Energy vs Climate: How climate is changing our energy systems

This is a replay of our conversation with Dr. Shirley Meng from the University of Chicago on battery storage. It's one of our favourite deep dives because batteries touch everything from EV range anxiety to grid scale storage, and even the whole critical minerals conversation. When we recorded this in May 2024, Shirley was predicting real solid state battery platforms by 2027 or 2028, and here we are getting close to that window, so it's worth listening again with that timeline in mind.&nbs...

Octopus Energy paid its UK customers collectively over £100,000 during a recent heat wave, not through new infrastructure, but a text message and a price signal offering demand flexibility. That caught our attention. In this episode, Ed and Sara (David sits this one out) talk with Eric Davids, Head of Strategy for Octopus Energy's US business, about redefining utility-customer relationships, how approaches in the UK stack up against North American utilities' much blunter "please conserve" gr...

David, Sara, and Ed chat with Dr. Jai Asundi, Executive Director of the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), an independent Indian think tank. Dr. Asundi has been leading CSTEP since 2009, connecting data, modeling, and policy to tackle India's energy and climate challenges. They dive into India's electricity grid, the EV revolution, oil and gas dependency, and where energy meets geopolitics. About Our Guest Dr Jai Asundi is the Executive Director at the Cente...

Sara & Ed chat with Martin Olszynski about Alberta's mounting energy liability crisis. They discuss the billions in future costs for decommissioning, remediation, and reclamation of oil and gas projects as well as the challenge in accurately quantifying government and public exposure to financial and environmental risk amid profound energy sector disruption. The question isn't whether these liabilities will materialize—it's who pays when they do. It's a lively and wide-ranging c...

Sara's back for the launch of Season 7 of Energy vs Climate! For our first episode, David, Sara, and Ed discuss whether solar will be the big energy winner. Has solar energy already won? What’s driving its rapid ascent? And what does it mean for energy production and policy here in Canada? Show notes & references available on episode page. About Your EvC Co-Hosts: David Keith is Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative at the University of Chic...

We're sharing another episode of Ed’s podcast Climate Book Reviews with acclaimed Canadian author Don Gillmor on his latest non-fiction work, On Oil. Ed is joined by his regular co-host Dr. Roger Thompson, Director of Writing Programs and Professor at Arizona State University. This episode dives into the sharply drawn and darkly funny world of On Oil, a slim and punchy examination of the most earth-altering industry of our time. Drawing from Gillmor's early years working on Alberta oil ri...