Let's Talk Energy

[Summer break] Let's Talk Energy will return with new episodes in late August 2026. In the meantime, browse our back catalog for conversations on oil markets, AI and the power grid, LNG, exploration, renewables, and much more. Let’s Talk Energy is a podcast from Rystad Energy that delivers timely, expert-led insights into the global energy landscape. Hosted by Noah Brenner, who has covered the evolution of energy for more than 20 years, each episode features in-depth conversations with Rystad Energy experts, as well as the occasional special guest. Together, we explore the most important developments shaping the energy world, from oil production and power demand to market-moving geopolitics. Whether you're an industry veteran or simply curious about energy and its impact to our world, you'll find clear and thoughtful discussions. Have a question, a topic suggestion, or want to chat with us? Email <a target="_blank" rel="noope

Let's Talk Energy is a business podcast hosted by Rystad Energy, with 49 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Rystad Energy hosts Let's Talk Energy, a business show with 49 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Let's Talk Energy

  The data center power crunch: “Physics is going to win” — Robert Gaudette, CEO, NRG

  Sep 23, 202632 min

  Let’s Talk Energy and get an inside look at how US power producers are responding to surging electricity demand. US power demand had been growing slowly for the last few decades but now electrification, re-industrialization and large-load data centers is pushing demand growth up dramatically, straining markets, the grid and the pocket books of consumers and putting producers at the center of some of the hottest issues in this year’s mid-term election. CORRECTION: At 9:20 minutes - NRG estimates that its Bring Your Own Power (BYOP) activity will result in $500 million in annual earnings by 2029. Related Analysis: Data Center Report – 2026 (clients only) Data centers and electrification test the limits of power delivery (available to non-clients) PJM needs 8.4 GW of accredited UCAP in next auction to shore up reliability (clients only) The big chill and the bigger bill: ERCOT hits historical power price spreads (clients only) Gas Turbine Report H2 2026 (available to non-clients) Related Episodes: How data centers and natural disasters are pushing the grid to its limits How AI is reshaping the way we build, run and secure the grid Will power-hungry data centers overwhelm the grid? Let’s&nbsp;Talk Energy is a&nbsp; Rystad Energy &nbsp;Production.&nbsp; Produced by Elliot Busby & Både Og .&nbsp; Executive producers: Noah Brenner, Elliot Busby,&nbsp;Evodie&nbsp;Fleury-Greaker&nbsp;& Erik Means.&nbsp; Follow us on: LinkedIn &nbsp; YouTube &nbsp; Instagram &nbsp; X &nbsp;

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  Let's Talk Energy

  How data centers and natural disasters are pushing the grid to its limits

  Sep 9, 202638 min

  Let’s Talk Energy and look at the growing stresses to power grids from the growing amount and severity of extreme weather and wildfires alongside rapidly rising demand from data centers.&nbsp; Keeping the lights on during natural disasters has never been more important as lifesaving services – and life in general- require more power and computing capacity than ever before. And that task is getting more difficult. From 2018 to 2024, the number of major outage events each year - power cuts affecting 30,000 customers or 15% of customers in a specific US county - increased by about 40% to more than 6,500 annually, according to a March study from the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the average duration of these outages rose 23% to just under 12 hours. Now grids are being asked to add a massive wave of new data centers. Globally, data center power demand grew 50% from 2023 to 2025 and is expected to almost double to just under 250 GW by 2030, according to Rystad Energy forecasts, putting unprecedented strain on the power system. ·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Can grids cope with the simultaneous stresses of increasing natural disasters and rapid demand growth from data centers? ·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; How should big tech, utilities and regulators manage data center demand as well as supply from onsite generation during these types of events? ·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What is the outlook for improving the way grids function during weather-related stress, perhaps even leveraging the same AI that is adding to the stress in the first place? Related Analysis: Europe, US and India make up 60% of global grid investments next decade (clients only) Data Center Report – 2026 (clients only) How AI is reshaping the way we build, run and secure the grid, with Microsoft's Per Christian Honningsvaag: Let's Talk Energy Q&A (available to non-clients) Data centers and electrification test the limits of power delivery (available to non-clients) China's data center capacity set to top 60 GW by 2030, driving a doubling of power demand (available to non-clients)

