As Europe electrifies, demand-side flexibility will play an increasingly important role in balancing the electricity system. But how will flexibility markets develop and how can the different signals reaching consumers be coordinated?
To find out, Pamela Largue speaks with Michael Villa, executive director of SmartEn, and Riley Behrens, associate consultant at LCP Delta, in this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast. They elaborate on the findings of a new report from SmartEn and LCP Delta, Reflecting on the Future: Medium-Term Evolutions Impacting the Development of Flexible Demand, which explores three possible pathways for the evolution of demand-side flexibility over the next decade. These pathways, or scenarios, are based on five pillars of the electricity system; namely, regulation, markets, demand, generation and networks. According to Behrens and Villa, the gap between these scenarios is significant, and it’s critical to set the direction to the most optimal scenario now.

Keep up with the conversations shaping the energy transition. Discover more on Enlit World

Europe’s recent heatwaves and droughts put the nuclear power sector under pressure, with some reactors forced to curtail output as river flows fell and cooling water became more constrained.

The events raised acute concerns about how extreme weather affects critical energy infrastructure and, more broadly, how well the existing nuclear fleet can withstand a changing climate.

To gain insight into how resilient the existing nuclear power fleet is and what needs to be done to future-proof the sector’s development, Pamela Largue speaks with King Lee, head of policy and industry engagement, at World Nuclear Association. Lee highlights what needs to happen to ensure nuclear can deliver on growing ambitions to triple capacity and the measures operators and policymakers can take to build resilience.

He also discusses the impact of rising electricity demand and how supply chains, financing, skills, and policy need to respond to ensure sustainable growth.

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Renewable energy has never been more affordable to produce. However, for developers and investors, the economics of building new renewable capacity are becoming increasingly complex.

More specifically, negative electricity prices, grid connection queues and rising financing costs are challenging project profitability, forcing the industry to rethink how it creates value.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Hallvard Granheim, executive vice-president for Markets at Statkraft, explores this situation in more detail.

Granheim discussed the changing economics of renewables and what it takes to make projects commercially viable in an evolving energy market. He also examines the growing role of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in balancing risks and meeting the needs of renewable producers and industrial consumers.

Ultimately, Granheim argues that the energy transition has moved beyond adding megawatts. It is about developing the right projects, understanding customer needs and ensuring renewable energy remains both competitive and profitable.

Keep up with the conversations shaping the energy transition. Discover more on Enlit World

As battery energy storage systems become an increasingly critical part of the energy transition, the conversation is shifting from simply deploying more assets to ensuring they are used as intelligently as possible.
In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Pamela Largue speaks with Henri Taskinen, CEO and co-founder of Capalo AI, about the sophisticated optimisation and trading strategies that are unlocking the full value of battery storage.
He focuses in on how AI, forecasting and advanced algorithms enable storage assets to respond dynamically to changing market conditions, as well as why intelligent optimisation is becoming essential to project bankability.

Europe has already lost around half of its primary aluminium production in recent years, driven by soaring energy costs and intense international competition and yet the ambition to decarbonise industry has never been greater. To unpack the realities facing European industry, as well as the policies that are advancing or preventing deindustrialisation, Pamela Largue speaks with Paul Voss, Director General of European Aluminium. Voss explores why competitively priced electricity is fundamental to Europe's industrial future, why long-term investment in renewables, grids and storage matters more than short-term fixes, and how geopolitical events have reshaped Europe's thinking on trade, resilience and strategic autonomy.
While the industry's commitment to net zero is unwavering, Voss argues that policy must be grounded in technological reality.

As the European Commission advances key legislative proposals, such as Electrification Action Plan and the EU ETS review, the focus is shifting from setting renewable energy targets to delivering them.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Pamela Largue speaks with Vasiliki Klonari, Director of Energy System Integration at WindEurope, about why this is the most consequential legislative cycle for Europe's energy future. She highlights the critical importance of coherent policies to achieve investor confidence and smarter system integration and lays out how Europe can move beyond ambition to implementation and greater energy autonomy.

As governments, utilities and investors navigate geopolitical uncertainty and increasing pressure to decarbonise and electrify, one question continues to dominate the energy transition: where will the money come from?
Sadly, many across the world continue to suffer energy poverty and billions of dollars remain on the sidelines despite enormous demand for energy infrastructure.

In the latest episode of the Enlit Energy Transitions podcast, Pamela Largue speaks with Woochong Um, CEO of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, about how to address this persistent challenge, what it takes to unlock investment for clean energy in developing economies and how to connect the money with the projects and people needing it most.
According to Um, the real challenge is not a lack of capital, but a lack of bankable projects, enabling policies and collaboration. He also emphasises that the energy transition, climate action and economic development are not competing priorities but mutually reinforcing goals.

Could AI help wave energy operate more efficiently, while ocean energy provides clean, stable power for the growing AI economy?
In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Inna Braverman, founder and CEO of Eco Wave Power, and Yufei Tang, associate professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), explore the possibilities of this symbiotic relationship.
Tang and Braverman discuss the convergence of wave energy, AI and data centres, focusing on WaveGPT, an AI-enabled system being developed to support predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and real-time operational decision-making for wave-energy systems.
They also highlight the collaboration between Eco Wave Power, FAU and the University of Michigan, which explores an AI-optimised coastal data-centre concept powered by wave energy and supported by energy storage.
It’s an inspiring glance into the future of how renewable energy systems could work and demonstrates why the future of AI-powered energy may be closer to the ocean than we think.