Share
Policy Dispatch: The FORESIGHT podcast on the policies underpinning the energy transition
What’s in store
Season 1, Ep. 15
•
More clean power is being added to energy mixes on a daily basis, but it does not matter how many wind turbines or solar panels are installed; the electrons still need to reach homes and businesses. Supply cannot always match demand, either in quantity or timing, so that is where storage comes in. Whether it is hydropower dams, grid batteries, molten salt or the power of gravity, storage — both conventional and innovative — is gearing up to play an absolutely fundamental role in decarbonised energy systems.
The road ahead is by no means a smooth one, though, as many hurdles stand in the way of 24/7 on-demand green electricity. Developers need to establish strong business cases to support their storage ambitions, and some policies are already helping to make that a reality. More changes are needed to unlock a storage boom and also establish the technology as a safeguard against the price spike crisis that happened towards the end of 2022. Helping to turbocharge this week’s Dispatch is Thomas Lewis from the European Association for the Storage of Energy.
Enjoy the dispatch!
If you have any thoughts or questions about anything that has been discussed in this week’s episode, you can reach us at our Twitter accounts:
Thomas Lewis: https://twitter.com/_thomaslewis?lang=en
Sam Morgan: https://twitter.com/SamJamesMorgan
@Policy Dispatch: https://twitter.com/PolicyDispatch
FORESIGHT Climate & Energy: https://twitter.com/FORESIGHTdk
Listen and subscribe to Policy Dispatch wherever you get podcasts. Follow us on Twitter at @Policy Dispatch or email us at show@policydispatch.com. You can also find FORESIGHT Climate & Energy on LinkedIn.
Show notes:
FORESIGHT Policy Section: https://foresightdk.com/category/policy/
TRY FULL ACCESS TO FORESIGHT CLIMATE & ENERGY FOR €1 A DAY
Join over 100,000 policymakers, energy experts in business, finance, and academia, city leaders, and leading NGOs in having access to FORESIGHT Climate & Energy
GET YOUR 30-DAY TRIAL: www.foresightdk.com/subscribe/.
More episodes
View all episodes
40. Rise of the climate court cases
44:21||Season 1, Ep. 40Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.Global climate action is not restricted to protesting in the streets. Legal courts are increasingly playing a bigger role in the fight for a decarbonised world. As cases against companies and even governments are becoming more commonplace, who are the main figures leading the charge? What kind of outcomes are we seeing? And what kind of impact will this inevitably have on the energy transition? To answer these questions and more, Sam is joined for this episode by Nikki Reisch, director for the climate and energy program at the Centre for International Environmental Law. Enjoy the discussion!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.
39. Giving renewables an extra helping hand
33:05||Season 1, Ep. 39Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Renewables are going from strength to strength in many European countries. Everyone is making some sort of progress towards their targets but if current trends continue, the EU will fall short of its benchmarks.That is why there are a number of policy options available to national governments to turbocharge their renewables rollout. One of those options are so-called renewable acceleration areas.Flore Belin, renewable energy policy coordinator at CAN Europe, joins this episode of the Policy Dispatch to explain what these areas are and how they should be rolled out.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.
38. At the farmers carbon market
39:44||Season 1, Ep. 38Farming emissions are not falling at the same rate that they are in sectors like power generation or industry. Complex factors like land-use change and livestock emissions make agriculture’s carbon footprint a difficult beast to tame.Factors like food production, geopolitics and strong cultural ties almost make an already complex decarbonisation challenge even more difficult.Carbon markets have helped bring down the emissions of power grids and manufacturing centres. In Europe, sectors like shipping, road transport and buildings are now set to get the same treatment. Could agriculture soon be rolled into the same system?The Institute for European Environmental Policy’s Krystyna Springer joins this edition of the Policy Dispatch to explain why this might be a good, albeit tricky, idea.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.
37. Great British Clean Tech
30:03||Season 1, Ep. 37Clean technologies are the indispensable hardware of the energy transition. Whether its wind turbines, grid components or futuristic fusion power, without clean tech, we won’t get anywhere. The United Kingdom has proven itself to be an attractive place to develop and scale up clean technologies but the sector has begun to lose momentum and stagnate. A general election on 4th July could well mark a change in policies.Sarah Mackintosh, director of the Cleantech for UK initiative, joins the Policy Dispatch to explain what the UK is doing right and where it could stand to improve. Also check out Cleantech’s manifesto here for more details.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android.
