In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Rethink Energy's latest forecast, predicting that VPPs take a major role in the energy transition, with efficient use of battery energy storage ultimately requiring the complex forecasting of demand and supply which VPP software offers BHP's bid to buy Anglo-American, which would have given the former over 10% of global copper supply Why liquid hydrogen can be a cost-competitive form of hydrogen transportation, in light of its high energy requirement for conversion being paid at the source ..read more

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Silver paste usage in the solar industry continues to rise, but the steeper the silver shortage gets, the more alternatives like copper metallization and zero-busbar are incentivized. Interest rates have obstructed new investments including in copper mining - but the Federal Reserve intends to take rates down from 5.5% to 3.5% this year. Tesla's Q1 profit is down 55% year on year - but its shares are up and the company is shifting towards more relevant EV products ..read more

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: The conclusions from the Hydrogen Europe conference in Amsterdam, including why gaseous hydrogen will take longer than liquid to get online in the market. The Department of Energy's $1.5 billion funding for a nuclear plant recommissioning in Michigan - which will give the facility a total 80 year lifespan. Janet Yellen's China trade visit, which seems unlikely to move the needle at all on Chinese exports - but does demonstrate a continued protectionist strategy from the US government ..read more

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: Huamin Technology's 40 micron thickness photovoltaic wafer, prompted by ferce cost competition in the solar industry - compare to 140 micron thickness in the industry as a whole. Chinese EVs are forecasted to grow to 25% market share in the EU this year, with no good options for European authorities trying to decide on a trade and reshoring strategy ..read more

TandemPV's CEO Scott Wharton joins us to discuss his efforts to bring a perovskite tandem solar module product to market in the near future in the US, with utility-scale developers likely to be the first customers. We cover degradation and other technical hurdles, plus how perovskites fare in the current solar market situation - with steep silicon PV cost declines, trade barriers with China, and reshoring efforts including IRA incentives ..read more

In this episode the Rethink Energy team discusses: an astonishingly low $299 per kW pricetag for a 500 MW wind farm in Inner Mongolia - and while that's the record, there are others for just $320 per kW, which means LCOE has halved in a couple of years. The first E-diesel production facility in Texas, launched by Infinium, using a green hydrogen supply combined with C02 from Howard Energy Partners’ neighboring gas processing plant ..read more

In this week's episode the team discusses: First Solar CEO Mark Widmar's warning that Chinese manufacturers are significant beneficiaries of the Inflation Reduction Act's 45x incentives, effectively making the US itself another location hosting downstream Chinese solar manufacturing. A startup has demonstrated 10-year lifespan for its SOEC electrolyzers, which are more efficient and cost-effective than ALK and PEM in theory, but have more technical hurdles to address ..read more

In this week's episode the team discusses: The new polysilicon factory ($1.3 billion, 100,000 tons, 40 GW) which is under construction in Oman, and who is likely behind it. Airbus's head of ZEROe hydrogen demonstrators, Mathias Andriamisaina, has stated that the company will need to make a choice between hydrogen combustion and fuel cells by some time in 2026 to 2027 ..read more

In this week's episode the team discusses: The scale of solar manufacturing in 2023, with Chinese outputs up by 67% to 622 GW at the wafer level, while its wafer exports - almost the sole supply source for all solar cell manufacturing in the rest of the world - are up by over 90%. Multiple delayed green hydrogen investments and negative coverage may open a space for blue hydrogen, while still only representing a temporary problem for the scale-up of electrolysis-based hydrogen technologies ..read more

ESS Inc's European Director Alan Greenshields joins us to talk about the role long duration energy storage has to play in the energy transition, and LEAG's major shift towards decarbonizing Germany's coal fleet with green power and batteries ..read more