Carbon mitigation technology is getting a lot of attention and relatively new area of carbon capture, Direct Air Capture (DAC), has the unique advantage of potentially reducing the CO2 produced in the past. But because air has only 0.04% CO2, the economics of recovery are challenging, and we discuss why it is likely to remain uneconomical at scale for at least a decade. These same technologies, however, applied at the point source from industrial sources are feasible at USD 40 per tonne CO2 and headed lower. At these costs, capture and storage cost is nearly half the price of carbon in Europe, indicating huge potential in the market.  

You can listen to Energy Explained on your favorite podcasting platforms: 

Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-explained/id1567684721 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0zZLgIVEK495J0J1Dcqygp 

Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MDQ3ZDIwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==  

Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/energy-explained-G2QXnn  

Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/energy-explained

Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, economic sanctions have been put in place to cut Russia off from the Western financial systems, but these sanctions have been designed to allow the flow of oil and gas to continue. This winter, European nations have paid $200-300 million euros per day for natural gas. In this video we explain why Europe has continued to pay for Russian natural gas and oil, and why this is highly likely to continue for the next 2-3 years in the case of gas, with oils path to full embargo depending heavily on the actions of OPEC and US shale oil ramp up, which we discuss in detail. Enjoy!

In the past few weeks, the European Union labeled nuclear and natural gas as "sustainable investments." The New York Times commented "The effort to steer public and private money toward nuclear power stations and gas-fired generators in the European Union was criticized as greenwashing." In this episode, my father explains why he supports the European Union's decision, even though any dependence on a fossil fuel is not ideal and details the science behind his reason.   

Solar and wind are the lowest cost sources of energy in the world and form the new pricing standards for base load generation, but given their high variance, they need augmentation from capacity that can flexibly meet electricity demand. The daily variation in wind and sunlight can be dealt with using batteries, but for longer periods of low sunlight or low wind are not economically or environmentally viable. Longer term supplements must be load following, low-to-no carbon, and scalable. At reasonable scale in 10 years plus those could be small nuclear reactors and geothermal. Until then we need natural gas with carbon capture and storage.  

You can listen to Energy Explained on your favorite podcasting platforms:  

Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-explained/id1567684721  

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0zZLgIVEK495J0J1Dcqygp  

Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MDQ3ZDIwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==  

Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/energy-explained-G2QXnn  

Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/energy-explained  

Utopia By DeadDNA is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Natural gas prices have spiked in Europe and other net importers.  Late September prices in the Netherlands were nearly 3 times greater than in June of this year, and nearly 6 times greater than a year ago.  We discuss the fundamentals that created this crisis and the relationship to renewable energy production.  A predicted colder than normal winter could cause extreme privation.  The only easy (partial) solution, more gas from Russia, is fraught by politics. Renewable energy at scale needs storage solutions or alternate sources such as geothermal energy.  You can also listen to Energy Explained on your favorite podcasting platforms:  

Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-explained/id1567684721  

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0zZLgIVEK495J0J1Dcqygp  

Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MDQ3ZDIwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==  

Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/energy-explained-G2QXnn  

Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/energy-explained  

Utopia By DeadDNA is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In this episode Vikram explains why wildfires have doubled in prevalence in the past 30 years, how they are starting in new ways (e.g. dry lightning) and what can be done to mitigate them. He further explains that the unseen health risks from nanoparticles are particularly concerning and likely something we'll be hearing more about in terms of serious health risks in the coming years. 

A recent New York Times article  Exxon’s Board Defeat Signals the Rise of Social-Good Activists asserts “The energy giant’s stunning loss was the work of a tiny hedge fund that believes investing for social good is also good for the bottom line.” In this episode we dig into this claim – is there really a tipping point in “green investing”?

Vikram’s perspective is that we are indeed at a tipping point, but not due a change in the ethics of investing or a social movement, rather recent breakthroughs in carbon capture and fixation/storage technology make it economical to produce energy through traditional means, e.g. natural gas, and substantially reduce emissions at the source of production. He discusses how he expects start-up firms, such as Carbon Clean, that are developing novel carbon capture technology to work with supermajors to scale and deploy these recent breakthroughs. He expects it to make a material difference in CO2 output in just 2 years. Tune in to hear more!

In this episode we discuss the recent headline news that two independent directors were elected to ExxonMobil's Board of Directors as a result of a push by activist investors to steer the company towards renewable energy. Vikram (former Halliburton CTO) breaks down what it means to be an "independent" director, how he thinks they'll be able to have a material direction on company strategy and what he'd do if he were in their position. He further explains that ExxonMobil can (profitably) get into the renewable market by focusing not on production, but storage and liquification. 

Tune in to hear the discussion! 

You can also listen to Energy Explained on your favorite podcasting platforms: 

Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-explained/id1567684721 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0zZLgIVEK495J0J1Dcqygp 

Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MDQ3ZDIwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/energy-explained-G2QXnn 

Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/energy-explained Utopia By DeadDNA is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Nuclear power was historically the largest power generation technology that does not release greenhouse gas. Current is accounts for 10% of the world's electricity production, down from a peak of 17% in the late 90's. The production of new nuclear plants has ground to a halt and old plants are coming offline, leading to the decline in output.  

