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How Texas topped California for utility-scale solar — This Week in Cleantech

How Texas topped California for utility-scale solar — This Week in Cleantech
(Photo by Albert Hyseni on Unsplash)

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 Stephen Robert Miller, who wrote for Yale E360 about an effort to convert existing oil wells for long-duration storage of solar energy.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Gregg Patterson, CEO of Origami Solar!

1. The U.S. just took its biggest step yet to end coal mining — The Washington Post

Much of U.S. fossil fuel comes from federal lands and waters, contributing nearly a quarter of the nation’s carbon pollution from 2005 to 2014. This month, the Biden administration announced it will end new coal leasing in one of these areas, the Powder River Basin, which produces almost half of America’s coal supply. The basin’s 14 active coal mines can continue operating on their leased lands, but they can’t expand onto other public lands in the region. This could prevent billions of tons of coal from being extracted from over 13 million acres in Montana and Wyoming.

2. Opinion | Can Biden Win America’s Green Tech Trade War With China? — The New York Times

Fairer trade is now the bipartisan consensus and seen by the Biden Administration as a way to simultaneously tackle climate disruption and our economic security. Even so, China still dominates 80% of the clean energy supply chain, and America owns almost none. How long should we protect domestic industry when it leads to higher prices on clean energy products like EVs?

3. How red Texas became a model for green energy — The Financial Times

Five years ago, California had more than six times as much solar as Texas. But on May 14th, Texas hit 19.1 gigawatts of solar energy generation, setting the new U.S. record and bumping California into second place. Texas has now deployed 23.6GW of utility-scale solar compared to California’s 21.2GW. The Lone Star State also trails only California in battery storage deployment.

After Texas connects the latest group of solar plants to the grid, it will have added more solar capacity per capita in a year than any other U.S. state or country worldwide.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

4. Biden’s Long Game on Climate — Heatmap News

Biden aims to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and ensure 50% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. are EVs or plug-in hybrids by 2030. But at the same time he’s raised tariffs. Through the IRA, EPA rules and recent tariffs, Biden aims to create pro-decarbonization support across the U.S., but there are still risks that come with this green industrial strategy — Trump’s reelection, agreement to continue clean energy buildout, and lack of competition with China.

5. Can a California Oilfield Be Retrofitted to Store Solar Energy? — Yale Environment 360

Oil rigs in Kern County are becoming obsolete as California aims to decarbonize, affecting local jobs and communities. To address this, the county is developing GeoTES, a project to store concentrated solar energy in super-heated groundwater within old oil wells, then use that energy to power turbines when energy demand rises. GeoTES uses mirrors to heat water stored underground, converting it to electricity when needed.

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Join us every Friday for new episodes of This Week in Cleantech in the Factor This! podcast feed, and tune into new episodes of Factor This! every Monday.

This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.