Podcast
Factor This
Hosted by Factor This · EN
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.
26episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
This Week in Cleantech (05/15/2026) - xAI grows data center gas fleet despite legal scrutiny
6d ago00:16:41Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Molly Taft from WIRED, who discusses Elon Musk's AI company xAI's decision to add 19 natural gas turbines to its Colossus 2 data center in Southaven, Mississippi.This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is fourth grader Christian Mango. At 10 years old, Christian researched electric vehicles, cited facts, and wrote to his U.S. congresswoman Virginia Foxx proposing a $5,000 federal EV tax rebate. When she responded by reprimanding Christian as foolish and his teachers as propagandists, Christian made national news for writing the letter. Congratulations Christian! This Week in Cleantech — May 15, 2026 Solar trade group taps former GOP governor as new chief — POLITICOOrganic flow battery company CMBlu closes €50 million Series C — Energy Storage NewsFervo IPO ushers geothermal energy into mainstream — AxiosEDPR upbeat on US renewables market, sees profitable growth and new opportunities — ReutersxAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuit — WIREDWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (05/08/2026) - Can Ford revive its struggling EV program?
2w ago00:20:50Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Andrew Moseman from Heatmap News, who discusses Ford's efforts to rebuild its struggling EV program from the ground up.This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Brad Rouse, the volunteer Executive Director of Energy Savers Network. This small non-profit provides free weatherization and appliance upgrades to income-qualified families. Brad co-founded ESN in 2016 and has helped reduce the power bills for over 1500 families in western North Carolina. Congratulations Brad!This Week in Cleantech — May 8, 2026Untapped lithium on East Coast could replace US imports, USGS finds — E&E NewsBrussels bars Chinese-made ‘brains’ of solar panels from EU funding — EuractivThe balcony solar boom is coming to the US — MIT Tech ReviewThieves Are Stealing Chile’s Solar Panels and Cashing In on the Black Market — BloombergInside Ford’s Secret EV Skunkworks — Heatmap NewsWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (05/01/2026) - Are Trump's efforts against clean energy in vain?
3w ago00:17:42Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Oliver Milman from The Guardian, who discussed how the clean energy industry is pushing forward despite Trump's aggressive efforts to suppress it.This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Sean Park, the CEO of Point2. Data centers rely heavily on copper cables, but copper has physical limits on efficiency and is subject to major price swings. Point2 has developed a way to transmit data using radio waves through plastic materials instead, cutting out copper entirely. The company claims this halves power consumption compared to traditional high-speed copper cables. Congratulations Sean!This Week in Cleantech — May 1, 2026 Why Is Your Electric Bill Going Up? Blame the Broken Grid. – The New York TimesTrump administration to pay 2 more companies to walk away from US offshore wind leases – The Associated PressWhy electricity markets are stuck on the gas price rollercoaster — The Financial TimesThe Rise of the High-Range, Less Expensive E.V. — The New York TimesTrump’s attempt to crush clean energy progress not going to plan, experts say — The GuardianWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (04/24/2026) - Why the effects on the Iran conflict will be felt on the US grid
4w ago00:18:20Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Bianca Giacobone of Latitude Media, who discussed how Iran's strikes on aluminum smelters in the UAE and Bahrain last month pushed prices up 11% to their highest level since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Michael Chanin, CEO of Cherry Street Energy. Through Shine On, Cherry Street’s Solar School partnership with the nsoro Foundation, they prepare young adults aging out of Georgia’s foster care system for careers in power infrastructure. He highlights Emmanuel, who recently transitioned out of foster care and now helps build and maintain solar at Delta Air Lines’ rooftop at Hartsfield-Jackson.This Week in Cleantech — April 24, 2026 Swedish Green Steel Startup Stegra Gets $1.65 Billion Funding to Complete New Plant – The Wall Street JournalData centers’ mad dash for the Texas grid – POLITICORenewable energies overtook global electricity demand last year, led by solar growth in China, India – The Associated PressWhy the U.S. Is Such an Outlier on EVs – The Wall Street JournalWhy the US grid will end up paying for Iran’s aluminum strikes – Latitude MediaWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →How intelligence augments infrastructure to unlock latent grid capacity
Apr 2000:26:52Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! Headlines talking up the surge in energy demand driven by AI and connected to data center development highlight how much has changed across the sector. But what if the capacity to meet this demand is already there, just hidden behind outdated assumptions? To better understand what it means to utilize the existing capacity of the grid to meet this demand, we connected with Shaneez Mohinani, Head of Strategy and Operations at GridCARE. She talked through what it means to utilize the hidden capacity in the grid, the importance of moving beyond worst-case scenario planning, how all of it impacts affordability, and much more. 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
