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Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions

Long-Duration Storage Tackles Clean Energy’s Reliability Gap

January 28, 2026 • Tom Raftery • Season 1 • Episode 257

0:00 | 41:18

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Europe is drowning in cheap clean power, and still wasting it.
The problem isn’t renewables. It’s what happens when the grid can’t cope with abundance.

In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I’m joined by Oonagh O’Grady, Vice President of International Origination at Hydrostor, a global leader in long-duration energy storage. We dig into one of the most under-discussed blockers of the energy transition: what happens after wind and solar scale, but before the grid is ready.

Oonagh explains why short-duration batteries, while essential, aren’t enough once renewables reach 40–50% of the system. We unpack why grids are hitting curtailment, negative pricing, and instability, and why eight to twenty-four hours of long-duration energy storage is fast becoming the backbone of a reliable, net-zero power system.

You’ll hear why advanced compressed air energy storage can deliver fossil-free, utility-scale flexibility for decades, how it compares with batteries and pumped hydro on cost and performance, and why inertia and grid stability are suddenly back in the spotlight after recent European outages. We also get into the policy side: what leading regions like California, Australia, and the UK are getting right, and what Europe must do now if it wants secure, affordable, decarbonised electricity in the 2030s.

This is a grounded, evidence-led conversation about climate tech that actually works at scale - and a reminder that without long-duration storage, the energy transition stalls just when it should be accelerating.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how Hydrostor and long-duration energy storage can unlock the next phase of the energy transition.

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