The Hydrogen Rainbow

This is the third episode of a five-part series exploring the lithium-ion battery supply chain. If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes, we recommend you start there.

Batteries can replace gasoline in our cars, or diesel in our generators, with electricity. But batteries and petroleum-based fuels share something in common: they both rely on energy-intensive processes to turn extracted materials into something useful.

The middle stage of the lithium-ion supply chain is called processing – and it's a critical one. To make lots of affordable batteries, we have to process a lot of materials. It’s a big, lucrative business with real impacts to local communities and the environment.

In this episode, we dig into step two of the supply chain: processing all those minerals into usable ingredients for batteries.

Why are countries so keen on building giant processing facilities? And can we process all the minerals we need to fight climate change in a responsible way?

This is the second episode of a five-part series exploring the lithium-ion battery supply chain. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, we recommend you start there.

To produce enough batteries to reach global net-zero goals, the International Energy Agency says we'll need to increase production of critical minerals by six fold by 2040. It's a monumental task. 

It can feel like a contradictory mission. To save the planet, we have to mine more minerals; but mining and processing those minerals increases emissions and often negatively impacts indigenous communities and the environment. 

In this episode, we start at the beginning of the battery supply chain: lithium mining. 

We’ll ask why so much rides on where and how we source lithium, and whether we can balance growing demand with local communities and the land. 

We need to electrify much of the global economy in order to hit net-zero emissions by 2050. That means installing a lot of batteries in our cars, buildings, and across the grid to balance vast amounts of wind and solar.

The supply chain behind all those batteries could be worth nearly half a trillion dollars by 2030. Whoever controls that supply chain has enormous power – figuratively and literally. 

In this episode, we explore the stakes of the battery-based transition. We’ll open up a lithium-ion battery, investigate what's inside it, and ask whether critical minerals will look anything like oil.

This is the first episode of a five-part series exploring the lithium-ion battery supply chain. In the next four episodes, we’ll cover each step of the process, from mining to recycling.

Batteries are finding their way into everything – from cars to heavy equipment to the electric grid. 

But scaling up production to meet the demands of a net-zero economy is complicated and contentious. In this 5-episode season, we’re digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? 

Season 4 of The Big Switch drops Feb 28th. Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, we’re running an episode of Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers, from our friends at Environmental Defense Fund: “The fastest electric vehicle fleet makeover in the west”.

Degrees is an action hub for green job seekers to find career guidance and connect to a community of mentors, especially now that green jobs are among the fastest growing jobs globally, surging over 237% in the past five years. 

The new season of Degrees, “How to Green Your Job,” is out now wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you check out other Degrees episodes about how the green jobs transformation is shaping the future. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

And as for The Big Switch, we’re working hard on the next season. And – spoiler alert! – we’re looking at the supply chains behind lithium-ion batteries. It’s a technology that could transform the global energy system.

In this season, we examine the trillion dollar question — can we make batteries fast enough to put us on track to meet net-zero climate goals?

Enjoy and stay tuned for more!  

• Degrees home
• EDF Green Jobs Hub

This is the fifth episode of a five-part series exploring the European energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If you haven’t listened to the first four episodes, we recommend you start there.

In March of 2022, European officials unveiled a plan to push their energy transition much further, much faster – and rid their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. 

REPowerEU was ambitious, but it raised lots of questions about whether it would lock Europe into new dependencies. 

In this episode, we take a step back and ask: what are the consequences of the energy crisis for the entire European region? And how might it influence other parts of the world? 

First, we explore the push to supercharge wind and solar – and what it says about the benefits and limits of what they can do.

Then, we discuss the abrupt shift in where Europe gets the fossil fuels it uses today – and the vision to reuse gas infrastructure for hydrogen.

Finally, we end with a conversation about how Europe’s response influenced other regions, particularly developing countries.

This is the fourth episode of a five-part series exploring the European energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If you haven’t listened to the first three episodes, we recommend you start there.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Germans and Poles installed heat pumps and residential solar panels to reduce their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. 

But do the countries have the skilled workforce they need to meet rapidly growing demand?

In this episode, we examine the role of these technologies in building the net-zero economy—and how supply chain problems and a shortage of trade workers has hindered the mobilization of clean technologies. 

Then, we look at the efforts to solve these bottlenecks with campaigns to recruit a new wave of electricians, engineers, and other craftspeople.

This is the third episode of a five-part series exploring the European energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes, we recommend you start there.

Even with a plan to phase down fossil fuel use, Poland still gets 70% of its electricity from coal. Can a country so dependent on coal make the transition to green energy effectively—and quickly?

In this episode, we explore the consequences of Poland’s historical reliance on coal. It's a story that begins at COP24 in Poland, where a coal miners marching band welcomed climate negotiators from around the world in 2018. From there, we visit a historical coal mining town in southwestern Poland, where we meet a man who digs for coal to sell on the black market in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. 

Then, we take a look at the energy source that could help Poland cut the cord with coal: nuclear power. In an effort to gain energy security and reduce emissions, Poland is building its first reactors. But with Russia controlling much of the nuclear supply chain, is Poland trading one dependency for another?

This is the second episode of a five-part series exploring the European energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, we recommend you start there. 

Germany has grown its wind and solar sectors dramatically over the past 20 years. And yet, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy crisis, Germany fired up idle coal plants and began importing natural gas from around the world.

So why couldn’t renewables in Germany—and in Europe more broadly—meet the energy gap in this time of need? 

In this episode, we cover the origin story of Germany’s renewables boom—including a nuclear disaster and an anti-nuclear political movement. Then, we examine the implications of the shutdown of nuclear power and the rise of renewables for the power sector.

We look at the long-ignored part of German energy—gas heating—and how electrification could help Germany make better use of its strong wind and solar industries. 

And finally, we discuss the role of hydrogen, batteries, and other low-carbon technologies in balancing renewables on the grid.

Putin’s assault on Ukraine triggered an energy crisis that sent Europe’s economies into a tailspin and put the European energy transition to the test. But how did the European Union, a leader in climate action, become so dependent on Russian oil and gas to begin with? 

This season, we look at the energy systems of Germany and Poland. Both have very different energy systems, but both became dependent on Russian energy for heating homes, firing power plants, and fueling businesses.

In this episode, we look at the immediate impact of the Ukraine invasion on that dependency and the historical influences behind it – from Germany’s pursuit of natural gas to Poland’s centuries -long relationship with coal.

Then we ask whether Europe's initial response to the crisis– leaning more heavily on fossil fuels – will accelerate or slow down the region's push toward green energy.