Stranded

Marie Espitalier-Noel
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  • Investing

Stranded is a podcast about climate finance, energy technologies, and the risks standing between the two. Each episode examines one technology and the money around it: what it really costs, who carries the risk, which financing structures could make it bankable, and why capital and technology have not yet met. From advanced nuclear and geothermal to hydrogen, energy storage, and emerging-market infrastructure, Stranded goes beyond the technical promise to interrogate the economics. Hosted by Marie Espitalier-Noël, a climate finance professional with experience across venture capital, blended finance, and European energy policy. Conversations on climate, capital, and what gets left behind.

Episodes

  1. Sep 29

    Kirsty Gogan: Can we build nuclear like a product?

    Can nuclear power plants be built more like products, and less like one-off megaprojects? In this episode of Stranded, Marie Espitalier-Noël speaks with Kirsty Gogan, co-founder of TerraPraxis and managing partner at LucidCatalyst, about what it would take to make nuclear construction faster, more predictable and ultimately financeable. The conversation begins with a striking finding from the Nuclear Cost Drivers study: the enormous gap between successful nuclear programmes and recent high-cost Western projects cannot be explained by reactor technology alone. Design completion, experienced delivery organisations, construction sequencing and repetition matter just as much. Marie and Kirsty explore whether small modular reactors genuinely solve this problem, or simply place smaller reactors inside conventional megaprojects. They discuss what nuclear could learn from automotive platforms, aircraft manufacturing and shipyards, and how open architectures could allow industrial customers to buy standardised energy systems rather than commission bespoke plants. The episode also examines the commercial models emerging around advanced nuclear: hyperscaler demand, X-energy, Aalo Atomics, Blue Energy’s shipyard manufacturing and gas-to-nuclear strategy, and TerraPraxis’ work to repower coal plants while reusing sites, grid connections and local infrastructure. Finally, they compare the US financing ecosystem with Europe’s fragmented approach, and ask what institutions such as the EIB and other development banks would need to do to make advanced nuclear investable at scale. Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 00:49 — Kirsty Gogan, TerraPraxis and LucidCatalyst 03:19 — Why nuclear construction costs diverge 08:45 — Lessons from Vogtle, Flamanville, Hinkley and Barakah 11:47 — Do small modular reactors solve the cost problem? 14:19 — Building nuclear plants as repeatable products 18:44 — Open architecture and industrial energy users 22:07 — Where investors are placing value 24:54 — Hyperscalers and the limits of demand signals 29:50 — Technical milestones versus scalable delivery 32:58 — Blue Energy’s shipyard and gas-to-nuclear model 36:37 — Repowering coal plants and reusing infrastructure 41:44 — The US ecosystem and Europe’s deployment gap 43:22 — A European financing instrument for nuclear 47:00 — How Kirsty’s thinking about nuclear changed 50:04 — What advanced nuclear could achieve by 2036 Resources • ETI Nuclear Cost Drivers Project • Open Architecture Nuclear Integration Framework • TerraPraxis REPOWER • Blue Energy • LucidCatalyst • TerraPraxis Stranded explores the technologies, business models and investment decisions shaping the climate transitio, and the gap between what technology can deliver and what capital is prepared to finance. Hosted by Marie Espitalier-Noël. Conversations on climate, capital, and what gets left behind. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/fugu-vibes/plastic-world License code: YJBJ7TXQRA21RPDC

    Kirsty Gogan: Can we build nuclear like a product?

  2. Aug 25

    Thomas Giehm: The Tools Beneath Geothermal's Boom

    Fervo Energy's May 2026 IPO was the largest clean-energy listing on record, and the market read it as proof that enhanced geothermal works. Thomas Giehm, Investment Manager at Underground Ventures, Europe's only VC fund dedicated to geothermal technology, invests one layer beneath developers like Fervo: the drilling tools, downhole electronics, and completion technology that have to perform before any well produces power. From that seat, he separates what the IPO actually validates, investor appetite for firm clean power and a demonstrated cost curve on a still-small well count, from what remains open: whether a 35% learning rate holds across thousands of wells drilled into deeper, hotter rock. We trace geothermal's borrowed playbook from shale, the one place that analogy breaks, and why Europe, despite real geothermal resources, hasn't produced its own Fervo yet. We close on what a background in commodity trading sees in an energy bet that a traditional VC might miss, and one early belief about geothermal Thomas has had to revise. In this episode: 02:42 — Origin story: commodity trading to geothermal, via a cold email to Torsten Kolind05:02 — What the Fervo IPO actually validates, and what it doesn't10:45 — The picks-and-shovels thesis: why back the tech layer, not the developers16:23 — Mapping the five-segment value chain, and a new name in it: Terraferno23:04 — The ten-year cost curve: which technologies actually bend it31:38 — Could Europe build its own Fervo?41:19 — Personal: what a trader's instinct sees, and one early belief revised Links: Fervo Energy S-1 / IPO prospectus (Nasdaq: FRVO)Underground Ventures — ugventures.comGuest: Thomas Giehm, Investment Manager at Underground Ventures. Stranded is a podcast on climate finance and the energy transition: what it costs, who carries the risk, and what gets left behind. New episodes every three weeks. Subscribe wherever you listen. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/fugu-vibes/plastic-world License code: I7WGHXOEFDBOSVI8

    Thomas Giehm: The Tools Beneath Geothermal's Boom
  • 2 Episodes

About

Stranded is a podcast about climate finance, energy technologies, and the risks standing between the two. Each episode examines one technology and the money around it: what it really costs, who carries the risk, which financing structures could make it bankable, and why capital and technology have not yet met. From advanced nuclear and geothermal to hydrogen, energy storage, and emerging-market infrastructure, Stranded goes beyond the technical promise to interrogate the economics. Hosted by Marie Espitalier-Noël, a climate finance professional with experience across venture capital, blended finance, and European energy policy. Conversations on climate, capital, and what gets left behind.

Information

  • Creator
    Marie Espitalier-Noel
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Marie Espitalier-Noel
  • Show Website
    Stranded

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