The Building Podcast with Mark Wakeford

Mark Wakeford
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Mark Wakeford is a Director of the National Federation of Builders, Strategy Director of the Global Solar Council and Chair of the West Midlands Solar Taskforce.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide 'CPD on the go'.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry! https://www.linked.com/in/markwakeford/ 

  1. Sep 22

    Residential Electricity Supply – Matching variable supply with demand

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome One of the biggest challenges of renewable energy generation is that it is intermittent, even when averaged out over a country.  This makes matching demand with supply, or vice-a-versa difficult.  Add to this the challenges of a warming climate that increase variability in wind and sun levels, then there is an opportunity for clever businesses to find a solution. Nigel Banks is the Technical Director for Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest residential energy provider and one that wins awards for its innovations and customer care.  Through its adoption of technology, its investment in making itself vertically integrated and its consistent priority on the customer experience, it has found solutions that suit its customers and provide lower energy bills. Listen to Nigel’s podcast to understand the environment that has unlocked these innovative solutions for the public to buy energy.  Listen to hear the importance of Octopus solving the challenges experienced by their customers, rather than relying on their customers to minutely manage their own energy bills.  Listen to hear the objectives of Octopus and the need to drive down costs to homeowners. Listen to hear how Octopus work with stakeholders in housing to provide optimum tariffs in an explainable and logical way and how the lessons that can be learnt around the world to unlock the variable demands side needed by renewable generation. Nigel Banks | LinkedIn Join the UK's most popular energy supplier | Octopus Energy

    Residential Electricity Supply – Matching variable supply with demand

  2. Sep 16

    Developer led local skills training – Opening the door to long term facility quality and thriving communities

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Nishant Kumar is the Vice-President and Head of Asset Management, Sustainability and Quality for Indian Independent Power Producer Ayana Renewable Power.  He is responsible for the performance of their generating assets, which supply businesses throughout India.  Nishant talks about his approach to maximising returns, which starts before a blow is struck on site.  Ayana arranges to train the community on how to install the solar array, ensuring that those who want to learn a profession are given an opportunity.  Nishant talks to the benefits that provides the community in terms of long term careers in solar, reduction is emigration to the cities and enabling local businesses to thrive. Listen to this podcast to hear why a developer funds local training and how it creates value in ESG, project acceptance and long-term performance.  Listen to hear of the opportunity within the Indian market and where the limited barriers to growth exist. Nishant Kumar, | LinkedIn Ayana Power Global Solar Council | GSC Home

    Developer led local skills training – Opening the door to long term facility quality and thriving communities

  3. Sep 14

    Solar the cheapest, greenest and most resilient energy source for today and all our futures – The role of the Global Solar Council

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Andrew Birch, known to all as Birchy, has been promoting solar all his professional career.  He is now the Treasurer of the Global Solar Council (GSC), the trade body that represents all stakeholders involved in solar and storage, from all around the world, bringing his passion and expertise to promote the cheapest and most resilient energy available to mankind.  Listen to this podcast to find out about the role of the Global Solar Council, the arguments on why solar energy will win in the race to power human activity and the opportunities available to those who work within this growing sector. Listen to this podcast to hear why the focus of the world’s solar energy professionals needs to be on explaining the value of solar, the physics that mean that its costs will always be lower than that of fossil fuels and the benefits of a decentralised grid.  The podcast also explains why fossil fuels continue to receive subsidies whilst they continue to pollute the atmosphere and increase global warming. Birchy also explains why he set up Open Solar, a platform to allow solar contractors easy access to expertise, designs and products, free of charge.  Listen to hear the benefits to the industry and the work that Birchy and his team are doing to develop the services and capability of the sector. Andrew Birch | LinkedIn Global Solar Council | About GSC OpenSolar | Accelerating Solar Adoption with Free Software

    Solar the cheapest, greenest and most resilient energy source for today and all our futures – The role of the Global Solar Council

  4. Sep 8

    Setting the Standard for Solar Training Globally - Transferable qualifications in the world's fastest growing energy sector

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The solar sector is comparatively young, with few institutions or standardisations.  Yet it is the world's fastest growing energy generator and will be vying for the top spot within the decade.  In order to take this prize, the sector must ensure that its installations are to the highest quality, delivered safely and that they provide a robust source of energy.  A major element of this is the workforce that design, deliver and maintain these assets and the Global Solar Council is working with The Global Wind Organisation to develop and deliver a training programme around the world to service this growing demand. Thomas Redmond is the Training Project Manager at the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) who is responsible for developing these international standards and for rolling them out to training providers around the world.   The GWO has the infrastructure to work with its members and representatives from the Global Solar Council (GSC) to be able to arrive at competent qualifications quickly and effectively.  They also have a network of providers who understand the governance of quality and course development that the GWO insists upon who are ready to pick up the solar qualifications. Listen to this podcast to find out how the GWO creates and delivers competent courses that support a growing industry. Hear how these qualifications can enable a successful career in renewable energy delivery and why these skills are transferable around the globe.  Listen to find out why these qualifications are so relevant to the work of solar professionals and why they are backed by the members of the Global Solar Council to deliver quality installations all around the world. Thomas Redmond | LinkedIn Global Solar Council | Skills GWO Solar Training Committee

    Setting the Standard for Solar Training Globally - Transferable qualifications in the world's fastest growing energy sector

  5. Aug 24

    Net Zero – Mandatory Change and Massive Opportunities for the Early adopters in Construction

