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 USA Today national correspondent Elizabeth Weise, who reported on overwhelming local opposition to clean energy projects.

This Week in Cleantech  — February 9, 2024

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy.

1. Summer Has Long Stressed Electric Grids. Now Winter Does, Too. — New York Times
2. ‘Gold’ hydrogen: The next clean fuel? — E&E News
3. How bad is Tesla’s hazardous waste problem in California? — The Verge
4. EV Slowdown Turns the Table for Leaders and Laggards — Bloomberg
5. Across America, clean energy plants are being banned faster than they're being built — USA Today

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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

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 Associated Press climate change reporter Matthew Daly, who reported on President Biden's controversial pause on considering new LNG export terminals.

This Week in Cleantech — Feb. 2, 2024 (not Jan. 26!)

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Jimmy Rogers, Manager of Communications at Redaptive.

1. The Rooftop Solar Industry Could Be On the Verge of Collapse — TIME
2. U.S. Oil Drillers Are Going Electric—if They Can Get the Electricity — Wall Street Journal
3. China Leads Global Clean Energy Spending, Which Record $1.8 Trillion in 2023 — Bloomberg
4. The Coolest Thing in Climate Tech is a Super Hot Rock — Heatmap News
5. Liquefied Natural Gas: What to know about LNG and Biden's decision to delay gas export proposals — Associated Press

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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

Tell us what you think of the show!

By all accounts, community solar looks like an unstoppable force. One of the hottest clean energy sectors continues to flourish thanks to new markets and rich incentives.

But it's also getting tougher. First-mover states are saturating, fueling intense competition. And those rich incentives? They're increasingly tied to serving elusive low-income customers often skeptical of promises that are too good to be true.

So what's in store for community solar in 2024?

Episode 74 of the Factor This! podcast features Bruce Stewart, the CEO of community solar subscriber management platform Perch Energy.

Stewart maps out new markets on the way this year, breaks down the challenge of acquiring, and keeping, low-income customers, and shares the latest on the highly-anticipated reboot of California's troubled community solar program. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

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 Quillian Robinson, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who wrote an op-ed in TIME about the true cost of China's clean energy dominance.

This Week in Cleantech — Jan. 25, 2024

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is David Arfin, CEO of NineDot Energy. Send your nominations and story recommendations to [email protected].

1. Biden needs young voters. Can his climate policy rally them? — E&E News
2. US unveils solar energy plan for western public lands — Reuters
3. How Biden’s climate law spurred a tax credit revolution — Financial Times
4. Growth in low-emissions power expected to cover demand - IEA — Reuters
5. The True Cost of Chinese Solar Panels — TIME

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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

Tell us what you think of the show!

A common knock on distributed energy resources, or DERs, is that they don't scale. 

DERs uniquely provide resilience and defer grid upgrades. But their bespoke nature leads to highly-customized and expensive projects compared to larger projects that offer more routine system designs.

But what if DERs could capitalize on the same efficiencies that fueled the rapid deployment of utility-scale solar and storage? Small-scale could go big… in a big way.

Episode 73 of the Factor This! podcast features Dr. Michael Stadler, who wrote much of the early research on microgrid design and optimization. He's now the chief technology officer for software startup Xendee, which aims to bring speed and efficiency to DER deployment. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

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 Grist reporter Kate Yoder, who breaks down a new trend of corporations "greenhushing," or limiting what they say about sustainability efforts.

This Week in Cleantech — Jan. 19, 2024

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Rondo Energy's Helen Sweet. Nominate your picks for "Cleantecher of the Week" by emailing the show.

1. Winter storm tests Texas green grid upgrades — The Washington Post
2. Octopus Energy Has Texas-Size Ambitions — The Wall Street Journal
3. States with big climate goals strip local power to block green projects — AP News
4. California Has Dealt a Blow to Renewable Energy, Some Businesses Say — The New York Times
5. Companies are hiding their climate progress. A new report explains why. — Grist

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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

Tell us what you think of the show!

Three decades ago, FERC recommended implementing independent entities to manage regional power markets and system planning.

The resulting seven RTOs and ISOs have largely been successful. But now experts believe they've become part of the problem, exacerbating the country's woefully inadequate supply of transmission, allegedly by pandering to utility interests.

Episode 72 of the Factor This! podcast features Ari Peskoe, an expert on transmission policy and the director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard.

Peskoe shares his recent research on how regional grid operators have failed to evolve with the advent of clean energy technology, and why a reboot could be the key to realizing an electrified future. 

Watch the episode on YouTube

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

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 Floodlight News investigative reporter Mario Alejandro Ariza, who reported on how utilities used money to influence civil rights leaders in the South.

This Week in Cleantech — Jan. 11, 2024

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Scott Kubly, who last week shared an introspective post about the challenges and joys of launching, and leading, a cleantech company. Nominate your picks for "Cleantecher of the Week" by emailing the show.

1. The Problem With De-Risking: Transitioning to Clean Energy Requires Trade With China — Foreign Affairs
2. Housing wind fall — Semafor
3. Smart Energy Use Draws Big Money From Private Equity — Bloomberg
4. New York jump-starts the "building decarbonization" trend — Axios
5. Power companies paid civil rights leaders in the US south. They became loyal industry advocates — Floodlight 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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

Tell us what you think of the show!

When Jenny Chase speaks or, more frequently, tweets, the solar industry listens.

For nearly 20 years, Chase has chronicled the twists and turns of solar's meteoric growth as a market analyst for BloombergNEF. Her research is indispensable. Her annual prediction mega-threads are legendary.

As much as the moniker makes her squirm, Chase is the closest solar has to an oracle. She joined Episode 71 of the Factor This! podcast to discuss her spiciest predictions for 2024, as well as the release of the second edition of her book, Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon, which is available now.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today. 

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 reporter Renee Fox from WOSU Public Media, which launched a new podcast series chronicling the $61 million bribery scandal involving FirstEnergy and former Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder.

This Week in Cleantech — Dec. 22, 2023

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Julia McPherson, Manager of Community Relations at EDP Renewables. Send your nominations, and story recommendations, to [email protected].

1. What No One at COP28 Wanted to Say Out Loud: Prepare for 1.5 Degrees — New York Times
2. Volkswagen, Audi, And Porsche Finally Commit To Using Tesla’s NACS Plug — InsideEV’s
3. The United States is producing more oil than any country in history — CNN
4. US Treasury unveils rules for clean energy manufacturing subsidy — Reuters
5. The Power Grab — WOSU Public Media

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.

Check out FactorThis.com — your new, one-stop shop for energy news, insights, and commentary. We've combined the reach and expertise of Renewable Energy World, POWERGRID International, and Hydro Review to serve you better. Sign up for our free newsletter today.