This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s episode features Catherine Boudrea, a Business Insider reporter who wrote about Constellation Energy’s plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Robin Swanhuyser, the Executive Director of Twende Solar. Twende Solar empowers under-resourced communities with renewable energy systems. Their vision is to have renewable energy be the solution for eliminating poverty, strengthening economies, protecting ecosystems, and achieving a more equitable society. Congratulations, Robin!
1. Under a Texas sun, agrivoltaics offer farmers a new way to make money — The Washington Post
Agrivoltaics is the growing practice of using land for both agriculture and solar power generation. For example, fourth-generation farmer Chad Raines has sheep grazing underneath a 700,000 panel solar and storage project in Texas. In total, he runs 4,000 sheep at six solar sites in Texas and one in Arkansas. Sheep grazing is better for the soil than mowers and toxic herbicides, and it’s a low-cost, eco-friendly way to mow. The farmers lease the land their sheep graze on to solar developers, increasing their incomes.
Now, there is now growing interest in agrivoltaics that involves cattle grazing, which has immense potential because meat and dairy production account for 44% of all U.S. farmland.
2. America’s Oil Country Increasingly Runs on Renewables — The New York Times
The largest oil-producing state, Texas, had a rough summer in 2023. Demand for electricity was so high, officials needed to ask residents to conserve energy to avoid grid failure. Summer 2024 was much better, thanks to solar, wind, and now batteries.
Renewables have flourished in this state largely because it’s easy to connect projects to the grid. Because the Texas grid is not connected to other states, they don’t need to follow federal regulations that apply to interstate grids.
Texas had 5.1 GW of energy storage online at the beginning of 2024. Now they plan to complete another 6.4GW by the end of 2024. It’s also a reason why Texas just surpassed California in solar power generation.
3. What The Fed’s Interest Rate Cut Means For Climate Change — HuffPost
The Federal Reserve’s recent decision to cut interest rates by one-half a percentage point could boost clean energy investments. In March 2022, the Federal Reserve increased rates by one-quarter of a percentage point 11 times, resulting in the steepest climb in borrowing costs since the 1980s.
We’ve already seen many cancellations of clean energy projects, but some cleantech companies held on to their 2022 funding rounds in case inflation became too high. Now, this cut can cause some of those companies to loosen up.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
4. From Norway to New York, electric ferries are taking over the globe — NY Post
Ferries are already a convenient way for many to cut commute times, but now there’s a way to do cut commute times while cutting carbon pollution. Electric ferries are now on the scene, and they look like they’re levitating above the water. A hydrofoil is used to lift the boat above the water, reducing drag and the energy needed to operate it.
Compared to fossil-fuel-powered vessels, these boats cut carbon pollution by 97.5%, and their hydrofoil system reduces energy consumption by 80%. They have also been described as a quieter, smoother ride. They’re currently running in Stockholm, and there are plans to have them operate in Berlin and Saudi Arabia. They were in New York this past August offering test rides as well.
5. Tech bros and bankers rally around nuclear power to fuel AI’s rapid rise — The Business Insider
Constellation Energy has plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. They are going to sell the power to Microsoft to power their data centers. This plant is expected to come online in 2028, and could potentially operate until 2054. It would be the second nuclear plant to restart operations in U.S. history.
This move shows the renewed interest in nuclear energy as a clean and reliable power source.
After years of reactor shutdowns, the decision to restart Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 could signal a turning point for the nuclear industry. The driving force behind this shift could be the tech sector’s massive energy demand, accelerated by AI, as companies like Microsoft seek to power their data centers with carbon-free energy.