Bi-weekly discussions on the latest trends in energy, cleantech, renewables, and the environment from Wood Mackenzie. Hosted by Ed Crooks.
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A narrative news show about the trends shifting our carbon-based economy. Each week, host Stephen Lacey digs into the business and technology stories that explain the rise of clean energy, the challenge to fossil fuels, and how the energy system is transforming in dramatic ways. Produced by Latitude Media.
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Stephen Lacey and Andrew Leyland are your guide to Marvel's First Family, The Fantastic Four. Starting at the very beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics, they cover every issue of The Fantastic Four, every spinoff title (Strange Tales, Marvel Two-In-One, FF, and more), every guest appearance and every cameo, all in order of publication.
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Christi Lukasiak was one of the original Dance Moms, the fierce and funny mom who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Now, a few years older and wiser, Christi Lukasiak is still fierce and funny. In hthis podcast, she explorez the dark sode of things with her gay soulmate, Stephen Maynard. They both revel in the dark, weird and things that are just beyond the norm.... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Reducetarian Podcast is dedicated to no-nonsense advice on how to accomplish a concrete goal that advances our shared mission for a more sustainable, healthy, and compassionate world.
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"Do you know somebody by the name of Benjamin Franklin? Doesn't ring any bells." While it might be time for someone to go back to school to learn some American history, today's history lesson isn't something they taught you back in the day. On today's episode of Beyond the Norm we truly go outside of the norm and look at one of America's founding f…
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How to stop America’s outdated grid holding back the deployment of clean energy
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There’s no transition without transmission, they say. It’s a cliché because it’s true. The US Department of Energy says that the nation will need to expand transmission capacity by 60% by 2030 to meet growing clean energy demand. A recent study found that delays in transmission development are adding $2.5 billion annually in additional costs to con…
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"They found like a gelatinous mass in the septic tank because all the body parts had fused into a clump. You're not allowed to say the words "gelatinous mass" again!" Christi is very upset with Stephen because when he's not intentionally messing up words to keep his husband on his toes he's either struggling to say the right words at all or he won'…
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Frontier Forum: How rates will make or break the energy transition
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Dynamic pricing is everywhere – and impacts all of us. Whether it's the time of day, your location, or the amount of demand, so many of our decisions are driven by real-time pricing changes. But it's still a relatively new concept in electricity. This week, we're featuring a conversation with Scott Engstrom of GridX and Economist Ahmad Faruqui on t…
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The rise of AI means surging investment in electricity supply. What will that mean for customers?
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The need to meet increased demand while cutting emissions is exposing some fundamental issues in the industry. It’s common knowledge that data centers use a lot of energy, and will use even more in the future as AI applications develop. One thing is not clear, though: who will end up paying for all that extra electricity? US utilities typically use…
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"We've all seen Poltergeist. Rule number one: leave Indian burial grounds alone!" While a good rule of thumb for all of our ghoulish listeners, unfortunately Poltergeist didn't exist in the 1800's or today's subject might have second guessed his decisions. In part due to Stephen's love of the Haunted Mansion ride, as a kid he and his friends became…
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The next stage of the IRA: permitting reform
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The (shrewdly named) Inflation Reduction Act has been called the most significant climate legislation ever passed in the US. When it did pass, in 2022, the critical vote was cast by senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. Now in office as an independent, he and Republican senator John Barrasso from Wyoming came together to put forward a bill which …
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Can America build new energy projects faster? Should it?
