LS Power nears a $4.7 billion deal for EDF's North American renewables arm, and Cypress Creek lines up $3.5 billion to finance a massive Arkansas solar-plus-storage project. GM pivots to grid-scale sodium-ion battery production as EV sales slow, while Q Cells begins commercial solar cell production at its Georgia mega-facility. Special guest Dr. Akshat Rathi of Bloomberg explains how the Iran energy shock is pushing Asia and Europe to speed up electrification. Plus, Emerald AI's Varun Sivaram is Cleantecher of the Week.

Episode 135: Featuring Akshat Rathi from Bloomberg News

Overview

1. LS Power Said to Near Deal for EDF’s American Renewables Arm - Bloomberg

2. Big US Solar and Battery Project Lines Up $3.5 Billion Financing - Bloomberg

3. G.M. Plans to Develop Energy Storage Batteries as E.V. Sales Flag - The New York Times

4. New Qcells plant doubles current US capacity to make solar cells - Canary Media

5. Iran Shock Jolts Asia and Europe to Speed Up Energy Transition? - Bloomberg

Intro

Paul Gerke: Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of This Week in cleantech, your favorite 15-minute roundup or so, of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy each week. We're recording this show for Friday, June 12th, 2026. We have a returning guest in waiting, Dr. Akshat Rathi, as Mike Casey calls him. Make sure you give him his flowers. He's from Bloomberg. Joining us shortly. I'm Factor This Content Director Paul Gerke, joined again by cleantech commentator Mike Casey of TigerComm. Mike, how are you today?

Mike Casey: Hey friend, you're looking crisp and ready to go in this early morning taping because it is, by the way, he is Dr. Akshat Rathi because he's a chemist. Like a real chemist. Not these guys.

Paul Gerke: Not like doctor of thuggonomics or something. Nah not quite that.

Mike Casey: All right. So hey, I want to give a shout out to our friends at the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition. They are — you're seeing these mugs out here. Don't mess a solar. And they've already taken Chip Roy's scalp. Chip Roy will be looking for a job. We can have him intern here at TigerComm if he'd like, after his failed run for attorney general in Texas. But this week two other renewables-hating politicians lost their bids to become South Carolina governor because the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition played successfully there. So that's really cool. On the downside, I want to say we've covered a lot of E&E News stories over the last two years. We had this show and its reporters have consistently produced really great journalism. So it is with sadness that we learned that E&E's owner, Politico, has decided to fold E&E entirely into the Politico brand. It's Politico's call to make, they're the owners, but in my experience, this sort of move rarely comes without an effect for the quality of what's being pulled into the mothership. You know, I hope E&E's not going to go the way of Virgin America Airlines after Alaska Airlines bought it, Paul. So anyway, back to you.

Paul Gerke: That's a deep pull for a very specific niche of our audience, but those who got it, got it. And I too hope for the best for the journalistic integrity of E&E News. There's not a whole lot of big players in our space, as you know, Mike, especially ones that have legitimate punching power like they do. And I hope that we can continue to expect quality journalism from them moving forward. If you guys have an opinion you'd like to hear about or get onto the show or a story you'd like us to cover, two cents to spare. Whatever, email it to us. We have an email address specifically for the program. It is Twick — Twick at tigercomm with two M's dot us. All right, everybody. Let's get into it. Five stories this week. We start with number one. Mike, what's on tap?

Mike Casey: Yeah, even though Paul Gerke complains that he always gets the hard names, I get the hard names this time, so —

Paul Gerke: Yeah. I saw this one. It was a landmine waiting for ya.

Story 1: LS Power Nears Deal for EDF's American Renewables Arm

Mike Casey: All right. So we have three, four reporters from Bloomberg. They cover this. Francois de Beaupuy, Vinicy Chan, Naureen Malik, and Coco Liu from Bloomberg. LS Power said to near deal for EDF's American Renewables Arm. This is a big deal.

