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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:

Redefining the utility playbook with PG&E’s Sumeet Singh Aug 03, 2026

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In an era defined by compounding wildfire risks, rapid digitalization, and unprecedented demand growth, utilities need to redefine their playbook. Sumeet Singh, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and EVP for Energy Delivery, is doing exactly that for one of the country’s largest energy enterprises while both improving local communities and setting an operational benchmark for the wider industry.

In this episode of the Factor This podcast, Singh details how utility leaders can balance cultural shifts with the economic imperative to maximize underutilized grid capacity and lower customer rates. He breaks down how PG&E processes billions of pieces of data to help predict wildfire risks in advance, and how AI-enabled camera networks can shave critical minutes off emergency response times.

From deploying machine learning to accelerating customer interconnections, Singh details how data amplifies frontline expertise rather than replacing it. Grounded in a philosophy of selfless service and value-based safety ownership, this conversation provides a blueprint for combining innovative technology with engineering discipline to cultivate a community trust that is foundational to the grid of the future.

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

This Week in Cleantech (07/31/2026) - Is beer brewing getting greener? Jul 31, 2026

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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 Clara Hudson from the Wall Street Journal, who breaks down Heineken's plan to use a renewable-powered heat battery to release steam for its beer brewing in Portugal.

This week’s “Cleantechers of the Week” are Tim Shepherd and Sylvain Marseille from Pelton Shepherd Industries, which makes Nutri Ice – ice packs that you can use to feed plants. It is the only truly compostable gel pack and offers the same performance as a regular gel pack. Congratulations Tim and Sylvain!

This Week in Cleantech — July 31, 2026

Cracks appear in the vision of off-grid AI data centers — Axios
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics – The Associated Press
BP nears deal to sell solar business Lightsource to Kuwait-backed group – Financial Times
Trump admin bans ‘new’ foreign-made inverters. What does that mean? — Canary Media
Heineken Is Trying a Heat Battery to Generate Steam for Its Brewing — The Wall Street Journal

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

Relieving grid congestion with advanced transmission technologies | Factor This Policycast Jul 30, 2026

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The U.S. transmission grid needs a facelift and a little reconstructive surgery. Efforts are underway to construct new long-distance high-voltage lines, but construction takes time, prompting states to explore additional ways to quickly meet growing electricity demand.

The low-hanging fruit? Getting more out of the system we've already got.

Readily available, affordable, and quick-to-deploy advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), including grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and advanced conductors, are proven tools for quickly increasing the capabilities and capacities of transmission lines and could complement transmission build-out while saving consumers money and bolstering grid reliability. By one estimate, GETs could have saved consumers $8.3 billion in 2022 alone, had they been more widely used. Yet these technologies remain largely untapped in America today, in part due to outdated electricity business models and state public policy.

But modern problems (like the aforementioned load growth) require modern solutions, and there's been a recent uptick in support for ATTs across the country, with bipartisan interest in policies that ensure ATTs are being considered, including at the federal level.

On this edition of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, host Paul Gerke is joined by Theodore Paradise, chief policy & grid strategy officer at CTC Global, Brian Berry, chief product officer at Heimdall Power, and Leah Rubin Shen, managing director at Advanced Energy United, to explore everything ATTs, including:

Real-life use cases and problems ATTs can solve
How lawmakers are crafting legislation to ensure utilities consider ATTs
Updates on efforts in states considering bills encouraging their adoption
Policy and implementation barriers to deployment
What FERC can do to help

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

This Week in Cleantech (07/24/2026) - As EV sales flatten, automakers make the case for backup power Jul 24, 2026

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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 Alexa St. John from The Associated Press, who discusses how automakers are increasingly turning their EVs and hybrids into home backup power sources as EV sales growth slows.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver. The nonprofit just started selling zero-markup, plug-in balcony solar kits, starting at about $300, with shipping to 47 states kicking off in August. Cora said that nonprofits are often willing to stomach financial losses in the near term, because its mission is to get solar into the hands of more people, so they can lower their energy bills and carbon pollution. Congratulations, Cora!

This Week in Cleantech — July 24, 2026

Data Center Troubles Stoke Industry’s Fear of Coming Distress — Bloomberg
Why States Are Making It Harder to Save Money With Solar Panels — The New York Times
The Key to Solar and Wind Power Is Battery Storage, and China Is Dominating — The Wall Street Journal
State legislatures are getting better at clean-energy permitting policy — Canary Media
Need backup power? Automakers want you to look no further than their vehicles in your driveway — Associated Press

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

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

This Week in Cleantech (07/17/2026) - In Texas, solar and sheep go hand in hand Jul 17, 2026

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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 Dynamics
The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It? — The New York Times
US power companies scramble to secure equipment as surging data center demand strains supplies — Reuters
Global Investment in Fusion Companies Surges 69% to $4.5 Billion — Bloomberg
Solar sheep: Texas ranchers, farmers' new opportunity on solar sites – Dallas Morning News

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

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

Beyond the Big Beautiful Bill: Building and financing clean energy after a critical tax credit deadline | Factor This Policycast Jul 16, 2026

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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 Capital

Bryan Didier, Partner, Managing Director, Energy at Monarch Private Capital

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

This Week in Cleantech (07/10/2026) - As IRA subsidies wind down, clean energy PPA prices 'soar' Jul 10, 2026

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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 Globe
One-third of India's new renewable energy capacity faces curtailment – PV Magazine
Why Europe Still Struggles to Scale Its Homegrown Climate Tech – Heatmap News
Europe's next climate adaptation boom isn't solar panels — it's asphalt – Reuters
US clean power prices set to soar as AI demand coincides with subsidy cuts – Financial Times

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

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

Fixing generator interconnection | Factor This Policycast Jul 02, 2026

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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, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United and 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

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

This Week in Cleantech (06/26/2026) - 16 GW without new build? Inside the plan to unlock huge VPP capacity Jun 26, 2026

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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 — Reuters
Spanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds | Spain — The Guardian
If AI data centers are exploding nationwide, why are so few being built in California? – LA Times
Why American data centers can't plug in — Works in Progress
Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home Have 16 Gigawatts Up for Grabs — Heatmap News

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

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

This Week in Cleantech (06/19/2026) - What does global energy trade look like after US-Iran deal? Jun 19, 2026

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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 — Reuters
Another day, another illegal billion-dollar bribe to raise your electricity prices — Electrek
🌎 The IPO boom is back, baby! — Climate Tech VC Newsletter
Can PJM's new 'fast track' process accelerate interconnection? – Factor This
Hormuz will never really be open again — Semafor

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

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