Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
Covering breaking news in clean tech, going deep on global energy policy, and debating the levers that need to move to accelerate the energy transition. Energy Gang is the podcast covering clean energy technology, renewable energy, and the environment. The world of clean energy moves fast, and you need a reliable source to stay on top of the news that matters. You’ll find it on Wood Mackenzie’s Energy Gang.How will changes to the US government affect decarbonisation and energy security? When will hydrogen, nuclear and carbon capture deploy at scale? Where’s the money for the energy transition green finance coming from and how much more is needed? What’s the outlook for EVs? What are the energy predictions for solar energy? What's the latest on climate change?Get answers to questions like these, bi-weekly on Tuesdays at 7am ET. Plus, get special live episodes recorded at the biggest climate and energy events throughout the year, like COP30 and Climate Week NYC. Don’t worry if you can’t make it in person, Energy Gang brings you all the updates on energy policy, energy finance and energy innovation you need to hear.Energy Gang is presented by Wood Mackenzie and hosted by Ed Crooks, Vice-Chairman of Energy at Wood Mackenzie and a former Financial Times and BBC News journalist. Regular guests are Amy Myers-Jaffe (Director of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab), and Dr Melissa Lott (Partner at Microsoft) – plus a roster of industry leaders and policy influencers, like Jigar Shah (Industry figurehead and former director of the Loan Programs Office in the US Department of Energy), Caroline Golin (Head of North America, Global Energy Market Development and Policy at Google) and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt (Former Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources).If you like The Energy Transition Show, Catalyst with Shayle Kann, The Big Switch from Columbia University, Open Circuit with Stephen Lacey or The Green Blueprint, you’ll enjoy Energy Gang.Want to get involved with the show? Reach out to podcasts@woodmac.com to:Bring Energy Gang to your eventBe a guest on the showSponsor an episodeAsk a question to Ed Crooks or one of our guestsCheck out another leading clean tech global podcast by Wood Mackenzie, Interchange Recharged: https://www.woodmac.com/podcasts/the-interchange-recharged/Wood Mackenzie is the leading global data and analytics solutions provider for renewables, energy and natural resources. Learn more about Wood Mackenzie on the official website: https://www.woodmac.com/
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 27, 2019 • 58min
Turmoil at an Iconic American Hydropower Giant
The Bonneville Power Administration, the government-owned “power marketing agency” that serves the Pacific Northwest, is facing a strong current of problems. As cheap renewables make hydro less competitive in the region, BPA is now bleeding money. There’s now concern that its utility customers will stop buying hydro after contracts expire.Meanwhile, the cost of rehabilitating salmon populations is mounting. As the power provider grapples with $15 billion in debt, some are calling for a reformation of BPA. How can the government prepare the hulking agency for the competitive clean energy future?We’ll talk to a Jeremy P. Jacobs, a reporter for E&E’s Greenwire, who’s been digging into the story. You can read parts one, part two and part three of his ongoing series.Then, climate strikes swept the globe last Friday, raising unprecedented media coverage. How is this different from previous mobilizations around climate? We’ll put this moment in the context of recent history.Finally, offshore wind is getting dirt cheap in Europe. According to Carbon Brief, recent offshore wind prices are set to compete with existing gas seven years ahead of schedule. We’ll venture out to the leading edge of offshore wind development.Read along with us:E&E News: Jeremy Jacobs’ reporting on Bonneville Power AdministrationNew York Times: Climate Protesters and World Leaders on Same Planet, Different WorldsGTM: UK’s Offshore Wind Auction So Successful It Might Have Made Itself RedundantCarbon Brief: Record-Low Price for UK Offshore Wind Cheaper Than Existing Gas Plants by 2023Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sep 17, 2019 • 54min
Does Climate Change Make Good Political TV?
