

Factor This
Factor This
Launched in 2022, the Factor This Podcast has featured many of the most influential leaders driving the energy transition. From solar and battery storage executives to utility CEOs, the Factor This Podcast brings unique insights and answers to the energy industry’s most pressing challenges. Go beyond high-level trends and mainstream talking points with actionable takeaways. The Factor This Podcast grew in 2023 with the addition of This Week in Cleantech, a weekly roundup of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy in 15 minutes or less. With new episodes every Friday, Factor This content director Paul Gerke and Mike Casey, a cleantech commentator and president of Tigercomm, bring listeners the most important headlines of the week while featuring the leading journalists behind the stories.The all-new FactorThis.com is your best source for news, commentary, and analysis of renewable energy and the power grid.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 4, 2023 • 16min
This Week in Cleantech (8/4/23) — New interconnection rules, a nuclear milestone, and concrete batteries
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 Reuters correspondent Valerie Volcovici for a deep-dive on FERC's monumental interconnection ruling. This Week in Cleantech - August 4, 20231. The U.S. Clean-Energy Company That Hit the Subsidies Jackpot — Wall Street Journal2. Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear reactor, long delayed, starts delivering power Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear reactor, long delayed, starts delivering power — CNBC3. MIT engineers developed a new type of concrete that can store energy — Fast Company4. Deep-sea mining could help fuel renewable energy. Here's why it's been put on hold. — USA Today5. US moves to link more wind and solar projects to electric grid — Reuters Watch a video version of the show on YouTube.Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. 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 Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 31, 2023 • 57min
Inside scaling a national residential solar company
Tell us what you think of the show! Kyle Udseth helped media giants like DIRECTV and Netflix craft their customer experiences. Now, he's working to scale a new national player in residential solar and storage with that same focus.After stints with Sunrun and Sunnova, Udseth founded Pineapple Energy believing that the crowded field of residential solar providers was still ripe with opportunity. His company is scaling through strategic acquisitions of successful regional installers with established brands and pipelines in an attempt to compete with industry heavyweights.Udseth joined Episode 55 of the Factor This! podcast to share how the residential solar market is adapting to policy uncertainty and macroeconomic headwinds, and why he believes the sector is primed for consolidation.Is there room for another national residential solar provider? Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 28, 2023 • 16min
This Week in Cleantech (7/28/23) — Solar manufacturing, IRA rollout, and clean energy in Coal Country
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 in Cleantech - July 28, 20231. Solar Manufacturing in the US Is Facing a Bleak Future, Analysts Warn - Bloomberg2. Small-town GOP officials are torn over Biden’s clean energy cash - Washington Post3. These moisture-sucking materials could transform air conditioning - MIT Tech Review4. There’s not enough land to solve climate change with wood buildings and biofuels - Semafor5. Rivian anchors BrightNight solar plant at former coal mine - AxiosWatch a video version of the show on YouTube.Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. 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 Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 24, 2023 • 53min
Form Energy's 100-hour battery is almost here
Tell us what you think of the show! Battery storage deployment is surging to fill the gaps left by intermittent renewable energy resources. And, sometimes, those gaps extend days beyond what lithium-ion can handle.For the past six years, Form Energy has positioned itself as the company to solve for the multi-day challenge. What started with splashy renderings and nearly $1 billion in fundraising announcements has evolved into real contracts with utilities like Xcel and Southern Company, and a commercial-scale iron-air battery plant under construction in West Virginia.Episode 54 of the Factor This! podcast features Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo, a former Tesla executive pushing for deep decarbonization on the grid.Jaramillo breaks down the technology behind Form Energy's 100-hour battery, how the company was able to convince risk-averse utilities to buy in, and the challenges still ahead for multi-day energy storage.That's all next on Factor This!Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 21, 2023 • 19min
This Week in Cleantech (7/21/23) — Geothermal 2.0, offshore wind, and 'Bidenomics'
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 in Cleantech - July 21, 2023 1. How Biden's climate law will — and won’t — transform America - The Washington Post2. US announces first offshore wind rights sale in Gulf of Mexico - Reuters 3. Conservation concerns mean some environmentalists say no to solar projects - NPR4. New Land Grab by Oil Giants Is Deep Underground - WSJ5. Enhanced geothermal power is finally a reality - VoltsWatch a video version of the show on YouTube.Help make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. 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 Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 17, 2023 • 41min
Will the U.S. get green hydrogen right? One decision has big climate implications
