Factor This

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In a special edition of the Factor This podcast from the road at RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, host Paul Gerke meets up with Chris Seiple, the Vice Chairman of global consulting firm Wood Mackenzie's Power & Renewables group.

 Over the course of a diverse discussion, the two touch on recent reports issued by WoodMac that show how stakeholders are handling increased electricity demand and navigating shifting federal policy to get clean energy projects connected to the grid. Other topics include:

• The reality of project cancellations
• Rapid growth of battery energy storage deployment and its benefits
• The ways in which stakeholders are handling data centers
• How utilities are thinking about cost allocation and ratepayer protection
• The role of flexibility in the 'grid of the future'

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week’s episode, recorded at RE+ in Las Vegas, features special guest Jake Spring from The Washington Post, who wrote about the Trump administration's plans to cancel permits for a wind project off the coast of Massachusetts that would initially power about 400,000 homes.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Nantu Canelos, executive director of The Kara Solar Foundation. The foundation, led by Indigenous engineers and community leaders, has delivered 12 solar-powered canoes to villages in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. In many communities, rivers are the only roads and solar boats spare them the cost of fuel while reducing pollution. 

This Week in Cleantech — September 12, 2025

1. Big Solar Developers Sees Delays in US Project Approvals — Bloomberg
2. Why nuclear is now a booming industry — The Economist
3. Oil Tycoons Bet Big on Trump. It’s Paying Off. — The Wall Street Journal
4. Exclusive: US warns hidden radios may be embedded in solar-powered highway infrastructure — Reuters
5. Trump’s war on wind just got much bigger — The Washington Post

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This summer, key stakeholders across the state of California teamed up for a first-of-its-kind, coordinated test of virtual power plant (or VPP) capabilities. Thousands of systems dispatched a whopping 535 megawatts and reduced net load during the evening peak in a successful demonstration of the potential impact that distributed energy resources can have.

On this episode of the podcast, Factor This host Paul Gerke welcomes Kendrick Li, who handles demand response for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, one of the three California utilities that teamed up for the massive VPP test. Their conversation starts at the 101 level, then gets deep into the weeds on how these systems work, how they might be deployed, and the roadblocks to larger customer adoption.

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This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week’s episode features special guest Jennifer Hiller from The Wall Street Journal, who wrote about utilities' fears that overbuilding for planned data centers could increase rates for consumers if the projected demand does not materialize.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Paul Riley, CEO of Lululemon-backed recycling startup Samsara Eco. The company’s technology uses AI to break down tough-to-recycle materials with enzymes, allowing the waste to be converted into resins and made into new products. Congratulations, Paul!

This Week in Cleantech — September 5, 2025 

1. In windy Iowa, a GOP lawmaker faces a reckoning over Trump’s clean energy war — POLITICO
2. The energy transition is now a national security issue. Just ask India — Reuters
3. How farming inspired the EU’s affordable energy plan — The Financial Times
4. Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M — Techcrunch
5. Data Centers That Don’t Exist Yet Are Already Haunting the Grid — The Wall Street Journal

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 in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week’s episode features special guest Dharna Noor from The Guardian, who wrote about how household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Trump re-entered the White House.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Jingjing Zhang, a Chinese lawyer who pioneered environmental lawsuits at home. Now, she helps communities in the Global South hold Chinese state-owned companies, like mining firms behind toxic spills in Zambia, legally accountable for pollution and human rights abuses tied to China’s Belt and Road projects. Congratulations Jingjing. 

This Week in Cleantech — August 29, 2025 

1. African Imports of Chinese Solar Panels Surge in Energy Shakeup — Bloomberg
2. Home batteries are saving America from blackouts — The Washington Post
3. I Drove an EV Deep Into the Wilderness. I Never Feared Running Out of Juice. – The Wall Street Journal
4. Trump administration halts work on New England offshore wind project – Axios
5. Trump tariffs and green energy rollbacks push household electricity bills up 10% — The Guardian

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 in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week’s episode features special guest Tim McDonnell from Semafor, who wrote about Google's moves to drive down the energy consumption of AI search queries to lower its carbon footprint.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Guy Nicholson, head of zero-carbon grid solutions at Statkraft. StatKraft is a Norwegian startup that created a 100-ton spinning machine turning at 3,000 rotations per minute to help stop blackouts as more cheap solar power is added to the grid. It can absorb excess power, if there’s too much, or inject power into the grid, if there’s too little. Akshat Rathi covered this company in a Bloomberg piece, and Guy was the spokesperson. Congratulations, Guy! 