This week: We’ve gone from drought to flood.People who care about climate change have spent the last three presidential election cycles cajoling, prodding and begging television news outlets to cover the issue. But the more pressure mounted, the more coverage lagged. Across all three debates between Clinton and Trump in 2016, environmental issues got just under 5 and a half minutes of air time. And in all of 2016, the major networks talked about climate for just 50 minutes combined.And then suddenly in September, we got CNN’s town hall, a seven-hour extravaganza that actually allowed candidates some time to tease out the nuances of their plans.Sure, the moderators asked some weird questions about cheeseburgers, plastic straws and electric cars. But for the most part, the conversation was substantive and helpful.In this episode, we’re digging into a few questions: Did the town hall advance the narrative? Did it change the campaign and polling? And which candidate performed the best?We’re joined by Dr. Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California Santa Barbara, who watched and analyzed all seven hours closely.Read Leah’s top twitter threads on the candidates:Elizabeth WarrenBernie SandersJoe BidenAndrew YangKamala HarrisJay InsleeYou can also read her analysis in the Washington Post comparing the candidates. Follow the gang on twitter: Katherine, Jigar, Stephen and The Energy Gang.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sep 13, 2019 • 55min
How America Thwarted a Giant ‘Extension Cord’ for Renewables
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.Then, two top presidential candidates are calling for a ban on fracking and promising to phase out nuclear power. What would be the consequences if a democrat actually put those promises into action?Finally: we’re digging into a piece from Jonathan Franzen in the New Yorker that got a lot of angry criticism. Should we just give up and stop pretending we can do anything about climate change?Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sep 5, 2019 • 1h 7min
Watt It Takes: The Startup Reshaping Mobility Planning With Data
This week on Watt It Takes: How an energy researcher obsessed with electric vehicles stumbled upon a vast trove of transportation data and built a company that is reshaping infrastructure planning for mobility.Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Laura Schewel, the founder and CEO of Streetlight Data. Laura spent her career studying storage, electric vehicles, and transportation systems at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and then as a research fellow at UC Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, she got interested in finding a way to give electric vehicle owners more information about how they were driving their cars. She ended up uncovering a data gold mine in the process. Laura built a company that now processes over 100 billion data points and provides transportation and urban planners with a granular view of how roads, bike lanes and sidewalks are being used.In this episode, Laura Schewel talks about how she ultimately pursued the idea, and what she encountered in the wild world of entrepreneurship.This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, California. Buy tickets for upcoming events.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to GTM podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 30, 2019 • 52min
The Problem With Carbon Offsets
With flight shame growing in popularity, extreme weather intensifying, and the Amazon burning, there’s more demand than ever for carbon offsets to assuage our guilt and make us feel like we’re doing something.But those credits many not be doing what you think they are — or anything at all.This week, we’re discussing the complicated and frustrating world of carbon offsets. There’s a reason why even the United Nations is now calling out their limitations. This conversation is particularly important as California considers joining the Tropical Forest Standard as part of its cap-and-trade program.Then, we’ll talk about new climate plans from Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. What’s in them? And who will become the climate candidate?Finally, we dig into a bill from Ohio that bails out big utilities and guts clean energy. The politics of this thing are ugly — and they are only getting uglier.Read along with us:ProPublica: An Even More Inconvenient TruthBloomberg: Greta Thunberg and ‘Flight Shame’ Are Fueling a Carbon Offset BoomNew York Times: Bernie Sanders' Green New DealVox: Ohio Just Passed the Worst Energy Bill of the 21st CenturySupport for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 23, 2019 • 44min
The New Normal for the Grid: Batteries
In nearly every corner of the country, energy storage projects are finding their way onto the grid — they’re getting bigger, cheaper, more diverse, and even a little bit weirder. Most of all, they’re just becoming normal.This week, we’re talking about the new normal for power operations. It includes a lot of batteries. And maybe some air tanks, water pumps and cranes too.GTM Staff Writer Julian Spector joins us as a guest co-host to round up the most topical projects and tell us where the storage market is headed.Then we’ll look at a novel approach to long-duration storage: a gravity-based system from Energy Vault that just got a major injection of Japanese venture dollars. How skeptical should we be?And finally, we’ll look at all the other alternatives to lithium-ion that are vying for traction in the market. Will pumped hydro see a revival? Can flow batteries finally prove themselves?Read Julian Spector’s reporting here. And sign up for the GTM newsletter here. Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 16, 2019 • 48min
