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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. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features Reuters correspondent Nichola Groom, who shares insights from a lackluster offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico.

This Week in Cleantech – September 1, 2023

1. Google to begin selling maps data to companies building solar products, hopes to generate $100 million in first year — CNBC
2. Tennessee secured $7B in clean energy business this past year — representing nearly 80% of new investments — WPLN News
3. MSG Sphere announces plan to power 70% of Las Vegas arena with renewable energy, pending approval — USA Today
4. Chemical fertilizer is a climate disaster. Can high-tech biology fix it? — Canary Media
5. First US offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico attracts paltry interest — Reuters

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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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On a quest to find the cutting edge of the energy transition, Utah is unlikely to be the first stop. It may not even make the itinerary.

A Republican governor and supermajority legislature lead the state. Rocky Mountain Power, a historically conservative, vertically integrated utility, supplies most of its electricity (and the biggest source is coal).

But the Beehive State has laid out an improbable blueprint for clean energy and resilience. Here, more than 3,000 home batteries are intelligently managed to serve seven critical grid functions. Every single day. And, no, it's not a pilot.

Episode 58 of the Factor This! podcast features Blake Richetta, CEO of the American division of sonnen, a German battery manufacturer and provider of the virtual power plant software that makes Rocky Mountain Power's innovative program tick.

Richetta breaks down the nuances behind the ambiguously named VPP and shares the fascinating story of how unlikely collaborators helped launch one of the most sophisticated programs in the country.

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. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features Bloomberg energy and environmental policy reporter Jennifer Dlouhy for a breakdown of the Commerce Department's final ruling in the Auxin Solar tariff case.

This Week in Cleantech – August 25, 2023

1. Fixing our failing electric grid ... on a budget – NPR
2. Europe’s Gas-Guzzling Days Are Fading – Wall Street Journal
3. Pioneering wind-powered cargo ship sets sail – BBC
4. Solar panels to surround Dulles Airport will deliver power to 37,000 homes – Associated Press
5. Chinese Solar Makers Face New Tariffs After US Says They're Dodging Duties – Bloomberg

Notes:
Mike Casey will be participating in a discussion at RE+ in Las Vegas titled: "From NIMBYs to Neighbors: Emerging Patterns in Developer Experiences and the Views of Rural Americans the Clean Energy Industry Needs to Win Over" in Veronese 2405, Level 2, The Venetian from 2:30-3:00 p.m. PT on Sept. 13.

Watch a video version of the show 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!

In the year since the Inflation Reduction Act supercharged clean energy manufacturing, rarely does a week go by without a new solar factory notice. Rich incentives have led to unprecedented investments.

But making solar panels is really hard. Not only does it require a lot of energy, but complicated global supply chains leave profit margins razor thin. And existing technology is bumping up against theoretical efficiency limits.

Industry heavyweights see perovskite solar cells as the heir apparent to the crystalline chemistries that currently dominate global supply. They're betting that perovskites will offer a domestically produced, higher-efficiency, flexible, and cheaper alternative.

The perovskite revolution is not without its detractors, though. Sizeable achievements are needed to take perovskites from labs to commercial viability.

Episode 57 of the Factor This! podcast features Joseph Berry, a Senior Research Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Paul Warley, the CEO of Ascent, a company working to commercialize perovskites for agriculture and space applications.

Perovskites could be the missing link as terawatt-scale solar and broad decarbonization are pursued. Or, they could end up on the proverbial ash heap of history. Which is it?

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. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features The Hill energy and environment reporter Rachel Frazin for a breakdown of the Inflation Reduction Act's impact after one year. 

This Week in Cleantech – August 11, 2023

1. Big Oil’s Talent Crisis: High Salaries Are No Longer Enough – Wall Street Journal
2. The U.S. Government Will Pay to Remove Carbon From Atmosphere – Heatmap News
3. The future of East Coast wind power could ride on this Jersey beach town – Washington Post
4. A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy – New York Times
5. Year after Biden’s climate bill sees spike in renewable energy investment, industry says – The Hill

Watch a video version of the show 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!

A simple mention of the word can send shivers down a developer's spine.

Interconnection.

It's the bogeyman of the energy transition. Long delays and steep upgrade costs can doom projects before they ever get off the ground. The interconnection slog may be the single biggest threat to national and local clean energy and climate goals. And the people critical to improving the process — developers, utilities, and regulators — don't always get along, to say the least.

In Episode 56 of the Factor This! podcast, we head to the Northeast for a deeper insight into why this single issue has grown to be such a problem and how they just might fix it. We'll have the help of, you guessed it, a developer, a utility, and a regulator.

This episode features National Grid's distributed generation ombudsperson Michael Porcaro; Convergent Energy and Power regulatory affairs manager Emma Marshall-Torres, and Rhode Island PUC Commissioner Abigail Anthony.

By the way, they'll also each be speaking at the GridTECH Connect Forum - Northeast in Newport, Rhode Island, October 23-25. Listeners can get 20% off admission to the event by clicking this link.

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. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week's episode features Reuters correspondent Valerie Volcovici for a deep-dive on FERC's monumental interconnection ruling. 

This Week in Cleantech - August 4, 2023

1. The U.S. Clean-Energy Company That Hit the Subsidies Jackpot — Wall Street Journal
2. Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear reactor, long delayed, starts delivering power Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear reactor, long delayed, starts delivering power — CNBC
3. MIT engineers developed a new type of concrete that can store energy — Fast Company
4. Deep-sea mining could help fuel renewable energy. Here's why it's been put on hold. — USA Today
5. US moves to link more wind and solar projects to electric grid — Reuters

Watch a video version of the show 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!

Kyle Udseth helped media giants like DIRECTV and Netflix craft their customer experiences. Now, he's working to scale a new national player in residential solar and storage with that same focus.

After stints with Sunrun and Sunnova, Udseth founded Pineapple Energy believing that the crowded field of residential solar providers was still ripe with opportunity. His company is scaling through strategic acquisitions of successful regional installers with established brands and pipelines in an attempt to compete with industry heavyweights.

Udseth joined Episode 55 of the Factor This! podcast to share how the residential solar market is adapting to policy uncertainty and macroeconomic headwinds, and why he believes the sector is primed for consolidation.

Is there room for another national residential solar provider? 

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. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This Week in Cleantech - July 28, 2023

1. Solar Manufacturing in the US Is Facing a Bleak Future, Analysts Warn - Bloomberg
2. Small-town GOP officials are torn over Biden’s clean energy cash - Washington Post
3. These moisture-sucking materials could transform air conditioning - MIT Tech Review
4. There’s not enough land to solve climate change with wood buildings and biofuels - Semafor
5. Rivian anchors BrightNight solar plant at former coal mine - Axios

Watch a video version of the show 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!

Battery storage deployment is surging to fill the gaps left by intermittent renewable energy resources. And, sometimes, those gaps extend days beyond what lithium-ion can handle.

For the past six years, Form Energy has positioned itself as the company to solve for the multi-day challenge. What started with splashy renderings and nearly $1 billion in fundraising announcements has evolved into real contracts with utilities like Xcel and Southern Company, and a commercial-scale iron-air battery plant under construction in West Virginia.

Episode 54 of the Factor This! podcast features Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo, a former Tesla executive pushing for deep decarbonization on the grid.

Jaramillo breaks down the technology behind Form Energy's 100-hour battery, how the company was able to convince risk-averse utilities to buy in, and the challenges still ahead for multi-day energy storage.

That's all next on Factor This!

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