Factor This

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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 Heather Clancy from Trellis, who discusses why some data center companies see fuel cells as an attractive option for onsite power.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is is Aytaç Yilmaz, Co-founder & CEO of Ore Energy. The Amsterdam-based startup just closed a $43 million Series A for its iron-air batteries, which store renewable power for up to 100 hours by rusting and unrusting iron electrodes, no lithium or cobalt required. Ore's also just signed the largest long-duration storage deal in continental Europe, a 1 gigawatt-hour agreement with Dutch utility Budget Thuis. Congratulations, Aytaç!
This Week in Cleantech — August 7, 2026 
Solar to Soon Pass Coal as China’s Top Power Capacity Source — Bloomberg
How Solar Donors Helped Take Down a Trump-Backed Republican –– Politico
The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed –– Bloomberg
This Is What the New Rush to Mine America Looks Like –– TIME Magazine
Why data center companies Equinix and Oracle are buying fuel cells – Trellis
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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