Redefining Energy

Gerard and Laurent have the pleasure of welcoming Fintan Slye, CEO of NESO — Great Britain’s National Energy System Operator.  
In a lively and wide-ranging discussion, we explored NESO’s governance and its critical role across the British energy system: from real-time system operation — balancing supply and demand every second — to whole-system planning, market design, and transmission network operation.  
We covered an extraordinary breadth of topics: balancing costs, electricity prices for consumers, energy security, and the challenge of delivering Power 2030 in a system increasingly reliant on renewables. We discussed batteries, the evolution of balancing markets, the explosive growth of datacenters, and the ever-growing grid connection queue — and, above all, how to keep the entire system stable and efficient through this transformation.  
One of the most fascinating parts of the conversation focused on datacenters. NESO is currently facing more than 100GW of connection requests, while Fintan estimates that only 8–12GW are likely to materialise. He shared the three key criteria NESO uses to prioritise and filter applications — a crucial issue as electricity demand enters a new era.  
Fintan is also a strong advocate for interconnectors. We discussed the strategic value of the current fleet and the long-term vision for expanding connections through the North Sea Islands and potentially even towards Canada.  
Throughout the conversation, one message came across clearly: there is a highly competent team at the helm of the GB energy system, and the grid will continue to improve through investment, innovation, and digitisation.  
Fintan embodies the calm confidence you want from the person helping run one of the most complex energy systems in the world. The ultimate “cool” operator. 
  NESO operates today’s electricity system and designs tomorrow’s energy system to deliver reliable, clean and affordable energy for Great Britain. Find out more here: https://www.neso.energy/

The global auto industry is splitting into two very different worlds — what legendary auto expert Michael Dunne calls “a tale of two countries.” Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights LLC, has spent decades at the centre of the industry, including leadership roles as President of General Motors Indonesia and Managing Director of JD Power China.  
On one side stands the United States, increasingly resembling a modern-day Cuba: a market dominated by oversized, fuel-hungry SUVs aimed at a shrinking audience, while legacy automakers squeeze the last profits from internal combustion engines. Last year alone, Detroit’s Big Three wrote off more than $50 billion in EV investments.  
On the other side is China, moving at extraordinary speed and scale. The recent Beijing Auto Show showcased the country’s relentless innovation: 38 hectares of exhibition space — roughly 50 football fields — featuring 1,451 vehicles, including 181 world debuts, and attracting 1.3 million visitors, with only 65,000 coming from overseas. It is no longer just about BYD. Chinese giants such as Geely, SAIC, and FAW have caught up rapidly, transforming China into a market where internal combustion vehicles already feel like an afterthought.  
Only two foreign automakers still command real respect in China: Toyota and Tesla. Others — including Honda, Nissan, and most European manufacturers — are steadily losing ground.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world is accelerating toward electrification as rising oil prices reshape consumer behaviour. Countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and Mexico are embracing EVs, while electric vehicle sales continue to surge across Europe.  
Battery technology is still advancing, but the next decisive battleground is autonomy. Here, the United States maintains a lead through companies like Waymo and Tesla — though Chinese competitors are closing the gap quickly.   2026 may also mark the tipping point for electric trucks becoming mainstream, with adoption expected to accelerate rapidly once scale economics take hold.  
So how can non-Chinese automakers compete? Not through protectionism, but by learning from China’s playbook: moving faster, investing more aggressively in next-generation technologies, and, in some cases, partnering directly with Chinese firms.  
Yet another major challenge looms over the industry: excess manufacturing capacity. Factories in both Europe and China are currently operating at only around 50% utilisation, with the United States performing only slightly better.  

Dunne’s upcoming book, Car Wars, due out next year, explores this seismic shift in detail. It tells the story of how China built the world’s most powerful EV ecosystem — and whether Western automakers can survive the collision.

The BESS market is growing at a phenomenal pace. You would think battery management is becoming easier. The reality? It is becoming increasingly complex.  
Between data risks, a growing number of suppliers, vertically disintegrated component chains, and constantly evolving software stacks, investors can quickly lose control of their battery fleets.  
Only a handful of companies truly operate in the fast-maturing field of battery analytics. And we are not talking about market optimisation focused on financial returns, but deep predictive analytics: understanding what happens inside the system itself, with expertise in battery health, performance, and safety.  

Laurent and Gerard have the privilege of welcoming Stephan Rohr, CEO of TWAICE, one of Germany’s leading battery analytics companies.TWAICE has become a major player in recent years: more than 100 employees, including battery scientists, chemists, software engineers, and data scientists, with operations across Europe, the US, and Asia.
The company has raised over €60m in equity from leading investors including Energize, Coatue, and Creandum (early investor in Spotify), alongside €25m in debt financing from the EIB.  

