The EAH team sits down with power pioneer Marco Dell’Aquila, Patient Zero of the hydrogen bug. Under his tutelage, Andrew Leedom, Patrick Molloy and Chris Jackson were motivated to launch their successful and rewarding careers in hydrogen. Alicia Eastman has also found inspiration and an excellent lunch time raconteur.

About Marco Dell’Aquila:

Marco is an investor, adviser, developer, author and professor with nearly 35 years experience in the energy sector. He is currently the Chief Investment Officer at Protium and he co-founded and chairs Power Capital. Marco is also a Senior Adjunct Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and the co-founder of Inspiratia.

He co-founded Infrastructure Journal (now IJ Global) in 1997. In the 1990s, he was an Executive Director of General Electric Capital’s projects group based in London, developing and investing in energy projects in the EMEA region.

Professor Dell'Aquila has taught at SAIS since 2011 and is a member of the SAIS Europe Advisory Council. As Chairman of inspiratia and previously IJGlobal, Dell’Aquila has spent 25 years as an author and commentator on the evolution of energy and infrastructure markets, as well as regulation and emerging technologies to combat climate change. He has also advised on numerous energy transactions around the world spanning virtually all forms of cleantech and renewables.

Marco has a BSc (Tech) in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Manchester and an MA in International Relations and Economics from SAIS.

About Power Capital

Power Capital is a financial advisory firm which has won mandates of corpus €13 billion since 1997.

About Inspiratia

UK based Energy and Infrastructure data & analysis provider.

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Links

Protium: https://protium.green/team/

Inspiratia: https://inspiratia.com/

SAIS: https://sais.jhu.edu/

Power Capital: https://www.powercapital.ie/

EAH spoke with Miguel, after a little over a year in the CEO post, to understand where the group is heading. He describes his plans for the Company and in particular, the DeCarbon Technologies Group, which is working with many important partners to accelerate emissions elimination innovation.

About Miguel López Borrego:

Miguel began his professional career in 1987 as a controller at VDO AG. He was subsequently CFO of VDO Instrumentos in Spain and the worldwide VDO Instrument Division. Within the Siemens Group, López was CFO of various business units of Siemens AG from 2001 – including the Industry Automation Division from 2008, the Digital Factory Division from 2014 and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy from 2017. In the years from 2018 to 2022, he was President & CEO of Siemens in Spain. During this period, he also performed the role of Non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Siemens Gamesa. From 2022 to May 2023, he held the position of Chairman of the Board of NORMA, an automotive and industrial supplier. Since June 2023 he has been CEO of thyssenkrupp AG.

Miguel studied business administration at the Mannheim University of Cooperative Education. López also completed a global MBA program at the universities of Toronto (Canada), Erftstadt (Germany), Linz (Austria) and Shanghai (China).

About thyssenkrupp:

thyssenkrupp is an international industrial and technology company employing ~100,000 people. Across 48 countries it generated sales of €38 billion in fiscal 2022/2023. Since October 1, 2023, the business activities have been bundled into five segments: Automotive Technology, Decarbon Technologies, Materials Services, Steel Europe and Marine Systems. Backed by extensive technological know-how, the businesses develop cost-effective and resource-friendly solutions to the challenges of the future. Around 4,000 employees work in research and development at 75 locations all over the world, mainly in the fields of climate protection, the energy transition, digital transformation in the industry and mobility of the future. thyssenkrupp currently has a portfolio of approximately 14,630 patents and utility models. Under the thyssenkrupp umbrella brand the company creates long-term value with innovative products, technologies and services and contributes to a better life for future generations.

To this end, the company pursues ambitious climate protection targets and optimizes its own energy and climate efficiency. At the same time, it uses its diverse abilities along the relevant value chains to play a significant role in driving forward its customers’ green transformation. thyssenkrupp is listed in the MDAX index. thyssenkrupp shares are traded on Frankfurt Stock Exchange (symbol: TKA) and as American depositary receipts (symbol: TKAMY) in the USA.

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Links:

thyssenkrupp:

https:/www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/home

thyssenkrupp DeCarbon Technologies:

https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/company/corporate-structure/decarbon-technologies

The team sits down with Gene Gebolys CEO and founder of World Energy to discuss his and World Energy's journey to producing sustainable fuels and their plans in the hydrogen space.

About Gene Gebolys:

Gene Gebolys is the founder and CEO of World Energy. For over 25 years, World Energy has been at the forefront of commercializing renewable fuels and was the world’s first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel producer.

