This week's episode covers the Department of Energy's $17.5 billion in conditional loans to bolster the US nuclear supply chain and back ten new Westinghouse reactors; a report showing Spanish households save €10 monthly thanks to renewables decoupling electricity from gas prices; why California is seeing few data centers built despite the AI boom; the grid interconnection bottleneck keeping data centers from plugging in; and Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home offering 16 gigawatts of virtual power plant capacity.
Episode 137: Featuring Emily Pontecorvo of Heatmap News
Overview
- US announces $17.5 billion in loans for nuclear power supply chain — Reuters
- Spanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds | Spain — The Guardian
- If AI data centers are exploding nationwide, why are so few being built in California? – LA Times
- Why American data centers can't plug in — Works in Progress
- Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home Have 16 Gigawatts Up for Grabs — Heatmap News
Intro
Paul Gerke (00:01.09)
Hey everybody, happy Friday to you, or whatever day it is that you're listening to this edition of This Week in Cleantech, your favorite 15-minute roundup of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy that we put together each week. Today, record day, Friday, June 26th, 2026. We are in the summertime and living's easy. We got a returning guest on the horn. Emily Pontecorvo from Heatmap News will be joining us shortly. If you don't know my voice by now, I'm Factor This Content Director Paul Gerke, joined as always by Cleantech Commentator Mike Casey of Tigercomm. Mike, how are we doing this morning?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (00:31.394)
We are fine. I wanna let the audience know that you and I are off next week. We will not be taping. And as the harder working member of this duo, Paul Gerke, you will be back the week after to tape solo. And I'll return the week of July twelfth. We are grateful to everyone in our audience. And hey man, I gotta say,
Paul Gerke (00:39.694)
You're just gonna deliver the news like this to the people and to me?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (00:53.554)
People gotta read the Semafor piece that interviewed new CIA CEO and former governor Tim Pawlenty. I thought he showed up really well in that piece. And governor, we want you on the show. So I'm just publicly lobbying you to get on this show. Just gonna say that. All right. After David Wallace-Wells, who calls me five times a week to get on here. I don't know when we're gonna let him on, but anyway.
Paul Gerke (01:11.374)
There it is.
Paul Gerke (01:17.518)
You've got a laundry list, a wish list, if you will, of guests for the show. I can't believe you gave the people the bad news first that we're not gonna be here next week. I was gonna save that for the very end, make the show kind of a compliment sandwich, but I guess sometimes you just gotta eat the frog, right? So anyway, yeah, we're not here next week, and I'll be solo the week after, so bring some popcorn for that show. We do appreciate the feedback we get from you guys, the viewers, the listeners, those out there in the ether tuning in. You can make your opinions a part of the show anytime. If you've got a story you want covered or two cents to share.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (01:31.874)
Pull off the band-aid.
Paul Gerke (01:47.279)
Just shoot us an email. We have a dedicated account just for the show, TWIC at tigercomm. That's with two Ms. Dot US. As always, we have five hot stories on tap. Let's start with number one, Mike. Top story this week.
Story 1: $17.5 Billion in DOE Loans for Nuclear Power Supply Chain
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (01:58.429)
Returning guest, Valerie Volcovici from Reuters. You know, this is the second week in a row we've covered one of her stories, Paul. US announces seventeen point five billion in loans for nuclear power supply chain.
Paul Gerke (02:12.482)
This story was everywhere. No disrespect to Valerie. We obviously chose her journalism for a reason, but this is some huge news, Mike. If you missed this one on Tuesday this week, the Department of Energy announced $17.5 billion in conditional loans that will help utilities and other energy companies buy what they need to shore up the US commercial nuclear supply chain. The Office of Energy Dominance Financing, you might know it as the Loans Programs Office.