Paul Gerke: It is a big deal, and we've been hearing, I'm sure you have too, Mike, that the M&A space is gonna be particularly active in the second half of 2026, and that there are players, some serious ones, looking to make big moves. This would be one of them. LS Power, reportedly in advanced talks to pay more than four point seven billion dollars for EDF's North American renewable power business. The EDF unit for sale had about six gigawatts of solar and wind in operation in the US, Canada, and Mexico at the end of last year. Another 19 gigawatts or so in development. Deal activity in the US power industry is accelerating. We talk about surging electricity demand all the time on this show. The biggest Silicon Valley companies forecasting over $700 billion in CapEx spending this year alone. The sale helps fund construction of new reactors in France and the UK, costing tens of billions of euros over two decades amid pressure from falling French power prices. Speaking of the falling French, how did the Knicks come back from down twenty nine the other night? Unreal, Mike Casey. I know you're not a big basketball guy, but holy smokes. That was a Victor Wembanyama dig. Anyway, Mike, your thoughts on this piece?

Mike Casey: So, first glance, this deal works for both parties. LS Power is buying into the US renewables market as electricity demand booms, and our second story will tell you why that's important. EDF is selling to raise cash for its nuclear program back home. Beyond the LS Power sale, EDF is pursuing a string of smaller divestments and cost cuts — selling assets in Brazil and China, trimming spending and weighing a stake in its Italian unit, Edison SpA. I will nostalgically say this could bring an end to an era. EDF has played a meaningful role for years on the US cleantech stage and we hope a new owner expands its good work. Paul, story number two.

Story 2: Big US Solar and Battery Project Lines Up $3.5 Billion in Financing

Paul Gerke: Story number two from an alumni of the program, former This Week in cleantech guest, Mark Chediak from over at Bloomberg. Big US solar and battery project lines up three and a half billion dollars in financing. When I saw this in the show, Mike, I immediately started searching for the release and found that I had not received it yet. But my good friend Mike Casey is gonna make sure it gets into my hands, right? Cause this is a big deal.

Mike Casey: Yes, it is a BFD. And I will note that Cypress Creek is a client of my firm. But nonetheless, they secured three point five billion in financing for the first few phases of what will be one of the largest solar and storage projects in the country. One point six three gigawatts of solar and one point nine gigawatts of storage. On completion of its third phase, the project will be two point four five gigawatts and two point nine gigawatts, respectively. And where will this take place? Not Texas. Not California.

Paul Gerke: Texas, California. No, no, no, not Texas, not California. Michigan. Wow.

Mike Casey: No. Okay. It is Arkansas. Right? Conservative Arkansas. And almost all the steel will come from within that state while the panels will also be 100% US made from First Solar. This is a fast start for Cypress Creek CEO Kevin Smith, who said this is gonna be a bit more of the norm, these sorts of deals, I'm adding, as we go forward with deals of this magnitude and size, as we see demand in the US for power skyrocketing. Paul Gerke, your thoughts.

Paul Gerke: Yeah, Kevin Smith not playing small ball over at Cypress Creek. He used to be over at Aravon, Justin Johnson, who's the CEO there now. Good pals with him. The deal — this one, the multi-billion dollar deal that Cypress Creek got was underwritten by Barclays, BNP Paribas, Santander, and Wells Fargo. It includes tax equity financing. Smith said big deals like this, like you mentioned, Mike, are gonna be increasingly common. They're not messing around with these small dollar amounts anymore. If we're gonna do some financing, we're gonna finance the F out of it. We've covered a lot of stories about the federal government being weaponized against the solar industry, but it's clear that if deals like this are still getting across the finish line, the demand for power is too great that any federal finicking is really gonna — you know — put a spike in the tire of the momentum of solar here. So shout out to Cypress Creek and excited to see this mega project come together. I hope it gets to its full capacity. That's an impressive nameplate capacity, Mike. Story number three.

Mike Casey: Yeah, big deal. And I'll — my son Declan is studying finance in college, and I want him to make sure he studies the term "finance the F out of this," because I'm sure that's an academic term.

Paul Gerke: Yeah. Two hundred level. Yeah, he'll get into it. Second or third year in school.

Story 3: GM Plans to Develop Energy Storage Batteries as EV Sales Flag

Mike Casey: All right. Third story is by past This Week in cleantech guest, Jack Ewing from the New York Times. GM plans to develop energy storage batteries as EV sales flag. Paul, your thoughts.