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (04/17/2026) - Utilities are on a spending frenzy to power the AI boom
Apr 1700:19:44Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal, who wrote about U.S. utilities' plans to spend about $1.4 trillion over the next five years to upgrade the aging power grid and meet surging electricity demand driven largely by AI data centers.This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Kerry Bowie, President and Founder of Browning the Green Space, or BGS, a nonprofit in Massachusetts that creates job and business opportunities in clean energy for people of color through training programs, startup support, and career pipelines. It also brings together companies and partners to remove barriers and expand access to affordable, equitable energy solutions. Congratulations, Kerry! This Week in Cleantech — April 17, 2026 Stung by Iran war, countries are turning against U.S. fossil fuels — The Washington PostUS power and natgas prices turn negative in Texas and California as mild weather cuts demand — ReutersMichigan regulators to utilities: Incorporate virtual power plants, or else — Factor ThisGreat Britain households to be urged to use more power this summer as renewables soar | Renewable energy — The GuardianUtilities Plan to Spend $1.4 Trillion Over Next Five Years to Power AI Boom — The Wall Street JournalWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (04/10/2026) - Federal permits are slowing down clean energy development
Apr 1000:18:29Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Kelsey Tamborrino from POLITICO, who wrote a story in E&E News about a new survey of renewable energy developers that found federal permitting requirements are significantly slowing clean energy deployment.This week's “Cleantechers of the Week” are Sam and Juliana Bendek, co-founders of Elastic Energy. The company developed a new tech that stores energy using natural tree sap. Congratulations Sam and Juliana!This Week in Cleantech — April 10, 2026 Wisconsin city passes nation’s first anti-data center referendum — POLITICOExclusive: Record funding for fusion power lands as Trump eyes cuts — AxiosState Climate Laws Targeted Around US as Iran War Spikes Gas Prices — BloombergWill the Iran war derail the energy transition? — The Financial TimesFederal permitting obstructs clean energy deployment, survey finds — E&E NewsWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →Redefining the utility transformation roadmap
Apr 600:32:44Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! There’s no shortage of talk about the hardware and AI-driven transformations that will define the grid of the future. However, the true driver of success is about a strategic mindset that’s focused on change management, which is inherently more about people and process than it is technology and tools. Andy Quick lived and enabled this reality during a nearly 30-year career at Entergy, a journey that culminated in him serving as the utility's first-ever Chief AI Officer. Today, he’s taken that experience to the grid edge as Senior Industry Advisor for Noteworthy AI, where he helps utilities define and redefine their transformation roadmaps.We caught up with Quick to talk through how he helps utilities navigate the "how" and "when" of tech integration, what it means to move past the hype to make difficult choices about which tools will truly modernize legacy processes, the importance of an organization's willingness to transform its human-centric workflows, and much more.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
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (04/03/2026) - Could this huge CA solar+storage project help farmers cope with water shortages?
Apr 300:22:40Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 Jeff St John from Canary Media, who reported on a 21 gigawatt solar and battery storage project in California, which is potentially the largest project of its kind in the world.This week's "Cleantechers of the Week" are Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie, hosts of the brand new podcast, The Polycrisis. This podcast will cover geopolitics, climate change, finance and industry. This Week in Cleantech — April 03, 2026 What Americans Really Pay For Electricity — Heatmap NewsTop energy developer warns on overbuilding power supplies for AI — The Financial TimesUS AI Data Center Expansion Relies on Chinese Electrical Equipment Imports — BloombergA Winter Without Snow Depletes Europe’s Clean Energy Reservoir — Bloomberg‘We’re harvesting the sun’: A huge solar project grows in California — Canary MediaWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com
Transcribe →This Week in Cleantech (03/27/2026) - Iran conflict highlights perils of fossil fuel dependence
Mar 2700:19:05Tap to summarizeTell us what you think of the show! 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 "Cleantecher of the Week" is Robert Piconi, CEO of Energy Vault. This week, the company officially acquired the 175 MW McMurtre battery storage project in ERCOT North, taking its global portfolio of owned, operating, and under-construction assets to 715 MW. Congratulations, Robert!This Week in Cleantech — March 27, 2026Could a global economy dependent on renewable energy see less war? Experts explain — ABC NewsAsia Turns Back to Coal as War Chokes Off Natural Gas — The New York TimesJPMorgan Warns Aging US Power Grids Pose National Security Risk — BloombergHow to get Big Tech to pay your energy bills — The Washington PostBritain responds to Iran war energy shock by requiring solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes — CNBCWant 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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