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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 Lana Ferguson from the Dallas Morning News, who discusses the booming agrivoltaics industry in Texas.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Joey Fiore, CEO of PowerLabs. His company builds the Roav, a portable solar generator that unfolds into a tracking solar array that looks like a metal trailer you’d pull behind a car. It is cleaner, cheaper and easier to use than a standard diesel generator. Congratulations Joey!
This Week in Cleantech — July 17, 2026
New York becomes first US state to impose data center moratorium — Data Center DynamicsThe American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It? — The New York TimesUS power companies scramble to secure equipment as surging data center demand strains supplies — ReutersGlobal Investment in Fusion Companies Surges 69% to $4.5 Billion — BloombergSolar sheep: Texas ranchers, farmers' new opportunity on solar sites – Dallas Morning NewsWant 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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July 4, 2026, marked one year since the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) was signed into law and a critical safe harbor deadline for clean energy developers in the United States. The legislation, which sunsets federal tax credit eligibility for some technologies such as wind and solar photovoltaics, spurred stakeholders to scramble to maximize legacy incentives before Independence Day. Now that the fireworks have passed, what happens next?
This episode of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, discusses how clean energy projects are being constructed and financed in the second half of 2026 and beyond. It will address the challenges of a post-tax-credit world, share the incentives still available, and explore how policy reforms at the state and federal levels could accelerate deployment. Could federal clean energy credits someday return?
Featuring guests:Dylan Reed, Managing Director at Advanced Energy United, former GDO at DOE
Walter L. McLeod, Partner, Managing Director of Monarch Strategic Ventures at Monarch Private CapitalBryan Didier, Partner, Managing Director, Energy at Monarch Private Capital
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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 Martha Muir from The Financial Times, who discusses how the cost of clean energy power purchase agreements is set to rise 40 to 120 percent as Inflation Reduction Act subsidies wind down.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Dr. Bill Ho, CEO of GRST, whose company makes a PFAS-free, water-soluble battery binder. Conventional binder relies on "forever chemicals" and toxic solvents to process. GRST's version dissolves in water, making recycling to high-purity black mass simpler and cheaper. Congratulations, Bill!
This Week in Cleantech — July 10, 2026
In the woods of Maine, searching for an answer to a ticking climate bomb – The Boston GlobeOne-third of India's new renewable energy capacity faces curtailment – PV MagazineWhy Europe Still Struggles to Scale Its Homegrown Climate Tech – Heatmap NewsEurope's next climate adaptation boom isn't solar panels — it's asphalt – ReutersUS clean power prices set to soar as AI demand coincides with subsidy cuts – Financial TimesWant 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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Generator interconnection, the process by which power plants like large solar arrays, wind farms, and utility-scale batteries connect to the electrical grid, continues to be one of the biggest barriers to project development.
Despite gradual improvement in some parts of the United States since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed Order No. 2023 three years ago, messy, complicated, and sometimes outdated policies are still preventing electrons from reaching end customers at a time of skyrocketing electricity demand. Grid operators have made meaningful strides in reducing interconnection queue backlogs and improving planning processes, but significant challenges remain, as detailed in a new progress report from Grid Strategies and The Brattle Group, on behalf of Advanced Energy United, that evaluates how grid operators are progressing since an initial 2024 assessment.
On this episode of the Factor This Policycast, recorded live-to-tape at the 2026 Infocast Transmission & Interconnection Summit, Caitlin Marquis, managing director at Advanced Energy United, and Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, outline how each major regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) is approaching generator interconnection reform, criss-crossing the country and touching on progress in PJM, ERCOT, SPP, MISO, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO. Marquis and Gramlich also share policy suggestions and discuss the recent show-cause orders issued by FERC to each of the six regional grid operators within its jurisdiction, directing them to either justify or reform the rules governing how large energy users, such as data centers, connect to the electric grid.More episodes of 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 Emily Pontecorvo from Heatmap News, who discusses a new partnership making more than 16 gigawatts of virtual power plant capacity.
This week’s “Cleantechers of the Week” are Luigi Resta and Maile Resta. Their utility-scale developer, Energies out of Utah, featured one of their site crews going to work on a solar project just like earlier generations of his family did in coal mines. We want to congratulations them for showing how to make the case for clean energy to the country. Congratulations Luigi and Maile!
