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Energy Evolution

S&P Global Commodity Insights

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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Tuesday · 20 min
An edgy winter for European gas
Europe is heading into winter with low gas storage and prices back at levels not seen since 2022. Does a tight start to winter mean Europe will struggle to get enough gas, or will it simply have to pay more for it? In this episode of Energy Evolution, host Camilla Naschert is joined by Stuart Elliott, news manager at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. He explains why prices rose sharply to their late-October peaks, what current storage levels mean at the start of winter, and why low levels in Germany and the Netherlands matter in particular. Stuart also covers where Europe's gas is coming from, with the loss of most Qatari LNG and the EU ban on Russian LNG starting in the new year.
November 3 · 33 min
Carbon removal's coming of age: BECCS and the future of carbon markets
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage has long been one of the most promising and contested technologies in the rapidly expanding world of carbon removal. It is now starting to move from theory to practice at scale, in ways that matter for carbon markets, energy producers and industrial emitters alike. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte is joined by three practitioners actively shaping the BECCS market to assess whether the sector has finally crossed the threshold from ambition to delivery. Jan-Willem Bode, president of Puro.earth, maps the state of carbon removal certification; Alex Clayton, chief carbon officer at Gevo, offers a ground-level view from an operating BECCS facility in North Dakota; and Kaja Voss, CEO and founder of Inherit Carbon Solutions, explains how Europe is pursuing a different but complementary path to geological storage. Together they assess how evolving project financing structures and sharply contrasting policy approaches on either side of the Atlantic will determine the trajectory of carbon markets in the years ahead. The central question running through the conversation is a simple one: is BECCS finally ready to deliver the tons of carbon removal that buyers, regulators and climate targets urgently need?
October 27 · 30 min
Challenger chemistry: One start-up's bullish take on sodium-ion battery storage
Lithium-ion batteries dominate today's rapidly expanding global market for energy storage systems, fueled by hyperscalers and utilities scrambling to bring online new flexible capacity. But alternatives to lithium ion are fast emerging, perhaps none as quickly as its close cousin sodium ion. This episode features a recording from the American Clean Power Association's RECHARGE energy storage conference in Aurora, Colorado, where Platts senior reporter Garrett Hering moderated a fireside chat with Landon Mossburg, CEO and co-founder of Peak Energy, a developer of sodium-ion battery storage systems. Mossburg makes a case for why market observers may be underestimating the ability of sodium ion to rise from a fraction of the market to a meaningful market share in just a few years.
October 20 · 39 min
How much new gas capacity does the Texas grid need?
The Texas grid experienced record electricity demand in summer 2026 while posting some of the lowest power prices in nearly a decade. That might be good for customers, but it makes for a tough investment environment if you want to build a gas plant. And with surging demand projections and increasingly extreme weather swings, many believe Texas needs significant new dispatchable generation, mainly gas, to prepare. So how do we think about the reliability of the Texas grid? And how much are policy mechanisms like the Texas Energy Fund loan program helping? Where do renewables and storage fit into this? And how does Texas compare to other competitive power markets trying to encourage new dispatchable generation? This episode features a recording from the Gulf Coast Power Association's fall conference in Austin, where Dan Testa hosted a live discussion on these issues with guests: David Dardis, chief external affairs and growth officer at Constellation Energy; Elaina Ball, chief strategy officer at CPS Energy, the municipal utility for San Antonio; and Mason Lester, a principal analyst on the North American power team at S&P Global Energy.
