Spark Club Podcast
by Grant McDowell
Spark Club brings entrepreneurs in the energy field together with a common objective, to build energy businesses. We draw on each others experience to support, learn and grow energy businesses. The podcasts are hosted by Grant McDowell and are recordings of our Fireside chat with leaders in the energy transition.
Episodes
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Australia's Energy Transition Powers On - Tim Buckley Ep77
Spark Club Podcast hosted by Grant McDowell with regular guest Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance. Highlights – China Generation 9MCY2026 China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Ember have released the power generation data for September 2026 showing thermal generation declined ⬇️…
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Changes to the Safeguard Mechanism - Tim Buckley -Ep76
Highlights – Minister Bowen's BYONCE for Data Centres The federal government and Energy Minister Chris Bowen have committed that data centre development approvals will be contingent on BYONCE – Bring Your Own New Clean Energy. The signs are promising –The Energy reports a consultation paper has...
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China is Electrifying Everything - Tim Buckley - Ep75
Spark Club Podcast - Ep75 - 3rd September 2026 Highlights – CEF's field trip to China CATL, XCMG and China Hongqiao Group Tim Buckley and Matt Pollard's three highlights from their China trip in August: CATL: RD&D: CATL invested an annualised RMB22.7bn (A$2.3bn) in R&D in 1HCY2026, up 13% y-o-y,...
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Governments step up for Tomago with $2.5B - Tim Buckley Ep74
Spark Club Podcast 14 August 2026 Highlights – The new SRES support for the missing middle C&I rooftop solar Businesses, farmers to save on solar installations under renewable energy scheme expansion Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen today addresses the National Press Club of...
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The Grid Network Story - Ep73 - Stephanie Bashir
Announcing the Spark Club podcast series on the grid networks. High time for this important conversation about our Poles and Wires in Australia. And nobody better to discuss this topic than Stephanie Bashir. In this first episode in the series, the saga begins with laying out the landscape and...
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Green Steel - Now's the time for Australia - Tim Buckley Ep72
Spark Club Podcast Ep72 24th July 2026 Highlights – 'Message to the haters' AFR Headline Beyond Tim's inspirational trip to China last month to be reminded about 'China Speed, China Scale' + 'China Going Global', his favourite thing this year was seeing the AFFR headline: "'Message to the…
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Australian Delegation Witnesses China Speed, China Scale - Tim Buckley - Ep71
Tim Buckley joined the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and Renewable Energy Council Asia-Pacific (RECAP) delegation to China. Before joining the delegation, Tim travelled across China by train — a very fast trip with a friend from Hong Kong, via Chongqing. Nothing beats...
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Diesel Fuel Rebate Underpins BHP's Inaction - Tim Buckley - Ep70
Grant McDowell & Tim Buckley– Spark Club Podcast 27 May 2026 Highlights – ACCELERATING RENEWABLES DRIVES NEM ELECTRICITY PRICE DEFLATION Amazing to see electricity price DEFLATION being delivered in Australia in the middle of the latest fossil fuel war, with its resulting hyperinflation of global...
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Silicon to Solar, Australia's Risk, Return, Reward - Oliver Hartley - Ep69
The Silicon to Solar study allowed Oliver Hartley and his colleagues assess the opportunity for Australia to play a role in the global solar PV value chain. In this Spark Club podcast Oliver shares how Australia can indeed play a meaningful role in the global solar value chain. All the right...
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Pre-budget LNG and diesel rebate tax reform & The Green Metal Statecraft report
Highlights – The SEC Sydney conference Brilliant to see a full house standing room only for Minister Bowen's talk. Great to have >8000 attendees to the wider trade hall and >100 speakers over two days in up to 8 theatres concurrently. So many people pulling in the right direction, reinvigorating....
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Australia's energy crisis silver linings - Tim Buckley - Ep67
Highlights – The Business Leaders Forum at Boao, China Tim attended the Boao Forum in Hainan Island, China, joining an Australian delegation that included Oliver Yates, Frank Jotzo, Justin Punch, Jenny Selway, Geoff Brooks, Andrew Forrest and six members of the FMG green team, and Australian...