Paul Gerke: Well, the first thing I think of is welcome to the party, GM. You know, this is a route that Tesla and Ford have already sort of forged. It just makes a lot of sense. GM's partnering with Peak Energy. They're gonna start making components for large grid batteries, doing things like Tesla, Ford and other car makers are doing as US EV sales slow. This is thanks in no small part to losing out on that seventy five hundred dollar tax incentive that was slashed by the Trump administration. But the grid needs batteries too. GM's batteries are gonna be sodium-based. I've been hearing more and more about sodium-ion-based batteries. They're cheaper, they're easier, the materials are easier to get. They don't require elaborate cooling and heating systems. A lot of them have longer duration storage. California is getting their first set of sodium-ion batteries soon. This is gonna be an interesting pivot in the space, Mike, and it's not just all lithium-ion anymore. GM VP says the tech still needs to be refined though. They're not gonna be set for mass production for a couple of years, eyeing twenty twenty eight. Your thoughts. Do these actually roll off the assembly line, Mike?

Mike Casey: Yeah, I bet they do because GM is a pretty big battleship. Once it gets moving, it's hard to take it off its trajectory, and they've been doing this a long time. That said, I will take issue with this headline. I do think it should have added a few words. The EV market was made to flag by moron politicians living in the ideology-over-reality world. But we dither. GM also said it would issue software updates, letting some of its EVs send power back to the grid, allowing owners to earn money when utilities draw from their vehicles at home chargers. The company has already sold two hundred and fifty thousand capable vehicles. The Tesla Cybertruck offers vehicle-to-grid features and Ford's F-150 Lightning offers similar capabilities, but US utilities, which tend to be slow to embrace new technology — news flash — have only run small pilot projects to test EVs used in this way. Paul, story four.

Paul Gerke: I still think EV-to-grid is a big part of our future, Mike, but I dither as well.

Story 4: New Q Cells Plant Doubles Current US Capacity to Make Solar Cells

Paul Gerke: We get to story four, Julian Spector from Canary Media. This one's about the new Q Cells news if you haven't heard about it. New Q Cells plant doubles current US capacity to make solar cells. We've been talking about this plant down in Georgia for literally years, Mike. It sounds like they're finally pumping cells out of it.

Mike Casey: Yeah. So Q Cells, you might have heard of them. They've officially begun commercial production of silicon solar cells at its factory in Cartersville, Georgia. It's actually a pair of factories, by the way. It is huge. The largest of its kind in the country. For five years straight, the US power sector has built more solar farms than any other kind of power plant. The US opened up enough factories in just a few years to assemble nearly 70 gigawatts of finished solar panels, which is well beyond what the US installs in one year. We will not compare this to China's numbers, but we will note that cell production has lagged far behind, with only three other US companies making solar cells. Within a few months, Cartersville site will reach a full 3.3 gigawatt production across all four supply chains — ingots, wafers, cells, modules — in one L-shaped four factories in one facility, with a full output slated for Q3. It's a Dalton module plant Q Cells is gonna use to employ thirty eight hundred people in the region. Paul, your thoughts, my friend.

Paul Gerke: This was a big one. I talked to some folks in the space that admittedly weren't sure that this project was ever going to get finished. And I know that folks that have wanted to procure cells from it have been told more or less they're spoken for already. Another 22 gigawatts of cell capacity from other players is currently in construction across the US right now. We don't know exactly how much of that is gonna get finished. Recent additions are promising though. Toyo's planned $357 million one and a half gigawatt expansion down in Houston. ES Foundry pushed to 3 gigawatts by year end. T1 Energy's new fab plant outside of Austin, Texas. Separately, we talk about First Solar a lot. Their US factories produce about 14 gigawatts of cadmium telluride thin film panels. They generate electricity without silicon-based cells, which helps with those supply chain issues. We could talk about this all day, but we have a guest in waiting. Let's not make Dr. Akshat Rathi wait a second longer. Mike, introduce our guest, please.

