Introducing James Allan, a Senior Director at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, who leads Quinbrook’s Digital Strategies.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is an ESG-focused, ‘value add’ investment manager with a specialist focus on low carbon and renewable energy supply, storage, grid stability, and flexibility services including the algorithmic optimisation of dispatchable power assets using advanced AI data science.
James led Quinbrook’s acquisition of Habitat Energy in 2021 and has been involved with the wider Quinbrook investment team focusing on wind, solar, storage, green data centres, green hydrogen and decentralised investment strategies such as virtual power plants. He is responsible for the firm’s digital strategies including machine learning based algorithmic trading, hourly tracing and matching of renewable power and approaches to advanced weather prediction.

In this podcast, James will discuss three key topics: The next stage of grid decarbonization requires storage at scale to leverage abundant variable renewable energy; Green power delivered on a 24/7 basis is the ‘Holy Grail’ that will underpin future industry, from green data centers to green fuels and critical minerals; and Major power users increasingly need to be able to trace, on an auditable basis, the source of their hourly consumption as a pre-requisite to their social license and business case.

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes James Allan as our guest speaker for Episode 12 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Wednesday 29 March 2023

Introducing Andrew Bills, the Chief Executive Officer of CS Energy, a large Queensland-based generation company. He has over 25 years experience in the energy industry across the public and private sectors, covering power generation, retail supply, distribution, LPG and energy trading. Andrew’s previous roles include Executive roles at Origin Energy, Babcock and Brown Power, Stanwell Corporation and as a Director at PwC.

In this podcast, Andrew will discuss his journey as the CEO of CS Energy and his perspective on leadership during a time of crisis. Andrew discusses significant high-profile events that have taken place during his tenure, including the C4 incident as well as a cyber-attack, but focuses on how he has responded to such crises as a leader.
Andrew emphasises that the key to responding to a crisis is to prioritise people's safety, security, and well-being. He shares his thoughts on what he has learned as a leader, including the importance of collaboration, communication, and having a clear and consistent vision for the organisation.

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes Andrew Bills as our guest speaker for Episode 10 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Episode 11: Energy Talks. ‘FINNISH HYDROGEN START UP VISITS QUEENSLAND’ 

Wednesday 29 March 2023 

Introducing Matti Malkamäki, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Hycamite TCD Technologies, in conversation with Conrad Gaudin, Founder and CEO of Otec Pacific. Matti is a serial cleantech / deeptech entrepreneur and an active member of various hydrogen-related entities.

In this podcast, Matti will discuss Hycamite and how it could kick start Australia's Hydrogen aspirations in the industry and marine sectors. 

Hycamite is a Finnish fast growing and award-winning company that produces affordable, clean hydrogen and solid high-value industrial-grade carbon products by splitting (bio)methane with a thermo-catalytic process.

Hycamite provides a “last-mile hydrogen solution” – enabling companies to switch quickly to use hydrogen, without waiting for other hydrogen production or infrastructure to be completed. 

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes Matti Malkamäki as our guest speaker in conversation with Conrad Gaudin for Episode 11 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Introducing James Harman, CEO EDL

James Harman is a highly experienced executive who, over the last six years, has led EDL’s rapid global expansion – including investing in biomethane-to-transportation-fuel projects and biomethane-to-electricity projects in North America; and delivering innovative large-scale hybrid renewable microgrid projects in remote areas of Australia.

As the world seeks to decarbonise, there is no one size fits all solution. Many different technologies and parts of the economy will play their role.

In this podcast, James shares how EDL has been decarbonising for over 30 years, well before this was the norm. He discusses some of the opportunities he sees for Queensland to learn from what’s already working well in other areas of the world – including remote hybrid renewable power in WA and NT here in Australia, as well as the growing renewable natural gas industry in the United States
and Europe.

The Queensland Energy Club once again welcomes James Harman as our guest speaker for Episode 9 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Introducing Malcolm Rushin, who has led GHD’s hydrogen and future fuels offering in Australia since 2018. He now leads GHD’s Australian Future Energy offering which incorporates the significant GHD power business as well as future fuels.

Malcolm has significant experience as a Project Director, Project Manager and Study manager for complex process-oriented projects and has recently completed a number of studies for low carbon hydrogen production and transportation.

Since 2015 Malcolm has led a number and variety of projects intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the carbon footprint of Client’s operations. He has over 30 years of experience in the Oil & Gas and Hazardous Chemicals Industries in Australia and the UK that has included significant periods in design, project management, construction, commissioning and operations.

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes Malcolm, in conversation with Dan Brown for Episode 8 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Introducing Chris Wade, former CEO of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), joined by Dr. Heidi Edmonds Project Manager, Queensland Projects, at Beyond Zero Emissions, and also in conversation with Joseph O’Brien, Director and co-founder CopperString 2.0.

Chris has over 20 years’ experience in senior leadership, project development and investment across the infrastructure, clean energy and property sectors. During his time at NAIF, Chris led a significant enterprise change program to transform NAIF’s investment commitments during his tenure.  

Prior to Chris’s time at NAIF, he had a senior role at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) where he led the development of their infrastructure and property business.

Chris maintains a strong interest and passion for Northern Australia and its development and economic potential. 

In this podcast, Chris, Heidi and Joseph discuss their experience, reflections and energy developments, and how they see Northern Australia positioned for the new energy future and Northern Australia’s development as a regional energy export hub.  

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes Chris, in conversation with Heidi and Joseph for Episode 7 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Introducing Paul Richards, Global Head of Resources, Energy & Infrastructure ANZ based in Sydney, in conversation with Mark Couchman Director, Natural Resources Group ANZ based in Brisbane.

Paul Richards is a highly experienced banker in both domestic and international markets, with extensive leadership of client-facing, ‘connectivity’ teams. Paul is a values-oriented leader, driven by a passion for developing deep customer relationships, building inclusive and collaborative teams, innovation, and different thinking. At ANZ, Paul has responsibility for leading a team of specialist bankers and delivering solutions to ANZ’s largest customers in the Resources, Energy & Infrastructure segments.  

Mark Couchman is client-facing and driven to deliver value-added and commercial outcomes, with a focus on continued growth and expertise in the Natural Resources sector; and delivering on strategic opportunities in Queensland and PNG Resources projects.

In this podcast, Paul and Mark will discuss their career reflections, and experience, new energy developments, how they see Queensland positioned for the new energy future and what ANZ are doing to support Australia’s development as a regional export hub, which is detailed in ANZ’s newly released hydrogen handbook.  

The Queensland Energy Club welcomes Paul Richards in conversation with Mark Couchman for Episode 6 of ‘Energy Talks’.

Introducing Dr Chris Greg, Senior Research Scientist, Princeton University 

Dr Chris Greig, a proud Queenslander, is the Theodora D. ('78) and William H. Walton III ('74) Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, New Jersey.

As the debate on climate change and the COVID 19 recovery comes to the forefront in Australia, a 2050 Net-Zero emissions target is swiftly becoming a global norm. 

In this podcast, Chris shares his top five takeaways, interpretation and analysis of the main outcomes that arose from COP26 including: the elevation of Net-Zero commitments and pledges; carbon mitigation including, global methane pledge and commitment to stop or reverse deforestation by 2030; the issue of fairness; the positioning of the financial community; and the scaling back of unabated fossil fuel use. 

The Queensland Energy Club once again welcomes Dr. Chris Greig as our guest speaker for Episode 5 of ‘Energy Talks’.