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Australia missing out on China's $120b global investment blitz - Tim Buckley Ep66
Grant McDowell is in London and Tim Buckley is in Sydney recording the Spark Club Podcast on the 23rd March 2026 Highlights – Draft AER Default Market Offer Brilliant to see the Australian Energy Regulator has today flagged draft default market offer (DMO) electricity pricing down ⬇️ 1% to ⏬ 10%...
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Local Content Push - 20% for wind towers in Australia - Tim Buckley - Ep65
Grant McDowell & Tim Buckley– Spark Club Podcast 19 Feb 2026 - Hi and welcome to Spark Club podcast. I'm your host Grant McDowell. We are recording this podcast on the Garigal lands of the Eora nation and pay our respects to elders past and present. Welcome. And welcome Tim Buckley. Highlights...
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Setting the Stage for 2026 - Tim Buckley Ep64
Quick 2025 retrospective We see the Climate Energy Finance's role as to provide a narrative difference to the mainstream media, and to try to leverage global / non-US developments to better inform Australia's understanding of the energy system transformation, the threats and opportunities for...
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Can Australia lead the way in Green Steel? - Tim Buckley Ep63
Spark Club Podcast Ep 63 -21st Nov 2025 Hosted by Grant McDowell and guest this week, Tim Buckley Highlights BESS deployments booming Batteries are the biggest disruptive force in global energy markets in 2025. Australia becomes world's third-largest utility battery market. Rho Motion reports...
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Al Gore says stop Australia's diesel fuel subsidy - Tim Buckley Ep62
Spark Club Podcast recorded on 31 October 2025 Highlights BESS deployments booming in Australia Batteries are the biggest disruptive force in global energy markets in 2025. Australia becomes world's third-largest utility battery market. Australia has overtaken the UK to rank behind China and the…
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Time to Act on Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 - Killian Daly Ep61
We invited Killian Daly, CEO of Energy Tag, on to the Spark Club podcast on the 10th October. We recorded the podcast in London at an industry event. The reason for having Killian on is it's an important time for ensuring the policy settings are right for updating the Greenhouse Gas Protocol…
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Emissions targets are a thing. Tim Buckley Ep60
Spark Club Podcast recorded on the 3rd October 2025 Highlights China's Envision announces a green passport for wind turbines Envision Energy, announced this week that its main wind turbine has been internationally certified via the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) platform. 🔹 85–90%...
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Is Australia a Petro State or an Electro State? Tim Buckley Ep59
Highlights China Cleantech Exports Boom Lauri Myllyvirta @CREA notes value of China's exports of clean energy technologies hit a new all-time record in July, passing the previous high from March 2023. China exported $18.4bn worth of solar and wind power equipment, EVs and batteries during the...
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Australia's diesel addiction problem - Tim Buckley Ep58
Highlights Adelaide Green iron conference Tim attends and presents at the WEF / Greenhouse green iron event, with almost 200 people from government, industry, think tanks and finance talking about the opportunities for green iron projects. A key need is for Australia to get a couple of proposals…
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Will Europe Deploy, Deploy, Deploy? - Linda Romanovska Ep57
Spark Club - Linda Romanovska Introduction to Linda to provide context for the conversation Highlights Recent trip to Canberra with Climate Capital Forum International Court of Justice Opinion and the visit of Simon Stiell to Australia Lowlights The confusion and unproductive distraction cause by...
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Australia's Energy Transformation Progress - Tim Buckley Ep56
Highlights Australia's Federal Senate Disinformation inquiry ARENA award to Calix $45m Allegra Spender Productivity and Tax Roundtable Lowlights Lithium Hydroxide Refinery Write-off by IGO Main Story The Race to 82% Renewables AEMO's Quarterly Energy Dynamics 2QCY2025 Methane gas generation plays...
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China's wind & solar deployment surges - Tim Buckley Ep55
Highlights Our first highlight - the Capacity Investment Scheme. South Australia's high RE % record Green Steel subsidies from South Korea US invests MP Materials a US Rare Earths materials Lowlights Labor can't seem to kick the fossil fuel habit heat pump numbers in NSW Main Story – China…
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Australia Needs More Wind Energy - Tim Buckley Ep54
Intro - The Resources, Energy & Industry Innovation Forum (REIIF) in Dubbo The Highlights * Tim's TED X Sydney * Net-Zero Export Target Proposal: ANU's Frank Jotzo and Annette Zou * Heavy Equipment Decarbonisation: BHP signs MoU with China's XCMG * China's Cleantech Outbound Investment (OFDI):...
