Factor This

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. 

  1. 1 day ago

    This Week in Cleantech (10/09/2026) - Is the future of commuter rail battery powered?

    Tell 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 Benton Graham from Grist, who discusses the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's plans to electrify Boston’s Fairmount Line with battery-powered trains. This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Christopher Galarza, a longtime chef and co-founder of EcoChef, which certifies sustainable commercial kitchens. Christopher co-authored a new peer-reviewed study and recruited most of the kitchens in it, finding that 70% of gas-fired restaurant kitchens had nitrogen dioxide levels above EPA and WHO safety limits, even with commercial ventilation. He says working in all-electric kitchens was the first time in his career he could do what he loved without feeling like he was dying. Congratulations, Christopher! This Week in Cleantech — October 9, 2026 The energy transition is starting to feed itself — ReutersHow to keep the lights on in an electrified world — The Financial TimesWhat if the world hadn't built wind and solar? — The Climate BrinkUS Solar Panel Makers Try to Catch China With a Big Leap in Technology — The New York TimesThe future of commuter rail could be taking shape in Boston — GristEnergy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  2. 3 days ago

    PJM's energy emergency | Factor This Policycast

    Tell us what you think of the show! PJM Interconnection, the largest wholesale electricity market and grid operator in the United States, is at a crossroads.  Demand is surging across its footprint, accelerated by the needs of artificial intelligence data centers, and PJM is struggling to keep up- to put it lightly- spurring some rather existential examinations of the grid operator’s processes, markets, and even its governance. It’s clear that changes are needed, but what those changes should be and who should have input- like PJM states, for example- is much murkier. There’s no time to waste. PJM predicts a 6.8 gigawatt (GW) capacity shortfall as soon as 2028, underscoring the need to bring more generation online as soon as possible. Many of the 67 million customers under PJM’s 13-state-plus-Washington-D.C.- purview would agree. They’re seeing electricity prices march upward, in part because recent power auctions got so out of control that PJM, with federal approval, had to cap them. Interconnection bottlenecks and market barriers have also inhibited deployment of some of the cheapest and often quickest-to-power solutions, like renewables, energy storage, and demand-side resources. PJM is trying to make it easier for data center developers to come online with their own power supply- but how should that work? This episode of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with Advanced Energy United, tackles the PJM energy emergency. How can the nation’s largest grid operator modernize its operations in time to avoid a capacity cliff while simultaneously satisfying a diverse group of stakeholders clamoring for affordability? Hosted by Factor This content director Paul Gerke, the show features special guests Adam Stern of clean energy developer Clearway Energy and Kimaya Abreu of virtual power plant operator Voltus, alongside Advanced Energy United senior director Jon Gordon, a nationally sought-after PJM expert. The assemblage addresses PJM's looming capacity shortfall, identifies roadblocks to speed-to-power, and opines on how to mitigate the impacts of large load growth on the system. Also up for debate: PJM's backstop auction, interconnection queue, and governance. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  3. 5 days ago

    Unlocking grid capacity through operational intelligence and dynamic distribution with Switch Source CEO Charles Murray

    Tell us what you think of the show! Grid resilience isn’t a new concept, but the way utilities achieve it is changing dramatically. Traditionally, hardening the grid meant building bigger physical infrastructure. But as Switched Source CEO Charles Murray has outlined, meeting upcoming grid demands cost-effectively requires utilities to think differently and embrace new capabilities. Heavy capital hardware upgrades are no longer a standalone fix. Today, grid resilience is all about operational agility and dynamic power-flow control to keep the power on. But what does doing so mean on a practical level? What happens when high-level operational intelligence is paired with real-time grid automation? How should utilities newly think about their resilience strategy? On the latest episode of the Factor This Podcast, we caught up with Murray to get answers to these questions and much more.   Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  4. 5 days ago

    This Week in Cleantech (10/05/2026) - Inside the Senate's bipartisan permitting reform package

    Tell 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 Jillian Goodman from Heatmap, who breaks down the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a new permitting reform package meant to lower energy costs and make it easier to build infrastructure.  This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is James Worden, founder of Worden Marine. James has been building solar-powered vehicles since the 1980s, starting with a wood-and-cardboard solar go-kart that won the Massachusetts state science fair. He went on to help start MIT's Solar Electric Vehicle Team and co-founded Solectria with his late wife, Anita. Now he's taking that vision to the water. His startup's TruSolar20 boat, named Anita in her honor, can run all day on six solar panels at about eight miles an hour, and a bigger version built for ferries and river tours is on the way. Congratulations, James! This Week in Cleantech — October 5, 2026  Why Won’t the Clean Energy Industry Play Dirty? — Washington MonthlyTrump Sharply Scales Back Fuel Economy Rules for New Cars — The New York TimesFix it or trash it? How to decide how long to keep your car and home appliances. — The Washington PostPlug Power Inks Electrolyzer Deal for Denmark Jet Fuel Project — BloombergThe Senate’s Big Bipartisan Permitting Deal, Explained — Heatmap NewsEnergy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  5. 28 Sept

