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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Justin Worland at TIME Magazine, who wrote about the fires that hit Los Angeles in January 2025, and how to prevent similar disasters in the future. 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Josh Silverman, the CEO of Windfall Bio, which figured out how to create microbes that consume leaking methane from cow manure lagoons as their food source. His team’s system tackles one of agriculture’s toughest climate challenges with a low-cost, farm-ready solution. Congratulations, Josh!

This Week in Cleantech — December 5, 2025

1. Climate urgency means bypassing COP is necessary, says COP30 boss — The Financial Times
2. Data center boom drives internal fight at largest US grid operator — Semafor
3. India’s Desert State Reignites Coal-Fired Power Debate — Bloomberg
4. Kentucky officials will appeal decision they say is unfair to Kentucky Power ratepayers – Kentucky Lantern
5. Amid the Ashes — TIME

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Amy Harder from Axios, who wrote about an oil industry lobbying group spending big to advertise during Paramount’s second season of “Landman."

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Glenna Gannon, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Glenna led research for an agrivoltaics project in Alaska, helping grow potatoes, kale and spinach underneath the panels. Congratulations, Glenna!

This Week in Cleantech — November 21, 2025 

1. Hydropower Is Getting Less Reliable as the World Needs More Energy — The New York Times
2. Why the Time Has Finally Come for Geothermal Energy – The New Yorker
3. US loans Constellation $1 billion for Three Mile Island reactor reboot — Reuters
4. World Is Off Course on Pledge to Rein in Emissions of Heat-Trapping Methane — Bloomberg
5. "Landman" TV show reflects oil industry's renewed swagger — Axios

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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Sponsored content.

In this episode of the Factor This podcast, Content Director Jeremiah Karpowicz interviews Henrik Mannesson, General Manager of Energy Infrastructure at Texas Instruments (TI). The two explore how TI's analog and embedded processing chips are driving a shift in energy and expectations in both the short and long term as well as:

• the need for deeper utility collaboration
• innovation at market inflection points
• semiconductors as a short-term grid solution that open up long term opportunities

Want to make a suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch to let us know what people, projects and technology you’d like us to further explore: https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/contribute-content/

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. 

This week's episode features special guest Rachel Frazin from The Hill, who wrote about Democrats' plans to continue to focus on rising electricity prices in hopes that it's a winning strategy. 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Tyler Norris, Head of Market Innovation at Google. Tyler wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about how we can manage rising electricity demand without driving up costs for households. His main point is that load growth presents an opportunity to offset upward pressure on electricity rates, if we plan the system to make fuller use of the infrastructure we’ve already paid for. Congratulations, Tyler!

This Week in Cleantech — November 14, 2025 

1. China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics — The Economist
2. 10 Years After the Paris Climate Agreement, Here's Where We Are — The New York Times
3. New U.S. nuclear power boom begins with old, still-unsolved problem: What to do with radioactive waste — CNBC
4. Data Centers and Natural Gas Are Bending the Climate Transition Curve, IEA Says – Heatmap News
5. Democrats see electricity prices as a winning issue for 2026 – Rachel Frazin

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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Ready or not, electric vehicle adoption is happening in America. It feels like we’ve reached an inflection point- especially as range increases, EVs are simply proving to be a better mousetrap- and now there’s a race coast-to-coast to bulk up the charging infrastructure needed to enable the scaling of fleets and longhaul trucking. 

That’s no easy thing to figure out- developers must work closely with utilities to bring these power-sucking sites online without overworking the local grid. And since everyone needs power YESTERDAY, there’s a timeliness component to this too- and we all know time means money.

The Electric Power Research Institute, better known as EPRI, is taking on the challenge of connecting the dots and facilitating a planning process for the deployment of EV charging projects.

On this episode, Factor This Content Director Paul Gerke is joined by EPRI director of transportation Britta Gross to discuss GridFAST, a central, secure portal designed to improve communication between stakeholders, bringing them together early on to ensure everyone gets what they want, when they want it- or as close to it as possible.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. 

This week's episode features special guest David Roberts, host of the Volts podcast, who recently sat down with clean-energy analyst Michael Liebreich to discuss calls for a “climate reset” that emphasizes costly technologies over proven clean energy solutions. 

