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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Elizabeth Weise from USA Today, who wrote about how clean energy bans are "skyrocketing" under the second Trump administration.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, Executive Director at Earthna, who recently published an op-ed about how the climate conversation is now shifting from goals to implementation, focused on energy security, finance, and scalable solutions, especially as surpassing 1.5°C appears more likely. He pushes for us to move faster from climate agreements to execution.

This Week in Cleantech — February 27, 2026 

1. Data centers done right? Xcel and Form Energy team up to power Google operation in Minnesota — Factor This
2. US particle accelerators turn nuclear waste into electricity, cut radioactive life by 99.7% — Interesting Engineering
3. Clean Energy Manufacturers Set to Muddle Through Fresh Tariff Turmoil — The Wall Street Journal
4. Data Center Outlook: Half of 2026 Pipeline May Not Materialize — Sightline Climate
5. Clean energy bans skyrocket under Trump, USA TODAY analysis finds — USA Today

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With global energy demand at an all-time high, battery storage is evolving from a flexible filler into a critical grid resource. Success in this new era depends less on the hardware itself and more on the digital intelligence used to run it. By leveraging a digital layer to optimize the economics of battery assets, utilities are now rethinking BESS as a high-value, GW-scale engine for reliability and market participation.

To understand what this means on a practical level, we sat down with Brian Fellon, the Senior Vice President of Power Solutions at Xpansiv. He explains why battery energy storage systems are no longer an optional add-on but a critical backbone for grid operators. We also explore how utilities are moving from small-scale pilots to gigawatt-scale operations, the role of batteries in managing volatile demand from data centers, how real-time market participation demonstrates measurable value to regulators and ratepayers and much more. 

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest  Arcelia Martin from Inside Climate News, who wrote about how Texas is using hundreds of retired, repurposed EV batteries as grid-connected energy storage.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is David Kirkpatrick, Managing Director at SJF Ventures. David recently published a piece titled, “Climate Tech is Not Endangered” on LinkedIn. The piece argues that even with the Trump Administration rolling back federal climate policy, market and global momentum toward electrification and decarbonization will continue. Congratulations, David!

This Week in Cleantech — February 20, 2026 

1. Why Living in China Is Like ‘Living in the Future’ — The New York Times
2. Ford turns to F1 and bounties to build a $30,000 electric truck — TechCrunch
3. Data Centers and Your Power Bill — The New York Times
4. Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda — AP News
5. Retired EV Batteries Scored a New Gig: Bolstering Texas’ Grid — Inside Climate News

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

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Matthew Daly from The Associated Press, who wrote about how the EPA has rescinded the 2009 “endangerment finding,” the scientific and legal basis under the Clean Air Act that allowed the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Brian Hurley, executive director of Friends of Deckers Creek. He and his team are turning toxic, rust-orange acid coal mine drainage into clean water again with low-tech pond systems that bring back fish, salamanders, and frogs. And the cleanup is now helping recover rare earth minerals too, turning pollution into a resource that can fund even more restoration. Congratulations, Brian!

This Week in Cleantech — February 13, 2026 

1. Are faked public comments about to tank an Ohio solar farm? — Canary Media
2. Trump Administration Is Delaying Hundreds of Wind and Solar Projects — The New York Times
3. Wind and solar beat fossil fuels in EU power mix in 2025, energy think tank says — Reuters
4. Geothermal could replace almost half of the EU’s fossil fuel power — Grist
5. Trump's EPA revokes scientific finding that underpinned US fight against climate change — The Associated Press

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As energy demand reaches historic levels, the utility industry needs to build a 21st-century grid while also keeping monthly bills affordable for the average family. What does it mean to do so on a practical level?

To find out, we connected with Exelon EVP and COO Mike Innocenzo. Drawing on a career that began as a field engineer, he explains why affordability has become the starting point for every conversation at Exelon. He shares how the company navigates the massive costs of data center integration and EV adoption while overseeing a $38 billion capital plan. We also explore the reality of hardening the grid, the regulatory innovations needed to streamline costs, how Exelon uses AI to protect their customer’s bottom line and much more.

