Redefining Energy Laurent Segalen and Gerard Reid

This week, it is a solo by Gerard Reid.

This is the audio of its remarkable presentation at EcoSummit Berlin in June 2024. The topic is “Batteries vs Hydrogen”

Link to the YouTube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAbr4byi414

Texas and California have witnessed a crazy growth in Solar and Batteries in recent years. In 2024 California has 24GW of Solar and 9GW of batteries on its grid; Texas has grown even faster with 31GW of Solar and 10GW of batteries.

When it comes to the Energy Transition, you can make the following analogy: public policies are the land and financial markets are the rain. But the seeds are battle-hardened entrepreneurs. Laurent and Gerard love to invite such heroes of the development of Renewables. They don’t build pipelines of projects. They built projects. 

One of those American Heroes is Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect Power. In the past 8 years, Intersect has delivered 4GW of Solar and 2.5GWh of batteries. By focusing on a few huge projects, by developing a unique expertise in both Texas and California. Along the way, the Company has closed $5B in project financings and raised nearly $1B in corporate equity (TPG, CAI, Trilantic) to support the buildout of the Base Portfolio and additional growth projects. But Sheldon’s success is also linked to the development of a secure and efficient supply chain.

The conversation is so rich that we didn’t have time to delve into his plan to develop e-fuels for Taylor Swift private jet.  
And, as Daniel said: “Stumpf ist Trumpf”.  

We thank DLA Piper for supporting the show

After a crazy Intersolar in Munich which welcomed more than 120,000 visitors, the pace of Solar deployment in Europe is going exponentially.

Gerard and Laurent bring in Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of Solar Power Europe, to discuss the development of Solar, and through the new report “Mission Solar 2040”, how we are on the cusp of a Flexibility Revolution.

The Report is available here: https://www.solarpowereurope.org/insights/thematic-reports/mission-solar-2040-1  

Glencore’s CEO Gary Nagle has once described ESG as “some person in the basement in office number 27 engaged in a box-ticking exercise.” And a lot of fossil fuel companies – while being less explicit – share the same opinion on ESG… and have voiced their hostility indirectly through complicit media outlets.
The ESG movement is facing a significant backlash. On the one hand there has been too much greenwashing, on the other hand, ESG has become a political punching ball in certain US States dependent on the fossil fuel industry. Some European Oil companies want to list in NY to get a better valuation and are complaining about too much sustainability scrutiny. And Larry Fink, Blackrock CEO, went in the last four years from hero to zero of the ESG wave.
Going back a few years a lot of the ESG popularity was linked to an overweighting of Tech and Luxury stocks which performed wonderfully, a trend partially reversed by the war in Ukraine and the rise of interest rates. In 2024, we have seen outflows in ESG labelled funds from a peak three years ago. Still, they represent, according to the FT, a 7tnUSD pot of money, so it is a big industry.

We’re not experts… but a system that rates ExxonMobil higher than Tesla on ESG raises eyebrows.

To add insult to injury, there is a multiplication of standards and regulations (CSRD, SFDR) which make the whole ESG universe very confusing. There are byzantine debates about passive vs active management. There are endless conversations about the adequacy of “engagement” and if shareholders should behave as activists. And finally, there is a clear transatlantic drift when it comes to that issue.

We are totally lost! 

To try to understand better if ESG is dead, or if it will have to reinvent itself, we bring in Jean Jacques Barberis Deputy CEO and Head of Institutional and Corporate Clients Division & ESG at Amundi. Amundi is EU’s largest EU Asset Manager and a leader in Green investing. Jean-Jacques Barbéris is currently responsible for the global development of the institutional business at Amundi. With Jean Jacques, Laurent and Gerard take no prisoners and call a spade a spade… and then realise that Paris-aligned targets are for real, that “engagement” with companies deliver results, and that a proper investment strategy starts to yield results.

We thank DLA Piper for supporting the show.

We bring in Nick Wayth, CEO of Energy Institute (EI), for the release of the 73rd Edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy. The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy™ analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year.
Previously produced by bp, the Review has been providing timely, comprehensive and objective data to the energy community since 1952. The Strategic Review is now a collaboration between the EI, KPMG, Kearney and Heriot University. Five key stories emerge from the 2023 data:
Record global energy consumption, with coal and oil pushing fossil fuels and their emissions to record levelsSolar and wind push global renewable electricity generation to another record levelOngoing Ukraine conflict cements gas rebalancing in Europe  Dependence on fossil fuels in major advanced economies is likely to have peakedGrowth economies struggle to curb fossil fuel growth, but renewables accelerate in China   Although we disagree on the message and question the concept of Primary Energy (super misleading), we salute the consistency and comprehensiveness of that Report. Keep them coming.

https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review

UK is at the nexus of the subsea interconnector’s new economy. Great Britain is connected to Continental Europe by 8 interconnectors representing up to 15% of its power consumption.

Subsea cables are now a growing industry because of the benefits they bring to the grids, such as resiliency, capacity, lower prices, and renewable energy balancing. Alongside batteries and pumped Hydro, interconnectors are the best flexible green infrastructure currently available on our road to net-zero.

How has the technology evolved over the recent years? What are the economics in terms of CAPEX and OPEX? What are the revenue models? Is there a role for infrastructure investor? What are the technological challenges? How are the permitting and regulatory frameworks? How far and how deep will we go in the development of interconnectors, as we start hearing about transcontinental projects. 

To answer all those questions, we have invited Rebecca Sedler, aka “The Mother of Interconnectors” (reference to Games of Throne). After a long career at E.ON and EDF, Rebecca is Managing Director of the Interconnectors business for UK National Grid. We will start by the Viking Link, her more recent achievement, linking GB to Denmark with a 750km cable and only 3.7% loss. Finally, we will talk about the bright future of subsea interconnectors.

“We are going to America”  www.nato-l.org 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/climate/green-energy-wars-undersea-cables-intl?cid=ios_app


We thank Amundi for supporting our show. EU Largest Asset Manager and leader in Green investing.