This week's "Cleantechers of the Week" are:

• Andrew Otazo who has hauled more than 17 tons of trash, mostly from the islands around Biscayne Bay. Otazo wants to clear as much trash as he can. 
• Forrest Smith, former chief petroleum engineer for the National Park Service. Forrest was the only individual responsible for cleaning up dozens of abandoned oil and gas wells at national parks across the country. Last month, he was forced to step down and the NPS is not looking to replace him. 
• Juan Naula. Juan struggled to find funding for his ride-sharing startup, so he quit his job to pick up trash on the streets of L.A. Juan started a social media account titled, “Clean L.A. With Me,” and started a nonprofit to raise money and recruit volunteers to help him.

This Week in Cleantech — November 07, 2025

1. How virtual power plants could meet data centre energy demand — The Financial Times
2. White House Fossil Fuel Bet Is Losing to Green Energy — Bloomberg
3. Slow rollout throttled Biden’s big clean energy ambitions, former staffers say — POLITICO
4. $615,000 a Day: Order to Keep Coal Plant Open Ignites Debate in Michigan — The Wall Street Journal
5. Michael Liebreich on a "pragmatic climate reset" – Volts

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. 

This week's episode features special guest Shannon Osaka from The Washington Post, who wrote about a new study that blames rising electricity bills on the rising fixed costs of the power grid, rather than just data center growth. 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Jonathan Shaw, CEO of Nuru. Under his leadership, Nuru commissioned the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first commercial solar mini-grid in 2017, followed by three more that are now powering communities across the country. The company is currently building the largest solar mini-grid in sub-Saharan Africa. Congratulations, Jonathan!

This Week in Cleantech — October 31, 2025 

1. DOE's latest move the most direct yet to smooth data centers' path – Axios
2. Simpler Solar Regulations Would Save Americans $1.2 Trillion — Heatmap News
3. US government and Westinghouse strike $80bn nuclear reactor deal — The Financial Times
4. Georgia has lost $2.9B in clean energy projects amid fed pullback, report says — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5. The real reason electricity prices are rising, and it’s not data centers — The Washington Post

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In this episode of the Factor This podcast, Content Director Jeremiah Karpowicz interviews Eric Meier, Planning Modeling Supervisor at ERCOT. The two discuss Meier's thoughts around how ERCOT is pioneering methods to integrate rapid load growth while maintaining system reliability as well as...

• why timing is everything
• the nature of new large loads
• market-based solutions and the role of flexibility

Want to make a suggestion for an upcoming Factor This episode? Get in touch to let us know what people, projects and technology you’d like us to further explore: https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/contribute-content/

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

Tell us what you think of the show!

This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. Clarion Events Content Director Jeremiah Karpowicz is filling in for Paul Gerke while Paul is on paternity leave.

This week's episode features special guest Kate Yoder from Grist, who wrote about how Democrats are downplaying the term “climate change” after the 2024 election. 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Cédric Ringenbach, creator of the card game Climate Fresk. The game is based on the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and helps people understand the connections between climate science and climate disasters. Congratulations, Cédric!

This Week in Cleantech — October 24, 2025 

1. Oil, gas and the tax code — The New York Times
2. Why Nucor and Meta are supporting a new low-carbon iron factory — Trellis
3. DOE cancels more than $700M in battery, manufacturing projects — E&E News
4. New England Says Goodbye to Coal as Merrimack Station Powers Down — Inside Climate News
5. Why Democrats aren't talking about climate change much anymore — Grist

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

Tell us what you think of the show!

This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Evan Halper from The Washington Post, who wrote about how global economics are accelerating a renewable surge led by China and India.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Rishan Wong, former CEO of Reddit and CEO of Terraformation. Terraformation just rolled out its latest product, which is a subscription-based model where individuals can fund reforestation for the monthly cost of a streaming service.

This Week in Cleantech — October 17, 2025 

1. Resilience of the lambs: Some US solar projects are farming much more than sunlight – Factor This
2. How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution – The Financial Times
3. Trump administration quietly canceled the nation’s largest solar project – CNN
4. Base Power, a Battery-Focused Power Company, Raises $1 Billion — The New York Times
5. The real winners of Trump’s attack on clean energy aren’t American — The Washington Post

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]