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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.

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 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

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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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 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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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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.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

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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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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 Stephen Robert Miller, who wrote for Yale E360 about an effort to convert existing oil wells for long-duration storage of solar energy.

This Week in Cleantech — May 31, 2024 

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Gregg Patterson, CEO of Origami Solar!

1. The U.S. just took its biggest step yet to end coal mining — The Washington Post
2. Opinion | Can Biden Win America’s Green Tech Trade War With China? — The New York Times
3. How red Texas became a model for green energy — The Financial Times
4. Biden’s Long Game on Climate — Heatmap News
5. Can a California Oilfield Be Retrofitted to Store Solar Energy? — Yale Environment 360

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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has unveiled landmark new rules in attempt to jumpstart the beleaguered transmission system in the U.S. Many are already calling it the most impactful action by the agency in decades, providing a path to meet the needs of the energy transition.

Taken together, Orders 1920 and 1977 total more than 1,500 pages, requiring long-term, proactive transmission planning and providing a backstop to some key siting disputes.

But experts say there's still plenty of work ahead, and challenges to the rules are likely.

Episode 77 of the Factor This! podcast features Tory Lauterbach, a partner in the energy and climate practice at Foley Hoag LLP, who breaks down what FERC did, and didn't, do to boost transmission.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Disclaimer: This interview was recorded on May 14, 2024.  Relative time references like “yesterday” or ”two days ago” refer to the timing on the date of recording. Tory Lauterbach's commentary is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
 

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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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 Oliver Milman, an environment reporter for The Guardian, who covered a new report that casts doubt on sustainable aviation fuel prospects.

This Week in Cleantech — May 17, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Paul Carp, Independent Climate Consultant for his recently launched Carpe Diem Climate Consulting

1. Biden sharply hikes US tariffs on an array of Chinese imports — Reuters
2. FERC shakes up power industry with landmark grid rule — E&E News
3. What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign — The Washington Post
4. As Ohio clamps down on clean energy, recent changes make it easier to force landowners to allow oil and gas drilling — Energy News Network
5. ‘Magical thinking’: hopes for sustainable jet fuel not realistic, report finds — 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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]

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 in Cleantech — May 10, 2024

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Lara Hamsher, Director of Stakeholder Relations, Social Impact and Sustainability for AES Clean Energy!

1. Battery Recycling Shatters the Myth of Electric-Vehicle Waste — Bloomberg
2. Renewable energy passes 30% of world’s electricity supply — The Guardian
3. A Century-Old Company The Government Owns Wants To Solve A Big Energy Problem — HuffPost
4. Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity — New York Times
5. Biden's tax credits for sustainable aviation fuel allow a big role for corn ethanol — Semafor

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.

Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing [email protected]