In this video Vikram explains that old-school, massive nuclear power plants are simply no longer cost effective. But a new type of nuclear fission produced via "small modular reactors" offers hope of a return of nuclear. These reactors are produced on an assembly line and thus can benefit from economies of scale and their small size eliminates or greatly reduces many of the risks (perceived or real) associated with massive power plants.   

Tune in to hear the discussion!  

You can also listen to Energy Explained on your favorite podcasting platforms: 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0zZLgIVEK495J0J1Dcqygp

Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81MDQ3ZDIwNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/energy-explained-G2QXnn

Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/energy-explained 

Utopia By DeadDNA is licensed under a  Creative Commons License.

In this episode we discussed a fact that is not widely known: the annual greenhouse gas production from making steel and concrete exceeds that of cars, truck and planes combined. Vikram explains that producing 1 ton of steel results in 1.8 tons of C02, amongst other pollutants. This emission is fundamental to the production process, and there are limited (but not zero) technological solutions to produce steel and concrete without producing greenhouse gases.   

Vikram posits that carbon capture technology, combined with "mineralification" of the captured CO2 is nearing the point where it becomes more economical than buying carbon credits. He further explains that the use of carbon credits for steel/concrete is really not viable, because it's too big a chunk of the market and carbon capture can solve the problem at the point source, whereas other polluting activities, such as air travel, have no near or medium term solutions for point-source capture.  Tune in to hear the discussion!

ExxonMobil recently announced new business in storing CO2 from Houston ship channel using a new underground storage technology: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/business/exxon-mobil-makes-a-pitch-for-capturing-emissions-and-a-carbon-price.html

BP had previously announced the use of a similar technology in the United Kingdom: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/business/carbon-capture-bp.html

In this video, Vikram explains how this technology works to take captured CO2 and store it "permanently" underground, using old oil wells and reservoirs. He explains that he believes the combination is nearing mainstream economic viability and could become the leading carbon mitigation (from previously produced CO2) technology. That being said, he still feels that changing productive process to reduce our reliance on hydrocarbons is ultimately the more impactful route, both technologically and societally.

Tune in to hear the discussion!

Utopia By DeadDNA is licensed under a  Creative Commons License

Shell, one of the "supermajor" oil and gas companies, recently announced that they expect their oil production to drop 1-2% annually over the next ten years, meaning at the high end of their projection oil production will drop 25% in 10 years.   

In this video, Vikram breaks down Shell's strategic decision here. First, he explains that while one producer projecting production declines does not necessarily mean we've reached ''peak oil,'' he believes that Shell's scenario modeling is the best in the business, and that declining oil demand is indeed likely. Declining demand would point to lower production levels, unless prices fell dramatically (demand is a curve afterall!), and Vikram explains that he actually expects prices to rise somewhat, further pointing to declining use of oil.  

An area of Shell's announcement that has gotten less attention is their commitment to ''extending leadership'' in liquified natural gas by adding 7 MM tonne LNG production each year by 2025. Vikram explains that he believes this is designed to pair strategically with expanding green energy demand. Green energy, at present, requires "load leveling'' fuel sources to produce electricity when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. By investing in LNG, they will be well served to provide this fuel source to countries like India, with growing energy demand, large green energy investments and little/zero domestic natural gas production.    Tune in to hear more!

You've heard about mRNA vaccines and how it's a revolutionary new technology. mRNA vaccines were the first to be approved for use, have the highest efficacy and can be modified the most quickly for boosters. How do they have all these amazing properties and at a more fundamental level, how do they work?

In this special episode we bring you my mother, Susan Rao (Henning, if you want to Google Scholar her!), an expert in molecular biology, to explain in layman's terms how they work and why they are a huge step forward in vaccine development. She explains it's not just vaccines this technology will be used for (e.g., fighting cancer) and that she believes that if anything, they are being under-hyped. Amazingly, she explained this all so I (who last took biology in high school) could understand it!  

Please join us for this extra special episode!

General Motors just announced that they will not make internal combustion engines for consumer vehicles beyond 2035 -- they're going all electric. Electric cars have been around for a century, but were cost prohibitive until this past decade. And today we're seeing them enter more of the mainstream, with some countries Northern European countries approaching or passing 50% of new vehicles sold. But without those government subsidies, it still seems that you still either have to pay more or sacrifice functionality for the money. 

In this episode we want to discuss when we think the tipping point that, all up, it will just be the option that makes the most economic sense for people. We'll also dig into  the factors that contribute to the tipping point.   

Vikram's latest book, Particulates Matter: Impact, Measurement, and Remediation of Airborne Pollutants can be purchased here.  https://www.elsevier.com/books/particulates-matter/rao/978-0-12-816904-9