Studio Energie

In deze aflevering hebben we het onder meer over het effect van het beleid van de regering Trump op de wereldwijde energiemarkt. Op de olieprijs bijvoorbeeld, en op de LNG stromen over de wereldzeeën, op China en Europa. En over Europa gesproken: er was afgelopen week een tweedaagse conferentie in Londen over Energy Security – over energiezekerheid – georganiseerd door het IEA en de Britse overheid. Jilles heeft álles op de voet gevolgd. We hebben kort nieuws over CCS, dat in ons deel van de wereld van de grond lijkt te gaan komen, Jilles publiceerde op Energeia een artikel over geothermie en ik had er een op Energiepodium over waarom de EU eerlijk moet zijn over klimaat, kosten en keuzes.

In 2023, Swedish mining company LKAB announced the discovery of the largest known deposit of rare earth elements (REEs) in Europe. Located in Kiruna, the iron ore deposit contains high levels of phosphorus and rare earth oxides. To talk about the discovery, how the company plans to extract the minerals and the need for more domestic European production, I’m joined by Darren Wilson, CEO of LKAB Minerals.

The European Commission's support, last month, for 47 strategic projects to boost domestic capacity in strategic raw materials, puts mining at the forefront of EU policy. Europe must mine more, faster and responsibly. To talk about the future of mining in Europe – and the innovation needed to shape it – I'm joined by Jenny Greberg, Vice President of Technology at Swedish mining-company LKAB.

Call it the holy grail: producing steel without emitting greenhouse gases. In Sweden, three companies – SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall – have been working on it for years under the name HYBRITE. With a pilot plant in operation, the proof of concept has been delivered. Is the production of so-called ‘green steel’ ready for scale-up? And if not, what challenges remain? To answer these questions, I'm joined by Mikael Nordlander, Director of Partnerships at Vattenfall and one of the brains behind HYBRITE.

‘The Troubled Energy Transition’ is the title of a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, the influential foreign-policy magazine. Although some important progress is being made in the transition to renewables, fossil fuels are still dominating the energy system. Rather than replacing conventional energy sources, the growth of renewables is coming on top of that of the conventional ones. What has been unfolding is not so much an ‘energy transition’ as an ‘energy addition’, the authors write. So how can the world move forward? How should we move forward? And what about Europe? To answer these questions, I'm joined by someone the New York Times calls 'America's most influential energy expert'. He is a leading authority on energy, geopolitics and the global economy, a best-selling author, Pulitzer Prize-winner for his book The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money & Power. His latest book is called The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations. My guest In Search of Europe's Energy Future is Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman of S&P Global.