With Stephan, we explored the new complexity of battery fleet management — all the way down to the individual cell. Why BESS is a completely different beast from solar? Why is the excellence in operations becoming the real competitive edge? How to address hardware and software sovereignty challenges? And ultimately, the 20-year question: these assets will remain on the grid for decades. You need to build the operational infrastructure for that reality today — not patch it together later.  

A highly informative — and delightfully geeky — conversation about managing battery fleet complexity.

Where is Climate Tech heading? Certainly not dead — but constantly reinventing itself. So much so that you begin to wonder whether the label itself has outlived its original meaning.  

Laurent and Gerard welcome Kim Zou, co-founder and CEO of Sightline Climate, the data and research platform mapping the climate-tech economy, and author of some of the sector’s most influential newsletters, including CTVC and the newer Powerstack. Sightline has become essential reading for investors, utilities, corporates, and policymakers trying to understand where capital is flowing and how the energy system is evolving.  

Together, they explore how Climate Tech has transformed over the past decade. Decarbonisation alone is no longer the central narrative. Today, AI, energy security, and industrial resilience dominate the conversation — often pushing sustainability itself into the background.  

The discussion traces how funding has shifted from venture capital toward infrastructure and large-scale project finance. The spotlight has also moved away from “green molecules” — hydrogen, SAF, and carbon management — toward “green electrons”: virtual power plants, grid-enhancing technologies, and the race to accelerate datacentre construction.  

They also examine the contrasting innovation models shaping global competition. In China, much of the breakthrough innovation happens inside corporations themselves, with companies like BYD employing more than 110,000 R&D staff, and CATL relying on a 20,000-engineer workforce. The United States, meanwhile, benefits from unparalleled access to capital and world-class universities and research centres. Europe sits somewhere in between, attempting to combine industrial policy with scientific excellence.  

Finally, the conversation turns to one of Sightline’s newest areas of focus: tracking data-center construction. The company currently follows 140 sites representing roughly 16 GW of announced capacity. Yet only about 6 GW are actually under construction — a reality check that has sent a chill through Wall Street.

And Laurent goes on a rant of epic proportion against certain Hyperscalers!!!

Useful links:
Sightline website: https://www.sightlineclimate.com/

Capital Stack and New Funds report: https://www.sightlineclimate.com/request-report?report-id=Dry-Powder-and-New-Funds-2026 ·        

Data Center Q1 outlook report: https://www.sightlineclimate.com/request-report?report-id=data-center-outlook-q126 ·        

2025 climate tech investment trends report: https://www.sightlineclimate.com/request-report?report-id=2025_investment_report ·        

Article on our tour of China's electrostate: https://www.sightlineclimate.com/research/a-tour-of-chinas-electrostate ·        

If people want to stay updated on our latest, they can subscribe to our CTVC climate tech newsletter here or our Powerstack power and data center markets newsletter here

The power system is aging and poorly equipped to handle the rapid, large-scale shift toward renewables. According to Philipp Schröder, CEO of 1KOMMA5°, the real solutions lie “behind the meter.”  

Gerard and Laurent sit down with Schröder to unpack what it will take to unlock the so-called “Behind the Meter” revolution.  

Schröder is among a small group of European founders aiming to build a vertically integrated, consumer-focused clean energy company—something akin to a European hybrid of Tesla Energy and Sunrun. His approach combines hardware (such as solar PV systems, home batteries, heat pumps, and EV chargers), installation networks, intelligent software (including IoT-driven energy management like “Heartbeat”), and active participation in energy markets.  

Software is becoming increasingly critical. Grid management and pricing systems remain outdated and inefficient, especially in Germany, where reform has been slow due to entrenched interests and the slow deployment of smart meters. By contrast, countries like Sweden are already moving ahead with more modern approaches.  

The company’s growth appears to validate this strategy. 1KOMMA5° now employs over 3,000 people, is approaching EUR1 billion in annual revenue, and has raised EUR400 million from investors including Eurazeo, CalSTRS, and several prominent family offices.  

Key questions remain: How does Schröder position 1KOMMA5° against competitors like Octopus, Enpal, Base, and Thermondo? Is he building the next kind of utility—or deliberately staying outside that model? And how does he navigate policy challenges, particularly when engaging with energy leaders in Germany who remain supportive of fossil fuels?  

A fascinating conversation with a formidable entrepreneur who gives back literally “Power to the People”.