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The news from Entergy Louisiana may have required a second reading. And a third. The utility wants to go (really) big on solar. Why now?

Entergy Louisiana asked state regulators in March to approve 3 GW of new solar resources. That's on top of its request from a few weeks earlier for 225 MW of new solar, which would have nearly doubled the state's existing capacity.

Louisiana isn't known as the friendliest to solar. What led to the sudden change of heart?

Entergy  Louisiana CEO Phillip May joined Episode 44 of the Factor This! podcast to share an inside look at a Southern utility's view on the energy transition. May shared his outlook for solar, energy storage, green hydrogen, offshore wind, and more.

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More than a decade since John Berger founded Sunnova… the company is one of the largest residential solar and storage providers in the country. That would be enough for a lot of people. But success hasn't stopped Berger from pushing the envelope.

He recognized early on in his career, from his time at Enron and then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, that the way we viewed and consumed energy was broken. He didn't necessarily know the answer then… but knew he would do whatever he could to fix it.

From Sunnova's push to create a micro-utility in California, to the aggregation of tens of thousands of residential solar and battery systems to compete with the monopolistic utility model, the company, and Berger, have set out to upend the status quo.

In Episode 43 of the Factor This, Berger gives his unvarnished take on decarbonization and taking on Goliath.

That's all next on Factor This!

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A new era of cleantech innovation is here. And it’s a good time to take stock of what’s in the pipeline. Green hydrogen, circular economies, and next-gen batteries are at the heart of “Cleantech 2.0.” These innovations could take the clean economy to new heights when paired with fresh federal incentives for fighting climate change.

Alok Sindher, a partner at the venture capital firm Fifth Wall, joined Episode 42 of the Factor This! podcast to break down what’s on the way and who’s positioned to cash in.

Fifth Wall is one of the largest VCs driving cleantech innovation with $2.9 billion raised for cleantech startups. The firm recently led the $30 million Series A round for solar module recycling startup SOLARCYCLE.

That's all next on Factor This!

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How do you measure the impact of someone like Dan Shugar?

He's been a mainstay in the solar industry since the early days. Before the solar coaster defined the twists and turns of the evolving industry.

He led PowerLight to a $335 million dollar acquisition. Helped grow SunPower into the behemoth it is today. And was the CEO of solar module manufacturer Solaria, before co-founding Nextracker, one of the world's leading tracker manufacturers.

Dan Shugar is solar. Undeniably the face, and voice, driving the industry to heights unthinkable when he started out nearly 30 years ago.

In Episode 41 of the Factor This! podcast, Dan Shugar returns fresh off Nextracker's $638 million IPO that is, so far, this year's biggest. Not just for a clean tech company— for any company.

What's left for the industry leader affectionately known by so many as Shug?

That's all next on Factor This!

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Concentrated solar power has had a rough go in the US. But that's not because it's a poor resource.

Using mirrors and towers, CSP can cleanly generate electricity, provide long-duration thermal energy storage, and decarbonize heavy industry by producing heat. Still, solar PV deployment dwarfs installed CSP capacity 113 GW to 2.

Why hasn't it caught on here?

Episode 40 of the Factor This! podcast features Craig Wood, CEO of the Australian next-gen CSP company Vast, which thinks it can change CSP's fortunes in the US.

Vast is planning to list on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of more than a half-billion dollars to deploy its next-gen CSP technology. Wood breaks down CSP's less-than-sunny history, why it's getting a fresh look, and its role in the energy transition.

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Bonus episode!

Today, we're dropping in an episode from our friends over at the Suncast podcast that we know you'll enjoy.

Nico Johnson has an interesting and important conversation with Steph Spiers, co-founder and CEO of the community solar manager Solstice about equity in the energy transition.

Speirs believes that "the role of power and privilege is to use it to open up doors for other folks to access that same power". Her company, Solstice, aims to democratize the clean energy revolution and create energy equity through community solar, and they do this by increasing access to solar power for households that are locked out of the solar marketplace. She has won more than three dozen accolades and awards for her private market innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as her public sector work, which includes developing Middle East policy as the youngest policy director at the White House National Security Council.

You can find the episode blog, as well as the full Suncast episode library, here. 

Make sure to subscribe to Suncast and Factor This! wherever your podcasts.

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While the energy transition is well underway, the power dynamics that have ruled the industry for generations are still largely the same.

Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, is upending that paradigm by taking control of energy data and using it to fuel the rapid deployment of distributed energy assets.

Arcadia manages more community solar subscribers than almost anyone else, and its software platform, Arc, uses data from thousands of utilities to pinpoint where, and when, to build and use DERs.

Still commonly referred to as a startup, Arcadia is now a billion-dollar cleantech unicorn.

Bhatraju joined Episode 38 of the Factor This! podcast to discuss Arcadia's climb and the energy transition's next big thing.

Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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As the renewable energy industry has grown up, its legal risks have too. 

Sure, we as an industry talk all the time about NIMBYism. But what about zoning and permitting litigation? What happens when a project produces stormwater runoff that damages a neighboring property? And how about all of these new incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act… who's on the hook if a project falls short of its obligations?

Episode 38 of the Factor This! podcast features two attorneys working really closely on these issues.

Matthew Karmel is the principal and chair of the Environmental and Sustainability Practice Group at the national law firm Offit Kurman. Yana Spitzer is in-house counsel at ENGIE North America.

Karmel and Spitzer take us inside the courtroom for a look at the legal risk plaguing project developers today, and they point out the potholes to watch out for in the future.

WRISE Speaker Spotlight

This week's WRISE Speaker Spotlight features Patricia Vega, founder and CEO of Quantum New Energy. Patricia's expertise includes asset management, corporate social responsibility, energy efficiency, and more. Contact Patricia for a speaking engagement, view other speakers, or join the Speakers Bureau yourself at WRISEenergy.org. 

Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

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The proverbial light bulb that sparked Tasha McCarter's interest in energy was an actual light bulb.

A third grade experiment using a hand crank to produce electricity led to an accomplished career developing power plants for SunPower, Silicon Ranch, and most recently RWE as their vice president of solar engineering.

For McCarter, who is Black, the rise to become one of the energy industry's foremost engineering leaders was anything but easy. While the industry's well-known diversity problem is slowly improving, there's still a long way to go.

McCarter joined Episode 37 of the Factor This! podcast to talk about her career, Black History Month, and the energy industry's pursuit of a more diverse workforce.   

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There’s a press release almost every week.

Increasing demand for solar modules, paired with supply chain constraints and trade disputes, have some new players eyeing the US market.

Some module manufacturers are building new factories to capitalize on fresh federal incentives to boost the domestic solar supply chain. Others are hoping to import their products into the US.

Both have created a set of new, largely unknown players for buyers to make sense of. And standard certifications don’t go far enough to determine a module's long-term performance and reliability.

Episode 36 of the Factor This! podcast features Tristan Erion-Lorico, VP of sales and marketing for PV Evolution Labs. The firm helps manufacturers prove themselves to new markets, and offers investors and asset owners an extra level of certainty over long-term performance.

Show notes:
-PVEL's 2022 PV Module Reliability Scorecard

Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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