This Week in Cleantech — August 22, 2025 

1. Why Can’t the U.S. Build 5-Minute E.V. Chargers? — The New York Times
2. Will Oil Demand Peak Soon? Trump Administration Doesn’t Want to Hear It. — The New York Times
3. Texas Energy Crunch To Worsen as Trump Policies Target Solar, Wind Power — Bloomberg
4. Solar panels that fit on your balcony or deck are gaining traction in the US — Associated Press
5. Google wants to make AI’s energy footprint a ‘non-consideration,’ but it’s not there yet – Semafor

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 in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey. It recently ranked 13th on Feedspot’s 50 Best Solar Energy Podcasts and cracked the top-25 in its 80 Best Energy Transition Podcasts.

This week’s episode features special guest Camila Domonoske from NPR, who wrote about how Ford plans to retool an assembly plant to build a more affordable midsize electric pickup truck.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Saad Dara, CEO of Mangrove Lithium. Last week he hosted British Columbia Premier David Eby and several Canadian officials visited their groundbreaking new plant, which will be the first electrochemical refining facility in North America. 

This Week in Cleantech — August 15, 2025 

1. Suddenly, the Trump Administration Tightens the Vise on Wind Farms – The New York Times
2. Plastic Waste Is Piling Up, but Alternative Materials Struggle to Get Off the Ground – The Wall Street Journal
3. U.S. Clean Tech Leadership at Risk Due to Trump Policies, Investors Warn – Newsweek
4. The lessons of Europe’s upside-down power market – Financial Times
5. Ford says it will roll out a cheaper electric pickup truck – NPR

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

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Agrivoltaics, or using land for both farming and solar energy generation, is becoming more popular in the United States. Such dual-use practices are a 'middle ground' between critics who argue too much prime farmland is being used for utility-scale solar projects and proponents, who point out significantly more real estate is dedicated to ethanol production. 

In many situations, it's an attractive proposition for land owners to lease a chunk of their property to a developer for 20-30 years, at which point, the plot is restored to its original state and can resume crop production. Each agrivoltaics project is a custom fit, requiring community engagement from the first planning stages. Accordingly, developers of dual-use projects must become fast friends with farmers, creating a symbiotic relationship that ensures each endeavor ends up a win-win.

On this episode of the Factor This podcast, host Paul Gerke is joined by three foremost agrivoltaics experts to share stories, discuss best practices, and pontificate on perfecting policy. Topics include establishing dual-use markets, detailing new pilots and innovations, recalling memorable interactions with landowners, and more.

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 in 15 minutes or less featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.

This week’s episode features special guest Dan Gearino from Inside Climate News, who wrote about how an Ohio utility has won a fight over who foots the costs of grid infrastructure upgrades from the buildout of data centers.

This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is Russ Bates, Founder of NXTGEN Energy Solutions. Russ was asked to testify as an expert witness before the Georgia Public Service Commission. Georgia Power Company imposes size limits on solar-plus-storage and provides little meaningful access to community solar. Russ explained how these concerns are already addressed by inverter technology, export-limiting capabilities, and Georgia’s own interconnection review process. Now, the Commission has expanded access to clean energy across churches, schools and the like. They also put community solar on a clear path forward. 

This Week in Cleantech — July 25, 2025 

1. Trump administration taking new steps to block wind and solar projects, undisclosed memo says — POLITICO
2. With One Call, Trump Alters the Fate of a Contested Power Project — The New York Times
3. Wall St. Firms Are Buying Utilities to Tap Into the A.I. Boom — The New York Times
4. Lobbyists spent millions to save green energy. Wins were few. — E&E News
5. Consumers (and a Utility) Get a Win in Ohio, While Data Centers Take the Loss — Inside Climate News

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In the shadow of the ongoing federal dismantling of renewable energy policy, a growing number of states are exploring the benefits of community solar. On this episode of the Factor This podcast, Jorge Vargas, the co-founder and CEO of distributed generation platform Aspen Power, rallies behind his industry at a critical moment, detailing the importance of such projects amid unprecedented electric load growth.

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