Six years ago, Gavin Adda was Episode 1 of Recharge. Back then he was two years into launching TotalEnergies’ rooftop solar business across Asia. This week he came back.
In between: 350 projects across 13 countries, a 30%+ exit IRR on the sale to Eneos, a move to run TotalEnergies’ $15 billion utility-scale portfolio, and then — in 2023 — raising $450 million from Stonepeak to build Peak Energy from scratch. Five people to 150 in two years. 500MW operating. 2GW in development across Japan, Korea, Australia, Philippines, and beyond.
But this conversation goes well beyond the highlights reel.
Adam opens up about growing up in the 90s — teachers telling him we had 10 years of oil left. Then 20. Now somehow 50. Oil company profits at record highs, more coal burning across Asia, and a transition that feels two steps forward, one step back. He puts it to Gavin straight: what is actually going on?
Gavin’s answer is disarmingly honest. He doesn’t pretend the transition is clean or linear. He talks about the pendulum that has swung back and forth for 50 years, why ideology-driven investing almost killed renewable credibility, and why the real driver of the clean energy boom isn’t ESG — it’s economics and energy security. The Philippines government couldn’t operate for a day because of blackouts. Korea and Japan are tearing up their own processes just to get power built faster. That’s the real story.
We also get into why Trump accidentally accelerated battery storage by killing EV subsidies, how battery costs have fallen 50% year on year, what it actually takes to build a business from zero with no brand name, and why Gavin thinks the question of running out of oil is the wrong one entirely.
Same guest. Same podcast. Completely different world.