Spark Club Podcast Grant McDowell

Hi and welcome to the Spark Club podcast.
In this podcast, How PERC changed the World, we'll hear from Professor Martin Green from UNSW and how he and his team invented the PERC solar cell. PERC's global success has unlocked the lowest cost of energy in history. We’ll hear the back story from Martin and then hear what the future holds for SPREE at UNSW from Professor Renate Egan. A truly amazing story, from the humble team that developed the humble solar cell, that indeed changed the world. 

Also, at the start we’ll hear from voices across our community sharing their thanks and appreciation for PERC and the impact it had on their careers and the global energy transition.

Enjoy the podcast. 

In 2023 Australia and the United States have taken strong action on climate to accelerate the transition to a global clean energy economy.

In May, President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese jointly declared that climate and clean energy are the third pillar of the U.S.-Australia alliance. The Australia-United States Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact commits our countries to expanding and diversifying clean energy and critical minerals supply chains, to drive innovation and accelerate the establishment of a global clean energy economy.

In this panel we discuss the impact of the step change in the US and Australia commitment to collaborate this year and what the expected flow on consequences and opportunities which will flow from the Compact and the enormous public investment flowing into climate technology and deployment. 

It’s an exciting time in cleantech as global macro trends, decarbonisation ambitions and public investment transform the energy sector. Which is why it was a great opportunity to host David Roberts from the Volts Podcast and Saul Griffith from Rewiring America and Rewiring Australia in front of a live Spark Club audience at Fishburners in Sydney in August 2023.

In this robust conversation, David and Saul discuss the politics and policy of clean energy the US and Australia and the scale of the public capital needed to unlock the tsunami of opportunity coming. Enjoy the podcast.

Infravision co-founder and CEO Cameron Van Der Berg believes technology will play a vital role in revolutionising high voltage grid transmission lines. Infravision set out to drag a traditional slow moving trillion dollar transmission industry into the future, by using drones to string. Cameron and his team are innovating by partnering with progressive grids, moving the industry forward, faster, cheaper and safer applying the 10X rule to a slow changing industry.
Danny knows the Infravision business well, starting at EnergyLab in Sydney and supporting their entry into the US. You’ll hear a deeper perspective on the Infravision journey through Danny’s observation as they share lessons on the challenges of setting up operations in the US to meet growing demand and how hard tech is achievable in the high stakes high voltage transmission industry.
Danny will also share an update on our industry more broadly. This year is looking increasingly like a breakthrough year in Climate Tech.

In this Spark Club podcast we’ll hear how United States is turning on. I recorded interviews in the last week October at the Verge22, the largest climate tech conference in North America held in San Jose California. Climate tech bucking the investment trend and the Binden Administration unlocking an enormous amount of government funding.

We’ll hear an opening address from Secretary Granholm and then have perspectives from Danny Kennedy from NewEnergyNexus, followed by Mick Liubinskas from Climate Salad.

As you’ll hear, it’s an exiting time to be in the clean tech sector.

In this Spark Club podcast, recorded live at EnergyLab in June 2022, we shine a light on the Lithium Battery sector. Australian raw materials are playing a key role in this vital industry in the energy transition, but can we do more? We have an amazing panel, Danny Kennedy from New Energy Nexus, Katja Digweed from the CSIRO, Mark Chilcote CEO at Energy Renaissance and Christiaan Jordaan from Sicona and Novolith join us for this fascinating conversation on the Lithium Battery ecosystem Australia, and the potential to harness so much more in the six stages of lithium battery production.