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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.

Latest Episodes:

A rosy future for agrivoltaics (without the thorns) May 01, 2023

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Agrivoltaics -- solar PV paired with livestock or crops -- make for rich marketing materials. Good luck finding a developer brochure free of grazing sheep.
But the project segment is far more than a kitschy niche.
While the concept is well-understood in Europe, the U.S. is still finding its way with agrivoltaics. Early iterations lacked scalability due to added costs and irrational system requirements established by policymakers.
Lucy Bullock-Sieger wants you to forget everything you think you know about agrivoltaics.
As the vice president of strategy for Boston-based developer Lightstar Renewables, Bullock-Sieger is on a mission to prove that agrivoltaics is ready for primetime with a new approach.
In addition to establishing a cost-neutral agrivoltaics development process, Lightstar has experienced improved community relations, expedited permits, and a mitigant to the interconnection nightmare.
Bullock-Sieger joined Episode 46 of the Factor This! podcast to break down the rosy future for agrivoltaics.

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

The long-duration energy storage dilemma Apr 24, 2023

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A decarbonized grid, powered primarily by solar and wind, will require a lot of energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries, while the technology du jour, won't come close to solving the impending problem on their own.
The long-duration energy storage dilemma is multi-pronged: today's market structures don't adequately reward energy storage of longer than four hours, and potential solutions are mired in technical challenges and steep capex costs.
But one company may have cracked the code.
Episode 45 of Factor This! features Robert Piconi, CEO of Energy Vault, a company well on its way to deploying long-duration gravity storage systems at scale.
Energy Vault first made its splash with towering cranes lifting and lowering blocks under the guiding principles that have made pumped hydro the world's most significant energy storage resource.
Now, with a redesigned concept, the company is deploying its systems in partnership with major players like Enel… and even landed a green hydrogen deal with Pacific Gas & Electric, California's largest utility.
Can long-duration energy storage finally break through?

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

Why this gas-heavy utility is going (really) big on solar Apr 17, 2023

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The news from Entergy Louisiana may have required a second reading. And a third. The utility wants to go (really) big on solar. Why now?
Entergy Louisiana asked state regulators in March to approve 3 GW of new solar resources. That's on top of its request from a few weeks earlier for 225 MW of new solar, which would have nearly doubled the state's existing capacity.
Louisiana isn't known as the friendliest to solar. What led to the sudden change of heart?
Entergy Louisiana CEO Phillip May joined Episode 44 of the Factor This! podcast to share an inside look at a Southern utility's view on the energy transition. May shared his outlook for solar, energy storage, green hydrogen, offshore wind, and more.

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

Sunnova's John Berger is hell-bent on upending the status quo Apr 10, 2023

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More than a decade since John Berger founded Sunnova… the company is one of the largest residential solar and storage providers in the country. That would be enough for a lot of people. But success hasn't stopped Berger from pushing the envelope.
He recognized early on in his career, from his time at Enron and then the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, that the way we viewed and consumed energy was broken. He didn't necessarily know the answer then… but knew he would do whatever he could to fix it.
From Sunnova's push to create a micro-utility in California, to the aggregation of tens of thousands of residential solar and battery systems to compete with the monopolistic utility model, the company, and Berger, have set out to upend the status quo.
In Episode 43 of the Factor This, Berger gives his unvarnished take on decarbonization and taking on Goliath.
That's all next on Factor This!

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

Green hydrogen, recycling, and next-gen batteries: Checking in on ‘Cleantech 2.0’ Apr 03, 2023

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A new era of cleantech innovation is here. And it’s a good time to take stock of what’s in the pipeline. Green hydrogen, circular economies, and next-gen batteries are at the heart of “Cleantech 2.0.” These innovations could take the clean economy to new heights when paired with fresh federal incentives for fighting climate change.
Alok Sindher, a partner at the venture capital firm Fifth Wall, joined Episode 42 of the Factor This! podcast to break down what’s on the way and who’s positioned to cash in.
Fifth Wall is one of the largest VCs driving cleantech innovation with $2.9 billion raised for cleantech startups. The firm recently led the $30 million Series A round for solar module recycling startup SOLARCYCLE.
That's all next on Factor This!