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China's Emissions Drop, Solar Soars - Tim Buckley Ep53
The Highlights * Labor's re-election * Bradfield recount - a celebration of the integrity of our voting system * Labor's Residential Battery Program - Minister Bowen re-commits to his election pledge of $2.3bn home and business BESS subsidy * Australia on track to see utility BESS increase 8x to...
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How to Lobby Canberra - Kylea Tink & Blair Palese Ep52
Great conversation recorded at the How to Lobby Canberra at the live Spark Club event at EnergyLab in Sydney. Thanks to Kylea (Pronounced Kylie) Tink and Blair Palese for an open and honest scorecard on how the cleantech and climate sector is performing in Canberra. The 'Shine Baby Shine' side...
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Nuclear to cost Australian economy $4.3T - Tim Buckley - EP51
Tim Buckley joins the Spark Club regular podcast in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election on the 3rd May 2025. Highlights China 1QCY2025 electricity statistics. Battery Energy Storage BESS announcements continue at a rapid speed and scale, with proposals advancing across Australia almost...
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Energy Transformation Live Event - Danny Kennedy - Ep 50
In our first Live Spark Club event for 2025 Danny Kennedy joins us to share his recent experience on the ground in Pakistan and Bangladesh where he witnessed first hand the Energy Transformation underway with rapid deployment of solar PV. Danny shares the positive effect of China's Five Year…
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Australian Federal Election 2025 - Tim Buckley - Ep49
Tim Buckley joins the Spark Club regular podcast on the day the Australian Federal Election is announced for 2025. Highlights Federal election has been called this morning - for 3rd May 2025 Budget - not much climate or energy information in the budget, perhaps there's more to be announced during...
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Australia's Strong China Relationship - Dr Zhengrong Shi Ep 48
It's great to welcome Dr Zhengrong Shi onto the Spark Club podcast. We had some time before a UNSW Fireside Chat event with Professor Martin Green and Dr Shi. We open our conversation with Dr Shi's thoughts on entrepreneurship and the six principles of what it takes to build a successful…
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Engie aims to invest €21-24 billion - Tim Buckley - Ep47
This week Tim shares his highlights, lowlights and main story with us starting with; Highlights Green iron report by Deloitte & WWF. The Fifth Estate forum with Matt Kean and Martijn Wilder hosted at the Greenhouse. China's massive US$11bn 19GW (85% RE) Qaidam Golmud East Desert Base Power…
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Whyalla Steel Works - Tim Buckley - Ep 46
This week Tim shares some good news from Canberra with the Climate Capital Forum leading a delegation to meet with politicians across the spectrum and share a positive message. Our focus this week on the South Australian State government working in partnership with the PM Anthony Albanese Federal...
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China Leaps Forward - Tim Buckley - Ep45
Welcome to episode 45 of the Spark Club podcast. Tim Buckley is back to take us through our regular format of Highlights, Lowlights, The Main Story and What Coming Up. In this episode we open with good news from the Middle East as large scale solar and battery storage deployment hits new records....
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Solar S-Curve - Birchy - Ep44
Welcome to episode 44 of the Spark Club podcast. A large part of our conversation on this podcast is about solar PV as the engine behind the global energy transition. Traditional media still maintains solar as a rounding error, a technology in its infancy. Well the stats tell a different story,...
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Accelerating the Energy Transition - Tim Buckley - Ep43
Welcome to episode 43 of the Spark Club podcast, and the 10th in our new Regular Podcast series. Tim Buckley, our regular guest is back for the final episode for 2024. In this episode we discuss the highlights and the lowlights for the week and then go onto discuss the recent Climate Energy…
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Solar PV in Australia - Renate Egan - Ep42
Welcome to episode 42 of the Spark Club podcast. This the 9th episode in our Regular Podcast series. This time we welcome Professor Renate Egan, Executive Director at the Australia Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at UNSW to Spark Club. In this episode we discuss the discuss the opportunity for...