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Monika Gerhart, executive director at Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association, who is championing clean energy benefits and opportunities in a region well known for its fossil fuel legacy. Monika orchestrated an event last week where various businesses and trade associations held panels on several topics, one of which being how to handle energy demand for huge data centers. Erin Greeson made this nomination, and she noted to never underestimate Louisianians. Congratulations Monika! 

This Week in Cleantech — February 6, 2026 

1. China’s Solar Power Capacity on Course to Surpass Coal This Year — Bloomberg
2. Google Is Spending Big to Build a Lead in the AI Energy Race – WSJ
3. Texas’ Grid Holds Up During Winter Weather — Inside Climate News
4. Surge in public charging infrastructure defies EV slowdown — Axios
5. The Super Safe, Super Expensive Nuclear Fuel That’s Making a Comeback — Heatmap News

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Jon Chesto from The Boston Globe, who wrote about new questions about how dependable Canadian hydropower will be during severe winter storms.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures. This week, the company announced Fund 5, which closed at $360,360,360. Congratulations, Andrew!

This Week in Cleantech — January 30, 2026 

1. EVs just outsold gas cars in Europe for the first time — Fast Company
2. Power Outages Could Rise as Freezing Temperatures Persist After Winter Storm — The New York Times
3. Michigan attorney general sues oil industry over allegations of collusion against electric vehicles and renewable energy — POLITICO
4. US Exits Paris Agreement: What Trump’s Withdrawal Means for Climate Change — Bloomberg
5. New power line provided little juice to New England during Sunday’s storm, frigid temperatures — The Boston Globe

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The scale of energy demand in Northern California has reached a historic inflection point. With a 10 GW pipeline of data center demand—enough load to power more than 7.5 million homes—utility planners at Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) are navigating a high-stakes race against time, infrastructure limits, and the laws of physics.

To better understand how PG&E is turning these challenges into opportunities, we connected with two people who are doing exactly that for the company every single day. Austin Hastings is Vice President, Gas Engineering at PG&E while Mike Medeiros is Vice President, Strategic Commercial Solutions at PG&E.

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Maxine Joselow from the New York Times, who wrote about the EPA's decision to stop assigning a dollar value to lives saved in cost-benefit analyses for major air pollution rules.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is funeral director Eric Chamberlain, who helped bring wind power to Rock Port, Missouri, making it one of the first US towns to generate more wind electricity than it used. Nearly two decades later, the wind project is still delivering lasting local benefits through jobs, landowner payments and major county tax revenue. Congratulations, Eric!

This Week in Cleantech — January 23, 2026 

1. Supreme Court will not hear Duke Energy’s appeal in anti-monopoly case — The Carolina Journal
2. Soaring Electricity Costs Are Now a Hot Political Issue — The Wall Street Journal
3. Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World — The New York Times
4. Solar Projects Face Turmoil Under Trump, but Big Business Is Still Banking on Them — The Wall Street Journal
5. What’s a Human Life Worth? The E.P.A. Says Zero Dollars. — The New York Times

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

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week's episode features special guest Nico Rivero from the Washington Post, who wrote about how the rapid growth of grid-scale batteries in the U.S. is likely to pause in 2026.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Darian Nagle-Gamm, Iowa City’s transportation director, who is also the program owner for the city’s fare-free bus system. Ridership eventually grew to 118% of prepandemic levels. Carbon pollution dropped by about 778 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, roughly the equivalent of taking 167 vehicles off the roads. Congratulations, Darian!

This Week in Cleantech — January 16, 2026 

1. Scoop: Local Pushback, Canceled Data Centers Surged in 2025 — Heatmap News
2. US judge lets Denmark's Orsted resume Rhode Island offshore wind project that Trump halted — Reuters
3. New York Tells Data Centers They Must Pay More for Power — Bloomberg
4. Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions — CNBC
5. The American battery boom is on shaky ground — The Washington Post

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