How Electric Cars and Renewables Could Beat Oil
Solar and wind sent European utilities into financial disarray, and U.S. utilities are facing a similar fate. Are global oil companies next?A new report from one of the world’s biggest banks, BNP Paribas, says that solar and wind paired with electric cars provide up to 7 times more useful energy for mobility than gasoline dollar for dollar. And that economic reality could hit oil companies sooner than they think.“The oil industry has never before in its history faced the kind of threat that renewable electricity in tandem with EVs poses to its business model,” concludes the report.This week, we’ll dig into the findings. How does it square with current projections for EV growth and oil demand? Then, a regulatory surprise from the Trump Administration is delaying an 800-megawatt offshore wind project. It could also hurt other projects planned for the East Coast. Is this a careful step, or a cynical political move from a hostile White House?Finally, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is on her way to the U.S. — and she’s come under fire from the conservative media. We’ll look at the strange reaction to her rise and influence.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Aug 2, 2019 • 1h 6min
Watt It Takes: Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers
This week on Watt It Takes: How a former Apple engineer applied design principles from the iPod and the iPad to smart thermostats — jolting an industry badly in need of change.Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Matt Rogers, the co-founder and former chief product officer of Nest.Nest is best known for its elegant learning thermostat, the first major breakout hit in the smart home space. Google later acquired the company for $3.2 billion. In this interview, Rogers talks about his Apple influence, how he and co-founder Tony Fadell initially got obsessed with the connected home, and how Nest fit into the Google structure. Before Nest launched, “the connected home wasn’t really a thing. It was a bunch of hackers stringing things together, there were no products to speak of, really,” says Rogers. “And I was like ‘this is a huge opportunity, we can go and make great products like we did at Apple.’”This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, California. Buy tickets for upcoming events.Support for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1,500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 14, 2019 • 48min
Why Is Trump Suddenly Talking About the Environment?
Note: after this episode, we will be on hiatus for a few weeks while Stephen Lacey goes on paternity leave. We’ll be back soon!On July 8, Donald Trump stood in the East Room of the White House and delivered a speech on his “environmental leadership.” What could he possibly talk about?Onlookers called the speech “Orwellian.” The Trump Administration has tried to pull America out of a global climate agreement, sent officials to try to sell coal at the latest UN climate summit, forced climate scientists out of the government, and rolled back 83 environmental rules.So why is Trump talking about the environment now? What does it tell us about how voters feel about the issue going into the election? We’ll look at the possible political reasons for the timing of the speech.Then, we’ll look at New York’s big climate law. How does the state plan to cut emissions 85 percent by 2050? And how will ambitious policy in California and New York influence other states?Finally, we tackle the seasonal debate over air conditioning. As the world gets hotter, AC use is exploding around the world. How do we cool the world without baking the climate?Recommended reading:New York Times: Trump Saw Opportunity in Speech on Environment. Critics Saw a ‘“1984” Moment.’Vox: New York Just Passed the Most Ambitious Climate Target in the CountryNew York Times: Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?Bloomberg: Air Conditioning Is the World's Next Big ThreatSupport for this podcast is brought to you by Sungrow. With the world’s most powerful 250-kilowatt, 1500-volt string inverter, Sungrow is providing disruptive technology for utility-scale projects.Subscribe to The Energy Gang podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you find your audio content.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jul 9, 2019 • 21min
Greening the Cannabis Industry [Special Content From CohnReznick]
This week, we present a special episode produced on behalf of CohnReznick.There’s a bonanza sweeping across North America: cannabis.As more states legalize marijuana, the industry is attracting high-profile investors and bringing in $6.5 billion in yearly sales. But it also faces two major challenges: limited access to banking and high energy costs.Because cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, traditional banks are unwilling to do business with the thousands of companies serving the market. At the same time, the industry now eats up $6 billion in electricity costs. Growers are paying tens of thousands of dollars per month to power cultivation sites, and some utilities are worried about strain on the grid in certain locations.Trying to slash that electricity use is very hard for cash-only companies that can’t get access to traditional financing.“The capital you would most typically have to deploy if you wanted to site solar at a cultivation facility will end up being very expensive because you don’t have access to traditional bank financing,” explains Mark Hooley, a managing partner at CohnReznick.In this episode, we talk with Mark about the intersection of cannabis and renewable energy. What will it take to green up America’s newest cash crop?Learn more about CohnReznick’s cannabis practice. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