    Modernizing grid strategy across New England with Damir Novosel and Chris Root

    Tell us what you think of the show! We get excited about new technologies that have the capability to transform utility operations, which is easy to do because the value they can create is real. However, the irony is that these innovations are often the least important part of the effort to create that value. Real efficiencies, especially ones that can scale, are driven by people and processes. Unlocking the true value of any innovation requires an independent, vendor-agnostic strategy that cuts across technical, business, and regulatory domains. And that’s exactly why Dash Power Partners was created. Co-founded by Dr. Damir Novosel, who is also the CEO and a recognized pioneer in power grid reliability, Dash Power provides services and solutions for utilities, ISOs, developers, data centers, and more. The company pairs deep technical expertise with leadership from experienced executives like Chris Root, who brings over 45 years of utility sector leadership. Dr. Novosel and Root will be bringing this expertise to DTECH Northeast in Boston this November, where they’ll lead the Strategic Alignment & Scalable Energy Solutions workshop that is designed to deliver actionable strategies rather than high-level theory. We connected with both and with Wayne Bishop, Executive Vice President of Energy at Clarion Events, for an in-depth interview to explore some of the grid modernization challenges that the energy sector is working through and how they’re specifically impacting the Northeast. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  6. 25 Sept

    This Week in Cleantech (09/25/2026) - Iran war energy crisis backs Bangladesh into a corner

    Tell us what you think of the show! [Reupload] 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. On this episode, Clarion Events Content Director Jeremiah Karpowicz is filling in for Paul Gerke. This week's episode features special guest David Fickling from Bloomberg, who discusses how the Bangladesh's garment industry is coping with the Iran war's disruption of the energy supply chain.  This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Dr. Joe Romm, a physicist and one of the most influential voices in the fight against climate change, who passed away unexpectedly this month. Joe served at the Department of Energy under President Clinton and turned his focus to climate after his brother lost his home in Hurricane Katrina. He founded the blog Climate Progress, which Time called the web's most influential climate-change blog, and he was chief science advisor for the Emmy-winning series Years of Living Dangerously. Rest in peace, Joe.  This Week in Cleantech — September 25, 2026  The New Clean Tech Meta and Google Are Turning to Power AI — BloombergSenate inches closer to US infrastructure permitting reform bill — ReutersAfrica's cement boom signals next great shift in global energy use — ReutersIran war causes global pain at the pump — AxiosYour $30 Jeans Are Running Out of Cheap Power in Bangladesh — BloombergEnergy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

  7. 24 Sept

    Scaling DERs for reliability and resilience | Factor This Policycast

    Tell us what you think of the show! Utilities and grid operators face immense pressure to meet rising electricity demand, harden systems against extreme weather, upgrade and replace aging infrastructure, adapt to changing state and federal policies, and keep rates affordable. It's a juggling act, and with all of those balls in the air, the 'old-school' utility method of building more supply-side solutions just doesn't cut it anymore. As a result, distributed energy resources (DERs), or customer-sited technologies, are moving beyond the margins of reliability planning to the center of attention. This episode of the Factor This Policycast, presented in partnership with national business association Advanced Energy United, explores how mostly behind-the-meter tools like batteries, smart thermostats, backup generators, microgrids, rooftop solar, and flexible load can be aggregated and operated as dependable grid assets. Extending a conversation that began at DTECH Reliability & Resiliency 2026 in Chicago, Illinois, moderator Paul Gerke leads a discussion alongside Emma Heins, policy principal at Advanced Energy United, about what it takes to scale virtual power plants and other DER programs. The conversation, featuring Bart Jackson of Sunrun, ENERGYHUB's Maxwell Burke-Scoll, and Kahri Gerke at Alliant Energy, highlights practical lessons from states and utilities moving past pilots to full-scale implementation, focusing on how DERs can improve reliability, reduce peak demand, support resilience during emergencies, and lower customer costs. Also on the table: utility partnerships, market design, customer enrollment, dispatch performance, interconnection, data visibility, and compensation. Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

    Scaling DERs for reliability and resilience | Factor This Policycast

  8. 21 Sept

    How academic research and utility partnerships can enable grid modernization and decarbonization

    Tell us what you think of the show! As increasing energy demand and affordability challenges reshape the electric grid, bridging the gap between academic research and real-world utility execution has never been more important. What works in the lab doesn’t always translate in the field, but at the same time, developments like rapid electrification and inverter based resources have pushed the grid passed the limits of legacy modeling. It’s why utilities rely on universities and national labs to deliver the field-ready tools, training frameworks, and specialized insights needed to modernize the grid. That process is something that Dr. Leo Jiang, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Center for Electric Power Systems Research at Clarkson University, will be exploring in detail at DTECH Northeast during the Standardizing Power Quality Modeling for DER Grid Compatibility at Scale session. We caught up with him for the latest episode of the Factor This Podcast to get a sense of how utilities can leverage university research to modernize legacy assets, what it means to refine dynamic modeling, how to cultivate the technical talent needed for a resilient grid and much more.  Energy policy on your mind? Check out all episodes of the Factor This Policycast

See All (269)

Trailer

About

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. 

Information

  • Creator
    Factor This
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    269
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Factor This
  • Show Website
    Factor This

You Might Also Like