Things Alex Tancock Has Said on Podcasts

“I think we have grossly underinvested in energy globally for at least a decade. I think we've mismanaged our energy policy collectively for at least a decade. And I suspect we were sleepwalking into an accident, and this conflict in the Gulf has just brought forward what was going to happen anyway.” — Alex Tancock, The Energy Gang

Asked to look five to ten years ahead, Alex Tancock, whose company develops large renewable hubs, gave a broad view of the current energy crisis. He went on to predict a decade of higher energy prices.

The Energy Gang · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →

The Energy Gang Around 43:04 into the episode

Speaker 1

And now, whether they would export them or use them for domestic sources or use them for building more of an petrochemical ecosystem here, expanding that. I mean, I think it remains to be seen. But certainly it's a source of energy that has not been tapped to the potential that it can deliver.

Ed Crooks

What about you, Alex, in terms of what you see coming on the horizon, looking five or ten years ahead, how do you think your business might change?

Alex Tancock

I wouldn't talk about our business specifically, but I think I've got quite strong views on this. I think we have grossly under-invested in energy globally for at least a decade. I think we've mismanaged our energy policy collectively for at least a decade. And I suspect we were sleepwalking into an accident. And this conflict in the Gulf has just brought forward what was going to happen anyway. You know, we have under-invested in oil and gas because there was this energy transition. We didn't invest enough in the energy transition to actually make it successful. So I feel like the last decade we've enjoyed incredibly low interest rates and very low energy prices. And I think the next decade we are going to enjoy less comfortable conditions when it comes to energy prices. So I guess my view would be the next decade is a decade of higher energy prices, which will then spur the innovation and the development we need to then hopefully bring them down again.

Ed Crooks

Very interesting. Deni Phobi, final thought from you. Do you agree then that we're in for this period of higher energy prices, more strain on the energy system, a need for significantly higher investment?

Speaker 3

Yeah, unfortunately, I agree. I think we have to accept the situation. I think this is here to stay, that we have to accept and adjust. There will be higher energy prices, which is good for new energy or alternative energy, right? Which the levelized cost of energy could be supportive of that. So…

Ed Crooks

Yeah, no, that's really interesting. And it seems to me it's one of those situations where we are sort of just at the beginning of something. You know, that we've had this crisis kind of building, as you say, over the past few years, not just what's happened this year in the Middle East, but more…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“Anyone whose business model had relied on buying cheap power from the grid to make hydrogen, most of those projects are dead. Because those electrons, the opportunity cost, the data centers will pay way more. And they'll pay tomorrow.” — Alex Tancock, The Energy Gang

Asked whether the new focus on energy security reopens the case for hydrogen, Alex Tancock said the hype cycle is over. He then pointed to data centers, which he says hit everyone from left field in the last year.

The Energy Gang · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →

The Energy Gang Around 27:41 into the episode

Speaker 1

…security, sort of front and center. We feel that Europe, we'll see more adoption for green ammonia in Europe, certainly compared to other regions. And we feel that in Asia Pacific, you may still see markets for off-taking blue ammonia and then doing the fracking back to hydrogen in the future.

Ed Crooks

Thanks. So, Alex, what's your take on this? And as you were saying, hydrogen is part of your business model. Do you see new opportunities there being opened up by this focus on energy security? And is hydrogen becoming appealing as an energy security solution?

Alex Tancock

No, I don't like the term energy transition so much myself anymore. I think when you look at the history, we don't transition, we just add. And so, you know, when I look at hydrogen, when I think about hydrogen, there are niche applications that work today. You know, we see it in refining, we see it at today's ammonia prices in some cases where you can do some retrofits. You know, Ferti Globe has some good examples of that. And we see it, you know, in projects and customers we're talking to where they're close to the production. So there are use cases and it is emerging. And I think the hype is the right term to use. The hype cycle has ended, but the actual deliverable in terms of the projects getting built is accelerating more quickly than wind and solar did when they kicked off. So I think the expectations on hydrogen were far too high. But it is delivering at a pace which is exceeding what wind and solar achieved in the early 80s when they kicked off. So you can, I imagine in the next 5, 10, 20 years, we are going…

Ed Crooks

And to be clear, that's been reflected in your own business model, right? So you have pivoted to the bottom. Oh, God, it's good for

Alex Tancock

us. Don't get me wrong. But my point is that we've seen this slow growth of the grid for so long that all of a sudden through electric vehicles, driven and accelerated by what's going on here, and obviously technology out of China, coupled with data centers, has just injected this incredible amount…

Ed Crooks

It's fascinating.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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