This Week in Cleantech — June 26, 2026
US announces $17.5 billion in loans for nuclear power supply chain — ReutersSpanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds | Spain — The GuardianIf AI data centers are exploding nationwide, why are so few being built in California? – LA TimesWhy American data centers can't plug in — Works in ProgressSunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home Have 16 Gigawatts Up for Grabs — Heatmap NewsWant 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 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 Tim McDonnell from Semafor, who discusses the potential future of the Strait of Hormuz and energy markets if the US-Iran de-escalation deal holds.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Andrew Redd, CEO of Endurance Energy, a Seattle-based seafloor geothermal energy developer, which just raised $54m in Series A funding. Redd is a former SpaceX engineer who is now drilling into spots at the bottom of the ocean where tectonic plates split apart and magma heats the water to over 700 degrees. Congratulations Andrew!
This Week in Cleantech — June 19, 2026
Fast-tracked power plants fuel AI boom, with little public scrutiny — ReutersAnother day, another illegal billion-dollar bribe to raise your electricity prices — Electrek🌎 The IPO boom is back, baby! — Climate Tech VC NewsletterCan PJM's new 'fast track' process accelerate interconnection? – Factor ThisHormuz will never really be open again — SemaforMore episodes of Factor This Policycast
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Welcome to the premier edition of the Factor This Policycast, a brand-new podcast partnership with national industry association Advanced Energy United, tackling the legislation, rulemaking, and market design that matter to clean energy leaders.
Hosted by Factor This content director and Emmy-Award winning journalist Paul Gerke, this series of discussions will feature voices from across the energy policy landscape and spotlight issues shaping the evolution of our electric grid.
The first topic is one that you may have spotted in recent headlines: competitive transmission solicitation. It's no secret that large-scale, critical electrical infrastructure projects like high-voltage transmission lines cost a LOT to build and take some time to come online.
About 15 years ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, mandated that utilities competitively bid out such projects, but that mandate isn't being enforced, for reasons we'll get into on the program. New data points to tremendous benefits from competitive transmission, though, including billions of dollars ultimately saved by ratepayers. Detractors argue the bidding process delays timelines and subjects projects to hidden costs, and a group of Midwest utilities has even asked FERC to halt bidding in MISO and SPP.
On this episode of the podcast, Factor This's Paul Gerke is joined by Caitlin Marquis, managing director at Advanced Energy United, and Paul Cicio, chair of the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition (ETCC). Both are advocates for competitive transmission and share findings to support their case. They discuss that utility request to ban competition outright, talk about FERC's role in all of this, and explore the finer points complicating broader transmission build-out- at a time we really need it.
New episodes of the Factor This Policycast go live at 6 am ET every other Thursday.
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Talk about systems and solutions is everywhere across the utility sector, but the biggest challenges the grid is facing are more about coordination than hardware. As utilities, retail suppliers, and operators all compete to manage the same DERs like electric vehicles, solar infrastructure, and smart appliances, the biggest challenges are associated with alignment, timing and expectations on every side.
Michael Grasso, CEO and founder of GridRails, has a keen awareness of these challenges. His decades of experience in the industry has exposed him to teams and processes that have become paralyzed by fragmented tech silos and sluggish financial settlement cycles that take anywhere from 30 to 120 days to resolve. That's why his company is working to solve these challenges by introducing an agnostic, software-as-a-service (SaaS) orchestration layer that unifies these fragmented endpoints into a single platform, giving energy suppliers direct control over their network operations.
We caught up with him to explore why his platform structures its solution around three core pillars, what it means for consumers to receive instant financial gratification in a digital wallet for adjusting their energy usage in the moment, the importance of shifting the utility paradigm from a penalty-based framework to a real-time incentive model, 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 Akshat Rathi from Bloomberg, who discusses the energy crisis caused by the war in Iran, which is causing some governments to pursue structural shifts away from fossil fuels toward renewables.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Varun Sivaram, Founder & CEO of Emerald AI. Emerald AI uses AI to let data centers flex power consumption on command without losing compute performance. Congratulations, Varun!
This Week in Cleantech — June 12, 2026
LS Power Said to Near Deal for EDF’s American Renewables Arm – BloombergBig US Solar and Battery Project Lines Up $3.5 Billion Financing –– BloombergG.M. Plans to Develop Energy Storage Batteries as E.V. Sales Flag — The New York TimesNew Qcells plant doubles current US capacity to make solar cells – Canary MediaIran Shock Jolts Asia and Europe to Speed Up Energy Transition – BloombergMore episodes of 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 Benjamin Storrow from E&E News, who discusses how some Democratic governors are more open to natural gas pipeline expansion as energy costs rise.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Kevin Doffing who runs a group of veterans involved in cleantech. He has 50 caliber shell casings he uses as lobby swag. Congratulations, Kevin!
