The April 2021 episode of the Solar Media Podcast, sponsored by Honeywell, is now available to stream, featuring lessons from Asia on how to push floating solar forward. Liam Stoker, Andy Colthorpe and Jules Scully also discuss the continued rise of long-duration energy storage, as technology and policy evolve to meet growing demand for greater […]
Deep Decarbonization: Infinity War
This week on The Interchange, we discuss the battle between electricity, hydrogen and carbon capture. What technology will become the dominant means of decarbonizing each part of the economy? The pattern we see now — and that we expect to continue to see over the coming decades — is a series of battles between consistent […]
The Summer of Battery Storage
This week on The Interchange, we dig into the onslaught of storage news with GTM’s Julian Spector. We may be facing one of the worst economic downturns in American history, but it hasn’t stopped the surge in battery storage development. We’re constantly hearing phrases like “world’s largest” and “record-breaking” as new gigawatt-scale projects are unveiled […]
Merchant Solar and Wind: A Ticking Time Bomb?
On The Interchange podcast this week: we explore the long-term risks of merchant renewable energy for developers. Since the dawn of grid-connected wind and solar, long-term power purchase agreements were the financial glue that held projects together. Developers could rely on relatively simple multi-decade contracts, thanks in large part to policy that encouraged or mandated […]
What the Renewed Debate Over Costs of Renewable Energy Policy Is Missing
On this week’s Energy Gang: We look at a controversial report on renewables targets from the University of Chicago. For well over a decade, researchers have been modeling the cost of state renewable energy mandates. The results break down in predictable ways: Conservative and progressive groups often come to very different conclusions about costs and […]
The Real Art of the Deal: How to Negotiate Billions in Renewables Projects
In this special podcast, we uncover the secret to inking gigawatts’ worth of wind and solar deals. How do you broker billions of dollars’ worth of renewable energy deals — and do it again and again? It takes grit, sure. But it also requires empathy. And that, says Conor McKenna, is the real art of […]
Amazon Cozies Up to Oil & Gas, While Lagging Peers on Renewables
This week on The Energy Gang: Is Amazon’s courtship of the fossil fuel industry unique? The tech giants are all going long on renewables, but Amazon seems to be going long on oil and gas. A new story from Gizmodo details Amazon’s budding romance with the fossil fuel industry, even as it also lags behind […]
Republicans Craft Climate Plans to Counter Green New Deal
On this week’s Energy Gang podcast, we dissect two conservative counterproposals to the progressive Green New Deal. This week, the Green New Deal is rippling through Washington. A few leading Republicans are responding to the progressive climate plan with some ideas of their own: the New Manhattan Project and the Green Real Deal. They’ve gotten […]
Who Is Winning the Electric Vehicle Race?
On this week’s Interchange podcast, we look at the latest EV activity from the world’s biggest automakers. Within the next decade, automakers will invest up to $300 billion in electric models, according to a recent tally from Reuters. These automakers are also spending billions more on autonomy to complement those investments. It could result in […]
How Flexible, Dispatchable Solar Works
On this week’s Interchange podcast: Can solar rival gas plants in providing grid services? Forget everything you think you know about solar. A growing body of research and real-world experience shows that solar can be a flexible, dispatchable resource. And it can potentially rival gas plants in providing grid regulation services — without the use […]