⚡ Energy Imports, Tesla & Renewables

Hosts: Gerard Reid & Laurent Segalen
Category: ⚡ Energy | Energy News

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

[0:23] LS: “[Last] week, we've basically seen Europe going all over the world looking for anything that looks like non-Russian […] energy, coal, or gas. […] Europe imported 150 BCM, billion cubic meters, of gas from Russia last year, and the US only exported 22 BCM.”

[1:52] GR: “I did expect at least that the Europeans would be able to come together and […] say, we're going to ban the import of Russian oil. But at the end of the day, they did nothing. And that actually tells you […] that the EU is split. […] The solution to getting quickly away from Russia and fossil fuels can only be done in coordination with all […] European countries and at the EU level.”

[2:52] LS: “[Tesla’s opening of Giga Berlin] was extraordinary and I would say ballsy, because they built literally the whole plant without any permit. And they got the permit at the end. So they managed to do the processing in two years and a half, which is much longer than China, but compared to anything the Germans would build, is two to three times faster.”

[3:19] LS: “Another indirect good news is the success of the CfD, Contract for Difference system, in the UK to finance wind farms. And what's happening right now is that the market price being much above the strike price of the CfD, [which] means every wind farm in the UK is returning money to the UK taxpayer, to the UK government. And it has been assessed that within 18 months, they're gonna return $1 billion. So anyone who says you need subsidies for renewables, I have no idea what they're talking about. These UK wind farms are minting money for the taxpayer and this is great.”

[4:05] GR: “And let's be clear, what you need is support mechanisms for renewables. And the reason is because you want to get the lowest cost of capital in and that requires you to give investors as much security as you can. And if you don't do that, it becomes too expensive.”

[4:26] LS: “In America the SEC has proposed new rules for climate disclosure. And it has been a bit of a shock to the old US industry, because they asked companies to report on their scope one, which are the direct emissions, the scope two, which is the emission embedded in […] the purchase, but also scope three, which is emission from all their supply chains. And people start freaking out, but from a transparency perspective, it's absolutely remarkable.”

Rating: ⚡⚡⚡

🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify | Google (Original Title: "Minutes 28th March 2022")
🕰️ 6 min | 🗓️ 03/28/2022
✅ Time saved: 5 min