Today, World Energy is investing over $15 billion into major new projects in California, Texas, and Newfoundland to help leaders accelerate their efforts to make net-zero real. Gene launched World Energy to accelerate the commercialization of alternatives to fossil-based motor fuels and has played a leading role in building today’s global biofuels industry. Under Gene’s leadership, World Energy is currently undergoing a $2.5 billion dollar conversion project at its Los Angeles facility that will convert the facility into a 100% renewable production hub. The Los Angeles project is the model for World Energy’s Houston facility conversion, currently underway. Once complete, the LA and Houston facilities will allow World Energy to produce a total of 500 million gallons of SAF by 2026.

World Energy:

World Energy is a low-carbon solutions provider focused on helping the world's leading companies make their net-zero commitments real. Our solutions Include sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and renewable naphtha, with plans to create renewable propane and green hydrogen.

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Links:

Announcement of World Energy’s SAF certificate insets deal with BCG (5/7/24) https://www.worldenergy.net/bcg

The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) announcement from April aggregating 20 corporate buyers for a $200 million investment in the SAF industry via SAFc.

More about World Energy: https://www.worldenergy.net/

The team sits down with Rishi Jain to discuss Cross River’s marquee wind, hydro, nuclear, hydrogen, ammonia project in the revitalized heavy industrial Port of Belledune, New Brunswick, Canada.

About Rishi Jain:

Rishi is a Partner and Managing Director at Cross River Infrastructure Partners. He leads the hydrogen and nuclear business development activities of the firm and is responsible for all aspects of project origination. Rishi also manages commercial processes, stakeholder relations, is closely involved with financial structuring of projects, and is the lead for strategic partner relationships.

Prior to joining Cross River, Rishi was a special situations and macro analyst at Great Oaks Capital Management, focused on energy, natural resources, and industry. Rishi also originated and managed the firm’s earlier stage investments in new industrial clean-tech and clean-resource companies.

Rishi is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and also completed the Chartered Financial Analyst program.

About Cross River Infrastructure Partners:

Cross River is an early-stage developer of clean energy infrastructure including clean fuels production such as clean industrial-scale hydrogen and ammonia production via water electrolysis, as well as nuclear and renewable power generation. Within nuclear, Cross River is focused on development of advanced nuclear projects, deploying generation IV SMRs for industrial CHP and hydrogen, as well as medical and industrial radioisotope production. The group also develops wind, solar and storage solutions primarily for upstream green hydrogen and green industrial production.

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Links:

https://crossriverip.com/

https://www.portbelledune.ca/green-energy-hub/green-hydrogen-project

Co-hosts Chris Jackson and Alicia Eastman had the pleasure to interview Bart White of Santander Corporate and Investment Banking (SCIB). The discussion was mostly regarding optimizing different bespoke tools to accelerate the energy transition with some case examples provided by Bart. After the interview, Patrick Molloy stepped in to unpack and discuss some of the wide-ranging topics with the same rigor we have come to expect.

About Bart White:

Bart runs the SCIB Energy financing activities across EMEA and parts of Latin America. The team is primarily focused on financing and advisory for Renewables where Santander has ranked #1 in 2022, 2023 and 2024 YTD Europe). They are also involved in Hydrogen, CCS, BESS, Biogas, and other tangential subsectors such as EfW and Smart Meters.

Previously, Bart ran the Santander UK and Nordics structured finance business, and before that he led the Santander European structured finance advisory practise. Bart has also worked at UBS leading their EMEA Utilities and Infrastructure Finance business, as well as RBS. Bart holds an MA in Physics from the University of Oxford.

About SCIB:

In 2023, Santander CIB was named global leader in export finance for the second year running and ended the year In 2023 as the world's leader in export finance, with transactions amounting to US$13.2 billion and a market share of 12.1%.

The bank’s global scale and local knowledge of the sectors and markets where its clients operate has ensured Santander’s position on top of the ranking published by Dealogic, one of the most widely used tools for analysing the performance, trends, activity and market share of financial institutions.

With this positioning, the Group demonstrates its ability to meet client needs globally in a tough landscape. Santander CIB reached the first position in Europe and is among the top 10 in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Credit insurance from ECAs and other multilateral institutions is one of the main means of financial support for international expansion. It helps companies obtain financing through specialised products with competitive terms and conditions that are tailored to their needs and mitigate the risks that their cross-border activities can pose.

In recent years, Santander CIB has been developing its Export & Agency Finance (EAF) business, with the spotlight on import and export clients. It has contributed to the design of innovative products hand in hand with ECAs, combining global and local origination and structuring capabilities that underpin the franchise's success.

