Electricity demand is rising, capital is tightening, and nuclear is back in the conversation as utilities, governments, and large power users look for firm low-carbon supply. But the central question is not whether advanced nuclear can attract interest. It is whether any new design can get far enough ahead on cost, manufacturability, and fuel strategy to break from the economics that have constrained conventional nuclear for decades.

Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Thomas Jam Pedersen, co-founder and CEO of Copenhagen Atomics, to examine one of the more unconventional answers now being put forward: thorium molten salt reactors built around low-pressure operation, standardized manufacturing, and a fuel strategy that could use spent nuclear fuel alongside thorium. Their core argument is that most of the nuclear sector is still trying to improve on a legacy light-water model that may remain too expensive, too complex, and too slow to scale against the pace of future energy demand.

A large part of the discussion focuses on what that alternative looks like in practice. Pedersen argues that operating at atmospheric pressure changes the cost and engineering profile of the reactor itself, making smaller units easier to manufacture and potentially easier to deploy repeatedly. He also lays out why Copenhagen Atomics sees spent fuel not only as a waste problem but as a potential input, provided it can be recycled economically and paired with thorium to achieve higher fuel efficiency. The commercial model follows the same logic: standardize the reactor unit, let customers source the rest of the plant locally, and avoid the bespoke, first-of-a-kind economics that have burdened much of the sector.

The episode also looks ahead to the harder constraints that will determine whether that thesis holds. Licensing remains slow and expensive, investor appetite is still shaped by the long history of political and regulatory risk in nuclear, and even successful advanced designs are unlikely to make a meaningful dent in global electricity supply before 2035. The takeaway is that the real test for advanced nuclear is no longer just technical credibility. It is whether a new generation of reactor companies can prove they have found a model that lowers cost, reduces deployment risk, and makes nuclear scalable in a very different energy market.

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Solar demand remains strong, storage is scaling fast, and inverter technology is becoming more central to how modern power systems actually function. But the conversation around inverters is no longer just about efficiency, bankability, or price. As these devices take on more intelligence — managing batteries, supporting grid stability, and communicating more directly with the wider system — they are also being treated as a new point of strategic vulnerability. In both Europe and the US, policymakers are starting to respond accordingly.

Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Joe Shangraw, research analyst at Wood Mackenzie covering solar inverter markets, to examine what that shift means in practice. Their core argument is that inverter policy is moving beyond trade protection and into a more complicated mix of cybersecurity, industrial strategy, and grid risk. They unpack why Europe’s March decision to block public EU funding for projects using Chinese-made inverters matters beyond its immediate scope, and why the region’s dependence on Chinese vendors — especially in utility-scale string inverters and integrated battery-plus-inverter systems — makes any attempt to diversify more complex than simply switching suppliers.

A large part of the discussion focuses on the FCC’s July decision to add foreign power inverters to its Covered List, where the real issue is not just whether the headlines overstated the impact, but how narrowly or broadly the rule will ultimately be applied. Shangraw explains that the current language appears closely tied to communications hardware, especially wireless-enabled devices, which creates a more nuanced picture than an outright market shutdown. That distinction matters because it affects not only which new products fall in scope, but how developers, manufacturers, and asset owners start thinking about software updates, grid-code compliance, and long-term procurement risk. The challenge is no longer just cost competitiveness. It is whether an inverter can remain usable, updateable, and policy-safe over the life of the asset.

The episode also looks ahead to the next set of decisions facing the industry: whether Europe expands restrictions beyond publicly funded projects, how quickly US and allied manufacturers can localise enough of the supply chain to qualify under tougher domestic-content rules, and where practical bottlenecks are most likely to emerge. The takeaway is that inverter policy is becoming a test case for a much bigger energy-transition problem: how to reduce genuine security risks without creating new deployment constraints. For developers, manufacturers, and policymakers alike, the inverter market is no longer just a technology contest. It is becoming a test of how the energy transition handles security, industrial policy, and system reliability all at once.

The report and note and Sylvia refers can be found here:

Solar Solar Inverter Market Share Report 2026

Ban on inverters from high-risk countries, led by China, to affect 14% of EU solar demand through 2030

This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.

Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here.

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Copper is moving from background commodity to frontline constraint. Demand is rising fast, high-grade deposits are getting harder to find, and the lead times for bringing new supply online remain brutally long. That matters not just for renewables and electrification, but for the basic energy resilience of modern life: the wires that keep lights on, water running, refrigeration working, and data centres scaling all depend on a metal the industry already knows is becoming harder to source.

Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Liz Dennett, founder and CEO of Endolith, whose career spans Wood Mackenzie, AWS, and NASA-linked astrobiology research, to explore a biological approach to one of mining’s toughest problems. Endolith uses microbial communities, what Dennett calls “the world’s oldest miners," to help recover more copper from low-grade ore in existing heap leach operations. The company’s core thesis is that copper supply can be made more elastic not by rebuilding mine sites from scratch, but by layering biology, sensing, and robust data architecture into brownfield operations that are already running.

Liz explains how that works on site: low-grade ore is stacked into large heaps, irrigated with sulfuric acid, and treated with microbes that accelerate the chemical pathways needed to liberate more copper into solution. The appeal is not futuristic moonshot capex, but a modular, plug-and-play system designed to fit into existing mine infrastructure with minimal downtime. The discussion looks at why that matters economically. Endolith is targeting ore bodies and waste streams that are currently too messy, too low grade, or too contaminated to recover efficiently through conventional routes, including arsenic-rich material that can be especially problematic for smelting. In lab settings, the company has seen significantly higher recovery, and even modest incremental gains in the field could translate into a meaningful unlock when the underlying mine and processing system are already built.

The conversation also asks why biomining may be having its moment now, after decades of false starts. Liz argues that the breakthrough is not microbes alone, but the combination of microbial science, cloud-scale data systems, and faster experimentation that lets teams build and iterate far more effectively than even a few years ago. From there, the conversation broadens into the strategic question underneath Endolith’s business: how to increase copper supply in a world where demand is being pushed simultaneously by grid build-out, industrial electrification, and the explosive growth of AI infrastructure. The episode closes on the trade-offs that follow from that reality, from financing hard-tech mining solutions to building companies in sectors where the need is obvious, the customers are conservative, and proof matters more than hype.

This Horizons episode Liz refers to can be found here:

https://www.woodmac.com/podcasts/horizons/red-metal-green-demand/

This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.

Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.