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This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.

This week’s episode features Inside Climate News reporter Dan Gearino who breaks down plummeting prices for batteries, and why it's good news for the climate.

This Week in Cleantech — Dec. 8, 2023

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Ryan Quint, Director of Engineering and Security Integration at NERC. You can hear more about Ryan in Episode 67 of Factor This!

1. Hydrogen Industry Signals Alarm Over Proposed US Tax Credits — Bloomberg
2. New California rules are crushing the solar industry — PBS
3. Treasury Department lays out EV tax credit foreign sourcing rules — Axios
4. Congress spent billions on EV chargers. But not one has come online — Politico
5. Battery Prices Are Falling Again, and That’s a Good Thing — Inside Climate News

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I first met Dominion Energy CEO Bob Blue at a shipping terminal in Norfolk, Virginia.

We stood two years ago at the site that would one day support Dominion's buildout of the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the U.S.

Since then, Siemens Gamesa, the turbine manufacturer plagued by a billion-dollar quality control flop, has pulled out of that project. And Dominion's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm is one of only a few to survive (so far) the rough seas facing the nascent industry.

Offshore wind's future, while at times feeling bleak, got me thinking about the evolving role of investor-owned utilities in the energy transition. To be sure, utilities aren't seen as bastions of innovation, and are often criticized for slow-walking the fight against climate change. But maybe no other entity is equipped to shoulder the risk of incubating the raft of emerging technologies we desperately need for decarbonization.

Blue joined Episode 69 of the Factor This! podcast to break down Dominion's own ambitious carbon reduction plan, offshore wind's turbulent waters, and why the utility is leaning in on long-duration battery tech.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

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Tell us what you think of the show!

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.

This week’s episode features Associated Press green energy reporter Jennifer McDermott who breaks down a monumental achievement for enhanced geothermal energy.

This Week in Cleantech — Dec. 1, 2023

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Lisa Jacobson, head of Business Council for Sustainable Energy. Send your nominations for "Cleantecher of the Week" to [email protected].

1. The Biden Energy Slush Fund — Wall Street Journal
2. How Solar Sales Bros Threaten the Green Energy Transition — TIME
3. BP pays £254mn to take full control of solar joint venture Lightsource — Financial Times
4. The Salton Sea has even more lithium than previously thought, new report finds — LA Times
5. New Google geothermal electricity project could be a milestone for clean energy — Associated Press

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Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to [email protected]. And don’t forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.

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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Jeff Waters is always looking for a challenge. He thrives on chasing growth and the rush that comes by solving hard problems. And a maturing market often signals the need for a fresh start.

So it may come as no surprise that Waters found his way to battery storage, and one of its darlings, Oregon-based Powin Energy. The company, with 3 GWh of assets in operation, and another 12 GWh in production, is steadily separating itself from a pack of would-be contenders.

Waters got his start in semiconductors and later led solar module manufacturer Maxeon in its spinoff from SunPower into public markets. Only a few months into his new role as Powin's CEO, he's already positioning the company to be "IPO ready" for the time when the right opportunity arises. And it could be soon.

On Episode 68 of the Factor This! podcast, Waters highlights opportunities ahead for battery storage, weighs in on concerns of market saturation, and discusses a potential IPO timeline.

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Solar, wind, and battery projects are displacing fossil fuel assets in an urgent push to address the threats of climate change.

But the race to decarbonize has created a new problem: In the absence of clear reliability standards, inverter-based resources are misbehaving and messing up the grid, despite repeated warnings.

Episode 67 of the Factor This! podcast features Ryan Quint, who oversees engineering and security integration for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which manages the bulk power system.

Quint shares why the sprint to deploy clean energy assets is leaving the grid vulnerable to reliability failures, and why the U.S. can't slow-walk a fix.

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This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.

This week’s episode features Washington Post climate reporter Shannon Osaka, who reports why car dealer skepticism could be one of the biggest threats to electric vehicle adoption.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Sarah Chatterjee, Director of Electrification Strategies and Programs at Electric Power Engineers. Send your nominations for "Cleantecher of the Week" to [email protected].