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Links:

www.santandercib.com

https://www.santandercib.com/press-room/santander-cib-named-global-leader-export-finance-second-year-running

Co-hosts Patrick Molloy, Chris Jackson, and Alicia Eastman speak with Alfa Laval’s Tue Johannessen about the company’s role in the energy transition, and more specifically about involvement in hard-to-abate sectors where hydrogen is a key building block, as well as how a new Business Unit for Electrolyzer & Fuel Cell Technologies will help bend the cost curve for green hydrogen.

About Tue Johannessen:

Tue has a long track record in chemical engineering, CleanTech, sustainability, innovation, and business development.

He earned his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 1998 and spent some time in academic and entrepreneurial roles. Research in ammonia storage led to co-founding a CleanTech start-up in 2006 as CTO - operating in the automotive emissions control sector. His work with ammonia continued at Maersk as the R&D lead which would become the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping. He led the modeling efforts including all relevant fuel pathways and vessel technologies built into a comprehensive techno-economic tool, NavigaTE, allowing for analyzing and building maritime transition strategies.

In 2022, he joined the Alfa Laval Energy Division in a business development role focused on Fuel Cells & P2X. Since January 2024, he is now VP in the newly established Business Unit for Electrolyzer & Fuel Cell Technologies heading Strategy and Partnerships.

Fun fact: Tue is an inventor and in addition to other patents and IP, he and colleagues from DTU were awarded EPO’s European Inventor Award in 2016.

About Alfa Laval:

The Company was founded 140 years ago, with customers in over 100 countries, employing more than 21,300 people. Annual sales in 2023 were SEK 63.6 billion (~5.5 billion Euros). The company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

Alfa Laval is dedicated to helping billions of people to get the energy, food, and clean water they need, while eliminating emissions in the marine fleet, the backbone of global trade.

The company is committed to optimizing processes, creating responsible growth, and driving progress to support customers in achieving their business goals and sustainability targets.

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Links:

www.alfalaval.com

Patrick Malloy, Alicia Eastman, and Chris Jackson speak with Topsoe CEO Roeland Baan about new technologies and new projects, leveraging his expansive background and the assets of an 84 year old science and innovation institution, to tackle climate change.

About Roeland Baan:

Roeland joined Topsoe as President and CEO in 2020 with a clear focus on establishing the company as a leader in technologies and solutions for the energy transition. He is heading the company’s nearly 3,000 employees across a dozen countries to rewrite the future of fuels production.  

Roeland engages in dialogues and forums with other key opinion leaders to identify and deploy solutions that enable the global energy transition. He often shares his perspectives on matters ranging from decarbonization of energy-intensive industries to electrolyzer capacity, new technologies that support carbon emission reductions, and the challenges and regulatory frameworks needed to achieve a fair and inclusive green energy transition.  

Roeland has more than 40 years of experience developing businesses, supporting customer relationships, driving growth, building cohesive organizations and amassing deep operational and strategic knowledge across the energy, fuel and steel industries. Prior to joining Topsoe, he was President and CEO of Outokumpu, a producer of stainless steel, and before that CEO of rolled and extruded products at aluminum manufacturer Aleris. Roeland also held leadership positions at Arcelor Mittal, SHV NV and Shell.  

He serves as Chairman of SBM Offshore NV and is member of the Syensqo Board of Directors and the Hydrogen Council Board.

Roeland earned an M.S. in economics from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

About Topsoe:

Topsoe is a leading global provider of technology and solutions for the energy transition. They combat climate change by helping customers and partners achieve their decarbonization and emission reduction goals.

Based on decades of scientific research and innovation, they offer world leading solutions for transforming renewable resources into fuels and chemicals for a sustainable world, and for efficient and low-carbon fuel production as well as clean air.

Haldor Topsoe founded the company in 1940 and with headquarters in Denmark, Topsoe has nearly 3,000 employees serving customers all around the globe.

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Links:

Topsoe

https://www.topsoe.com/

This week’s episode is a discussion between EAH hosts Patrick Molloy, Alicia Eastman, and Chris Jackson. The team cover the current status of hydrogen regulation, innovation, financing, markets, and consolidation. Hanging over most conversations in the decarbonization or future fuels space, is the perpetual question: When will investors actually step up with significant capital to help companies make it through the development desert, instead of letting promising companies languish in the double dunes of despair? There has been a lot of talk, but not a lot of action. Listen to the team unpack recent developments and hopes for the future.