October 13 · 43 min
Inside CBAM's first year: what traders, importers and policymakers learned
In this week's episode of Energy Evolution, host Eklavya Gupte takes stock of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism nearly a year into its definitive phase, and asks a pointed question: Is it working? To answer it, he is joined by Alwyn Hopkins, director and sustainability leader for Industrials and Energy at EY UK; Dan Maleski, director at the EY Global Tax Center of Excellence; and Irina Breilean, senior carbon price reporter at Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. Together, they examine how punishing default emissions values are rewriting the economics of steel, fertilizer and other carbon-intensive imports, how traders are building proxy hedges to manage exposure to volatile EU carbon prices, and why 2027 will mark a decisive shift from compliance accounting to live cash flow pressure. The episode also looks beyond Europe, tracing how CBAM is accelerating the development of carbon pricing regimes from India to Brazil, and what the UK's own version of the mechanism, launching in January 2027, means for global trade flows.
October 6 · 15 min
AI's power boom tests Big Tech's net-zero promises
In this week's episode of Energy Evolution, host Camilla Naschert turns the spotlight on Big Tech as part of S&P Global Energy's annual series examining how the world's largest companies are faring on their paths to net-zero emissions. The AI infrastructure boom has driven the sector's energy appetite to new heights, and its carbon footprint is rising in tandem. Tech reporter Stefan Modrich of S&P Global Market Intelligence surveyed the top 30 IT companies by market cap, tracking targets across scopes 1, 2 and 3. He found genuine ambition sitting uneasily alongside a commercial race to secure power at any cost. Senior reporter Karin Rives completes the picture from the utility side. Five years into her survey of the 30 largest US electric utilities, she found two-thirds are either not on pace to meet their climate goals, have delayed them or have scrapped them entirely. Some companies cited reliability and affordability as justification, while others are pressing ahead with new gas capacity to keep pace with a surge in electricity demand.
September 29 · 27 min
AI-powered threats put Europe's power system on high alert
Europe's increasingly digital power system faces a rapidly evolving mix of cyberattacks, physical sabotage and supply-chain vulnerabilities, with artificial intelligence amplifying both the risks and the defenses. Host Camilla Naschert speaks with Eurelectric CEO Kristian Ruby and European Initiative for Energy Security Executive Director Albéric Mongrenier about how utilities are responding to AI-enabled threats, state-backed and non-state actors, and attacks on critical infrastructure. They examine whether Europe's regulatory framework and security investment are keeping pace, how operators should approach equipment and vendor risk, and why stronger civilian-military coordination will be essential to keep the lights on.
September 22 · 22 min
Checking in on US offshore wind: Lease buybacks and legal blowback
The US offshore wind sector is facing a new front in its battle with the Trump administration: lease buyouts. In this episode of Energy Evolution, renewables reporter Noah Schwartz tells host Camilla Naschert about federal deals that allow offshore wind developers to cancel leases in exchange for fossil fuel investment commitments and government reimbursement. S&P Global Energy offshore wind analyst John Murray explains the financial and regulatory pressures facing developers, while former Bureau of Ocean Energy Management head Liz Klein discusses the legal challenges, state-level opposition and national security arguments surrounding offshore wind.
September 15 · 32 min
AI demand is intensifying the race to build advanced nuclear reactors
Dozens of North American private startups and established companies, state agencies and academic institutions are racing to develop and commercialize an advanced nuclear reactor. Whether these companies, and the advanced nuclear sector at large, can succeed depends on numerous factors, including the capital plans of large tech companies, favorable federal policy and the strengths of individual reactor designs. So which companies are currently winning the race to commercialize an advanced reactor design? In this episode, Dan Testa discusses the state of the advanced nuclear sector with contributor and S&P Global Energy reporter Abbie Bennett. Bennett also interviews Craig Bealmear, CFO of advanced reactor developer Oklo Inc., to get an inside view of the industry.
September 10 · 23 min
Global diesel shortages squeeze the Americas
Diesel markets are entering their most stressful stretch of the year as record prices, thin inventories and disrupted supply flows collide across the Americas. In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, Jeff Mower speaks with Janet McGurty, Kauanna Navarro and Carlos Castillo about how constraints in Russia and the Middle East have pushed US Gulf Coast refiners into the role of global swing supplier, why Brazil is relying more heavily on US and Indian cargoes, and how limited refinery spare capacity leaves markets with little room for error.
