prices went into negative territory. Industrial electricity use plummeted. Residential demand shot up. And there were big pipelines of renewable energy projects waiting to get built.“I think we were all a little bit nervous about how COVID was going to affect all of the deal flow in the market,” says Britta von Oesen, a managing director at CohnReznick Capital.Britta is the person at the table brokering tax structures and project sales that move money into renewable energy. So did Covid destroy her ability to get deals done?“Honestly, it's gone a lot better than I would have expected,” she says. M&A activity increased. And as 2021 kicked off, the M&A deals only accelerated. Most of the top independent wind and solar developers have been scooped up by utilities, private equity firms, oil majors, or bigger corporates. And the ones that haven't been acquired may be soon. There is an intense turf battle over wind, solar and storage platforms in the US. So what is driving all this activity? In this episode, brought to you by CohnReznick Capital, we speak with Britta Von Oesen about who's doing the acquiring, who's doing the selling, and what it all means for the growth of U.S. clean energy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s been a very intense year for America’s power grid. Across the country, the electricity system just faced another stress-test as extreme heat taxed power plants and grid operators in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and New York.Since 2000, outages across the U.S. have increased by 67%. Is the power system ready for tomorrow’s extreme weather -- today?Stephen and Katherine are joined by Dr. Melissa Lott, a senior research scholar and the director of research at the Center on Global Energy Policy.Plus, we’ll discuss a secret recording of an Exxon lobbyist bragging about the company’s efforts to delay climate policy. What does it tell us about the oil industry’s grip in Washington?We’ll finish with a look at a new report from Columbia University: can we use natural gas pipelines to accelerate the low-carbon transition?The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world, Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone and 154 gigawatts in total across the globe. Email them to learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by S&C Electric Company. Today, non-wires alternatives such as microgrids can provide more sustainable, resilient and economical ways to deliver reliable power. S&C helps utilities and commercial customers find the best solutions to meet their energy needs. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

America is a place where if you can dream something — no matter how big or ambitious — you can do it. Unless you’re trying to string 700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to bring wind power from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Our guest this week is Russell Gold, author of a new book about the saga that unfolded when wind energy pioneer Michael Skelly tried just that. The book, Superpower, is all about Skelly’s attempt to build one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects in recent history — and how he faced nearly every obstacle imaginable. What does Skelly’s journey tell us about America’s diminishing ability to do great things?Russell Gold is a veteran newspaper reporter who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He wrote a book in 2014 on the rise of fracking, called The Boom. He’ll join us to talk about the reasons why Skelly’s transmission plan failed.This is a rebroadcast of a 2019 episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we are offering the first episode of a new podcast: The Big Switch.It’s a five-part series about how to clean up the energy system -- told in a clear, understandable and fun way. The show is hosted by Dr. Melissa Lott, research director at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.Stephen Lacey is the show's executive editor.Listen to the first episode of The Big Switch right now -- and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and any other place you get podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We can measure the energy transition in any number of ways. The hundreds of millions of solar panels and wind turbines installed. The gigatons of carbon reduced. Or the number of jobs created.But how do we measure the equity outcome?Our guest co-host, Dr. Destenie Nock, is focused on exactly this question. She is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Nock is creating new models for energy-systems planning that factor in positive social objectives, not just cost or reliability metrics.Any decarbonization strategy is a de facto justice/equity strategy, as frontline communities will see the most benefit. But how do we maximize the benefit? And how do different pathways determine the outcome for low-income citizens and people of color who are disproportionately impacted by pollution? We’ll dig in.Plus, what is happening with the infrastructure bill? All of a sudden, negotiations are at an impasse. President Biden broke off talks with Republican Senate leadership after strong disagreements over climate spending.Now progressives and climate groups are wondering: are we going to lose another historic climate bill? And if so, how long will it be until another chance emerges?The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Aurora is offering all the presentations from its recent Empower Summit for free on its website. Go here to see conversations with people like Sunnova CEO John Berger and CALSSA Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro. The Energy Gang is brought to you by Enel X, a leader in energy storage, DER management software, and smart electric vehicle charging stations to increase project value. Learn what Enel X can do for your business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

