Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Long-duration energy storage is increasingly ready to deploy.
The harder problem is that electricity markets still struggle to value time.
My guest is Julia Souder, CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council. Julia works at the intersection of energy storage deployment, market design, finance and policy — exactly where an increasingly renewable electricity system is running into some of its hardest practical constraints.
The issue is becoming more urgent as wind and solar scale, electricity demand rises, data centres place new pressure on grids, and policymakers confront curtailment, reliability and affordability. Short-duration batteries remain essential, but an energy system sometimes needs to shift power for eight, 12, 24 hours or longer. The technologies increasingly exist. The question is whether markets will pay for the services they provide.
What changed my thinking was the framing. Julia argues that we spent a century optimising energy systems around fuel, while the emerging system is increasingly constrained by time: the sun sets, wind drops and demand peaks. We explore why that turns long-duration storage into an infrastructure and investment question, not simply a technology race. We also get into China's willingness to test payment mechanisms, why revenue certainty can determine bankability, and the increasingly uncomfortable possibility that technology risk is falling faster than institutional risk.
There are practical examples too: flow batteries, thermal storage using rocks and salts, industrial heat, data-centre demand, grid congestion and storage projects already moving towards gigawatt-hour scale. The common thread is simple: this is a system need with multiple technical solutions, and different durations solve different problems.
This is not a silver-bullet discussion about one battery chemistry winning. It is about what grids need, what markets reward, and what happens when those two things diverge.
If you work in energy, climate policy, infrastructure, investment, utilities or industrial decarbonisation, this one is for you.
If you're working on long-duration storage or electricity-market reform in the real world, I'd be interested in where you think the biggest constraint now sits.
Climate Confident: climateconfidentpodcast.com
Subscribe on YouTube and follow Climate Confident wherever you get your podcasts.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Fuel To Time Shift
00:33 Meet Julia Souder
01:40 Why Storage Matters
02:58 Defining Long Duration
03:47 Markets And Scale
05:26 Cost Of Waiting
06:37 China Storage Boom
10:16 Lessons From China
11:33 Many Tech Pathways
13:40 Real World Projects
15:05 Beyond Short Batteries
16:46 Heat And Industry Value
18:08 Financing And Policy Fixes
19:57 Ireland And Europe Push
21:19 Bankable Infrastructure
23:53 Scaling Barriers
25:44 Future Outlook
26:28 Lightning Round
28:39 Avengers Champion
29:35 Closing Thoughts And Links
Long-duration energy storage is increasingly ready to deploy.
The harder problem is that electricity markets still struggle to value time.
My guest is Julia Souder, CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council. Julia works at the intersection of energy storage deployment, market design, finance and policy — exactly where an increasingly renewable electricity system is running into some of its hardest practical constraints.
The issue is becoming more urgent as wind and solar scale, electricity demand rises, data centres place new pressure on grids, and policymakers confront curtailment, reliability and affordability. Short-duration batteries remain essential, but an energy system sometimes needs to shift power for eight, 12, 24 hours or longer. The technologies increasingly exist. The question is whether markets will pay for the services they provide.
What changed my thinking was the framing. Julia argues that we spent a century optimising energy systems around fuel, while the emerging system is increasingly constrained by time: the sun sets, wind drops and demand peaks. We explore why that turns long-duration storage into an infrastructure and investment question, not simply a technology race. We also get into China's willingness to test payment mechanisms, why revenue certainty can determine bankability, and the increasingly uncomfortable possibility that technology risk is falling faster than institutional risk.
There are practical examples too: flow batteries, thermal storage using rocks and salts, industrial heat, data-centre demand, grid congestion and storage projects already moving towards gigawatt-hour scale. The common thread is simple: this is a system need with multiple technical solutions, and different durations solve different problems.
This is not a silver-bullet discussion about one battery chemistry winning. It is about what grids need, what markets reward, and what happens when those two things diverge.
If you work in energy, climate policy, infrastructure, investment, utilities or industrial decarbonisation, this one is for you.
If you're working on long-duration storage or electricity-market reform in the real world, I'd be interested in where you think the biggest constraint now sits.
Climate Confident: climateconfidentpodcast.com
Subscribe on YouTube and follow Climate Confident wherever you get your podcasts.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Fuel To Time Shift
00:33 Meet Julia Souder
01:40 Why Storage Matters
02:58 Defining Long Duration
03:47 Markets And Scale
05:26 Cost Of Waiting
06:37 China Storage Boom
10:16 Lessons From China
11:33 Many Tech Pathways
13:40 Real World Projects
15:05 Beyond Short Batteries
16:46 Heat And Industry Value
18:08 Financing And Policy Fixes
19:57 Ireland And Europe Push
21:19 Bankable Infrastructure
23:53 Scaling Barriers
25:44 Future Outlook
26:28 Lightning Round
28:39 Avengers Champion
29:35 Closing Thoughts And Links