This Week in Cleantech — Nov. 17, 2023

1. Is advanced nuclear in trouble? What’s next after NuScale cancellation — E&E News
2. Alarmed' By Climate Change, U.S. And China Forge New Partnership To Tackle Fossil Fuels — HuffPost
3. Plug Power Shares Tank Most in a Decade on Hydrogen Crunch — Bloomberg
4. China’s Spending on Green Energy Is Causing a Global Glut — Wall Street Journal
5. Electric vehicles are hitting a road block: Car dealers — Washington Post

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Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to [email protected]. And don’t forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.

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George Hershman's term as chair of solar's leading trade group began with optimism and excitement.

He stepped into the role with the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA, in January 2020, when the industry's meteoric rise was all but cemented. Today, we know the tumultuous stretch that quickly followed.

A pandemic, supply chain constraints, and a potentially existential tariff fight made even the "solar coaster" moniker appear ill-equipped to describe the moment. But his tenure also featured a legacy-defining legislative victory in the Inflation Reduction Act.

​​​​​​Hershman joined Episode 66 of the Factor This! podcast to take us inside the critical behind-the-scenes deliberations that helped save solar.

As he prepares to vacate his chairmanship at the end of the year, Hershman defended SEIA’s not-so-subtle spat with the Biden administration in the Auxin Solar tariff fight, shared the organization's own battle to stay afloat, and laid out his vision for the sector's renewed growth trajectory.

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Show notes:
-George Hershman appeared on Episode 20 of the Factor This! podcast

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 new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.

This week’s episode features The Hill energy and environment reporter Zack Budryks for a deeper look at Maine's public power referendum.

This Week in Cleantech  — Nov. 10, 2023

This week's Cleantecher of the Week is Karl Shinn, the Site GM at Soluna’s Project Dorothy. Karl has led Soluna’s operations team in the company’s flagship green data center, which is helping set the foundation for renewable energy’s future. Project Dorothy has already used and monetized over 4,000 GWh of green energy that would otherwise have been wasted through curtailment. Congratulations to Karl Shinn, our Cleantecher of the Week.

1. Can America’s south-east unseat Detroit as ‘Motown’ of the EV age? — Financial Times
2. This wind turbine looks like nothing you've ever seen before — Fast Company
3. Who Will Pay For All the Carbon Removal? — WSJ Climate and Energy Newsletter
4. How the fossil-fuel lobby weaponized Julia Child's gas stove — Vox
5. Mainers vote down ballot measure to create consumer-owned utility — The Hill

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Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to [email protected]. And don’t forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.

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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What does AI really mean for clean energy? These days, the answer is increasingly hard to find.

The AI craze, fueled by the popularization of tools like ChatGPT, has produced a frothy layer of contenders and pretenders.

But under it all are applications that could have a big impact on the energy transition. And we need all the help we can get.

To make sense of what's what, Albert Hofeldt, the senior vice president of technology for solar and battery storage software provider Stem, joins Episode 65 of the Factor This! podcast. 

Hofeldt has spent a career analyzing and developing AI tools, and he explains how to separate meaningful technology from marketing hype. He also shares why Stem thinks you should be able to talk to, and with, your projects, and what they're building to make that a possibility very soon.

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This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.

This week’s episode features Semafor climate and energy editor Tim McDonnell.

This Week in Cleantech — Nov. 3, 2023

Congratulations to Lauren Glickman, and the Encore Renewable Energy team, for being named the first "Cleantecher of the Week!" Earlier this week, Encore energized the new Solar Research and Training Facility at the University of Vermont alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders. The facility will provide students with hands-on learning opportunities and help build the pipeline of talent the clean energy industry so desperately needs to continue growing. Congrats to Lauren and Encore!

1. Why some of the 'clean' hydrogen hubs in the U.S. plan to use natural gas, a fossil fuel — CNBC
2. US commits $1.3 billion for power lines in West, Northeast — Reuters
3. Ørsted cancels N.J. project in major blow to offshore wind — E&E News
4. Toyota more than doubles investment and job creation at North Carolina battery plant — AP News
5. A referendum on Biden’s climate agenda is coming — Semafor

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to [email protected]. And don’t forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us every Friday for new episodes of This Week in Cleantech in the Factor This! podcast feed, and tune into new episodes of Factor This! every Monday.

This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.

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