Factor This

Tell us what you think of the show! After a series of starts, stops, and outright confusion over the future of rooftop solar, California regulators have released their latest proposal to reform the state’s net metering program. The process known as NEM 3.0 has pitted advocates against investor-owned utilities over how customers should be paid for sending excess solar power to the grid. And since it involves the country’s largest solar market, the entire industry is paying attention. Vote Solar’s executive director, Sachu Constantine, returns to the Factor This! podcast to break down the latest proposal, which is drawing fire from both sides. Check out Constantine’s analysis of the original NEM 3.0 proposal in Episode 6 of the Factor This! podcast.Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! A look around one of clean energy's largest events offered a common sight: There were a lot of men.  The challenge is well-known in renewables. Women make up only about a third of the workforce. And they hold an even smaller share of executive positions. On Episode 25 of the Factor This! podcast, three senior female executives weigh in on how to effectively recruit women to clean energy.Guests:Julia Bell, Chief Commercial Officer, CleanCapitalCarey Kling, Director, BQ Energy DevelopmentJenn Miller, CEO, Renewable IPPFactor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Registration is now open for the GridTECH Connect Forum, a new event bringing together distributed energy developers and utilities to tackle the critical issue of interconnection.Join us in San Diego on Feb. 6, 2023 for an event focused on the California market, like interconnection collaboration, vehicle-to-grid integration, demand response, and more.Learn more at GridTECHConnect.com.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

Tell us what you think of the show! It's been more than 600 days since the lights went out for millions of Texans during Winter Storm Uri. The near-total collapse of the Texas grid can be attributed to a number of culprits— and there has been no shortage of finger-pointing. Promises were made that what happened in February 2021 would never happen again. And a market redesign that's underway is supposed to be the solution. To better understand what's happening, and what's to come, Episode 24 of the Factor This! podcast features Texas Capitol mainstays Caitlin Smith of Jupiter Power, Mark Stover of Apex Clean Energy, and Doug Lewin, host of Renewable Energy World's Texas Power Podcast. Show notes: -Check out the "Don't California my Texas (electricity market)" episode of the Texas Power Podcast for a deep dive into a highly-anticipated report on the three electricity market redesign proposals.-Read the ICF report commissioned by the Texas Consumer Association Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! Bringing new distributed energy resources to the grid often comes with delays and costly upgrades. Interconnection woes create a contentious relationship between utilities and developers.That’s why Clarion Energy is launching the GridTECH Connect Forum— a regional event designed to break down industry silos by bringing together DER developers and utilities to find common ground to improve the interconnection process. Registration is now open for the inaugural GridTECH Connect Forum in San Diego, California on Feb. 6, 2023. To learn more, be sure to download Episode 23 of Factor This! featuring GridTECH Connect Forum advisory board members Laurence Abcede, manager of distributed energy resources at San Diego Gas & Electric, and CJ Colavito, the vice president of engineering at Standard Solar. Show notes: -Learn more about GridTECH Connect Forum -Follow the GridTECH Connect Forum on Twitter and LinkedInFactor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! More than a decade ago, the proverbial lightbulb glowed over Chad Farrell’s head. Trained as a brownfield remediation engineer, he decided to develop solar projects on otherwise unusable land. His company, Encore Renewable Energy, became a first-mover in brownfield solar development, boosted by federal incentives.Fast forward to today, and Farrell sees an even brighter future for brownfield solar project development due to another big chunk of federal help: the Inflation Reduction Act.On Episode 22 of the Factor This! podcast, Farrell shares how the IRA is impacting brownfield and energy community project bankability, and lays out the challenges that still remain. Sponsor:-This episode of Factor This! is sponsored by Rolls Battery. Find a distributor near you.-Registration is now open for the GridTECH Connect Forum, an all-new event designed to bring utility leaders and clean energy developers together to tackle interconnection issues. Register today. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! The market for procuring clean energy is enduring one of the most tumultuous stretches in history. A global pandemic, trade disputes, and federal policy near-misses over the past two years contributed to fears that either side of a power purchase agreement was getting a raw deal. That volatility added pressure on developers, investors, and corporations pursuing net-zero goals.But historic incentives for clean energy baked into the Inflation Reduction Act have shifted the industry’s trajectory, backed by the certainty of 10-year tax credits. What impact is the IRA already having, and what’s in store for 2023? Gia Clark, senior director of developer services for LevelTen Energy, joins Episode 21 of the Factor This! podcast to provide a first look at her company’s Q3 PPA Price Index report and insights from their PPA marketplace.Show notes: -LevelTen's Q3 PPA Index (available Oct. 18)-Episode article-Learn more about GridTECH Connect ForumSponsor: This episode of Factor This! is sponsored by Rolls Battery. Find a distributor near you. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! We're happy to share with you the first episode of Renewable Energy World's newest podcast, the Texas Power Podcast.In each episode, Doug Lewin guides listeners through the complicated world of Texas energy, introducing them to the people and policies behind it all. In Episode 1 of the Texas Power Podcast, host Doug Lewin is joined by Pat Wood, former chairman of both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. He helped deliver former Texas Gov. George W. Bush's deregulation agenda in the 1990s.Doug's conversation with Pat Wood covered the state's market redesign efforts, the enabling technologies that can support grid resilience, and the moment when then-governor Bush was first drawn to renewables.If you like the Texas Power Podcast, please leave a rating and review! The Texas Power Podcast is a production of Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy.You can connect with Texas Power Podcast host Doug Lewin on Twitter and LinkedIn.  Show notes:-Episode article-Subscribe to the free Renewable Energy World newsletter 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