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The Nuclear Debate - Tim Buckley - Ep41
Welcome to episode 41 of the Spark Club podcast. And the 8th in our new Regular Podcast with Tim Buckley. In this episode we discuss the highlights and the lowlights for the week and then go onto the main story. Tim was invited by Rob Stokes and Matt Kean to a debate on nuclear at Maquarie Uni....
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Green Iron Report - Tim Buckley - Ep40
This is episode 40 of the Spark Club podcast. And the 7th in our new Regular Podcast with Tim Buckley. In this episode we discuss Tim's Climate Energy Finance (CEF) report co-authored by Matt Pollard, Net Zero Transformation Analyst at CEF and Tim. Forging Australia's Green Iron Industry Letting...
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep39
This is episode 39 of the Spark Club podcast. And the 6th in our new Regular Podcast with Tim Buckley. In this episode we discuss Tim's recent trip to Japan and set the stage for Climate Energy Finance next report on Green Metal. The Spark Club Live events will continue, so stayed tuned for our...
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep38
This is episode 38 of the Spark Club podcast. And the 5th in our new Regular Podcast with Tim Buckley In this episode we discuss Tim's recent report The Green Capital Tsunami. You'll hear the genesis for the idea and how a new theme is emerging in China's approach to the global energy transition....
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep37
This is episode 36 of the Spark Club podcast. And the 4th in our new Regular Podcast with Tim Buckley The global dynamic in the energy transition focuses on Australia, Europe or the US, with occasional reference to China. The capacity and deployment stats coming out of China are staggering, and…
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep36
This is episode 3 of the Spark Club Regular podcast. The global dynamic in the energy transition focuses on Australia, Europe or the US, with occasional reference to China. The capacity and deployment stats coming out of China are staggering, and not well reported. The Spark Club Regular podcast...
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep35
Exciting news, we are embarking on a new chapter for Spark Club. We are adding a regular podcast into this feed. This is episode 2. The global dynamic in the energy transition focuses on Australia, Europe or the US, with occasional reference to China. The capacity and deployment stats coming out…
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Tim Buckley - Regular Podcast - Ep34
Hi and welcome to the Spark Club Podcast. Spark Club podcasts are recordings from our live events, hosted in front of a Spark Club live audience. A week later, or so, we publish the recording as a podcast recording. Since 2016 the recording of our live events has worked well. The exciting news is...
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How PERC Changed the World
Hi and welcome to the Spark Club podcast. In this podcast, How PERC changed the World, we'll hear from Professor Martin Green from UNSW and how he and his team invented the PERC solar cell. PERC's global success has unlocked the lowest cost of energy in history. We'll hear the back story from...
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US State Dept - What's Next for Climate
In 2023 Australia and the United States have taken strong action on climate to accelerate the transition to a global clean energy economy. In May, President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese jointly declared that climate and clean energy are the third pillar of the U.S.-Australia alliance. The...
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Energy Transition Tsunami - David Roberts & Saul Griffith
It's an exciting time in cleantech as global macro trends, decarbonisation ambitions and public investment transform the energy sector. Which is why it was a great opportunity to host David Roberts from the Volts Podcast and Saul Griffith from Rewiring America and Rewiring Australia in front of a...
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Infravision - Drones for Transmission + Danny Kennedy
Infravision co-founder and CEO Cameron Van Der Berg believes technology will play a vital role in revolutionising high voltage grid transmission lines. Infravision set out to drag a traditional slow moving trillion dollar transmission industry into the future, by using drones to string. Cameron…
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Verge22 - USA is Turning ON - Podcast
In this Spark Club podcast we'll hear how United States is turning on. I recorded interviews in the last week October at the Verge22, the largest climate tech conference in North America held in San Jose California. Climate tech bucking the investment trend and the Binden Administration unlocking...
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Lithium Battery Ecosystem Podcast
In this Spark Club podcast, recorded live at EnergyLab in June 2022, we shine a light on the Lithium Battery sector. Australian raw materials are playing a key role in this vital industry in the energy transition, but can we do more? We have an amazing panel, Danny Kennedy from New Energy Nexus,...
About this show
Spark Club brings entrepreneurs in the energy field together with a common objective, to build energy businesses. We draw on each others experience to support, learn and grow energy businesses. The podcasts are hosted by Grant McDowell and are recordings of our Fireside chat with leaders in the energy transition.
Hosted by
Grant McDowell
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