Europe's Energy Crisis
Energy Terminal Weekly Newsletter
April 4th 2023 | Issue #46 | Subscribe here
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
💲PACE Funding, what is it?
⛏️ Building a Battery to Replace Coal
💥 Europe's Energy Crisis
📈 Cracking Geothermal Energy
🌞 Boosting Local Solar
🚨 Top 3 Energy Jobs 🚨
1) Frakktal Labs, Undergrad or Grad Intern
Frakktal Labs is looking for an intern with material science, project management and/or environmental science experience to support the team with the following projects:
EPD strategy, i.e., identifying accurate cradle to cradle GHG impact
USDA Biopreferred product qualification
Pilot/scale-up project management
Interested? Send your resume and/or cover letter to we@frakktal.com.
2) Vauban Infrastructure Partners, Private Equity Intern
Vauban Infrastructure Partners is an asset management company that invests in sustainable development of local communities and their environments. The intern will help execute infrastructure investments and manage their growing portfolio companies and assets.
Interested? Email Brian Xu at brian.xu-ext@vauban-ip.com
3) Revamp Engineering Inc, Solar Engineer Internship
Revamp Engineering, Inc. is an engineering design firm focused on renewable energy projects. In 2020, Revamp engineers designed 10% of all solar installed in the US. Revamp is a 3x Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing US business and the fastest-growing engineering design firm in the country. The solar engineer intern will assist with many of the technical aspects of creating solar projects.
📣 Episode 26
The European Energy Crisis flipped the energy world on its head in one of most influential events in energy history. Gas and electricity prices surged, Europe scrambled to replace the 40% of its natural gas supply that came from Russia, and the world scrambled to stem the worst outcomes. Now a year on from the inception of the crisis, what does the situation look like? How has the balance of power in energy shifted? And how has the speed of the energy transition changed?
Here to answer these questions is Gerard Reid, founder and host of the Redefining Energy podcast and founder of Alexa Capital, a European investment bank supporting the energy transition. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Energy Council, which brings together business and government leaders to shape our energy future. As a well-known voice on all things energy, he brings his expertise to the episode to break down Europe’s energy situation and what it means for the energy transition going forward.
📚 Reading List
Better Batteries? The Future of Geothermal? Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Climate One, White house Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi on Willow and Biden’s Climate Agenda
Biden’s climate policy has accomplished more than most people thought was possible, from investing in chips and batteries to climate smart agriculture and tax incentives for electrifying homes and vehicles
Despite this, while Biden made a promise on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t drill on federal lands, he just approved the Willow Project (an $8 billion plan to pump 600 billion barrels of oil from federal lands in Alaska), and Zaidi says this decision is “part of the complexity of where we find ourselves”
Zaidi embraces this idea of “complexity” and describes how the administration is engaging with oil and gas and hard-to-decarbonize industries because they too need to be a part of the solution
He also claims that the focus of the administration when it comes to climate policy is both economic and environmental justice, which means prioritizing workers and engaging them in a clean energy economy
My Climate Journey, John Kinney, CleanFund
CleanFund serves as an enabling mechanism for PACE financing
PACE financing is a way for property owners to finance “public good” improvements to their buildings through their property taxes
Depending on the state’s definition, these “public good” improvements could include improvements for clean energy, efficiency and resiliency
PACE financing is mostly used commercially, PACE is allowed commercially in 37 states because there is more consumer protection rules in place for commercial properties
CleanFund is helping lenders create their own PACE project, they think this will create 100 billion dollars of private capital that will go into the commercial real estate business to help buildings make clean energy improvements
Zero, How to build a battery that replaces a coal plant
Long-duration energy storage startup Form Energy has raised nearly a billion dollars for its technology and is now building a major manufacturing facility in the U.S.
Energy storage is crucial to enable further deployment of renewable energy, and we need storage technologies of various durations to account for hourly, daily, weekly, and seasonal variations
Long-duration energy storage could enable the retirement of baseload energy generation facilities like coal plants while mitigating the variability of renewables
📰️ Articles:
Canary Media, DOE doubles its SolSmart program, with an aim to boost local solar
SolSmart is helping local governments across the country develop rooftop and community solar
These programs include workforce training, technology development, financial support, and permitting reforms
The goal is to reduce barriers to solar adoption at the local level and promote the growth of renewable energy in communities
CNBC, OPEC+ just made the Fed’s job more complicated. Here’s what it did - and what could be next
Multiple OPEC+ members announced intentions to cut a total of 1.16 million barrels per day of production, and this will challenge consumer governments like the US that are already dealing with high inflation and banking volatility
This decisions protects the alliance’s broader output strategy from political pressures, but burdens the central bank’s efforts to reduce global inflation
Biden’s administration has expressed concern over this production due to the inflationary toll on households and accusations of camaraderie with Russia
Some analysts are warning that oil prices could reach $100 per barrel
The Wall Street Journal, Can Oil-and-Gas Industry Crack Geothermal Energy?
There have been more geothermal startups launched over the past 18 months than combined over the past decade
Geothermal stands out over other renewables because it is available around the clock and not dependent on weather
Geothermal uses many of the same drilling techniques as oil + gas, but geothermal wells are completed differently
For geothermal to be successful, and have the potential to be a direct competitor with natural-gas for electricity generation an
⏰ Missed Episode 25?
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