The source(s) of life
Publications, podcasts or personalities you should follow on the topics of energy and climate change
This is not a definitive article or holistic summary but a live list of sources we we consider informational, reliable, and fun.
Do let us know if you have any suggestions:
Energy-Charts.info & Bruno Burger from Fraunhofer
Absolutely premier content from public applied sciences research organisation Fraunhofer driven by Bruno Burger.
It can sometimes be a bit tough to navigate the PowerBI type interface, but you’ll get generation or price data from across all of Europe (except the UK for some reason).
https://www.energy-charts.info
Laurent Segalen, Gerard Reid from Redefining Energy
These successful ex-clean energy bankers have launched a great podcast bringing the latest developments critical and unfiltered - quite refreshing in a world where energy analysts need to always be careful what they say at risk of angering clients. Aside from this, Laurent is known for being probably the most based voice in energy.
Must listen, must follow.
https://redefining-energy.com/
Laurent throws good shade on LinkedIn, asking for ideas on how to short stupid ideas https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurent-segalen-2b090a24/
Also follow Gerard here on Substack: https://gerardreid.substack.com/
The BloombergNEF ecosystem
Michael Liebreich has made a killing selling New Energy Finance to Bloomberg. Apart from it being a premiere and expensive data and research company, he’s now independent again and similarly as based as Laurent. Since then, BNEF/Liebreich has produced absolute genius:
Jenny Chase is the absolute queen of solar power. Her book Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon is highly recommended for your next beach holiday. Her annual social media updates “opinions on solar” on the status of the industry are also legendary.
Similarly, Nat Bullard’s annual chart books are a fixture, looking at every sector related to climate change.
Special shoutout to Adithya and Gniewomir, who’ve been teaching us a lot about the economics of hydrogen, it’s production, transport, applications and anything related.
Some of BNEF’s research is also publicly available, definitely check the New Energy Outlook reports
https://about.bnef.com/new-energy-outlook/
EmberClimate and Dave Jones
This think tank and its (electricity) data viewer is a gift to humanity. Dave Jones is one of their most prominent voices across social media (and Nat Bullard is also involved on the advisory board!).
https://ember-energy.org/data/electricity-data-explorer/
The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) - Jan Rosenow and Richard Lowes
Great think-tank with two great minds to follow on energy policy and especially heat pumps. RAP and its members such as Jan and Rich are very active on social media to influence the discussion around regulation and policy and often calling out false statements, bad faith actors or fake news in public media.
Check out their policy toolbox!
IRENA - International Renewable Energy Agency
A bit of an answer to the IEA, the IRENA was set up to focus first and foremost on renewable energies. Their flagship is the WETO - World Energy Transition Outlook which deserves a skim for sure.
You can also access their data in their online charting tool or directly from IRENASTAT
https://www.irena.org/Publications
Energy Institute (previously BP) statistical review
Massive review of historical data, which used to be produced by BP, then dropped and picked up by the Energy Institute, Kearny and KPMG.
One key shortcoming is its focus on primary energy which is apparently to be changed in the next edition (why that’s important read here: https://climateposting.substack.com/p/mediocre-metrics-1-primary-energy)
They do have some data also available in their online data chart tool:
https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review
Lazard’s LCOE report
If you’ve ever worked in this sector, you know these guys are tough as nails but also their research team does solid work on energy.
Their LCOE+ report tracks the development across all important electricity sources with assumptions largely applicable for the US so do be careful and read all the little foot notes.
https://www.lazard.com/research-insights/levelized-cost-of-energyplus/
IEA - International Energy Agency
Set up after the 1973 oil crisis, this organisation is deeply rooted in the fossil fuel industry and notoriously terrible at forecasting renewable energy growth (Honi soit qui mal y pense…)
However, they have vast historical data and great current policy trackers, so use their data freely but their forecasts carefully (such as the WEO - World Energy Outlook, complete trash). For instance, they still have not managed to correctly forecast the type of growth (linear vs exponential) of solar