Tell us what you think of the show! Solar and wind enjoy broad public support, but the fight in Congress over the Inflation Reduction Act showed that the industry can be held hostage by a single vote, as proven by Sen. Joe Manchin’s nail-bite tactics. And for all the IRA promises to do to fuel clean energy deployment, the law doesn’t cure the industry’s persistent NIMBY problem.On Episode 20 of the Factor This! podcast, veteran clean tech communicator Mike Casey shares his vision for establishing long-term political power to prevent the next Manchin-like holdout. We’re also joined by SOLV Energy CEO George Herschman, whose company is developing the largest solar project in the US, to share strategies that clean energy developers can use to overcome NIMBY opposition.Show notes:-Episode article -Check out the energy industry's newest event, the GridTECH Connect Forum, which will bring together utility leaders and DER developers to tackle interconnection issues.Sponsor:Learn more about Nextracker's proprietary TrueCapture software in a new white paper that's available for free download here. TrueCapture combines advanced sensing and machine-learning technologies to help mitigate energy losses and boost plant performance. Nextracker is the only tracker company with proven, third-party verified data and measured results that meet or exceed modeled predictions. See the results for yourself. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! In June, President Joe Biden announced a two-year pause on new tariffs on solar modules imported from Southeast Asia— much-needed relief for the industry that was brought to a standstill.Weeks later, though, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act took effect and has resulted in the detention of modules believed to have been manufactured in the Xinjiang region of China using forced labor.Vulnerabilities in the solar supply chain have been magnified over the past year. With historic incentives for domestic solar production secured by the Inflation Reduction Act, can the US ramp up manufacturing capacity before new tariffs are potentially imposed as a result of the Auxin Solar petition? On Episode 19 of the Factor This! podcast, leaders from Cypress Creek Renewables, Lightsource bp, and Qcells took on this all-important question live from RE+ in Anaheim. Show notes: -Episode article -Watch the live recording of Factor This! at RE+ on the Renewable Energy World  YouTube channel-Check out the energy industry's newest event, the GridTECH Connect Forum, which will bring together utility leaders and DER developers to tackle interconnection issues.-Introducing: The Texas Power PodcastSponsor:-This episode is sponsored by Nextracker, the industry’s most advanced smart solar tracking systems. Learn more about how Nextracker is ramping up domestic manufacturing capacity to 10 GW here. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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

Tell us what you think of the show! Before the Inflation Reduction Act, working and succeeding in clean energy came with quite a bit of risk. Now with the historic legislation in place, it's time to honor those risk takers for laying the groundwork for a new level of certainty not seen before in the industry. Tom Weirich, who leads marketing efforts in North America for EDP Renewables, chronicles the stories of those clean energy visionaries in his forthcoming book We Took the Risk. Weirich joined Episode 18 of the Factor This! podcast from Renewable Energy World to share some highlights from the book before it's released on October 1st.Show notes: -You can purchase "We Took the Risk" here-Read the full article for this podcast episode hereSponsor notes:This episode of Factor This! is sponsored by Nextracker.Learn more about Nextracker's proprietary TrueCapture software in a new white paper that's available for free download here. TrueCapture combines advanced sensing and machine-learning technologies to help mitigate energy losses and boost plant performance. Nextracker is the only tracker company with proven, third-party verified data and measured results that meet or exceed modeled predictions. See the results for yourself. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.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