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Hello, Factor This! listeners. This is John Engel, editor-in-chief of Renewable Energy World and POWERGRID International. As many of you know, I live in Asheville, which was devastated from Tropical Storm Helene. 

This conversation between myself and Renewable Energy World content director Paul Gerke was hastily recorded on Wednesday, Oct. 2, so please excuse the production quality. Some of the conditions discussed in this podcast have changed since recording-- gas is now readily available in Asheville and Duke Energy has restored power to at least 90% of the Carolinas. 

I love Asheville. To see many of its best elements destroyed is beyond tragic. 10 days after the storm, most of the city remains without water. Remote mountain regions are impassable. People are still missing. We need your help. 

Please consider supporting these organizations: 

• North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund 
• Beloved Asheville
• Samaritan's Purse
• Footprint Project

Thank you to all of you who continued to support Asheville's recovery. It means the world to me. 

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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 Catherine Boudrea, a Business Insider reporter who wrote about Constellation Energy's plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Robin Swanhuyser, the Executive Director of Twende Solar. Twende Solar empowers under-resourced communities with renewable energy systems. Their vision is to have renewable energy be the solution for eliminating poverty, strengthening economies, protecting ecosystems, and achieving a more equitable society. Congratulations, Robin!

This Week in Cleantech — September 30, 2024 

1. Under a Texas sun, agrivoltaics offer farmers a new way to make money — The Washington Post
2. America's Oil Country Increasingly Runs on Renewables — The New York Times
3. What The Fed’s Interest Rate Cut Means For Climate Change — HuffPost
4. From Norway to New York, electric ferries are taking over the globe — NY Post
5. Tech bros and bankers rally around nuclear power to fuel AI's rapid rise — The Business Insider

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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 Ivan Penn from the New York Times, who wrote about how one of the country's largest coal plants, located in Minnesota, is being replaced by solar and storage. It will be the largest solar farm in the Upper Midwest when completed, but some residents are worried about the change.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is President of rPlus Energies. Luigi recently called on his LinkedIn following to form a solar industry equivalent rallying cry of the “Got Milk?” campaign. He mentions that other industries have found a way to emotionally engage people, but the solar industry is lagging behind. Congratulations, Luigi!

This Week in Cleantech — September 20, 2024

1. Trump vows to pull back climate law’s unspent dollars — POLITICO
2. America’s New Climate Delusion — The Atlantic 
3. Natural Gas Is Critical To Achieving Global Climate Goals. Here’s Why — Forbes
4. What If We Get Fusion — But Don’t Need It? — Heatmap 
5. Coal Power Defined This Minnesota Town. Can Solar Win It Over? — New York Times

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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 Tim De Chant from TechCrunch, who wrote about a possible path to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions from the airline and shipping industries: a startup working to develop "green" methanol, which is made without fossil fuels.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Nora Zacharski, Press Secretary at Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Nora recently graduated with her Master’s in Political Communications, and shared her Capstone project online, which analyzed Facebook messaging by opponents of land-based and offshore wind energy. Congratulations, Nora!

This Week in Cleantech — September 6, 2024

1. What Will We Do With Our Free Power? — New York Times
2. How much more water and power does AI computing demand? Tech firms don't want you to know — LA Times
3. Local opposition is now a ‘leading cause’ of canceled clean energy projects —  Latitude Media
4. More cleantech companies fail as fundraising challenges emerge — Financial Times
5. Oxylus Energy strikes 'beautiful balance' to make e-fuels for aviation and shipping — TechCrunch

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The energy transition was always going to produce some form of tension. That isn't altogether negative— friction keeps a speeding train on the tracks, after all. In the energy industry, it's electric utilities and clean energy developers who most often collide, one positioned as the gatekeeper of the grid and the other a disrupter.

Plenty of challenges face the energy transition, but one underpins nearly all of them: interconnection. Utilities and developers, meanwhile, are beginning to recognize the importance of collaboration, and that fences must be mended to reach our goals. 

Episode 82 of the Factor This! podcast features Carrie Gill, the head of electric regulatory strategy at Rhode Island Energy, and Ed Brolin, the vice president of policy and distributed government relations at RWE. Both will be featured speakers at the interconnection event GridTECH Connect Forum - Northeast, which will be held in Newport, Rhode Island in October. 

