In this new guest episode, Charley Rattan talks to Nadim Chaudhry, founder of the World Hydrogen Leaders network about various aspects of hydrogen: where it is, how it might develop and what some of the truths and myths around the topic are.

Clusters: why the rising interest?

Apr 5th, 2021 42m 41s

Across the various clean energy topics we track and talk about, a common theme has been emerging recently - a focus on the importance of particular geographic clusters.So we spend forty minutes chatting about why this might be: why clusters ma

Offshore Wind: Unpacking the Latest UK Leasing Auctions

Feb 22nd, 2021 49m 42s

The UK has big plans for offshore wind, but the past few weeks has seen a few headwinds - unwanted ones!High leasing prices, leasing round delays and planning permission court battles - all these have raised their heads recently, to the conste

'Hard to Decarbonise': what & how?

Feb 8th, 2021 45m 2s

There is much talk at the moment about 'hard to decarbonise' areas of the economy: those which must be tackled too, in the race towards zero carbon targets. But what are they and what might be the options?In this first podcast of 2021, we cove

Our "Six Picks" from the 2020 new energy landscape

Dec 12th, 2020 50m 43s

In our final episode of 2020, we both brought along three 'picks' from this year's clean energy activity. They don't necessarily reflect the stories that made the biggest headlines or even the most exciting individual news items. Instead we ar

The UK's 'Ten Point Plan' for a new Industrial Revolution

Nov 20th, 2020 53m 25s

This week the UK Prime Minister announced a bold vision for the future of UK energy; one with potentially transformative impacts on not only energy but on the country's wider economic activities too. We cast our eye over the various points and

Examining biofuels, with Ryan Lamberg

Oct 15th, 2020 1h 1m

In the excitement over electric vehicles, hydrogen and other 'hot' topics in decarbonisation, it can be easy to overlook the role that biofuels have played in replacing fossil fuel usage. Not without controversy of course, the political and per

Wind, Ammonia, the Grid & More... with Gavin Catto

Sep 11th, 2020 53m 41s

In this episode we have a fascinating chat with Gavin Catto, founder of Green Cat Renewables (a specialist renewable energy consultancy focused on driving down the costs of project development).From the UK to North America and from wind power

Ammonia within the clean energy transition

Aug 6th, 2020 50m 35s

Ammonia production consumes lots of natural gas and is a big contributor to global carbon emissions. So decarbonising that production by using clean hydrogen sources is one obvious way forward. But what about some of the other ideas that are di

EPR, AMR, SMR...? A Delve into Nuclear

Jul 16th, 2020 57m 51s

If there's a subject that's bound to either delight or dismay people - often with little in between - it's nuclear power. Still, we never shy away from any topic - and are always open to learning something new. So this week we invited along Br

The covid recovery & energy: where should the UK spend?

Jul 3rd, 2020 48m 39s

This week, the UK's Prime Minister promised to 'build, build, build', referring to housing and infrastructure. There have been statements about 'coming back stronger and greener'. So it's no surprise that industry sectors from hydrogen to carbo

Delivering the hydrogen economy on Orkney

Jul 1st, 2020 51m 43s

Many people are talking about the hydrogen economy at the moment - indeed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson specifically referred to it as he outlined the UK’s recovery proposals this week. Very few a have actually delivered hydrogen projects t

A Cape Canaveral of Hydrogen?

Jun 5th, 2020 46m 13s

The titular phrase was coined recently by a German government minister and was one that intrigued us. What might it mean? What might it imply as a goal and how might one reach it? Where might comparisons with the original space port make sense

CCS: Carbon Capture and Storage

May 28th, 2020 49m 14s

Like another topic we've discussed before, hydrogen, CCS is not new to the world. But, like hydrogen, it has had false dawns in the past, is back in the minds of industry now - and is on the hunt for policy support in order to progress. So it w

Covid & Clean Energy

May 16th, 2020 46m 9s

It's sad, but also topical and unavoidable. So in this episode we decided to chat through what some of the implications of the virus might be for the clean energy sector. We were more interested in some of the immediate-term issues, both posit

The Lure of Industrial & Energy Clusters

May 10th, 2020 50m 8s

We've mentioned 'clusters' and 'hubs' in passing before, in our podcasts covering both hydrogen and offshore wind. They are receiving more and more attention in the clean energy world, so it was high time that we delved into them in a bit more

Innovation & Supply Chains (with an eye on Offshore Wind)

Apr 19th, 2020 39m 55s

Starting off by discussing how a move from fixed to floating foundations might impact the offshore wind supply chain here in the UK, we widen the scope to innovation and supply chain more generally. Along the way, we touch on our usual wide ran

Talking Hydrogen in the northwest of England with Amer Gaffar

Apr 5th, 2020 59m 16s

Amer Gaffar is Director of the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University, here in the UK. Not surprisingly therefore, he's a keen advocate of the role hydrogen could potentially play in out future energy syste

Energy Storage

Mar 13th, 2020 46m 8s

We've mentioned energy storage a lot in passing, in our previous podcasts. So it seemed like high time to have a chat specifically about this increasingly important subject. What is it being used for? Is it all about batteries or are there othe

A comeback for onshore wind & solar in the UK? (and other news...)

Mar 5th, 2020 37m 52s

This week the UK government announced a consultation into changes to its core mechanism for encouraging utility-scale renewable power deployment. That mechanism is the 'contracts for difference' (CfD) system, with these contracts awarded throug

Approaches to Integrating Renewables: California Revisited

Feb 28th, 2020 50m 39s

We are joined once again by Lincoln Bleveans from Burbank Power & Water, for another view from 'across the pond' (and a lot of land) in California. In particular we explore how this US utility is approaching the challenge of integrating more r

Decarbonisation and the Oil & Gas Industry

Feb 17th, 2020 38m 58s

This week - the one in which BP announced its intention to be 'net zero' by 2050 - we decided to chat about the oil and gas industry. It's an industry which is often painted as the flat-out enemy of decarbonisation, and one that needs to simply

Can cleantech be 'clean', if it isn't also 'circular'?

Jan 30th, 2020 44m 17s

One of the many sustainability issues gaining more coverage these days is the idea of a 'circular economy'. With critics warning that the clean energy sector risks piling up mountains of end-of life turbine blades, solar panels and EV batteries

Clean Energy: the view from California

Jan 23rd, 2020 54m 14s

For this exciting new 'international' episode, we were delighted to have a guest expert join us: Lincoln Bleveans, Assistant General Manager for Power Supply at Burbank Water & Power in the Los Angeles area of California. As always on New Energ

The Clean Energy Transition, GeoPolitics & Trade

Jan 17th, 2020 38m 30s

The clean energy transition is usually couched in terms of technologies, energy mixes, carbon impacts and other such numbers. However if we change where we source our energy, we inevitably change the trade flows and politics and geopolitics of