Sustainable Energy Asia Podcast: Recent Episodes
Zhou Yiou and Benjamin Pan
Our podcast strives to shine a spotlight on the actors driving the energy transition sector and on critical issues for Asia and the world to achieve net zero. Through thought-provoking conversations, we aim to provide visibility to pressing topics in sustainable energy.
From nickel mining in Indonesia to EV battery advancements, solar development, and Taiwan’s offshore wind projects, we shed light on the challenges and breakthroughs shaping Asia’s energy landscape.
Gavin Adda, CEO of Peak Energy, former head of renewables at TotalEnergies and founder of Cleantech Solar, shared about his journey building the renewable C&I sector in Asia. Gavin delved on topics such as the evolution of the sector, the regulation in different countries, how to scale, the terms to get right in the CPPA, financing and opportunities for the sector in the region.
Cory Combs, Head of critical minerals and supply chain research at Trivium China, is back on the show to cover the energy transition in China. When it comes to energy transition, China is arguably the most dynamic geography globally, leading in many sectors.
Cory and Benjamin discussed a wide range of topics: power market reform, the explosive EV market, battery materials, and the latest developments on critical minerals.
Jean-Louis Neves Mandelli and Frederic Draps, Partners at Arshurst, shared key insights on the new power development plan (RUPTL 2025-2034) and the Indonesian power sector. Drawing on over 10 years of experience covering the market, Jean-Louis and Fred discussed the main takeaways from the RUPTL, the role of private IPPs under the new plan, key challenges, and important considerations for investing in Indonesia’s power sector.
Scott Hsu, Head of Taiwan and the Philippines at K2 Management, provides insights into the development of the offshore wind industry in both regions.
As the project director for Formosa 1 - the first offshore wind project in Taiwan - Scott has witnessed the industry’s evolution from its inception.
He discusses recent developments in Taiwan, including the shift to Corporate PPAs, the relaxation of localization requirements, and the challenges the sector has faced in recent years. Additionally, he highlights the rapid growth of the offshore wind industry in the Philippines, where numerous developers are actively investing in the sector.
Kartikey Hariyani, CEO of Charge Zone, an EV charging infrastructure company in India, speaks about his experience funding the company, the EV charging landscape in India and how to develop and grow in this dynamic market.
Marnix Schrijner and David Plunkett, Head of power market and Korea market expert at Afry, a power market consultancy, are sharing their views on the Korean power market and the latest developments in the Korean offshore wind sector. The two power experts delved into the Korean power market structure, the 11th basic plan, the Korean framework for the offshore wind sector, the result of last year offshore wind auction and the significant changes in this year offshore wind auction mechanism.
Shobhan Dhir, critical minerals analyst at the IEA, presents the key insights from the International Energy Agency (IEA) Critical Minerals Outlook 2024, the latest developments in the EV market, and the different battery cathode chemistries. As part of our conversation, we also covered the supply and demand of two critical minerals that are playing an essential role in the energy transition copper and lithium.
Read the Critical minerals outlook 2024
Cormac O'Laire, Managing Director at Electrios Energy and head of strategy at Green Li-on presents the different EV battery cathode chemistries. After an early career in academics, Cormac spent over 10 years in Hong Kong following the development of the battery supply chain. In our conversation, we will cover subjects such as the main chemistries, NMC, NCA, LFP, the role played by Korea and China in the industry and latest development of LMFP, sodium iron and solid-state batteries.
Mathieu Geze, Director for Asia at HDF Energy, an European IPP specialised in hydrogen solutions, shares his view on the challenges of decarbonising small grids and how HDF Energy can provide a green baseload solution combining solar, battery and a hydrogen system.
Based in Indonesia, Mathieu explains why HDF Energy has opted to start developing projects in the country and shares the challenges and successes of his journey developing projects in Eastern Indonesia.
Mike Thomas, Founder and Managing Director at the Lantau Group explained the ins and outs of the Singapore electricity market and discussed the project to import renewable electricity into Singapore from neighbouring countries. Mike shared his over 30 years of energy analyst experience and described the main drivers of the electricity market in Singapore.
Thomas Briault, Energy leader at Arup in South East Asia discussed the hydrogen value chain. He explained with talent how hydrogen is being produced, stored, transported, and used and its potential to decarbonise the world.
Henry Sanderson, Managing Editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, presents his book Volt Rush: the winners and losers of the race to go green. In this very well researched book, Henry presents the battery technologies, the materials essential for EV batteries and the leading players in this industry. We focus our discussion on the many Chinese companies playing a central role in the EV battery supply chain.
We cover the following topics
- Battery: The role played by CATL in the global battery value chain and the personal story of its founder Robin Zeng
- Lithium: How lithium is extracted and processed in Chile and Australia and why lithium extracted from the spodumene is 7 times more carbon intensive than the Li extracted from Li brine
- Lithium: How Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium are involved in the Li supply chain and how they have built their dominance over the years
- Cobalt: The role of the Congo DRC in the global cobalt supply chain and the role of the two dominant players Huayou Cobalt and Glencore
- Cobalt: The Amnesty 2016 report exposing issues around artisanal mining and child labour in the cobalt mining sector in Congo DRC and the impact of the report
- Nickel: How Tsingshan positioned itself to benefit from Indonesia's ban on raw Nickel ore export in 2020, and how it succeeded in dominating the nickel industry with its investment in the Morowali industrial park
- Nickel: The environmental impact of processing nickel for stainless steel and battery material
- Deep-sea mining: Recent developments of deep-sea mining potential in the Clarion-Clipperton zone
Podcast website
Olivier Duguet, Founder and CEO of the onshore wind developer, The Blue Circle, imparted his experiences in wind project development across Europe and Southeast Asia. We discussed about the key influencers for the cost reductions and technological advancement in wind energy over the past decade, and elements underpinning The Blue Circle's successful bid in the 2023 Thailand Renewable Energy Auction.
