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Show Notes
Podcast Intro
“Powering Through: The Resilience of Renewables” is a feature series of The smarter E podcast, recorded on-site at The smarter E 2025 in Munich. Spanning six episodes, the series highlights the critical role of resilience in the global energy transition. It explores how electricity networks, renewable energy companies, research institutions, and public policy development intersect to build a more robust and sustainable energy future.
Episode Intro
With the recent Iberian blackout still fresh in people's minds, the resilience of Europe’s electricity system has become a central topic in the energy sector. As solar and other renewables scale rapidly, the conversation is shifting from how quickly we can build to how robust and reliable our electricity infrastructure actually is. The focus is increasingly becoming about decentralisation, battery energy storage, and grid stability, along with the very real risks to energy security that we’re now confronting.
The speakers
Julian Jansen is the Growth and Market Development Director for the EMEA region at Fluence. He has spent his career in the clean energy sector, with a strong focus on advancing energy storage and technology. Before joining Fluence, Julian was an Associate Director at IHS Markit, where he led consulting efforts on clean energy technologies and previously managed the firm’s global energy storage team.
Michael Schreiber is Head of Flex for the German market at Octopus Energy, where he oversees a portfolio of customers with flexible assets including electric vehicles, heat pumps, and home storage batteries. He also develops tailored products for these customers. Michael brings 15 years of expertise in energy markets, virtual power plants, product management and holds a PhD in electrical engineering.
Host
Jonathan Gifford is the co-founder and Head of Content at Climate Copy, a clean-energy communications agency.
Company Introductions
Fluence, founded in 2018 by Siemens and AES, provides energy storage products and services, as well as digital applications for renewables and storage. Its solutions support the modernization and resilience of energy networks worldwide.
Octopus Energy is a global clean energy technology company. Through its retail brand, it supplies energy to over 7 million households across 18 countries. The group also invests in, builds, and flexibly manages renewable energy assets.
More from The smarter E Podcast
Germany helped pioneer the political frameworks that made solar a global success. But with daytime electricity prices falling, solar companies under pressure, and significant policy reforms taking shape, could the impressive solar and battery installation rates of recent years slow dramatically?
Europe has some of the world’s best solar researchers and strongest local markets. So why is so much of the PV manufacturing happening somewhere else?
Germany’s utility-scale battery deployment is hitting an inflection point.
The Dunkelflaute has become one of the most persistent arguments against a fully renewable energy system. When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, where is our energy supposed to come from?
Despite claims that the energy transition is losing momentum, solar and battery deployment continues to run ahead of forecasts – profoundly impacting electricity markets and the wider global energy system.