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome The seventh Carbon budget has just been accepted by the UK Government.  This tracks progress towards our net zero ambition by 2050 and is now a mandatory target.  Government will publish its plans to achieve this.  Construction and Energy sectors will have a huge role to play in delivering these intermediary targets, particularly as these sectors influence a massive 43% of UK emissions, compared to representing 8% of the UK’s GDP. Hannah Vickers is the Co-Chair of Construct Zero, the initiative set up by the UK’s Construction Leadership Council.  The initiative aims to lead the industry towards its net zero responsibilities, showcasing best in class and benchmarking companies and their projects on net-zero criteria.  There is much to do, and Hannah is focused on the biggest wins that the industry can deliver in terms of carbon savings. Listen to this podcast to find out what is driving change in construction and how the sector will need to modify its priorities.  Listen to find out how the industry will need to adapt to respond to the statutory carbon targets and how the industry can work through the Construction Leadership Council to ensure that these changes can be delivered. Hannah Vickers | LinkedIn CO2nstructZero – Construction Leadership Council Built Confidence | Success starts here

  6. Aug 20

    Community Energy – A powerful tool to bring communities together through renewables and energy savings

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Community Energy Schemes have been around for over a decade, providing access to energy investments to local communities.  They continue to gain in popularity and the movement continues to gain momentum as more and more organisations look to unlock the power of community engagement.  Sarah Burgess a freelance expert and director of Grand Union Community Energy Ltd talks about the structure, the skills and the mechanism for getting a community scheme off the ground and onto site. Listen to hear how a community energy scheme works, the importance of community engagement and local support, both from local government and other local organisations.  Listen to hear how anyone with the passion and people skills can get a scheme off the ground, if they have an idea and suitable roof.  Listen to hear how these community organisations are structured, the importance of shared values and a sense of humour to get you through the low spots. Listen to hear about the opportunities for community energy companies to “Power Up” with investment opportunities and to “Power Down” to provide bespoke advice to help people with their energy bills and energy saving measures. Sarah Burgess | LinkedIn GUCE – Invest in the power of your community Community Energy England - The voice of the community energy sector

    Community Energy – A powerful tool to bring communities together through renewables and energy savings

  7. Aug 18

    Low Carbon Economies and Land Use – Energy, Health and Survival all have the same answer

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Prof. Paul Behrens is the face chosen by The National Emergency Briefing to talk about food, land use and climate change.  There can be no one more suited to the job.  Paul is a British Academy Global Professor and works in the Oxford Martin School on sustainability, focusing on climate change, food and energy.   Paul’s messages are clear:  Change your diet, change your diet and change your diet.  You will enjoy better health, you will put less stress on the planet and the impacts of climate change will be less. This simple message belies the amount of research that has gone into this subject.  Listen to this podcast to hear that we will be forced of eating less meat as climate change increases the cost of food.  Given the dietary economics of meat, inflation in meat prices will outstrip that of plant based diets, but the health effects will be significant.  Paul’s message – We can either be in the front foot to bring in these changes and maximise the benefits of change, or we can be forced into the position, with much greater risk to our food supplies and our farming communities. Interestingly, Paul believes that the arguments of land use for renewables are by contrast a side-show.  Yes, they are important to the communities that adopt these technologies, but when the needed change in diet is likely to release a land mass the size of Scotland, then the one percent needed for solar farms is almost insignificant. Listen to Paul’s summary of his research that speed is what must be our focus.  Rapid change will cost us less and bring the benefits to the general population quicker.  It will give farming communities more time to adjust their practices and the systems that support farming to change.  Both farming and energy have a lot to change and time is not on our side! Paul Behrens | LinkedIn National Emergency Briefing Professor Paul Behrens | Oxford University The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science by Paul Behrens | Goodreads

    Low Carbon Economies and Land Use – Energy, Health and Survival all have the same answer

  8. Aug 12

    Banking on Solar: What makes a project investable?

    Send a Text - Feedback Welcome Finance is required for all projects, whether this is provided by the project sponsors or externally through one of many funding institutions.  Thankfully, money is the ultimate universal commodity, however, banks, development banks and other investors all have their own investment parameters and appetite to determine if, how and when a project is bankable and will receive funds. Nik Stone is a Chartered Environmentalist and a member of the Institute of Sustainability & Environmental Professionals.  He is also an advisor to international development banks and has held positions in many of the top funding institutions.  This perspective gives him a great insight into the way that banks work and the ways that developers and project sponsors and their supply chains need to work to de-risk their projects and make them attractive to financiers. Listen to this podcast to hear how funders can influence the risks of the projects that they fund.  Hear about the Equator Principals that guide funding institutions on their behaviour and the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards that describe minimum standards of ethics and governance on projects.  Nik talks about how these standards have evolved over time to promote better standards and to reduce investment risk.  Hear about the role of development banks, working with Governments, to make the investment environment within a country bankable and possible for the private sector to operate efficiently. Listen for the positive view that funders can support the 8TW target generation that the Global Solar Council is targeting by 2030 and find out the things that developers and sponsors need to do to make their projects bankable. Nik Stone MISEP CEnv | LinkedIn Home Page - Equator Principles Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability | International Finance Corporation (IFC)

    Banking on Solar: What makes a project investable?
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About

Mark Wakeford is a Director of the National Federation of Builders, Strategy Director of the Global Solar Council and Chair of the West Midlands Solar Taskforce.  He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain. Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment.  He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college. The Building Podcast aims to provide 'CPD on the go'.  Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry! https://www.linked.com/in/markwakeford/ 

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