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Proposed permitting reforms could accelerate both renewable energy projects and new fossil fuel infrastructure. Is that a good deal for the climate? The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is seen as the most significant climate legislation ever passed in the US, because of the array of new, expanded and extended tax credits it offers for low-carbon ener…
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"Someone is going to jump off a building if Christi walks by," jokes Stephen, but as Christi is quick to point out in some cases that isn't too far from the truth! But could you imagine one of those incidents occurring at the "Happiest Place on Earth"? It's true, and it's just one of many creepy Disneyland occurrences we'll be covering on this week…
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The extraordinary resurgence of concentrated solar power
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Complex, outdated, expensive: concentrating solar power used to be a clunky way of harnessing the sun. What’s changed to now make it viable? Concentrating Solar Power, or CSP, takes energy from the sun, converts it to heat, and uses it to drive a turbine to provide renewable electricity. It has more moving parts than photovoltaic (PV) solar – which…
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How global trade can help build the clean energy economy
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As the world struggles to co-operate on the energy transition, international trade rules can be a foundation for the new low-carbon economy. Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Amy Myers-Jaffe, Director of New York University’s Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, and new guest on The Energy Gang: Dan Esty, who is the Hillhouse Profess…
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Our final episode: The top stories of 2024 so far
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Some news: this will be our final installment of The Carbon Copy. But don’t go anywhere! Later this fall, the feed will be transformed into a new show that will profile the people architecting the clean energy economy. We promise it will be a valuable part of your media diet. For our last episode, we brought back some old friends: Jigar Shah, direc…
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"Pikachu?! It's Tinky-Winky! And actually Tinky-Winky was the purple one and Po was the yellow one. You are all over the place!" argues Stephen as Christi discovers if there's one line she shouldn't cross t's Stephen's nerdiness (it's ok Christi, Po was actually the red one!). An in depth-analysis of Tinky-Winky's purse might not be the spookiest t…
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Are low profits to blame for the energy transition lagging?
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Author of ‘The Price Is Wrong’, Brett Christophers, joins the show to discuss the theories in his book. On a recent episode of the show, host Ed Crooks was joined by Melissa Lott and Joseph Majkut to discuss two books that were generating a lot of interest in energy circles. One of those, The Price Is Wrong, argues that inadequate profitability is …
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"I think people want to belong to something," Christi postulates as she picks up the pieces from last week's episode on cults to try and get to the heart of what makes groupthink tick. To better understand this phenomenon Christi has brought a true story for this week's episode that's sure to raise a few hairs every time you have to remind yourself…
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How can we finance the energy transition? Discussions from the final day of the Reuters Global Energy Transition Conference 2024
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In this third special episode of the Energy Gang from the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York, we focus on the crucial theme of financing the energy transition. We discuss how various stakeholders are addressing the financial challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Our first guest is Utopia …
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Day Two: The Energy Gang at The Reuters Global Energy Transition Conference 2024
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In this second special episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, recorded at the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York, we speak with leaders at some of the key companies shaping the energy transition. We hear about how they are tackling the challenge of meeting rising demand for electricity while at the same time reducing…
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The Energy Gang at the Reuters Global Energy Transition Conference - Day One
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This is a special episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, recorded at the Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 conference in New York. It has a great lineup of speakers from the worlds of business, finance, and government, giving us an opportunity to talk to some of the key people who are driving the energy transition. One of the panellists o…
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Avoiding mistakes from the first smart meters
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When millions of smart meters rolled out across the country at the turn of the last decade, many people hoped it would create the backbone of a digital grid. Today, you’ll find few who think meters lived up to expectations. One survey found only 3% of advanced meters supported by the 2009 stimulus bill brought customer savings. Mike Phillips, the C…
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"At one point if I was in that compound I'd be like, 'Look I get it. I'm your spiritual wife... but I gotta go.'" Stephen jokes, but it gets to the heart of the matter on what makes his chosen topic for this week episode, Cults, so fascinating. Why do people join and stay in cults? How do you convince 900+ people to take their lives for a stupid ca…
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"Florida, we need to have a talk." jokes Stephen as this week's story takes us to Key West where nothing ever wild happens! Just kidding, because even if nothing else weird ever happened in Key West this story would be enough to forever mark the city. It's certainly got both Christi and Stephen shaking in their boots as there's a level of macabre i…
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Why ditching aluminum is key to securing the US solar supply chain