Story 5: Iran Shock Jolts Asia and Europe to Speed Up the Energy Transition

Mike Casey: Yeah. You know what Dr. Rathi is up to? I just realized during the show, he does not want Mark Chediak to be the most interviewed Bloomberg journalist on the show. So he's just elbowing his way to the front. But when you bring content like he's bringing, I don't know, Chediak, you're gonna have to work a little bit harder here. So Akshat, welcome back. In an episode where we might have called the whole episode the BFD episode, you're probably bringing the BFD because it's global and it's war. You had this absolutely fascinating piece. Iran Shock jolts Asia and Europe to speed up the energy transition. First off, welcome back. And really interesting. I'm just — you know, you're on a roll here with looking at the global impact of this hugely dynamic period of time and what it's gonna mean for the energy makeup going forward. After this episode, what are you thinking? Like what's your take?

Akshat Rathi: Well, it's great to be back and just to give a shout out to my Bloomberg colleagues, you know, I'm on the byline but so are three others. And this global story is global because we have reporters around the world covering this topic. To me, this piece, which is three months into the war, was necessary because I wanted to look into history — and both like fifty-year-old history, five-year-old history — and then compare it to what these three months look like. And the comparison is necessary because we had the deepest energy shock in the nineteen seventies and nothing eclipsed it until this Iran war shock came along. So to me it was necessary to see, are there things that we can compare? And there are. There are really three levers in an energy shock that you can use. Cut down the energy use that you have, try and find fuels if you have them from other places, or just become efficient at using them. We have those same three levers today, but in those three levers now we have more options because we have in renewables a new form of fuel source that we can tap for really cheap. And in efficiency, we have the ability to electrify the world. And what we're seeing now is that countries are choosing that third and fourth option more — fourth and fifth option more — than any other in the world. And we show this through reporting on the ground in about a dozen countries in Asia and Europe.

Paul Gerke: Your story begins with a sort of, you know, snap zoom into the micro domino effect here and, you know, an individual having to make the decision to fork over basically a year's salary to set up a home battery system to get ahead of energy bills. Those type of difficult decisions, while maybe not so stark as the one outlined in the piece, are being made by folks here and all over the world in response to this sort of shock. Akshat, in your opinion, is that sort of micro level what begins the larger change? Do these decisions have to be made by mom and pop shops that are trying to stay open, or someone who's trying to keep their lights on, and then that momentum sort of pushes everyone in that direction? Or is it — are these changes made by the governments that choose to lend money to that individual mentioned in your piece that allows those projects to get online? Does it start at the top or does it start at the bottom?

Akshat Rathi: Yep, so I will say this is actually really part two of the story. Part one came out within the first month of the war starting out, so end of March. And that was the goal that you were laying out, which is what are individuals doing? Because individuals now have the ability to go to renewables and to electrify if they have the money. But this is three months down, and the reason it's three months down is because I wanted to look at policy changes. And the example that you quote of this guy in the Philippines choosing to get solar panels with one year worth of salary is only because the Philippines came out with a loan program to allow that to happen. And we are now seeing that kind of policy change happening across Asia and Europe. You know, the European Union came out with this Accelerate EU plan, which is at the top an electrification plan. Immediately after that, countries started to come out with their plan. So we quote the France plan, which, you know, doubles the amount of renewable subsidies that they were giving to electrify homes through heat pumps and electric cars and to deploy rooftop solar. So it is really policy changes that will stick around. And that is also a lesson from the seventies. It was policy changes in the seventies that, you know, really essentially squeezed oil out of the power mix. Like to the extent where we would never talk about oil in the power mix anymore. That's how quickly it was squeezed out and it was down to policy.

Mike Casey: Wow. Okay, loaded question. And maybe it needs an entire episode of your podcast to discuss at some point. I was joking with Paul a couple of weeks ago. You know, who knows? Five years from now, Donald Trump might be the most unwittingly pro-clean energy president in the history of the country. I mean, because of his actions. I guess I — I know this is a very difficult question to ask, but do you think that could actually prove true? Like could the joke actually become reality?

Akshat Rathi: I mean, I think it's a good talking point. Ian Bremmer and Ezra Klein were talking about this on their show recently, and you know, it makes for a funny take. But I don't think it's right. The amount of harm that comes from getting rid of climate policies in the US, the world's largest economy, and then going outside the US and like undermining international diplomacy, taking down the carbon tax on the International Maritime Organization — that has deep harm that will stick around for longer. You know, energy shocks would have come around any which way. The fact that we are accelerating is just showing what the promise of these technologies are to people now. It is an economic choice, not a climate choice. So as a climate president, not really. Maybe an energy transition president — I think that would stick around much better.

Mike Casey: Yeah. The "unwitting" adjective is a very important part of this descriptor. Just wanna put that there. Paul, you wanna take a last question?

Paul Gerke: Doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Yeah. Akshat, we're running out of time, but if there's any last thoughts you want to leave the listeners with, maybe something interesting you learned while reporting the piece, or maybe something unexpected that you encountered along the way, or maybe even a part three down the pike.

Akshat Rathi: Well, there's a part three coming for sure, but let me give you one thing that I didn't talk about, which is I also looked at the last five-year history. And what we saw is that we are coming across this energy shock right after the Ukraine crisis created an energy shock in twenty twenty two. And we are already seeing the results of the deployment of renewables that, you know, Europe really went on a war path with. And that is the reason why power prices today are much, much more muted than they were back down in 2022. So Asian countries are looking at that and saying, that was the success story. We need to replicate it today.

Mike Casey: Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb, make a prediction. I'm not a geopolitical analyst. I'm not a Middle Eastern specialist. But just common sense would suggest if you don't mind killing thirty-five thousand of your own people in a month and a half, you don't care about blowing out oil wells. And I think the Iranians, they might be crazy, but they're not dumb. I think they got Trump pegged as a clown and a knucklehead. I think they're gonna keep this war going all the way through the midterms, and you mark my words, come October, people in Florida and Texas are gonna be paying over six bucks a gallon of gasoline and they're gonna lose their minds. Like I'm telling you, I think we're gonna see — I think the dynamics, Akshat, that you're talking about are just gonna keep rolling and rolling and rolling in a way we just — it's gonna be unprecedented. So that said, I'll end my prognostications.

Paul Gerke: Yeah, we're gonna clip that though and we're gonna hold you accountable, or we're gonna put your feet to the fire when we get to midterm season, just in case. I'm just saying — I'll give you this soapbox, Mike Casey, but I'm not gonna let you do it without accountability.

Akshat Rathi: I need to throw in a number here just so that you remember. The nineteen seventies oil crisis was created by a five-month embargo from the Middle East on oil exports to the US and a few European countries. We are in month three, so —

Mike Casey: Wow. Wow. All right. Paul Gerke, we could talk to this guy all day. We gotta stop having him on the show because, like, we got — we have a twenty-five-minute episode every time he shows up. So all right.

Paul Gerke: It's gonna become a three-person. I'm gonna get the boot is what's gonna happen here ultimately. I understand how this goes.

Cleantecher of the Week

Paul Gerke: All right, cleantecher of the Week time. Mike, I'm glad you did save me one tricky name to try to read this week. Our cleantecher of the Week, Varun Sivaram — nailed it. Nice try, Casey. Founder and CEO of Emerald AI, if you don't know him. Sivaram and Emerald AI use artificial intelligence to let data centers flex power consumption on demand without losing compute performance. Very cool thing, very important to the spaces we're headed in right now with data centers. Congratulations, Varun, our cleantecher of the week.

Mike Casey: Yeah, we want to thank our wonderful producer Brian Mendez, who's not Dr. Mendez, and Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin, neither of whom are doctors, for gathering these stories. Not Dr. Paul Gerke.

Paul Gerke: And shout out to Eli who's filling in. Come on, Casey. All right. Hey, thank you, the listener, for joining us for another round of This Week in cleantech. Sorry for taking more than 15 minutes of your day. I hope you enjoyed the show nonetheless. Thank you. Big shout out to Akshat Rathi for coming back in another episode. We hope to see you again — you the listener, you the guest. Please subscribe, leave a little feedback, share a story suggestion, do whatever you want. You can also read all the articles that we discuss each week. They're in the links in the episode description. They also live in the post where this lives on factorthis.com. Until next time, be good people.