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  Let's Talk Energy

  Why the Permian Basin won’t replace lost Middle East oil, with Jai Singh and Matthew Bernstein

  Aug 26, 202640 min

  Let’s Talk Energy and kick off our first episode back from our summer break with a look at the Permian Basin. The production trajectory in the Permian has been one of the single most important variables to understanding global oil supply – if not the entire oil industry – for much of the past decade.&nbsp; Permian production more than tripled since the start of the US tight oil revolution around 2014 and now sits above 6.6 million barrels of oil per day -almost half of US oil output – and well over 25 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. In the process, hundreds of companies sprang up, rapidly drilled, merged, drilled a bit slower and merged again as they sought to win over investors whose demands shifted from rapid growth to cash returns. But the days of jaw-dropping production gains are over, and companies aren’t inclined to ramp up activity to fill the hole in global supply left by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. In this episode, we’ll look at: How much affordable oil is left in the Permian and how long might operators be able to keep up current rates of production? Which companies control the highest number of choice locations, and do they have enough to earn the confidence of investors keen to know if their cash returns are sustainable? And what are the implications of the rising volumes of natural gas that are trading at much higher prices than they did in the past? Related Analysis: Permian Deep Dive Report (clients only) The price of passage: How Hormuz recovery determines Brent’s future (clients only) ExxonMobil’s Permian efficiency gains pay off with bumper quarter (clients only) Sustained oil price signal needed to trigger shale supply response (clients only) E&Ps pay premium for contiguous Delaware NM acreage in lease sale (clients only) US shale braces for next consolidation wave as smaller players seek scale (available to non-clients) Related Episodes: How data center growth is slowing the US shale comeback How the worst oil crisis ever recorded could end in energy abundance Cheap no more: How rising demand is reshaping US natural gas The next US shale hotspot: Western Haynesville, with Matthew Bernstein Let’s&nbsp;Talk Energy is a&nbsp; Rystad Energy &nbsp;Production.&nbsp; Produced by Elliot Busby & Både Og .&nbsp; Executive producers: Noah Brenner, Elliot Busby,&nbsp;Evodie&nbsp;Fleury-Greaker&nbsp;& Erik Means.&nbsp; Follow us on: LinkedIn &nbsp; YouTube &nbsp; Instagram &nbsp; X &nbsp;

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  Let's Talk Energy

  Host note: Back in August and future plans

  Jul 8, 20262 min

  We're on summer break and back with new episodes in late August 2026. That’s a wrap on the first half of 2026 and our 44th episode. Over the past 10 months, Let’s Talk Energy has surpassed 1 million views on YouTube, tallied more than 70,000 hours of watch time and totaled over 25,000 downloads across Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you for spending your time with us&nbsp; We’re taking a summer break from early July to recharge. While we’re away, the full archive is there for the road trip, the beach or the river float.&nbsp; We’ll return in late August with new episodes dropping every two to four weeks while our regular producers are on family leave. We’ll be back to our regular weekly schedule in 2027.&nbsp; We’ve got a strong lineup taking shape for the fall, including some high-profile guests from major energy producers, supply chain giants and, of course, Rystad’s own expert voices. We’ll also have another dispatch from the sidelines of the Rystad Energy EMEA Summit in London in October.&nbsp; Got a question or a topic you’d like us to tackle when we’re back? Email us at podcast@rystadenergy.com .&nbsp; Have a great summer and see you again in late August!&nbsp; Related Episodes: &nbsp; A few recent episodes worth catching up on while we’re away:&nbsp; How AI is reshaping the way we build, run and secure the grid, with Microsoft's Per Christian Honningsvaag &nbsp; How a decade of underinvestment is reshaping the global hunt for oil, with APA Corporation’s Tracey Henderson &nbsp; Why the world's cheapest oil is now its riskiest investment, with Olga Savenkova and Schreiner Parker &nbsp; How data center growth is slowing the US shale comeback, with Ryan Hassler and Roe Patterson &nbsp; &nbsp; Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production.&nbsp; Produced by Elliot Busby & Både Og .&nbsp; Executive producers: Noah Brenner, Elliot Busby, Evodie Fleury-Greaker & Erik Means.&nbsp; Follow us on:&nbsp; LinkedIn &nbsp; YouTube &nbsp; Instagram &nbsp; X &nbsp;