Gill and Brolin break down the challenges and solutions to interconnection in the Northeast and preview what you can expect at GridTECH Connect Forum. Register today using the promo code PODCAST to receive 10% off your admission. 

That's all next on Factor This! 

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his 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 Dan Gearino from Inside Climate News, who wrote about how progress in solid-state battery technology may soon enable electric vehicles to achieve up to 600 miles of range. 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Emilie Oxel O’Leary, founder of Green Clean Wind LLC. Emilie is actively urging her LinkedIn followers to reach out for their solar recycling needs, highlighting the growing concern over solar components ending up in landfills. She’s asking for every steel pile, aluminum racking component, nut, and bolt, so she can help clean up your site. Congratulations Emilie! 

This Week in Cleantech — August 30, 2024

1. Far-Right ‘Terrorgram’ Chatrooms Fuel Wave of Power Grid Attacks — Bloomberg
2. The Case for a Clean Energy Marshall Plan — Foreign Affairs
3. Scoop: Swell is shutting down — Latitude Media
4. Hungry for Clean Energy, Facebook Looks to a New Type of Geothermal — New York Times
5. Want an EV With 600 Miles of Range? It’s Coming — Inside Climate News

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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 CNET senior editor Jon Reed, who visited an energy-efficient home in Vermont that will eventually be part of a virtual power plant, or VPP.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Jim Kapsis, CEO of the Ad Hoc Group, who recently wrote about his 531-mile trip from Virginia to Maine in an electric vehicle. Jim wrote about his experience traveling the long electric miles, both the good and bad. We’ll link his piece in our YouTube bio. Congratulations Jim!

This Week in Cleantech — August 23, 2024

1. Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero — The Financial Times
2. EVs are starting to overtake gas-powered cars in a surprising place — CNN
3. Clean Fuel Startups Were Supposed to Be the Next Big Thing. Now They Are Collapsing. — The Wall Street Journal
4. Coal Power Defined This Minnesota Town. Can Solar Win It Over? — The New York Times
5. The US Power Grid Has a Problem. Your House Could Help Solve It — CNET

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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 Business Insider reporter Catherine Boudreau, who wrote about Con Edison's plans to capture heat from data centers and large commercial buildings to power underground thermal energy networks.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Samuel Truthseeker, CEO of Solvari Solar. His system view of rooftop solar enables panels to be installed in 2 minutes rather than 20 minutes, and is based on over 20 years developing solar products. Congratulations Samuel!

This Week in Cleantech — August 16, 2024

1. How Solar-Friendly Is Your State? We Scored Them All — CNET
2. This Texas Energy Is So Bountiful, They Pay You to Take It Away — New York Times
3. Americans tapped $8 billion in tax credits on home energy upgrade — Washington Post
4. Delays hit 40% of Biden’s major IRA manufacturing projects — Financial Times
5. How New York City's data centers and Rockefeller Center could help power a climate solution — Business Insider
   
   

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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 MIT Technology Review reporter Casey Crowhart, who covered how new tech turns air conditioners into batteries.

This Week in Cleantech — August 8, 2024 

1. Red-State Republicans Say They’ll Defend Biden-Era Green Jobs — Bloomberg
2. Former Rooftop Solar Giant SunPower Files for Bankruptcy — Bloomberg
3. Around a third of carbon credits fail new benchmark test — Reuters
4. Indiana’s dependence on coal is costing ratepayers millions and holding back clean energy growth — Energy News Network
5. Your future air conditioner might act like a battery — MIT Technology Review

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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.

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.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

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 Jael Holzman, a senior reporter at Heatmap, who reported on how the clean energy industry is colliding with climate activists over a long-awaited energy permitting bill.

This Week in Cleantech — August 2, 2024

1. The Rush to Shore Up the Power Grid Against Hurricanes, Heat and Hail — The Wall Street Journal
2. How to Avoid A Climate Backlash — TIME
3. Energy Companies Turn to Robots to Install Solar Panels — The New York Times
4. Applied Carbon's farm robot turns plant waste into biochar to capture CO2 — TechCrunch
5. The Climate Case Against the Permitting Deal — Heatmap News

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.

Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast