Just before the holidays, we hosted a year-end episode of the Cleantech Podcasters Roundtable. Our lineup changed a bit, with the happy addition of John Belizaire.

Here are our “B3Ps,” or Big 3 Points from that episode. You can read the full transcript below.
 
1. At the risk of sounding like a broken record: The Cleantech sector needs to invest more time and resources into messaging. Fossil fuel front groups are still working the mainstream media refs, spreading misinformation about the Inflation Reduction Act, painting ESG investing as “woke capitalism,” and the messaging that next-generation nuclear fission will be our climate savior. We have the tools to accelerate the energy transition, and our industry conversations should reflect that confidence I our public communications.

2. Expect grid resiliency, distributed energy resources, retrofitting, and workforce employment to be big topics for the new year — and more stories about people leaving “dirty” jobs for clean ones.
 
3. Let’s celebrate the people and organizations that helped prevent a pro-fossil fuel wave in the recent elections. Our participants gave laurels to: the Environmental Voter Project, Governor Kathy Hochul, Governor Gavin Newsom, and the California Public Utilities Commission.

Listen to the full episode on the SunCast Podcast:

We closed our cleantech journalists panel at RE+ with a question we often like to ask our Scaling Clean podcast guests: Are you a climate optimist or pessimist – and why? Our panelists gave thoughtful answers, a mix of optimism and realism about the aggression of energy industry incumbents (read the fossil fuel lobby). We’d like to share their answers here.

In the U.S., the field of companies developing renewable energy farms is quickly expanding. There are a large number of new additions coming from developing countries, where project development faces a very different set of problem. Some would argue they are much harder to solve. But the question is, does developing renewable energy in developing countries equip a company to succeed in a market like the U.S.

When we convened our cleantech journalists live from the stage at the RE+ trade show, among the questions we posed was how clean economy would address its half-dozen major challenges: Permitting, storage, transmission, grid stability, workforce development, and mineral processing. We also wanted to know who would address them. Check out our panel’s answers from Jon Powers, Julia Pyper and Scott Cooney

We know that most people won't watch the full 45 minutes of our live Cleantech Journalist Roundtable from the RE+ mainstage. We're starting a series of four excerpt videos that focus on particular parts of the discussion.

We finally have the full-length video of our 14th quarterly roundtable of cleantech journalists. This one was held from the stage at RE+, thanks to our friends at the trade show.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll produce a few excerpt videos. Each one will focus on a particular part of this discussion.

But you can see the full-length tape here.

Thanks to our panelists:

We've got another great roundtable on the books. Below are our big three takeaways of the conversation.

1. The perception of green hydrogen as a climate solution is rapidly shifting towards positive.
2. While we wait for a national-level transmission buildout, the US would do well to consider alternatives like microgrids and community solar, home systems, and investing in R&D for potential new solutions.
3. Will the momentum of the IRA and record attendance at RE+ carry us through the next 5 years? Our participants had varying opinions, but we see a promising trend of clean energy turning into a business issue rather than a culture war issue.

Thank you again to our great roundtable guests:
Marie Burgquist of the Watts Up Podcast
Bill Nussey of Tech Square Ventures
Tim Montague of Clean Power Hour
Joshua Porter of Solarcoaster.co
Julia Pyper of GoodLeap
Gil Jenkins of Hannon Armstrong

I look forward to hearing your coverage as our post-IRA world unfolds and hope to see you again for our 7th podcasters cleantech roundtable.

Our 8^th quarterly Cleantech Editors and Reporters Roundtable convened last week in the midst of one of the most exciting federal climate moves of our time.

Last week, a mix of regulars and new faces converged for the 5^th Quarterly Cleantech  Podcasters Roundtable, perhaps the best we’ve had so far: