Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Europe doesn’t have a clean energy problem. It has a grid problem.
Solar is cheap. Batteries are scaling. Demand is rising. The system in between is failing to keep up.
I’m joined here by Rob Stait, Managing Director of Alight’s behind-the-meter business, to unpack why the energy transition is now constrained less by technology and more by infrastructure, regulation, and legacy grid design. Alight develops and owns onsite solar and battery systems for large energy users across Europe, using long-term PPAs to cut costs, reduce emissions, and improve resilience.
This matters now because electrification is accelerating at the same time as Europe’s grids are hitting physical and regulatory limits. Data centres, EV fleets, heat pumps, and industrial electrification are all competing for capacity, while grid connection queues stretch into years. Clean energy exists. The bottleneck is access.
What changed my thinking in this conversation was how clearly Rob frames behind-the-meter solar and battery storage as infrastructure decisions, not sustainability add-ons. You’ll hear why waiting for cheaper technology is often a strategic error, how locking in savings early compounds over time, and why blaming renewables for grid instability misses the real issue entirely. We also dig into microgrids, grid flexibility, and why decentralised generation is starting to look less like an edge case and more like an inevitability.
This episode is not about hype, silver bullets, or hand-waving about future breakthroughs.
It’s for business leaders, policymakers, investors, and technologists who need emissions reduction, energy security, and affordability to work now, not in a slide deck.
If you’re working on energy, climate tech deployment, or decarbonisation in the real world, I’d be interested in your perspective.
🔗 Podcast: climateconfidentpodcast.com
🔔 Follow Climate Confident on your podcast platform of choice
⏱️ Chapters below for navigation
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Europe’s clean energy paradox
02:10 – Solar and batteries are ready. The grid isn’t
05:18 – Why waiting for cheaper tech backfires
08:32 – Behind-the-meter solar as infrastructure, not ESG
12:15 – The real cause of grid stress and blackouts
16:10 – Why renewables aren’t the problem
20:55 – Making solar work in low-sun geographies
24:20 – Economics first, carbon follows
28:05 – Microgrids and the future of resilience
32:40 – What policymakers keep getting wrong
36:50 – Where decentralised energy actually scales
Europe doesn’t have a clean energy problem. It has a grid problem.
Solar is cheap. Batteries are scaling. Demand is rising. The system in between is failing to keep up.
I’m joined here by Rob Stait, Managing Director of Alight’s behind-the-meter business, to unpack why the energy transition is now constrained less by technology and more by infrastructure, regulation, and legacy grid design. Alight develops and owns onsite solar and battery systems for large energy users across Europe, using long-term PPAs to cut costs, reduce emissions, and improve resilience.
This matters now because electrification is accelerating at the same time as Europe’s grids are hitting physical and regulatory limits. Data centres, EV fleets, heat pumps, and industrial electrification are all competing for capacity, while grid connection queues stretch into years. Clean energy exists. The bottleneck is access.
What changed my thinking in this conversation was how clearly Rob frames behind-the-meter solar and battery storage as infrastructure decisions, not sustainability add-ons. You’ll hear why waiting for cheaper technology is often a strategic error, how locking in savings early compounds over time, and why blaming renewables for grid instability misses the real issue entirely. We also dig into microgrids, grid flexibility, and why decentralised generation is starting to look less like an edge case and more like an inevitability.
This episode is not about hype, silver bullets, or hand-waving about future breakthroughs.
It’s for business leaders, policymakers, investors, and technologists who need emissions reduction, energy security, and affordability to work now, not in a slide deck.
If you’re working on energy, climate tech deployment, or decarbonisation in the real world, I’d be interested in your perspective.
🔗 Podcast: climateconfidentpodcast.com
🔔 Follow Climate Confident on your podcast platform of choice
⏱️ Chapters below for navigation
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Europe’s clean energy paradox
02:10 – Solar and batteries are ready. The grid isn’t
05:18 – Why waiting for cheaper tech backfires
08:32 – Behind-the-meter solar as infrastructure, not ESG
12:15 – The real cause of grid stress and blackouts
16:10 – Why renewables aren’t the problem
20:55 – Making solar work in low-sun geographies
24:20 – Economics first, carbon follows
28:05 – Microgrids and the future of resilience
32:40 – What policymakers keep getting wrong
36:50 – Where decentralised energy actually scales