September 8 · 32 min
War and decarbonization: Rewriting the UK and Europe's refining future
By most conventional metrics, the European refining sector is in rude health. The Middle East conflict has driven key fuel price benchmarks to unprecedented heights, and refiners are running flat out to plug supply gaps left by disruptions to key Gulf exporters. In this episode, host Eklavya Gupte speaks to Kelly Norways, senior editor at S&P Global Energy Platts, who explains why the current boom has so far failed to shift many refiners' thinking about the long-term competitiveness of Europe as a fuel production hub, and why that disconnect threatens both the region's energy security and its ambitions for investment in low-carbon technologies. They explore how governments across the continent are responding to a wave of refinery closures that predates the conflict, whether the crisis has genuinely changed the political calculus in the region, and what it would actually take to unlock the scale of capital spending the sector needs to survive and decarbonize. We also hear from Elizabeth de Jong, CEO of Fuels Industry UK, a trade association representing the country's downstream sector. She sets out the industry's case to be included in the UK's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, explains why record refining margins represent a temporary distortion rather than a structural fix, and warns that without a decisive government signal on carbon costs and competitiveness, Europe risks emerging from this crisis in a weaker position than when it began.
September 1 · 25 min
Why protesters want to slow America's data center boom
Alongside a surge in data center construction, a growing protest movement has emerged in the US, with locals voicing concerns over electricity and water usage. Protests have put around 12 gigawatts of data center capacity at risk, analyst John Murray from S&P Global Energy tells the Energy Evolution podcast. To address concerns, tech firms need to improve transparency and deliver clear local benefits, said Darrell West, senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation within the Governance Studies program at think tank Brookings. To answer questions on sustainability and power consumption, host Camilla Naschert is joined by Aaron Tinjum of trade association Data Center Coalition. The news clip featured in this episode is from ABC News, July 19, 2026.
August 25 · 32 min
Europe's electrification challenge: Can ambition meet reality?
The EU wants to nearly double its electrification rate to 46% by 2040, a transformation that would slash fossil fuel imports by hundreds of billions of euros annually. In this episode of Energy Evolution, host Eklavya Gupte examines the EU's Electrification Action Plan and assesses whether Europe can realistically achieve it. Coralie Laurencin, director of European gas, power and carbon policy at S&P Global Energy CERA, and Andreas Franke, editorial lead on European power markets at S&P Global Energy Platts, unpack the formidable challenges: stubbornly high electricity costs, taxation and subsidy structures, and massive grid investments needed to support surging demand. The conversation breaks down which sectors will electrify fastest and which face steeper obstacles, from Germany's industrial power subsidies to France's nuclear-backed power contracts. As geopolitical instability threatens global supply chains, electrification has emerged as the EU's answer to energy security, climate ambition, and industrial competitiveness, but only if Brussels can make electricity both abundant and affordable.
August 18 · 42 min
Balcony solar and EVs are giving consumers a greater role in grid flexibility
Balcony or "plug-in" solar is rapidly gaining popularity, as it gives consumers who might not have easy access to distributed solar generation a straightforward way to deploy the technology and begin saving on their power bills. Meanwhile, as drivers transition to electric vehicles, the possibility of deploying the batteries as a flexible grid resource hooked up to bidirectional chargers is also growing. These new technologies are allowing residential utility customers to take greater control over their electricity consumption and spending. But wider adoption has implications for grid safety and reliability, and several states are already moving to regulate and manage the addition of these resources. In this episode, Dan Testa discusses these issues with Kirsten Errick, an S&P Global Energy reporter who covers renewables. Kirsten interviews Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a plug-in solar company, and Aseem Kapur, chief revenue officer at GM Energy.
August 11 · 30 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 · 33 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 · 47 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 · 23 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 · 25 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 · 25 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.

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