Slow Burn

This isn’t a comeback: coal never left

We burned more coal than ever before in 2025, and are likely to do so again this year

Apr 8 • Lucy Shaw

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Why don’t we hedge more if we want predictable energy bills?

Consumer protection and collateral requirements can get in the way of fixed-price energy bills. Is it the government’s role to intervene?

Apr 3 • Lucy Shaw

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March 2026

Power Plays pod launch: overhyped/underhyped in energy and audience Q&A

Watch now | At Octopus HQ, Charlotte Kirk and I launched Power Plays: a podcast where we talk about the tech, finance, and politics powering the energy…

Mar 29 • Lucy Shaw

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37:28

The Iran War is Britain’s opening for bold energy reforms

Can you believe the Iran War started just three weeks ago? The British government faces a crisis painfully similar to the energy shocks brought on by…

Mar 21 • Lucy Shaw

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Electrification is security - if you have domestic generation fuels

Ethiopia and China offer lessons for Europe's energy security: pairing electrification with domestic generation for maximum impact.

Mar 11 • Lucy Shaw

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February 2026

The myth of flexible coal and the flextech that works instead

Coal power is not fundamentally a flexible technology. On the roof of Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia, I could almost hear the sun. It was so…

Feb 23 • Lucy Shaw

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Britain’s rooftop solar could be cheaper. Here’s how.

In a rare moment of parental bonding over energy economics, my mum and I both got quotes for rooftop solar this week. The UK's rooftop solar costs more…

Feb 16 • Lucy Shaw

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Coal's second life: how to turn liabilities into infrastructure for the future

With 500 acres of land, a former grid connection of over 1.5 gigawatts, and proximity to local ports, Aberthaw is an infrastructure developer’s dream…

Feb 9 • Lucy Shaw

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Off-Grid AI: what data centre developers can learn from Africa

Ten years ago, in the middle of the “cruellest place on earth”[i], we watched the football on a big screen under the stars.

Feb 2 • Lucy Shaw

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January 2026

This Week's Energy: undervalued coal privatisations, off-grid data centres, collapsing power prices and more

What caught my eye in the energy news this week.

Jan 30 • Lucy Shaw

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Cheap solar and batteries still can’t match India’s $11b+ coal rents

Renewables will need to compete on upstream benefits like tax revenue, foreign exchange savings, and energy independence to push coal out of the system…

Jan 26 • Lucy Shaw

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Death by a thousand cuts: is there any hope for lower electricity bills in Britain?

This is the third part in a series on UK electricity prices.

Jan 19 • Lucy Shaw

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