Talking New Energy

97. Public Charging of Electric Vehicles: The challenges and opportunities

Electric vehicle sales are going like gangbusters – sales are increasing faster than many expected. While EVs continue to be mostly charged at home and at fleet depots, public charging is still a critical part of the mix. But is the growth of charging networks keeping pace with demand? What are the key issues in the charging network sector? Jon Slowe is joined by Peter Badik, Co-founder of GreenWay, a leading builder and manager of charging infrastructure in Slovakia and Poland; Mel Shufflebotham, Co-founder of Zap-Map, the UK’s leading app and digital platform for EV charge points; and Delta-EE expert John Murray.

96. Large heat pumps for industry and district heating

Regular listeners will know we talk about heat pumps quite a lot in this podcast. But, so far, we’ve focussed on residential-scale heat pumps. Today we’re going big, and talking about industrial-scale heat pumps. Why? Well, industrial heat is only slightly behind residential heat when it comes to demand for heat across Europe. So the challenge to decarbonise heat is as much an challenge in industry as it is in buildings. And, heat pumps have a role to play in industry as they do in buildings. To explore this topic further, Jon Slowe is joined by four guests: Jonas Loholm Hamann and Drew Turner from Danfoss; Dave Pearson from Star Refrigeration; and Delta-EE heat pump expert Lindsay Sugden.

95. Integrating heat pumps into the electricity system: TenneT and Viessmann on the leading edge

As heat pumps and distributed energy become a bigger part of our energy system, they will bring additional demands on the grid. But smart control of these appliances can help to solve these demands, as well as providing new ways to help balance the grid. Optimising millions of heat pumps and other appliances in our homes requires new approaches, and in this episode we look at one such new initiative in Germany, involving Viessmann, a manufacturer of heat pumps, and TenneT, one of the four transmission system operators in Germany, and the Equigy Crowd Balancing Platform. Jon Slowe is joined by Axel Kiessling from TenneT in Germany, one of the four German TSOs; Hans Schermeyer from Viessmann's Energy Services, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of climate solutions; and Delta-EE expert Lucy Murley.

94. In discussion with... Lisa Lambert of National Grid

In this episode, Jon Slowe talks to Lisa Lambert, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at National Grid. Lisa is also the Founder & President of National Grid Partners, the venture capital and innovation arm of National Grid. In addition, she’s Founder and CEO of UPWARD, a non-profit organisation with a mission to accelerate the careers of executive women. Jon and Lisa discuss the challenges and opportunities that utilities face in evolving and transforming their businesses as part of the energy transition. Lisa brings a fascinating perspective to this, with a career in the investment sector in Silicon Valley prior to joining National Grid nearly four years ago.

93. Innovations in electric heating

We’ll see a lot more electric heating in the energy transition. Much of this will be from heat pumps – air to water, ground to water, air to air and more – but if we look at the electric heating landscape today across Europe, direct electric heating makes up the majority of electric heating. Direct electric heating’s 1:1 electricity to heat ratio is no match for heat pump’s 2.5, 3 or even 4:1 ratio, but it comes with a lower cost and greater simplicity. Today we’re talking with two companies active in the direct electric space – with innovative twists and developments to standard direct electric heating. Jon Slowe is joined by Raphael Meyer, CEO at Lancey Energy Storage; Mario Tronto, Category Manager at Tesy; and Delta-EE expert Catrin Cooper.

92. Putting finance to work for energy efficiency

In this episode we explore how two companies, Solas Capital and GNE Finance, are enabling and deploying finance for energy efficiency investments on the customer side of the meter. Jon Slowe is joined by Sebastian Carneiro, Managing Partner of Solas Capital; Davide Cannarozzi, Managing Partner at GNE Finance; and Delta-EE expert Nigel Timperley.

91. Financing energy efficiency

One of the key differences between ‘old energy’ and ‘new energy’ is where capital investments are taking place. In ‘old energy’ capital investments were focussed in power plants and networks, predominantly on the ‘utility’ side of the meter. In ‘new energy’, a significant part of these capital investments will be focussed on the customer side of the meter. The energy system is being recapitalised, in part, in assets at customer’s homes, business and industrial sites. Today, Jon Slowe explores how finance solutions are emerging with Delta-EE expert Nigel Timperley.

90. Smarter heat storage

Most of us will have a hot water tank somewhere in our home. In some ways they are very straightforward bits of equipment – a well-insulated metal cylinder with some pipes connected to it, and perhaps a direct electric heating element as well. But a number of companies are looking at bringing hot water storage into the modern age, and as heating is increasingly electrified, integrating hot water tanks with our electricity system. In this episode, Jon Slowe is joined by three guests; Martin Allman, Chief Commercial Officer at Mixergy; Stavros Sachinis, Vice President of IoT Applications at Centrica; and Delta-EE expert, Klara Ottosson.

89. Innovation in new energy: From concept to commercialisation

Traditional energy companies are evolving fast to navigate and help drive the energy transition. As part of this evolution, many are launching increasingly innovative services and propositions in new energy – sometimes moving beyond traditional business models. Today we’re talking about innovative business models in the heating market, and how one company is driving change in the way heating products are sold. Jon Slowe is joined by Evert Eero, Product Development Manager, Eesti Energia AS and Delta-EE Head of Heat, Lindsay Sugden.

88. Takeaways from the current energy crisis

Delta-EE Director Jon Slowe and Principal Analyst Jeremy Harrison round off series 8 with a discussion on the key takeaways from the energy crisis and what those in the energy transition should be focusing on going forward.