This Week in Cleantech — June 5, 2026
The Sorry State of Carbon Removal — Heatmap NewsSolar energy helps US farms stay afloat – but Republicans’ bill could change that — The GuardianAmerica’s Data-Center Build-Out Is Falling Way Behind Schedule — The Wall Street Journal7 states sue Trump administration over nearly $1 billion deal to halt offshore wind farm — ABC News‘Ready to cave’: How liberal governors warmed to Trump’s pipelines — E&E NewsMore episodes of Factor This Policycast
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The U.S. Department of Energy is moving forward with releasing billions of dollars in rebate funding to states earmarked by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for two home energy programs: Home Efficiency Rebates (HER/HOMES), which enables whole-home retrofits that cut overall energy use by at least 15%, and Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR), providing point-of-sale coupons for high-efficiency electric appliances like heat pumps and electric stoves for low- and moderate-income households.
On this episode of the Factor This podcast, host Paul Gerke is joined by Advanced Energy United policy principal Kate Shonk, who explains why the funding was stalled, where it's headed, and how it can really help people at a time when electricity prices are climbing almost everywhere, and affordability is on the menu for dinner table discussion. She dives into examples from a few of the roughly dozen states that are rolling out unique programs to take advantage of the efficiency rebates and shares what's working. Rebecca Puck Stair, a director for the State of New Mexico's Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, also joins the show and explores the real, tangible, human impact programs like HER and HEAR can have on communities in need. She details her state's efforts to optimize and consolidate programs to maximize the use of federal dollars and reveals a bit of the behind-the-scenes bureaucracy involved in translating policies from paper to practice.
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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 Robison Meyer from Heatmap News, who discussed how local opposition to data centers hit a new record in the first quarter of 2026.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Tom Sisto, CEO of XL Batteries. XL Batteries makes an organic flow battery that lasts for 250 hours. The technology runs on non-toxic, non-flammable electrolytes, meaning these batteries can be deployed in population-dense communities without the heavy permitting scrutiny that is required for similar-sized lithium-ion installations. Congratulations, Tom!
This Week in Cleantech — May 29, 2026
Rep. Chip Roy loses runoff for Texas attorney general to a MAGA challenger – POLITICOU.S. Aims to Give Cold War Plutonium to Start-Ups for Nuclear Fuel – The New York TimesChina’s world-beating solar industry is in turmoil — The EconomistWind-Permit Stall Is Threatening $50 Billion in US Developments – BloombergExclusive: Local Opposition to Data Centers Explodes in 2026 – Heatmap NewsMore episodes of 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 Akshat Rathi from Bloomberg News, who discussed how the Iran conflict is boosting the security benefits of clean energy.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is a tribute to a life and career that left an indelible mark on the clean energy community. Jake Clark spent his career at Encore Renewable Energy, most recently pivoting from Vice President of Project Development to stand up the company's Community Engagement program. Those who knew him describe him as one of those rare people who made the whole field better through both his work and who he was. The clean energy community is smaller without him. We honor his memory and the standard he set for all of us.
This Week in Cleantech — May 26, 2026
China’s $3 Billion US Clean Tech Exit Is an Investment Warning — Bloomberg'Paying their fair share': EV drivers could see new fees in proposed bill – USA TodayA new mega-utility is at ground zero for AI. Here’s what could happen. — E&E NewsThe World Can’t Get Enough U.S. Energy, Keeping Prices High for Americans — The Wall Street JournalZero: Iran War Boosts Clean Energy’s Security Benefits — BloombergMore episodes of 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 Molly Taft from WIRED, who discusses Elon Musk's AI company xAI's decision to add 19 natural gas turbines to its Colossus 2 data center in Southaven, Mississippi.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is fourth grader Christian Mango. At 10 years old, Christian researched electric vehicles, cited facts, and wrote to his U.S. congresswoman Virginia Foxx proposing a $5,000 federal EV tax rebate. When she responded by reprimanding Christian as foolish and his teachers as propagandists, Christian made national news for writing the letter. Congratulations Christian!
This Week in Cleantech — May 15, 2026
Solar trade group taps former GOP governor as new chief — POLITICOOrganic flow battery company CMBlu closes €50 million Series C — Energy Storage NewsFervo IPO ushers geothermal energy into mainstream — AxiosEDPR upbeat on US renewables market, sees profitable growth and new opportunities — ReutersxAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuit — WIREDMore episodes of 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 Andrew Moseman from Heatmap News, who discusses Ford's efforts to rebuild its struggling EV program from the ground up.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Brad Rouse, the volunteer Executive Director of Energy Savers Network. This small non-profit provides free weatherization and appliance upgrades to income-qualified families. Brad co-founded ESN in 2016 and has helped reduce the power bills for over 1500 families in western North Carolina. Congratulations Brad!