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  Let's Talk Energy

  How AI is reshaping the way we build, run and secure the grid, with Microsoft's Per Christian Honningsvaag

  Jul 1, 202642 min

  Let’s&nbsp;Talk Energy and try to understand how AI might be used to future proof the grid and what bumps we could&nbsp;encounter&nbsp;along the way. Regulators and utilities&nbsp;worldwide&nbsp;are sounding the alarm about the impact of data centers on the stability of the electricity grid. But the same&nbsp;compute&nbsp;that&nbsp;is&nbsp;straining&nbsp;our&nbsp;power&nbsp;system can also&nbsp;improve&nbsp;efficiency&nbsp;and&nbsp;access diverse sources of power more easily.&nbsp;That efficiency, however, could&nbsp;result in more&nbsp;complex and critical decisions&nbsp;relying on&nbsp;AI, rather than on human judgment, potentially&nbsp;inviting&nbsp;questions about safety and cybersecurity. Can&nbsp;AI alleviate the need for more physical grid infrastructure and defray some of the expense needed&nbsp;to&nbsp;make&nbsp;the system fit for the&nbsp;future? How&nbsp;can&nbsp;a growing role for AI in grid management improve reliability,&nbsp;and how should&nbsp;we&nbsp;think about the threats from digital hiccups or malicious cyberattacks on our critical&nbsp;infrastructure? And&nbsp;how&nbsp;is&nbsp;Microsoft looking at the potential for its own data centers to at least support – if not enhance – the way grids function today? Related Analysis: &nbsp; Rystad Energy launches Spektra: the next-generation market intelligence platform, shaped by the clients who use it &nbsp;(available to non-clients)&nbsp; Fuel cell investment by data centers set to grow tenfold, reaching $30 billion by 2030 &nbsp;(available to non-clients)&nbsp; Powering the AI era: A special report from Reuters Insights and Rystad Energy &nbsp;(available to non-clients)&nbsp; Grid Equipment Report - First Edition &nbsp;(clients only)&nbsp; As gas turbine orders surge 75%, new market entrants eye growing AI demand &nbsp;(clients only)&nbsp; Fuel cell investment by data centers set to grow tenfold, reaching&nbsp;$30 billion&nbsp;by 2030 &nbsp;(available to non-clients)&nbsp; Data centers offer chance to boost green power consumption in China (clients only) &nbsp; China's data center capacity set to top 60 GW by 2030, driving a doubling of power demand &nbsp;(available to non-clients)&nbsp; Related Episodes: &nbsp; The AI arms race has a critical minerals problem, with Michael Walshe and Jeff Dickerson &nbsp; Will power-hungry data centers overwhelm the grid? &nbsp; Shell’s Peter Wood on AI, future energy scenarios and trade turning points. &nbsp; Let’s Talk Energy is a Rystad Energy Production. &nbsp;&nbsp; Produced by Elliot Busby & Både&nbsp;Og . &nbsp;&nbsp; Executive producers: Noah Brenner, Elliot Busby, Evodie Fleury-Greaker & Erik Means. &nbsp;&nbsp; Follow us on:&nbsp;&nbsp; LinkedIn &nbsp;&nbsp; YouTube &nbsp;&nbsp; Instagram &nbsp;&nbsp; X

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