Plugged In – video podcast

Renewables roll-out: Reaching saturation?

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July 09, 2026

Europe is developing green energy at lighting speed.  But as solar and wind generation reaches record levels, new challenges are emerging across the electricity system. Negative prices, grid congestion, curtailment and falling capture prices are raising a fundamental question: has renewable deployment reached its limits, or is the rest of the energy system failing to keep pace?

In this episode of the Plugged In Summer Series, we explore whether Europe's next challenge is no longer building renewable generation, but integrating it.

Host Snjólfur Richard Sverrisson, Editor-in-Chief of Montel News, is joined by Dr Lion Hirth, one of Europe's leading energy market economists and Professor of Energy Policy at the Hertie School; Luca Pedretti, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder of Pexapark; and Professor Jan Rosenow, one of Europe's foremost experts on energy efficiency and electrification, and Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Oxford.

Together they examine whether current market structures, grids and policy frameworks are fit for a predominantly green energy system,, how investors are responding to growing merchant risk, and why flexibility, storage and electrification could determine whether Europe's energy transition continues to accelerate…or begins to slow down.

Host:
Snjólfur Richard Sverrisson, Editor-in-Chief, Montel News

Guests:

Dr Lion Hirth, Professor of Energy Policy, Hertie School

Luca Pedretti, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder, Pexapark

Jan Rosenow, Energy Programme Leader and Professor of Energy and Climate Policy, University of Oxford

Producer: Alexandra Carlon 

Editor: Alexandra Carlon