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The energy industry often pits utilities and clean energy advocates as enemies duking it out from opposite corners of the ring.

As the narrative goes, utilities drag innovation in favor of the status quo. They're lobbying, some say, has tanked the value of distributed energy resources, leaving the residential solar and storage industry in turmoil.

But one company doesn't bother with that framing, even if it may be true in some cases. Instead, they're going inside utilities with the belief that there's only one realistic path to scaling DERs— being on the same team.

Episode 81 of the Factor This! podcast features Sparkfund CEO Pier LaFarge, who is partnering with some of the largest utilities to deploy hundreds of DERs on their behalf.

LaFarge shares how Sparkfund's approach upends consensus thinking around the energy transition, why he's bullish on investor-owned utilities, and what the upcoming presidential election means for clean energy.

That's all next on Factor This!

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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 Financial Times' Brett Christophers, who reported on China's exponential growth in the renewables industry.

This Week in Cleantech — July 26, 2024

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Jonathan Foley, climate scientist and Executive Director at Project Drawdown!

1. Get Ready to Pay More for Less-Reliable Electricity - Wall Street Journal
2. EPA awards $4.3 billion to fund projects in 30 states to reduce climate pollution - Associated Press
3. IRA’s biggest climate program has ‘decimal dust’ for oversight - POLITICO
4. Can the solar industry keep the lights on? - Financial Times
5. We must not mistake China’s success on green energy for a global one - Financial Times

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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.

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Five years ago, PG&E's reputation was shattered. California's largest utility had filed for bankruptcy after admitted missteps led to catastrophic wildfires. The climate crisis had wreaked havoc in the state most committed to fighting it.

But the urgency of the energy transition required a rebirth of PG&E, especially in light of California's quickly approaching climate deadlines. Today, PG&E is dispelling the myth of the infallible utility by lifting the veil on its shortcomings and calling on industry to fill the gaps.

Episode 80 of the Factor This! podcast features Quinn Nakayama, senior director of grid research innovation and development at PG&E, who is charged with shaping the utility's vision around AI, load growth, and decarbonization.

Can utilities, often criticized for dragging innovation, lead the energy transition?

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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 Heatmap writer Katie Brigham, who reported on rising interest in sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion.

This Week in Cleantech — July 19, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Scott Wopata of the Rice County Community Action Center. This community offers net-zero housing for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. They have an innovative wall design that delivers over a 60% reduction in energy use.

1. A Seismic Supreme Court Decision — New York Times
2. Climate Change Leaves World's Electricity Networks Unable to Cope — Bloomberg
3. Biden faces criticism over his gas car ban. But he doesn't have one — NPR
4. This climate tech startup wants to capture carbon and help data centers cool down  — The Verge 
5. Is Sodium-Ion the Next Big Battery? — Heatmap

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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

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Virtual power plants were always doomed to fall into clean tech's notorious hype cycle.

There are plenty of reasons for that, but start with the name. 'Virtual power plant' means everything and nothing all at once. Then there's the origin story—one rooted in the far-less-sexy, and decades-old concept of demand response. Round that out with projections that utilities could save as much as $35 billion in just 10 years by embracing VPPs and you have the makings of a hype cycle even green hydrogen can't reach.

But VPPs are proving to have staying power. Federal and state policies have opened new markets. The tech works, and projects are being deployed at breakneck speed.

Episode 79 of the Factor This! podcast features Michael Smith, CEO of the leading C&I virtual power plant provider CPower, who breaks down the technology behind VPPs, where the industry stands today, and the critical markets no one is looking at.

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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, who reported on AI's impact on the grid and how the technology could be used to ease the strain.

This Week in Cleantech — June 28, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Warwick Wise, Head of Video at ABB. He went out to the plains of New Mexico to see how the latest detection and monitoring technology helped find methane leaks and seal them off. Congratulations, Warwick!

1. Supreme Court halts enforcement of the EPA's plan to limit downwind pollution from power plants — AP News
2. US energy production exceeds consumption by widest-recorded margin — Reuters
3. Coal power plant outages remain historically high, NERC report finds — E&E News
4. Wildfire Threats Make Utilities Uninsurable in US West — Bloomberg
5. The solution to the AI power boom is a better grid, not a bigger one - Semafor

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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

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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 Newsweek editor Jeff Young, who reported on President Biden's effort to link his climate goals to good-paying jobs.

This Week in Cleantech — June 21, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Megawatt-X founder Laurent Segalen!

1. Solar Power’s Giants Are Providing More Energy Than Big Oil - Bloomberg
2. Green Peace: How the Fight Against Climate Change Can Overcome Geopolitical Discord - Foreign Affairs
3. A Trump Win Puts $369 Billion in Clean Energy Incentives at Risk, BI Says - Bloomberg
4. Solugen scores $214 million loan from DOE to make chemicals from corn sugar not petroleum - CNBC
5. Biden Links Green Power to Good Pay With Clean Energy Wage Rules - Newsweek

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

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 Michael Thomas, author of the "Distilled" newsletter, who reported on the growing size of clean energy projects in the U.S.

This Week in Cleantech — June 14, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Andrew Savage, vice president and founding team at electric vehicle and bike sharing company, Lime. 

1. The World Needs More Batteries for Electric Vehicles — But Not This Many — Bloomberg
2. House hearing to be held to consider bill to reform how public utility regulators are appointed — WOSU Public Media
3. Long-Range EVs Now Cost Less Than the Average New Car in the US — Bloomberg
4. World faces ‘staggering’ oil glut by end of decade, energy watchdog warns — Financial Times
5. The Rise of the Clean Energy Megaproject — Distilled

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

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Christian Roselund has a strategy for when a new solar tariff petition drops.

Turn off your phone. Then get to reading. Had he failed to follow these rules in April, Roselund, a senior policy analyst at Clean Energy Associates, would have gotten an ear full from developers fearful of yet another tariff fight.

U.S. solar manufacturing giants First Solar and QCells are putting their weight behind the latest threat to an already fragile supply chain, and it could be much worse than the one that brought the industry to its knees just two years ago.

Roselund joined Episode 78 of the Factor This! podcast to break down the impact of the newest attempt to tamp down China's solar dominance.

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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 Guardian's Dharna Norr, who reported on an effort by Vermont leaders to force fossil fuel companies to pay for their emissions impacts.

This Week in Cleantech — June 7, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is CleanCapital co-founder Jon Powers!

1. Renewable Energy Wins for Now in Michigan as Local Control Measure Fails to Make Ballot — Inside Climate News
2. World’s biggest solar farm goes online, big enough to power a country — The Independent
3. How Electric Car Batteries Might Aid the Grid (and Win Over Drivers) — The New York Times
4. How a simple fix could double the size of the U.S. electricity grid — The Washington Post
5. ‘Game-changing’: Vermont becomes first state to require big oil to pay for climate damages — The Guardian

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