Energy Evolution

Hosted by S&P Global Commodity Insights

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364

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Interviews, analysis and reporting from S&P Global Energy on energy and commodities' transition to a cleaner future. Host Eklavya Gupte speaks with policymakers, industry professionals and S&P Global Energy in-house experts worldwide on topics related to decarbonization, climate, emerging fuels and energy sources, and the outlook for commodity markets from oil to power to metals. The Energy Evolution podcast merged with the Platts Future Energy podcast in January 2025.

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August 11, 202630 min

Cybersecurity and clean energy: Inside the EU funding ban for solar and storage inverters

In April 2026, the European Commission adopted interim guidance stipulating that solar and battery storage projects using inverters or power conversion systems sourced from high-risk countries would be ineligible for EU funding, citing concerns over cybersecurity and grid resilience. Among the affected countries is China, Europe's dominant supplier of clean energy technologies. In this episode of Energy Evolution, host Eklavya Gupte is joined by Lena Dias Martins, electricity pricing reporter at S&P Global Energy Platts, to explore the implications of this policy for Europe's rapidly expanding solar and battery storage sectors. They examine how markets have responded, which regions may be most affected, and whether viable alternatives to China-made inverters are available at scale. The episode features Cormac Gilligan, director of clean technologies and supply chains at S&P Global Energy Horizons, who explains how the restrictions could signal the start of a broader global shift toward greater diversification of clean energy supply chains. We also hear from Jan Krčmář, executive director of the Czech Solar Association, who shares the industry perspective on the practical challenges facing developers and installers, how the sector is responding to the new requirements, and what the changes could mean for solar deployment across Europe in the years ahead.

August 4, 202633 min

Grid operator PJM juggles reforms as power auction results hit price cap again

On July 14, grid operator PJM released the results of its latest capacity market auction for the 2028-2029 delivery year. Prices hit the federally approved cap of $325/megawatt-day, but the amount of procured capacity came up short of PJM's reliability requirement by 6.8 gigawatts. In other words, prices went as high as they were allowed to go but still didn't incentivize enough generation to meet the reliability requirement PJM wanted. Although PJM has other options to secure that capacity, the results of this latest auction underscore mounting concerns about rising prices and reliability in the region managed by the grid operator, which provides electricity for 67 million people across 13 states. And power demand from data centers is contributing to these issues. Joining Dan Testa on this episode to talk through some of these issues is Darren Sweeney, a senior reporter at S&P Global Energy. Sweeney interviews Paul Segal, CEO of LS Power, a private independent power producer with a major presence in PJM, and Tanya Peevey, an S&P Global Energy CERA analyst for North American power and renewables.

July 28, 202647 min

Discussing Democrats' midterm message on energy

From his first day in office, President Donald Trump has exerted major shifts in US energy policy during his second term, including opposition to offshore wind projects, extending the lives of coal-fired power plants, withdrawing from climate treaties and war with Iran. But with the midterm elections approaching, Democrats have an opportunity to regain power in Congress. So how are Democrats talking about energy and selling their own policies to convince voters they can do a better job addressing rising gasoline prices and utility bills? And how will issues like climate change and the Iran war impact campaigns this fall? In this episode, Dan Testa discusses these issues with Mary Landrieu, a senior policy adviser at Van Ness Feldman LLP and former Democratic US senator from Louisiana, and Scott Segal, a partner at Bracewell LLP and a co-chair of the law firm's Policy Resolution Group.

July 21, 202623 min

Moving beyond the grid bottleneck with smart technology

Smart technology is rapidly redefining the debate over grid infrastructure. Rather than spending millions on new transformers, transmission lines and generation capacity, a growing consensus suggests the answer lies in using existing resources more intelligently. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte speaks with Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility and Marketing Officer at Kraken Technologies, about how consumer devices are being transformed into virtual power plants managing gigawatts in real time. Celal explains how Kraken coordinates nearly 8 gigawatts across half a million devices, from utility-scale batteries to home EV chargers, turning flexibility into the new currency of power markets. He discusses why the shift from thermal to renewable generation has created unprecedented volatility, and how time-of-use tariffs and smart optimization are unlocking consumer participation at scale. The conversation also examines why batteries have become the fastest-growing energy technology globally, and how the dual pressures of electrification and data center growth are forcing a fundamental reimagining of the grid.