Giles Cooper, Managing Partner in Vietnam at a leading international law firm Allens, shared his views on the recently approved Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8) in Vietnam. We discussed about the key highlights from the PDP8, the next steps and the broader implications for renewable energy development in Vietnam.
Putra Adhiguna, Energy technology lead in a think tank, explores Indonesia's nickel and battery industry and EV development. We discussed Indonesia's role in the global nickel supply chain and the key players shaping the local landscape. Putra shared his view on the impact of the choices made by legacy automakers on Indonesia's decarbonisation path and what the government can do to foster the development of the nickel industry and electrify Indonesia's roads.
Putra is Energy technology lead at Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
Putra's articles:
- Indonesia’s nickel edge yet to show up in its electric vehicles
- Electrifying Indonesia’s road transport
Kunal Shah Chief Growth Officer of Anaergia presents the importance of biogas and biomethane in reducing GHG emissions and their role as alternative renewable energy. The conversation also touched upon biogas and biomethane’s potential market size, global development, incentives, and their role in the energy transition journey.
Assaad Razzouk, CEO of Gurin Energy and host of the Angry Clean Energy Guy presents his new book "Saving the planet without the bullshit". His book cuts through the misinformation and provides straight-to-the-point solutions to the climate issue. Assaad offers readers clear and sometimes surprising advice on how to eat, how to drink, what to wear, and how to invest to fight climate change. He sheds light on actions that matter and the ones that does not. A core message of his book is why and how we should phase out oil, gas, and coal and why we can be distracted from this critical goal.
- His book: Saving the Planet without the bullshit
- His podcast: The Angry Clean Energy Guy
Jay Mariyappan, Partner at EEAM discussed the voluntary carbon markets. In this episode, Jay defines voluntary carbon markets in comparison to the compliance ones and explains how corporate commitments toward net zero are key drivers of the development of voluntary carbon markets. This episode also touches on the fundamental issue of heterogeneity and the quality of carbon offsets. In the end, Jay provides his view on the applicability of blockchain to this market.
Trista Chen, Partner at ERM, talks about her experience in the ESG industry. Trista shares her view on the development and trend in sustainability and ESG, broke down ESG due diligence process and sheds light on ESG standards and climate finance. Combining one case study on ESG due diligence of an e-cosmetic company, Trista also explained in detail how ERM's ESG due diligence is executed on the project level.
Maya Malik, founder of KimaEnergy speaks about her experience developing Taiwan offshore wind projects. Previously with Orsted and Copenhagen Offshores Partners, Maya shares her views about the 3 rounds of offshore wind tenders in Taiwan, the difficulties that developers are facing in this new round, the different offtake options and floating bottom technology.
Chris Starling, Partner at The Lantau Group, gave an overview of the Philippines electricity market and discussed recent the green energy auction program in the Philippines.
He shared his advice for companies looking to develop projects in the Philippines and discussed the different offtake structures available.
Jonathan Coppel, Head of the Energy Investment team at the International Energy Agency, presents the main findings of the Energy Investment 2022 report.
The two main takeaways of the report are 1) energy investment is expected to increase by 8% this year compared to just 1% on average over the previous 4 years (although half of the increase is due to cost increase) 2) We are, however, far short to an investment level allowing us to achievenet zero by 2050. Jonathan also discussed in detail trends in fossil fuel investment, clean energy investment, battery storage and sustainable finance.
Download the report here
Mike Thomas, Founder and Managing Director at the Lantau Group explained the ins and outs of the Singapore electricity market and discussed the project to import renewable electricity into Singapore from neighbouring countries. Mike shared his over 30 years of energy analyst experience and described the main drivers of the electricity market in Singapore.
Dolf Gielen, Director of technology and innovation at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) presented his research about critical materials for the energy transition such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths. He explained the fundamental chemistry of lithium ion batteries that power EV cars and detailed why the supply of these critical materials needs to be managed carefully to support the energy transition.
Liming Qiao, Head of Asia at the GWEC, speaks about wind energy development in Asia and the policy framework to kick off Vietnam's offshore wind industry. She shared her 20 years of experience working on climate and wind energy, painted the picture of wind energy development in Asia and explained why a transition tariff is necessary before switching to an auction process to kick start an industry.
Music: Skydancer by Scandinavianz
Vinay Rustagi, Managing Director at Bridge to India, talks about the Solar Commercial and Industrial ("C&I") market in India which is one of the biggest in the world. He analyses the specificities explaining the fast pace development of this sector over the past 7 years in India and gives his view about the future evolution of the industry.
Music: Skydancer by Scandinavianz
Thomas Briault, Energy leader at Arup in South East Asia discussed the hydrogen value chain. He explained with talent how hydrogen is being produced, stored, transported and used and its potential to decarbonise the world.
Music: Skydancer by Scandinavianz
Cory Combs from Trivium China discusses China's path towards net zero. Cory leads Trivium China's net zero research, advising government and private sector clients on China's energy and industry decarbonization efforts.
Cory is the author of the China net zero newsletter. Subscribe here for free https://triviumchina.com/net-zero/
Music - Skydancer by Scandinavianz
David Ludwig, Managing Director at ib vogt in Asia, a solar developer speaks about developing solar projects in Asia. David, spent his entire career working in the solar development sector. He shares his experience on what it takes to bring large-scale solar projects to the grid.
Soundtrack: Skydancer by Scandinavianz