Are low profits to blame for the energy transition lagging?

The Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Alternative Energy, Tech News, 958784, Environment, Technology, Renewable Energy, Energy, Business, Sustainability, Wind Energy, Climate Change, Cleantech, News, Solar Energy, Innovation, News Commentary

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author of ‘The Price Is Wrong’, Brett Christophers, joins the show to discuss the theories in his book.

On a recent episode of the show, host Ed Crooks was joined by Melissa Lott and Joseph Majkut to discuss two books that were generating a lot of interest in energy circles. One of those, The Price Is Wrong, argues that inadequate profitability is the key reason why the transition to low-carbon energy is not moving fast enough to address the threat of global warming.

There are plenty of interesting and provocative points raised in the book, so it made sense to hear them direct from the source. Ed and Melissa are joined by author and academic Brett Christophers to dissect the main points: the challenges and obstacles faced by renewable energy projects in terms of profitability and investment, and the true impact of these on progressing the energy transition.

Christophers says that low returns in renewables are a result of competition, volatility in wholesale power markets, and the design of energy markets – ‘returns are lower in renewables because there’s too much money chasing too few projects.’ Ed and Melissa weigh in with their thoughts on this. Plus, they discuss the importance of market design, the role of power purchase agreements, and the need for stability in renewable energy projects. There’s a definite need for more stability-providing sources to make renewable energy projects bankable on a larger scale. Are PPAs the answer?

Listen back to the review of The Price Is Wrong with Ed, Melissa and Joseph here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-capitalism-save-the-planet/id663379413?i=1000658599656

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Energy Gang, a discussion show about the fast-moving world of energy. I'm it Crooks and I'm
0:14.8	joined today by Melissa Lott who's a professor at the Climate School at Columbia University in
0:18.8	New York. Hi Melissa, how are you? Hey Ed doing well I've been looking forward to this conversation all week so I can't wait. I'm so excited.
0:25.2	Absolutely. Yeah, I do think this is going to be a good one because a
0:29.0	listeners may remember if you heard this episode on the last show Melissa and I along with Joseph Mikeut of the Center for Strategic and International Studies
0:37.0	discuss what I think is a very interesting and important new book about energy.
0:42.0	It's called The Price is Wrong, Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet.
0:45.3	And it's by an academic called Brett Christophors, who's based at Uppsler University in Sweden.
0:50.5	And if you've seen the movie Annie Hall, you'll, I'm sure, remember the bit where the two
0:54.9	characters are having an argument about Marshall McLuhan and then Marshall McLaughlin himself turns up and kind of settles the argument between them.
1:01.6	And that's exactly what we're doing today,
1:03.6	because it is my great pleasure to welcome to the Energy Gang,
1:06.4	Brett Christopher's, the author of The Price is Wrong.
1:09.4	Brett, thanks very much for joining us.
1:10.8	Thank you.
1:11.4	It's great to be with you.
1:12.3	And I think the energy gang is the
1:14.3	favorite name of a podcast that I've been on so far so I'm delighted to be with you. I can't think of
1:19.6	better company than the energy gang. Absolutely, absolutely, well it's great to welcome you into our gang for this episode.
1:27.0	So look, I want to get on to talk about the substance of the book in a moment.
1:32.0	We have a great deal to discuss both Melissa and I really
1:35.2	were excited by it very much engaged with the arguments you've been making, had points of agreement
	...

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