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Solar is the fastest growing electricity-generating technology in history. That rapid scaling was a result of squeezing cost reductions out of every step of production. But there's one critical piece that hasn't changed much: frames. Aluminum frames now make up one-quarter of the cost of a PV module. And that metal mostly comes from China, a countr…
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"She literally shoved someone's head into the mirror and it cracked and fell off the wall; then the bar had to replace it. You took me willingly to this bar? Oh yeah it's great!" If there's one thing Christi and Stephen can't seem to avoid it's haunted bars and houses around New Orleans. It wasn't enough that there were vampires, but now there's gh…
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Two books that are essential reading for energy wonks give contrasting views on how to tackle climate change. The hot book in the energy world right now is Brett Christophers’ The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet. It’s a detailed look at the structural issues in electricity markets and the challenges of generating returns on ren…
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AI-fueled geothermal and ‘the edge of the possible’
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A lot of climate tech investors are still trying to figure out how to invest in artificial intelligence. Will it become a unique investment category? Or just a natural enhancement of what many startups are already building? There’s an emerging class of startups with AI at the center of their business. Citrine Informatics is using generative AI to s…
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"When I did Christi's Couch, the most popular stories were always when I covered dark stuff," says Christi Lukasiak, though as a listener of Christi's Couch that may not come as too much of a surprise. You may know Christi as a Dance Moms OG, but she's also VERY into the dark and creepy side of things. What better way to explore those topics than w…
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A macro view on the state of climate tech
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We need to invest many trillions of dollars every year to build a climate-positive economy. We know what those technologies are – but they're all at very different levels of readiness. So what would it take to scale critical climate technologies? That was the simple-but-complicated question recently posed by a group of energy, industry, and high-te…
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There’s no transition without transmission. How can we make it easier to build?
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Regulators are trying to clear the path to the grid that clean energy needs. To go from an electricity system based on coal and gas to one based on solar and wind, the US needs a very different power grid. On some estimates, annual installations of new transmission capacity need to double. To help build the grid that a new clean electricity system …
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Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
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Data centers are an impressive energy success story. Over the last 25 years, internet traffic has climbed more than 500x while data center electricity use has remained flat. The servers and energy infrastructure have gotten wildly more efficient, and the biggest tech companies have focused on powering those warehouse-scale computers with renewables…
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Google’s demanding goals for decarbonization
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AI is driving up demand for electricity. How can we meet that demand with clean energy? It has been a big theme on the Energy Gang this year: the massive additional demand for energy that could be created by data centers for artificial intelligence. It’s an emerging issue that threatens to cause new challenges for the world’s attempts to achieve ne…
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The origin of Tesla was rooted in two goals: electrify transportation to drive down emissions that are warming the planet; and do it by driving down the cost of EVs to make them accessible to the masses. Is Musk now walking away from both? “He's decided I'm not a car company. I’m an AI and robotics company. It's astonishing what's happening with Te…
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The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has a grandstand view of the energy transition. Where is it going next? Jigar Shah, one of the originators of the Energy Gang, now runs the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, playing a key role in advancing clean energy projects. By helping to bridge the gap between R&D and large-scale deplo…
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This week, we have something a little different: a news quiz. We recently took the stage with four investors at the Prelude Climate Summit — armed with a bell, a buzzer, and four different categories of questions. We tested two teams of venture investors on their knowledge of the most recent industry news. Shayle Kann and Cassie Bowe, partners at v…
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Fossil fuels still dominate the world’s energy supplies. Do we need different terminology to talk about what’s happening? We talk about “the energy transition” all the time. But is that language misleading? 20 years ago fossil fuels were 85% of the world’s energy, today they’re just a few percentage points less. If there is a transition to low-carb…
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Political Climate: Is the IRA under political threat?
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This week, we have a drop-in episode from our new podcast at Latitude Media: Political Climate. Since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in August 2022, we’ve asked ourselves a big question: could the government and the private sector actually get this sprawling set of climate programs up and running? So far, many would answer “yes.” The IRA ha…
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Rising electricity demand in Texas: the canary in the coalmine for the rest of the US? | Bonus Episode
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Conversations from the Gulf Coast Power Association conference. This bonus episode of the Energy Gang was recorded live during the spring meeting of the Gulf Coast Power Association in Houston, Texas. Host Ed Crooks is joined by Beth Garza, President of the Gulf Coast Power Association, Frank O'Sullivan, Managing Director for Clean Energy at S2G Ve…
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An influx of EVs. Surging peaks. Can AI help?