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

Dan Shugar is just getting started Mar 27, 2023

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How do you measure the impact of someone like Dan Shugar?
He's been a mainstay in the solar industry since the early days. Before the solar coaster defined the twists and turns of the evolving industry.
He led PowerLight to a $335 million dollar acquisition. Helped grow SunPower into the behemoth it is today. And was the CEO of solar module manufacturer Solaria, before co-founding Nextracker, one of the world's leading tracker manufacturers.
Dan Shugar is solar. Undeniably the face, and voice, driving the industry to heights unthinkable when he started out nearly 30 years ago.
In Episode 41 of the Factor This! podcast, Dan Shugar returns fresh off Nextracker's $638 million IPO that is, so far, this year's biggest. Not just for a clean tech company— for any company.
What's left for the industry leader affectionately known by so many as Shug?
That's all next on Factor This!

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

A fresh start for concentrated solar power? Mar 20, 2023

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Concentrated solar power has had a rough go in the US. But that's not because it's a poor resource.
Using mirrors and towers, CSP can cleanly generate electricity, provide long-duration thermal energy storage, and decarbonize heavy industry by producing heat. Still, solar PV deployment dwarfs installed CSP capacity 113 GW to 2.
Why hasn't it caught on here?
Episode 40 of the Factor This! podcast features Craig Wood, CEO of the Australian next-gen CSP company Vast, which thinks it can change CSP's fortunes in the US.
Vast is planning to list on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of more than a half-billion dollars to deploy its next-gen CSP technology. Wood breaks down CSP's less-than-sunny history, why it's getting a fresh look, and its role in the energy transition.

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

Introducing Suncast: Democratizing the clean energy revolution Mar 16, 2023

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Bonus episode!
Today, we're dropping in an episode from our friends over at the Suncast podcast that we know you'll enjoy.
Nico Johnson has an interesting and important conversation with Steph Spiers, co-founder and CEO of the community solar manager Solstice about equity in the energy transition.
Speirs believes that "the role of power and privilege is to use it to open up doors for other folks to access that same power". Her company, Solstice, aims to democratize the clean energy revolution and create energy equity through community solar, and they do this by increasing access to solar power for households that are locked out of the solar marketplace. She has won more than three dozen accolades and awards for her private market innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as her public sector work, which includes developing Middle East policy as the youngest policy director at the White House National Security Council.
You can find the episode blog, as well as the full Suncast episode library, here.

Make sure to subscribe to Suncast and Factor This! wherever your podcasts.

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

Data: The energy transition’s next big thing Mar 13, 2023

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While the energy transition is well underway, the power dynamics that have ruled the industry for generations are still largely the same.
Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, is upending that paradigm by taking control of energy data and using it to fuel the rapid deployment of distributed energy assets.
Arcadia manages more community solar subscribers than almost anyone else, and its software platform, Arc, uses data from thousands of utilities to pinpoint where, and when, to build and use DERs.
Still commonly referred to as a startup, Arcadia is now a billion-dollar cleantech unicorn.
Bhatraju joined Episode 38 of the Factor This! podcast to discuss Arcadia's climb and the energy transition's next big thing.
Factor This! is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

Solar's legal risks are changing. Here's what to watch out for Mar 06, 2023

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As the renewable energy industry has grown up, its legal risks have too.

Sure, we as an industry talk all the time about NIMBYism. But what about zoning and permitting litigation? What happens when a project produces stormwater runoff that damages a neighboring property? And how about all of these new incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act… who's on the hook if a project falls short of its obligations?
Episode 38 of the Factor This! podcast features two attorneys working really closely on these issues.
Matthew Karmel is the principal and chair of the Environmental and Sustainability Practice Group at the national law firm Offit Kurman. Yana Spitzer is in-house counsel at ENGIE North America.
Karmel and Spitzer take us inside the courtroom for a look at the legal risk plaguing project developers today, and they point out the potholes to watch out for in the future.
WRISE Speaker Spotlight
This week's WRISE Speaker Spotlight features Patricia Vega, founder and CEO of Quantum New Energy. Patricia's expertise includes asset management, corporate social responsibility, energy efficiency, and more. Contact Patricia for a speaking engagement, view other speakers, or join the Speakers Bureau yourself at WRISEenergy.org.
Factor This! is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

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