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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:

Climate tech takes on clean energy's biggest headaches Nov 28, 2022

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Clean energy is in broad agreement: the Inflation Reduction Act is a game-changer for the industry and our goals of staving off the worst effects of climate change.
But underneath the optimism is a shared anxiety that significant headwinds still plague the industry. Costly and time-consuming permitting and interconnection processes remain poison pills for projects.

On Episode 27 of the Factor This! podcast, we introduce you to two climate tech entrepreneurs who are taking on these challenges.

Robin Laine, CEO and co-founder of Transect, used her background as an environmental engineer to shrink the environmental assessment process down from weeks or months to just minutes.

James McWalter, CEO of Paces, is developing what he calls the "Google for site selection," which allows developers to start with a set of criteria, like distance to an interconnection point, to find available parcels for development in just minutes. The platform also tracks ever-changing policies that could impact projects all the way down to the local level.
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

California NEM 3.0: Unpacking rooftop solar’s fate Nov 21, 2022

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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.

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

Women in renewables: 3 female execs share their stories and recruitment strategies Nov 14, 2022

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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, CleanCapital
Carey Kling, Director, BQ Energy Development
Jenn Miller, CEO, Renewable IPP
Factor 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.

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

Texas grid braces for winter. What’s changed since Uri? Nov 07, 2022

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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.

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

Interconnection woes make strange bedfellows Oct 31, 2022

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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 LinkedIn
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

A bright future for brownfield solar development Oct 24, 2022

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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.

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

The climate law will have an impact on PPAs. What’s in store for 2023? Oct 17, 2022

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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 Forum
Sponsor:
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.

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

Introducing the Texas Power Podcast Oct 13, 2022

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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 Worldand 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

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

Clean energy is popular but NIMBYism remains potent. What gives? Oct 10, 2022

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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.

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

LIVE from RE+: The race is on to meet demand with made-in-America solar modules Oct 03, 2022

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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 Podcast
Sponsor:
-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.

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

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