July 14, 202625 min

The summer stress test: How heat waves are rewiring Europe's power markets

Traditionally, European power systems were engineered around a single imperative: survive the winter "Dunkelflaute," those prolonged cold, dark, windless stretches that push demand higher while renewable generation collapses. But rising summer temperatures are dismantling this assumption. Heat waves are forcing a fundamental recalibration of infrastructure investment, operational strategy and market design across the European power sector. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte speaks with Parth Goel, power analyst at S&P Global Energy CERA, about how extreme heat is reshaping demand patterns, straining supply and exposing vulnerabilities in the continent's energy infrastructure. Goel explains why France, not Southern Europe, has emerged as the most price-sensitive region during heat waves, how solar generation creates dramatic price swings between midday troughs and evening peaks, and why Europe is shifting from a winter-peaking power system to a dual-peaking one. The conversation also examines the compounding effects of drought on Alpine hydro, the thermal stress on nuclear cooling systems, and why summer now demands the same infrastructure planning attention as winter.

July 7, 202625 min

The new economics of renewable energy: Why transmission trumps technology

The clean energy investment landscape has undergone a fundamental reset. The era of zero interest rates has given way to a more disciplined environment where transmission access and power market fundamentals determine success or failure. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte speaks with Declan Flanagan, founder and CEO of Bluestar Energy Capital, about how his company is responding to these shifts. Flanagan discusses how power pricing dynamics are reshaping technology choices and why certain markets like Germany are emerging as battery storage frontiers. He also examines how capex inflation, extended interconnection timelines and evolving demand profiles have rewritten the renewables investment playbook.

July 1, 202639 min

What California's launch of an extended day-ahead market means for the western US

Every day, power market participants in the Western US must determine how much electricity they need for the following day and where it's going to come from. In response, California's grid operator on May 1 launched its Extended Day-Ahead Market, or EDAM, giving power providers a better way to coordinate to find the cheapest electricity. So how is it going so far? And what does it mean for grid reliability, emissions, ratepayers and power traders? Joining the podcast to address those questions will be Elliott Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, and Scott Miller, executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum. They are interviewed by Kassia Micek, a reporter for S&P Global Energy who covers Western power markets, who joins co-host Dan Testa to talk about what's ahead for the region.

June 23, 202623 min

Cameco makes the case for large nuclear reactors

Much of the current discussion about nuclear power focuses on advanced technologies, from the potential for nuclear fusion to the development of various designs for small, modular reactors. But if we ask what new nuclear reactors have been built recently in North America and are up and running? The answer is the two reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, which use Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 design. In this episode, Dan Testa interviews Grant Isaac, president and COO of Cameco Corp., a uranium mining and production company that is co-owner of Westinghouse Electric. Isaac says the global nuclear industry is making significant improvements in cost and execution when it comes to building new projects and refurbishing existing reactors – and that the pieces are lining up in the US for utilities to invest in new, large nuclear reactors using Westinghouse's AP1000 design.

June 16, 202637 min

How the Iran war is challenging and changing Europe's gas market

After nearly four months, global commodity markets have shown both vulnerability and resilience amid the unprecedented disruptions caused by the Iran war. The European gas market is no exception. In this episode of Energy Evolution, host Eklavya Gupte examines the paradoxes shaping Europe's gas outlook. Gas prices in Europe have surged since the conflict erupted, yet remain far below the panic-driven highs of 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Beneath the surface, however, a new set of risks is emerging: gas storage is filling at its slowest pace in years, and the market's reliance on LNG has left it increasingly exposed to fresh supply shocks. Matt Hoisch, senior gas and LNG reporter at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, speaks with Jack Sharples, senior research fellow on the gas research program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, about why prices haven't reached 2022 crisis levels, what current storage figures mean for winter volatility, and how the gas market's growing interconnectedness is amplifying uncertainty.

June 9, 202628 min

How battery storage is transforming the power grid

It's hard to overstate how fast the battery energy storage industry is growing, and the impact that's having on the power sector. In 2025, US utilities and independent developers added 17.75 gigawatts of large-scale battery storage capacity, up 52% from 2024. Multiple forecasts suggest another 100 GW or more of large-scale battery capacity will come online in the US through 2030. To the extent utilities and power producers can meet the electricity demand projected to surge in coming years, batteries are going to be critical to the solution, supporting data centers, electric vehicles, domestic factories and other sources of increased load. In this episode, Dan Testa digs into these trends with Noah Roberts, executive director of the Energy Storage Coalition, and Mateo Jaramillo, CEO of Form Energy, a company building and deploying long-duration batteries using innovative iron air technology.

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