This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.
This week’s episode features Brendan Koerner from WIRED Magazine, who wrote about the lives of young men recruited by door-to-door solar sales companies.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week,” is Will Heegaard, CEO of Footprint Power. Footprint Power’s South California team are bringing mobile solar power and other renewable energy resources to base camps and distribution sites, and supporting 92,000 displaced people due to the LA wildfires.
1. The Insurance Crisis That Will Follow the California Fires — The New Yorker
California’s insurance market is unstable and a major cause is the significant damage caused by wildfires. The insurers are finding California riskier due to the combination of people moving into fire-prone areas and fires becoming more destructive – partly because of climate change.
Until some recent rules were revised, California’s insurance regulations hindered insurance companies from accurately forecasting the trend of increasing wildfire losses and passing on the cost of reinsurance. The new rule revisions change that, but also require insurers to write more policies for homeowners in wildfire-prone areas.
California homeowners unable to secure fire insurance find the state’s FAIR plan is their insurer of last resort. It provides coverage through a shared-risk system among private insurers, but rising property values and mounting wildfire damages threaten the plan’s stability. If the FAIR plan goes broke, the state’s insurance companies will have to make up the difference, passing on costs to consumers via higher rates.
2. Los Angeles Utilities’ Decisions to Keep Power On Are Scrutinized – The New York Times
While the cause of the LA wildfires is unclear, experts believe the power lines could have started them and many assert they should have been shut off in the dry, windy conditions. To make matters worse, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the U.S., does not have a plan to preemptively shut off power in urban areas during times of elevated fire risk.
The department argues that shutting off power during high winds could disrupt vital services. Yet, it blocks circuits from automatically restoring power after outages in the same exact conditions. Plus, the poles and conductors on the utility’s electric grid were designed for wind speeds of up to 56 miles per hour, but wind speeds reached 100 miles per hour last week.
3. This group says natural gas bans hurt minorities. It has gas industry ties. — The Washington Post
Maryland state lawmakers proposed a bill last year to ban the use of natural gas furnaces and water heaters in new buildings statewide. Ex-NFL player Gary Baxter claimed the bill would raise energy costs for Black households.
What Baxter didn’t mention is that the group he leads, the Energy Poverty Awareness Center or enPAC, has ties to the Consumer Energy Alliance, which works to “expose attacks on renewable energy and counter misinformation by fossil fuel and utility interests.” The Consumers Energy Alliance “helped launch EnPAC and shape its initial agenda.” The vice president of EnPAC is also an official at a trade group for oil refiners.
The connection between energy companies and advocacy groups dates back to 2005, when Exxon donated over $800,000 to the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which opposed Obama’s Clean Power Plan, claiming it would hurt minorities by slowing job growth.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
4. REC Silicon pulls the plug on polysilicon production at Moses Lake plant — Renewable Energy World
On Monday, REC Silicon announced it will stop polysilicon production at its Moses Lake plant in Washington State. The decision comes after the company received news from its customer, Hanwha Qcells, that it had failed another purity test. REC Silicon also ceased production at its Butte, Montana site in February 2024.
REC Silicon claimed impurities on post-reactor product finishing and handling issues, but despite delays and efforts to fix the problem, it failed the qualification test in December 2024. Unfortunately, there are no other customers for RECs polysilicon in the U.S. right now, and limited customers outside of China, so they have nobody to produce for.
5. The Spectacular Burnout of a Solar Panel Salesman — WIRED Magazine
This story looks at the lives of young men recruited by door-to-door solar sales companies. These salespeople, often drawn to self-improvement and avoiding college debt, face tough jobs knocking on hundreds of doors daily, handling rejection, and sometimes earning far less than promised.
Many solar companies rely on these young, inexperienced managers, leading to inconsistent practices and sometimes, bankruptcies. Industry leaders worry these tactics give clean energy a bad name.