Tell us what you think of the show! Green hydrogen could be a key tool to meet climate goals. It could also make things a lot worse, if we get this one critical step wrong.The U.S. is developing rules for green hydrogen incentives as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the options are up for grabs.The Biden administration faces pressure from developers, trade groups, and environmentalists over how to phase in zero carbon requirements for green hydrogen production, and new research suggests the direction it chooses could have a major impact on the climate.Episode 53 of the Factor This! podcast features Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor and ZERO Lab lead at Princeton University, who is calling out a leading clean energy trade group for a piece of its green hydrogen agenda.Jenkins shares how one recommendation from the American Clean Power Association could result in $200 BILLION in taxpayer subsidies responsible for 700 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.Will the U.S. get green hydrogen right?That's all next on Factor This!Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jul 3, 2023 • 41min
Fintech arrives to streamline clean energy project finance
Tell us what you think of the show! Amanda Li found herself in the thick of the arduous and disorganized project finance lifecycle.It was 2014, and she had been hired as Generate Capital's first employee. Li was responsible for all aspects of the deal: originating and underwriting, closing, portfolio management, you name it. Each stage had its own litany of documents, and required endless hours to maintain.It was obvious to Li that the process needed a major upgrade for trillions of dollars to efficiently flow into clean energy, and our climate goals would depend on it.Episode 52 of the Factor This! podcast features Amanda Li, the co-founder and COO of Banyan Infrastructure, a fintech company streamlining clean energy project finance by digitalizing and housing each step in a single platform. Li shares how technology is activating fresh capital for distributed energy projects and bringing new players to the table. Just in time.That's all next on Factor This! Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jun 26, 2023 • 46min
Underperformance. Extreme weather. Labor shortages. Solar's bright outlook faces big risks
Tell us what you think of the show! The U.S. solar industry is primed for significant growth in the coming years, emboldened by big federal incentives and even bigger demand for renewable energy.But asset owners are increasingly talking about extreme weather, underperformance, and labor shortages as growing risks to solar’s growth prospects. These are some of the uncomfortable issues in opposition to the industry's rosy public outlook.Episode 51 of the Factor This! podcast features Jason Kaminsky, CEO of clean energy insurance provider kWh Analytics, which just dropped its fifth annual Solar Risk Assessment. And it's loaded with valuable insights.Kaminsky shares the data behind solar's biggest risks, along with pathways to avoid potholes down the road. That's all next on Factor This!Show notes:-Read the fifth annual Solar Risk Assessment from kWh AnalyticsWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Jun 19, 2023 • 52min
Battery storage is booming. Now what do we do with it?
Tell us what you think of the show! In the spring of 2016, Jeff Bishop was developing wind projects when he came across an analyst chart that caught his eye.Battery storage, the analysts forecasted, would follow a similar cost curve as solar. Costs would plummet as deployment ramped up to support a grid ever more dependent on intermittent renewable energy resources.Bishop quit his job by the summer and launched Key Capture Energy, a developer, owner, and operator of grid-scale battery storage projects.Turns out, the analysts were right. Seven years later, battery storage deployment is booming.But the industry is still finding its way. Developers and regulators face questions about how to best use batteries, and what policy structures are needed to facilitate deployment. Moreover, the industry is learning on the fly about how these assets will perform under various state and utility demands.Bishop joined Episode 50 of the Factor This! podcast to break down how states should, and shouldn't, go about procuring battery storage, and why software is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Plus, stick around for the inside story of how Key Capture went from the brink of insolvency to raising $100 million.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

May 22, 2023 • 54min
Solar's biggest risk? Too few works to deliver the massive project pipeline
Tell us what you think of the show! Praise for the solar industry's meteoric growth often shines on developers and their multi-gigawatt pipelines and portfolios. Seldom does the limelight extend to the construction crews putting steel in the ground.But clean electrons aren't generated by hope, targets, and schematics. It's the engineering, procurement, and construction firms that are executing the vision for a clean energy transition.Therein lies an overlooked hurdle on the horizon: There simply aren't enough qualified EPCs, and workers, to meet the booming demand for solar projects. And rich incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act only stand to magnify the glut in supply. Episode 49 of the Factor This! podcast features Chris Dunbar, CEO of Blue Ridge Power, for an inside look at how one of the industry's leading utility-scale solar and storage EPCs is navigating a chronic labor shortage and a tumultuous market plagued by supply chain constraints, trade disputes, and the interconnection slog.Sure, gigawatts of solar projects are in motion. But who's going to build them?Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com