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AI is suddenly in use everywhere – and it’s headed for the power sector. New research from Latitude Intelligence and Indigo Advisory Group shows a coming wave of AI integration, inside and outside of utilities. Distributed energy companies are increasingly integrating AI into their products, and many power companies are building teams to take advan…
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2024 is a year of elections. What will they mean for clean energy?
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As half the world heads to the polls, how important will the results be for efforts to cut emissions? Over half the world lives in a country that will be holding an election this year. The votes come at a time when resistance to the energy transition is building in many parts of the world, as concerns around energy security grow and some of the cha…
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John O’Donnell co-founded and ran two solar thermal companies. He watched as the technology shifted from being the most promising utility-scale solar technology, to getting out-competed by photovoltaics everywhere. But he stayed passionate about heat. Today, he’s CEO of Rondo Energy, which makes a “heat battery” for industrial applications using br…
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Episode 368: Marvel Two-in-One #77 - Only The Swamp Survives
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Cancelled Comic Cavalcade Hello, and welcome to episode 367 of The Fantasticast. Each episode, Steve Lacey guides you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four. After an extended break, Steve is back to continue his journey through the latter issues of Marvel Two-in-One. What happens if a team-up books doesn't involve a …
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Everyone is worrying about rising demand for electricity. Do Microsoft and Google have an answer?
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Big power users are getting together to accelerate the development of advanced clean energy technologies. The hottest topic in energy right now is the expected surge in demand for electricity. Data centers for AI, new factories, and electric vehicles are driving power consumption higher in the US, after about 15 years of stagnation. Solar and wind …
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Mark Gurman has been covering Apple since 2009. His reporting career is full of scoops about new products or strategic decisions from inside the company. His latest scoop in February: Apple is finally shutting down its efforts to build an autonomous electric car. Apple first started exploring an electric car in 2014. At that point, cars had already…
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The Latitude: Could government rules hinder green hydrogen?
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The US green hydrogen industry is at a critical juncture. After months of input and debate, the government put out draft rules for tax credits at the end of last year – setting strict requirements for matching new, local renewables to hydrogen production. It was hailed by many as a really important step for ensuring that green hydrogen actually liv…
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How will utilities meet surging power demand?
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AI isn’t just threatening to take our jobs, it’s also draining our electricity. Data centres centers used to have power demand measured in the tens of megawatts. Now they are in the hundreds of megawatts, and the new ones that are being proposed have demand in the thousands of megawatts: gigawatts. At the Distributech conference in Feburary, Harry …
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The achilles heel of AI in the power system: data
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There are many forces that could hold back AI in the power system: computing infrastructure, power availability, regulation, and corporate inertia. The biggest one? Good data. Utilities and grid operators are awash in data. But getting access to it – or making sense of it – is very difficult. For a better understanding of how to change that, we tur…
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The urgent need to simplify clean energy finance [partner content]
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Early in her career, Amanda Li worked on many deals in solar and storage as part of a billion-dollar sustainable infrastructure fund. And she discovered a problem that often hinders deployment: the underwriting process is cumbersome and slow. “All of it was in spreadsheets, word documents, emails. When you look at a solar deal, there's a lot of doc…
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This bonus episode of Wood Mackenzie’s The Energy Gang is our third from the Distributech conference in Orlando. Distributech is the leading event for the electricity transmission and distribution industry in North America. It gave our host Ed Crooks a fantastic opportunity to talk to many of the leading figures from the industry, including those w…
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New demand is straining the grid. Here’s how to tackle it.
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When Brian Janous took charge of Microsoft’s clean energy strategy in 2011, the company’s data center demand was modest. He was measuring new demand in the tens of megawatts. Over the years, that grew to hundreds of megawatts of new demand as hyperscale computing expanded. And then everything changed in the spring of 2023, with the public launch of…
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The right way to recycle batteries [partner content]
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In the early 2000s, Steve Cotton ran a company serving the fast-growing data center industry with backup battery systems. And when those systems reached the end of their lives, the company monetized kilotons of lead-acid batteries by sending them to recycling facilities – industrial plants that break down and burn the components. “It's very dangero…
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