Energy: green innovation is not just a “laboratory experiment”, assures a CEO of the sector

“If the cost of renewable energy, plus storage, is lower than the cost of building a new gas plant,” then it will work, explains this Fourth Power executive.

Mr. Ganesan was one of the entrepreneurs gathered a few days ago in London by Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who seeks to boost investment in cutting-edge technologies, seen by some as promising in the fight against climate change.

Formerly of Apple and the Obama administration, Mr. Ganesan has developed a battery prototype, which he claims can store excess electricity from wind turbines and photovoltaic panels for weeks at a fraction of the cost of standard batteries. of industry, in order to then restore it when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow.

This type of innovation, the potential of which sometimes arouses skepticism among certain environmentalists, "is not a laboratory experiment", there are "markets, customers" and this encourages "optimism", judges M .Ganesan.

QUESTION: How can your company help solve the climate crisis?

ANSWER : “If we want low-cost renewable energy, we need extremely cheap storage, otherwise fossil fuels will remain the most readily available energy source.

Unless we can tackle the problem of price and large-scale development, renewable energy will not work for the entire grid. And that's what we're working on at Fourth Power.

This is neither a hope nor a dream. There is a lot of work to be done (...) but in reality it is just an economic question and the equation is very simple: (...) if the cost of renewable energy, plus storage, is lower than the cost to build a new gas-fired power plant, so put aside philosophy, put aside climate change, renewables and storage will be deployed either way."

Q: Several companies are already in this niche. Is there room for everyone?

A: "It's not a story of competition between four or five companies fighting for a piece of the pie, the question is rather whether they can be cheaper than natural gas. And in that case, yes, each of them between them will be able to succeed (…)

When the wave is big enough, several people can ride it, so I don't think there is any competition. We are fighting for a much bigger pie. (...) These companies have customers, they have markets. This doesn’t sound like a laboratory experiment.”

Q: Is there a growing investor appetite for climate technologies?

A: “Indeed, the market has invested quite massively in climate technology solutions. (...) We are at a very interesting moment and full of opportunities. It will be a success if we do not look at them as a category called climate technology, but that they are simply considered good investments."

Q: You seem optimistic...

A: "Climate doom is a problem, it demotivates people. But then you come here, you see all these companies, and a lot more are going to come up in the next three or four years. It's real change and it's is very cool to be able to attend.

It’s also a question of narrative. (...) If this change results in a cleaner, more resilient and more reliable electricity grid, it will give people hope that technology will actually solve their problems. This is why it is important to share this optimism.

Having worked around climate for a long time, I too go through these moments when I wonder what I am doing here and what the future of my children might look like. But even with current sluggish policies, peak carbon emissions should be reached within a year or two. And besides that, on the markets, there is this very favorable trend towards cleaner technologies. It’s a reason to celebrate.”