This Week in Cleantech — May 8, 2026
Untapped lithium on East Coast could replace US imports, USGS finds — E&E NewsBrussels bars Chinese-made ‘brains’ of solar panels from EU funding — EuractivThe balcony solar boom is coming to the US — MIT Tech ReviewThieves Are Stealing Chile’s Solar Panels and Cashing In on the Black Market — BloombergInside Ford’s Secret EV Skunkworks — Heatmap NewsMore episodes of 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 Oliver Milman from The Guardian, who discussed how the clean energy industry is pushing forward despite Trump's aggressive efforts to suppress it.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Sean Park, the CEO of Point2. Data centers rely heavily on copper cables, but copper has physical limits on efficiency and is subject to major price swings. Point2 has developed a way to transmit data using radio waves through plastic materials instead, cutting out copper entirely. The company claims this halves power consumption compared to traditional high-speed copper cables. Congratulations Sean!
This Week in Cleantech — May 1, 2026
Why Is Your Electric Bill Going Up? Blame the Broken Grid. – The New York TimesTrump administration to pay 2 more companies to walk away from US offshore wind leases – The Associated PressWhy electricity markets are stuck on the gas price rollercoaster — The Financial TimesThe Rise of the High-Range, Less Expensive E.V. — The New York TimesTrump’s attempt to crush clean energy progress not going to plan, experts say — The GuardianMore episodes of 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 Bianca Giacobone of Latitude Media, who discussed how Iran's strikes on aluminum smelters in the UAE and Bahrain last month pushed prices up 11% to their highest level since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Michael Chanin, CEO of Cherry Street Energy. Through Shine On, Cherry Street’s Solar School partnership with the nsoro Foundation, they prepare young adults aging out of Georgia’s foster care system for careers in power infrastructure. He highlights Emmanuel, who recently transitioned out of foster care and now helps build and maintain solar at Delta Air Lines’ rooftop at Hartsfield-Jackson.
This Week in Cleantech — April 24, 2026
Swedish Green Steel Startup Stegra Gets $1.65 Billion Funding to Complete New Plant – The Wall Street JournalData centers’ mad dash for the Texas grid – POLITICORenewable energies overtook global electricity demand last year, led by solar growth in China, India – The Associated PressWhy the U.S. Is Such an Outlier on EVs – The Wall Street JournalWhy the US grid will end up paying for Iran’s aluminum strikes – Latitude MediaMore episodes of Factor This Policycast
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Headlines talking up the surge in energy demand driven by AI and connected to data center development highlight how much has changed across the sector. But what if the capacity to meet this demand is already there, just hidden behind outdated assumptions?
To better understand what it means to utilize the existing capacity of the grid to meet this demand, we connected with Shaneez Mohinani, Head of Strategy and Operations at GridCARE. She talked through what it means to utilize the hidden capacity in the grid, the importance of moving beyond worst-case scenario planning, how all of it impacts affordability, 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 Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal, who wrote about U.S. utilities' plans to spend about $1.4 trillion over the next five years to upgrade the aging power grid and meet surging electricity demand driven largely by AI data centers.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Kerry Bowie, President and Founder of Browning the Green Space, or BGS, a nonprofit in Massachusetts that creates job and business opportunities in clean energy for people of color through training programs, startup support, and career pipelines. It also brings together companies and partners to remove barriers and expand access to affordable, equitable energy solutions. Congratulations, Kerry!
This Week in Cleantech — April 17, 2026
Stung by Iran war, countries are turning against U.S. fossil fuels — The Washington PostUS power and natgas prices turn negative in Texas and California as mild weather cuts demand — ReutersMichigan regulators to utilities: Incorporate virtual power plants, or else — Factor ThisGreat Britain households to be urged to use more power this summer as renewables soar | Renewable energy — The GuardianUtilities Plan to Spend $1.4 Trillion Over Next Five Years to Power AI Boom — The Wall Street JournalMore episodes of 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 Kelsey Tamborrino from POLITICO, who wrote a story in E&E News about a new survey of renewable energy developers that found federal permitting requirements are significantly slowing clean energy deployment.
This week's “Cleantechers of the Week” are Sam and Juliana Bendek, co-founders of Elastic Energy. The company developed a new tech that stores energy using natural tree sap. Congratulations Sam and Juliana!
This Week in Cleantech — April 10, 2026
Wisconsin city passes nation’s first anti-data center referendum — POLITICOExclusive: Record funding for fusion power lands as Trump eyes cuts — AxiosState Climate Laws Targeted Around US as Iran War Spikes Gas Prices — BloombergWill the Iran war derail the energy transition? — The Financial TimesFederal permitting obstructs clean energy deployment, survey finds — E&E NewsMore episodes of Factor This Policycast
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