America gets 20 percent of its electricity from coal. That’s a 50 percent drop since the peak in 2007. But if coal is becoming so economically uncompetitive, why does it still make up so much of our grid mix?This week: Coal is no longer king. But it still has a lot of power across the land. How do we banish it for good?Katherine and Stephen welcome Joe Daniel as a guest co-host this week. Joe is a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.Joe joins us to talk about the problem of coal plant “self-scheduling,” which locks in operation of dirty power plants even when the economics don’t make sense.We’ll also look at how we unburden ourselves from the long-term agreements these coal plants are under? One solution is to buy back debt through securitization — basically like refinancing a mortgage. How will it work?Finally, we’ll discuss the numbers behind nationalizing the coal industry. Could we buy up the entire sector, shut it down, and then offer wages, healthcare, pensions, and job placement to displaced workers? It would only cost somewhere between $33 billion and $83 billion over 15 years, according to estimates from the Union of Concerned Scientists.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Join Aurora on June 8th and 9th for the second annual virtual summit. Hear from, and interact with, industry leaders, policy makers, sales experts, and more. Get your questions ready, and save your spot by registering now.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Enel X, a leader in energy storage, DER management software, and smart electric vehicle charging stations to increase project value. Learn what Enel X can do for your business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if someone told you that we have everything we need to decarbonize most of the economy? We would just need to start electrifying every new car, furnace, water heater, drier, and cookstove, and industrial process starting right now. And yeah, and put solar on every roof that can handle it.This week: a wartime plan for winning the climate fight with clean electricity. What’ll it take? How possible is it?Saul Griffith is our guest co-host. He’s the founder and chief scientist of Rewiring America. He’s also the author of the upcoming book “Electrify,” from MIT Press. If we are on a wartime footing for decarbonizing the economy, Saul could be considered a 5-star general of the “electrify everything” movement.He founded or co-founded around a dozen companies and organizations. And he has a PhD from MIT in materials science and information theory.Saul is now trying to marshal the world around his “a defensible and believable” pathway for decarbonizing America with clean electricity.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Join Aurora on June 8th and 9th for the second annual virtual summit. Hear from, and interact with, industry leaders, policy makers, sales experts, and more. Get your questions ready, and save your spot by registering now.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Enel X, a leader in energy storage, DER management software, and smart electric vehicle charging stations to increase project value. Learn what Enel X can do for your business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then they transform?This week: a look at some positive trends guiding the utility sector. What are power providers that are leading the energy transition doing right?We’re joined by Julia Hamm, the president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance.We’re talking about SEPA’s 2021 utility transformation profile -- a survey and ranking system of over 130 electric utilities in the US.There are thousands of power companies. That means different flavors of corporate goals, management styles, and approaches to building clean energy. Julia’s going to help us understand what they are.Why is utility progress more like “change management” than traditional Silicon Valley-style disruption? Then: how utilities will benefit from Biden’s big infrastructure push.Plus, the solar census: what will job growth look like in a post-pandemic world?The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Join Aurora on June 8th and 9th for the second annual virtual summit. Hear from, and interact with, industry leaders, policy makers, sales experts, and more. Get your questions ready, and save your spot by registering now.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Enel X, a leader in energy storage, DER management software, and smart electric vehicle charging stations to increase project value. Learn what Enel X can do for your business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The lack of progress on offshore wind in America is one of the most baffling and frustrating stories in energy. The technology and resource availability are tremendous. Europe has de-risked the technology and proven it can be deployed at scale, and at low cost, with minimal disruption. U.S. states are setting big targets. And at a national-scale, people want it.And yet, we have not been able to get any meaningful amounts of offshore wind capacity in the water. That may be about to change. In late March, the Biden team said it plans to accelerate offshore wind development -- with a goal of getting 30 gigawatts of projects finished by 2030, and 110 gigawatts by 2050.By comparison, we have 30 megawatts in the water now. And Europe currently has 25 gigawatts operational.So what does the government need to do to finally make this industry a reality?Energy futurist Ramez Naam is our guest co-host this week. We’ll also talk about Biden’s first 100 days in office. He marked the occasion with a speech to Congress that emphasized his “blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.” H e’s drawing a very clear connection between taking action on climate change and building tons of jobs. So what has Biden accomplished so far that is meaningful? What is rhetorical and what is creating a clear pathway to real outcomes?Finally, we’ll look at why the UN is shifting its focus to methane emissions. The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. Join Aurora on June 8th and 9th for the second annual virtual summit. Hear from, and interact with, industry leaders, policy makers, sales experts, and more. Get your questions ready, and save your spot by registering now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 2015, then-Secretary of State John Kerry called the Paris climate treaty a “tremendous victory.” In the years since, $3.8 trillion has flowed into fossil fuels globally.Now Kerry and other White House officials are focusing on banks and insurers that are still offering a lifeline to new fossil fuel projects. Can they slow the flow of cash?This week: why finance is the main pressure point for climate.Today, all the major banks are collectively supporting hundreds of billions of dollars worth of renewables projects every year. But few are giving up on fossil fuels. One environmental campaigner put it this way: “the banks are gorging on doughnuts and then eating an apple afterwards.”A new analysis from DeSmog finds that 77% of board directors at the top-7 US banks have ties to “climate-conflicted” groups.Earlier this year, New York University released a study showing that only 7 percent of board members in the top 100 US companies -- which includes many banks -- had any climate expertise at all.This week, Justin Guay joins Katherine and Stephen as a guest co-host. Justin is the director of global climate strategy at the Sunrise Project. He’s been following the flow of money into climate-conflicted projects for a decade.Looking to grow your career in solar tech? Aurora Solar is the leader in solar design and sales software. Aurora is hiring across multiple roles including customer success, marketing, sales, operations, and more. See open roles and apply to join Aurora, voted one of the best places to work in 2021, at www.aurorasolar.com/energygang.This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.