36. Democratising carbon markets
34:15||Season 1, Ep. 36Parts of the world that have introduced some form of carbon pricing have been able to disconnect their emissions from economic growth, thanks largely to the polluter-pays principle. But there is somewhat of a disconnect between carbon markets and the most important part of the energy transition: consumers. So is it possible to democratise emissions trading? To involve more people in carbon pricing? Is this something that would benefit the energy transition? Valentin Lautier, founder of Homaio, a startup that aims to unlock carbon markets for individual investors, joins this edition of the Policy Dispatch to explain his view on these issues.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Enjoy the episode? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought!
35. Preparing Europe’s grid for tomorrow
28:39||Season 1, Ep. 35Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Grids are a key part of Europe’s energy system but they need a massive overhaul to be ready for the growth in renewables and electricity demand expected up to 2050. Kristian Ruby joins the Policy Dispatch to look at the current situation and what is needed to make the change happen.Europe’s grids need a major revitalisation to be able to support the energy transition. As more renewables and electric vehicles are rolled out, they will need to be bigger and smarter than ever.Grid industry group Eurelectric has come out with two new reports, one on investment and supply chain needs and one on digitalisation, to look at the current state of Europe’s grids and what is needed for the energy transition to be a success.The shift comes with a big price tag – Eurelectric estimates that it needs €67 billion every year until 2050 to keep up with the doubling of electricity consumption. But that could be reduced to €55 billion a year if the rollout is done efficiently and is supported properly.Eurelectric’s secretary-general Kristian Ruby joins the Policy Dispatch to talk about the group’s latest research into the state of Europe’s grids and what is needed to get them fit for the 21st century.Enjoy the show! You can read Eurelectric’s two reports here:Grids for speedWired for tomorrowDownload our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Enjoy the episode? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought!
34. District heating: a European champion?
31:45||Season 1, Ep. 34Heating soaks up a huge amount of energy demand and is responsible for an equally significant amount of carbon emissions. Technology likes heatpumps and more efficient buildings are starting to have an impact on both accounts.Bankwatch Network’s Morgan Henley, the group’s head of EU heating decarbonisation campaigning, joins the Policy Dispatch to lift the lid on district heating in Central and Eastern Europe.The region is a district heating heartland thanks to its legacy Soviet infrastructure. A lot of decarbonisation still needs to be done but it appears that it has all the tools needed to make a big dent in heating’s carbon footprint.Morgan provides plenty of insights on which countries are leading the way, what policymakers need to bear in mind and why Europe should realise that district heating is potentially an industry that it could lead the world in.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Enjoy the episode? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought!
33. To boldly go…
34:26||Season 1, Ep. 33Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. ‘Impossible’ is not in the vocabulary of Swiss explorer and environmentalist Bertrand Piccard. He was the first person to fly non-stop around the world in a hot air balloon and the first to do the same in a solar-powered plane.Piccard is firmly of the belief that society has all the tools it needs to solve the climate crisis, but there is perhaps something currently missing: enthusiasm and the will to act. That is why his latest adventure involves piloting a hydrogen-powered plane around the globe, to show the world that it can be done.One of the world’s greatest living explorers joins the Policy Dispatch to explain his thinking behind this latest endeavour and to inject a dose of hope into the climate and energy debate.Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Enjoy the episode? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought!
32. Winds from far far away
35:43||Season 1, Ep. 32Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Wind power in Europe continues to set records. Concerns over supply chains and geopolitical issues have posed challenges but have not derailed progress.Developments in the North Sea continue at a great pace but it is not Europe’s only resource for wind power. Other areas, some of them far-flung and unexpected, show great potential to provide clean electricity for all of Europe.That potential is now being tapped, as technological advancements and policy shifts gradually unlock zero-carbon generation on the Atlantic coast, in the Mediterranean, Baltic, Black and even Caspian seas.WindEurope CEO [Giles Dickson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/giles-dickson-98607229) joins the podcast to talk more about far far away wind farms, the general state of the sector and some of the challenges that still need to be overcome.Check out more information about WindEurope’s annual event in Bilbao [here](https://windeurope.org/annual2024/).Enjoy the show!Download our award-winning app and enjoy access to all exclusive features. Click here to access on Apple or Android. Enjoy the episode? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought!