Thousands are dying in Europe on the fifth anniversary of the heat dome that killed hundreds on the West Coast of Canada. James argues we have to act to prevent deaths as these heat wave get more intense with climate change. Toyota is blaming high gas prices for falling sales even as its EV sales surge, heat pumps are rapidly catching up to traditional air conditioners, and Europe is battling another deadly heat wave. We also look at innovative ways cities are adapting to extreme temperatures, including Paris' growing district cooling network powered by the Seine.

• Toyota's global sales decline continues, with the company citing high gasoline prices while EV sales jump 170% year-over-year.

• Five years after the deadly Pacific Northwest heat dome, we revisit the lessons learned and discuss what communities can do to better protect vulnerable people during extreme heat events.

• Europe's early summer heat wave may already have caused more than 1,300 excess deaths, according to the WHO.

• Why heat pumps are on track to outsell conventional air conditioners and why they may be the smartest cooling investment for homeowners.

• Paris is expanding its innovative district cooling system, using water from the Seine to help reduce electricity use and emissions while keeping buildings comfortable.

• Brian talks about the rammed earth Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and his rammed earth cottage delays.

• James shares a hospital story and an update involving solar panels and an insurance company that disappeared.

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What happens when batteries become so cheap that every home can afford one? In this encore episode, Brian and James explore a future where ultra-low-cost batteries transform the electric grid, eliminate blackouts, and make renewable energy even more powerful.

They also take a look at a hydrogen-powered bicycle unveiled in Europe and ask whether hydrogen has any future in personal transportation. Plus, Paris slashes air pollution ahead of the Olympic Games, Italy unveils a plan to support clean energy and food security in Africa, and Ford opens EV sales to all of its dealerships.

In The Lightning Round: Canadian EV sales surge, solar power keeps breaking records, oil demand faces an uncertain future, Switzerland votes for more solar, and China's renewable energy investments reach staggering levels.

All that and more on this encore presentation of The Clean Energy Show.

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James is recovering from surgery so here's a shortened version of last week's bonus episode for our Patreon supporters.

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First, Brian says he's maintaining a nearly 300-day Wordle streak and why a simple word puzzle can become an unexpected source of anxiety.

Then things get much more serious as James recounts a destructive hailstorm that hit his neighborhood. The conversation turns to insurance claims, climate change, and the growing financial impact of increasingly extreme weather events.

The guys also revisit China's auto market, where gasoline-only vehicles continue to lose ground. New sales data shows EVs, plug-in hybrids, and range-extended electric vehicles now dominate the country's best-selling models, highlighting how quickly the market is changing.

Staying with China, Brian and James discuss BYD's plans for Canada and the company's move to bring its ultra-fast flash-charging network north of the border. Could Canadian EV drivers soon see charging speeds that rival a gas station stop?

Finally, they head to Finland, where waste heat from Microsoft data centers is being captured and used to warm entire communities. It's a fascinating example of how creative energy solutions can turn a problem into a resource.

Plus: weather complaints, technology tangents, and the usual bonus-show chaos.

Thank you for supporting The Clean Energy Show through Patreon. Your support helps keep the show independent and growing.

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China's EV revolution is delivering a surprising health benefit. New research suggests electric vehicles have cut air pollution enough to prevent an estimated 262,000 premature deaths, while gas-powered vehicles have completely disappeared from China's top ten best-selling vehicle rankings.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup may face an unexpected opponent: extreme heat. New analysis suggests players, fans, and organizers could all be challenged by rising temperatures and humidity across host cities in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.

California's first major eight-hour battery storage facility is now online, providing a glimpse of how solar power could keep the lights on long after sunset and helping pave the way toward a fossil-free electricity grid.

Move over agrivoltaics. Researchers in Denmark are exploring offshore wind-aquaculture, using wind farm areas to grow seaweed that could become food, animal feed, and industrial materials while making better use of ocean space.

We also hear from Eric in California about municipal utilities and why some communities pay far less for electricity than customers served by large investor-owned utilities.

In the Lightning Round: a major uranium enrichment expansion in the United States, an advanced microreactor reaches a key milestone, questions emerge about a much-hyped battery startup, BYD's rapid expansion in Mexico, synthetic aviation fuel, a massive new transmission line linking Quebec and New York City, Waymo's latest acquisition, and more.

Plus, Brian reports from Waterton Lakes National Park, James talks about a recent high school presentation, and we discuss why fossil fuels are increasingly looking like a national security risk while renewable energy keeps getting cheaper.

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The surprising solar phenomenon called the "cloud edge effect" shows how panels can sometimes generate more power than their rated capacity.

Also this week: a new wildfire study reveals that while fewer hectares are burning globally, the fires that do occur are increasingly hitting wealthy, populated areas—causing far greater economic damage. And France's nuclear utility EDF is considering adding cooling towers to some reactors as climate change warms rivers and challenges plant operations.

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In This Episode:

• North America's grid enters summer in stronger shape than last year
• Why solar and batteries are improving reliability across the U.S.
• Saskatchewan remains at risk during extreme heat events
• The Philippines experiences explosive rooftop solar growth
• Why solar can occasionally exceed its rated output
• The "cloud edge effect" explained
• Wildfires are burning less land but causing more destruction
• Canada records another year of extreme wildfire emissions
• How climate change is affecting nuclear power operations in France
• EDF's plans to climate-proof its reactors and hydro assets

Lightning Round:

• Australians are illegally connecting portable home batteries
• Tesla patents a camera-cleaning system for self-driving cars
• China's flying car industry takes another step forward

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From Americans now being able to use healthcare savings accounts to buy e-bikes, to a massive new 5 GWh thermal battery project in South Dakota that stores renewable electricity as heat inside giant carbon blocks. James and Brian also discuss the UK's record May heatwave and growing calls for air conditioning in schools and care homes as climate change pushes temperatures higher.

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The guys also explore why rooftop solar is exploding in Pakistan while prices remain stubbornly high in Canada, and they react to listener mail from a Chevy Bolt owner who received an oil change reminder for an EV with "0% oil life remaining."

In the Lightning Round:

• Cuba begins installing turbines at its largest-ever wind farm

• Tesla launches "Quiet Charging Zones" at some Superchargers

• Africa ramps up domestic solar panel manufacturing

• China-built car exports to Europe surge

• EVs are expected to hit 28% of global new car sales in 2026

• Waymo pauses freeway robotaxi trips over construction-zone issues

• India surpasses the United States in EV adoption rates

• Why even an EV powered entirely by coal can still beat a gas car on emissions

Plus, James shares a shocking comparison between lead pollution during the Flint water crisis and 1970s Los Angeles that helped shape Brian's environmental worldview.

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Pakistan's booming rooftop solar "shadow grid" has quietly grown larger than the country's official grid, saving billions while slashing fossil fuel imports. They also look at the staggering costs of keeping aging coal plants alive in the U.S., including millions spent just to maintain shutdown-ready facilities. Plus: a groundbreaking Inuit-owned hydro project replacing diesel power in the Arctic, bats vs. wind turbines, EV sales exploding in Canada, China's battery charging buildout, and why hailstorms are becoming a major challenge for solar farms.

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Topics this week include:

• Pakistan's massive solar "shadow grid" now bigger than the official grid - end of show!

• Trump-era coal plant extensions costing hundreds of millions

• Coal pollution reducing global solar output

• Inuit-owned hydro project cuts Arctic diesel use by 80%

• Researchers study how bats interact with wind turbines

• OPEC instability and what oil prices mean for the energy transition

• DOJ investigates emissions-tuning car app data

• BYD rapidly expanding ultra-fast charging stations

• Denmark hits nearly 82% EV sales

• Texas adding 12.9 GW of grid batteries this year

• Renewables overtake natural gas on the U.S. grid for the first time

• Hailstorms become the top cause of solar insurance losses

• XPeng predicts Level 5 self-driving by 2030

The Lightning Round covers drone strikes on nuclear infrastructure, floating solar over manure lagoons, sodium batteries, Ukraine targeting Russian oil infrastructure, and more.

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Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.

In Chile, organized crime gangs are now stealing solar panels and copper wiring from giant solar farms in coordinated nighttime raids. James explains how Saskatchewan could spend over $520 million a year on coal fuel alone — enough money to build massive amounts of solar and battery storage every single year instead. In Ohio, voters accidentally upheld a renewable energy ban because the ballot wording was nearly impossible to understand.

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Plus: China donates 5,000 solar systems to Cuba during ongoing blackouts, the EPA blames Asian pollution for smog in Phoenix and Salt Lake City, Vestas tests red wind turbine blades to reduce bird collisions, Norway hits nearly 99% EV adoption, and Amsterdam bans fossil fuel advertising. Also in the Lightning Round: giant Alaskan tsunamis, Ozempic crushing junk food sales, Meta's Manhattan-sized AI data center, rooftop solar for dairy barns, and why heat pump dryers are secretly amazing.

The Lightning Round includes:

• Norway reaches 98.6% EV market share
• BYD adds LiDAR to a $10K EV
• Used EV searches double in Canada
• Meta plans 10 new gas plants for AI expansion
• Amsterdam bans meat and fossil fuel ads
• Heat pump dryers use up to 60% less electricity
• Ozempic may already be reshaping freight demand
• The IEA says the fossil fuel era may never recover after the current oil shock

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A global climate meeting in Colombia brings together mostly Global South nations, Europe, and Canada to talk seriously about ending fossil fuels—without binding agreements, but with real momentum. France goes further than anyone else, announcing a full phase-out by 2050.

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CATL signs a massive 60 GWh deal and says sodium-ion batteries are ready for prime time—cheaper, longer-lasting, and ideal for grid-scale use.

Hospitals are a bigger climate problem than you think. One Australian doctor is tackling single-use waste and high-emission anesthetic gases like nitrous oxide, which can be hundreds of times more potent than CO₂. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-04/the-doctor-fighting-medicine-s-addiction-to-plastic-waste

"Guerrilla solar" is booming in the Philippines as frustrated customers bypass slow permitting to install rooftop systems—raising both safety concerns and questions about red tape.

Listener Mail: EV charging from street lamps is coming to Washington, DC.

Lightning Round highlights: • BYD sales shift globally • Alberta adds a solar panel tax • EVs saving Canadian households hundreds per month • Wind + solar beating nuclear on cost https://www.theenergymix.com/renewables-mix-beats-nuclear-on-price-in-future-energy-systems/ • UK solar installs surge • Texas hits nearly 2/3 solar power at peak

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Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.

Episode 309 starts with cracks forming inside OPEC as clean energy and EV adoption begin to reshape global oil demand. We look at why producers may rush to sell while they still can, then shift to fusion power timelines that are still far off, a transit upgrade that paid for itself in months—not years—and Spain's grid proving renewables weren't to blame for its massive blackout. Plus, how LEDs quietly crushed one of the biggest sources of household electricity use.

• Commonwealth Fusion Systems applying to connect a 400 MW plant
• Planned for Virginia's "Data Center Alley"
• Would serve part of the PJM grid (65M+ people)
• Timeline: not anytime soon

• $90M upgrade to new fare gates
• Expected 9-year payback → actually 6 months

Story: https://growsf.org/news/2026-02-12-bart-fare-gates-10-million/

• 2025 blackout initially blamed on solar

• Lithium supply more than sufficient
• EV buses: 56% of EU sales
• Oslo road deaths ~1/year after redesign
• India skipping coal boom thanks to cheap renewables

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Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.