Paul Gerke (02:37.986)
We'll be backing as many as five loans, each supporting two 1.1 gigawatt Westinghouse reactors per site. So we're talking about 10 total. Westinghouse, owned by Brookfield and Cameco, will partner up with five utilities to procure reactors and other long lead-time items like reactor vessels and steam generators at a fixed price. Each project will then be jointly owned with Westinghouse and that partner, each required to commit $500 million before they can dip into the DOE funds. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said seven utilities have expressed interest, but wouldn't name them or say where the projects would go. Mike, I heard there were a few more utilities than that interested, maybe not at such a formal level. This sounds really interesting. It could make a big difference.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (03:22.294)
Yeah. It's kind of like the Secretary of War for energy, you know, the Department of War for Energy. All right. Loans. They could help the administration reach its goal of ten new large scale reactors under construction by twenty thirty, potentially three years ahead of schedule. He also says hyperscalers are showing an interest as electricity demand climbs with AI data center build out and called the projects not a risky endeavor. For context, the last reactors built in the US at Georgia's Vogtle came in seven years late and billions over budget. It was the only project Trump's first loans program office financed. Paul, story number two.
Paul Gerke (04:01.353)
Yep. Before we get to story two, I'm glad you added that thing about Plant Vogtle because that was gonna be the first thing that I said is when you say that projects are not a risky endeavor, you should talk to the folks down in Georgia that worked on Plant Vogtle in seven years and billions over budget late. A lot of lessons to learn there, and I hope they talk to those people, but don't call this not risky because it's a really complicated thing. There's a reason the nuclear renaissance has always been ten years away for my entire lifetime. Okay, story number three. Story number two. We should go in order. One, two, three, four, five. I got an eight month old at home. You'd think I would know my numbers.
Story 2: Spanish Households Save 10 Euros per Month Thanks to Renewables
Paul Gerke (04:27.787)
Second story this week, Ajit Niranjan from The Guardian titled Spanish Households Save 10 Euros per month thanks to renewables expansion report finds. What's in it, Mike?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (04:44.438)
All right, Spanish households. They are saving ten euros a month on average on electricity because of wind and solar built over the last five years. According to climate think tank Ember, typical bills would be nineteen percent higher if electricity were still as tightly coupled to gas prices as they were in twenty twenty one. The decoupling is what shielded Spain. During the Iran War, gas prices jumped 60%, but Spanish electricity bills barely moved. They actually got slightly cheaper in April. So gas now influences Spain's power price just nine percent of the time. That's down from 52% in 2021. In Italy, which has Europe's highest wholesale prices, gas sets the price 75% of the time. This is not an accident.
Paul Gerke (05:32.556)
Yeah, we've been talking about how renewables are so much more important to the grids in Europe right now than in the US because to be honest, they're probably ten years ahead of us in a lot of ways. And it's not like they're there yet and this is a pain-free process either. Wind and solar pumped out about forty two percent of Spain's electricity last year. That was up from thirty-three percent in twenty twenty-one. An energy economist at Northwestern in Chicago cited ambitious policy on top of strong solar, decent wind. And existing pumped hydro storage is helping fuel that revolution out there. The consumer payoff isn't automatic either, though. Germany pushed that wind and solar share from 28% to 45% during that same span 2021 to 2025. But the benefit in Germany was more muted because it mostly displaced coal and nuclear rather than gas. One researcher's caution here is that Spain's gas plants still set the price during key hours, during peak windows. Slow storage deployment means the grid can't fully soak up excess renewables yet. As he put it, Spain is less exposed to gas shocks, but still far from immune. Our third story this week.
Story 3: Why So Few Data Centers Are Being Built in California
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (06:34.56)
Yeah, and I'm gonna just interject. I think if people wanna hear an absolutely fascinating discussion about where the policy aggression on renewables is going versus where solar and storage are going, both in the US and overseas. You could do a lot worse than listening to Akshat Rathi's interview that just dropped last night with Kevin Smith, who we talked about his big raise recently. We've had Akshat on a couple of times, but it was an absolutely fascinating discussion. I'm gonna put a link to that in the notes section when I post this episode on LinkedIn. So our third story.
Paul Gerke (07:09.601)
Kevin Smith, you talking Silent Bob? Jay and Silent Bob fame? Kevin Smith? Famous director? No? No different. I'm just kidding. The Cypress Creek Renewables Kevin Smith. I get it, man. I talked to the guy. I'm just yanking your chain. There's a Jay and Silent Bob fan out there that's cracking up right now. Story number three, Mike.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (07:26.934)
You have lost your way. A third story. Blanca Begert from the LA Times. If AI data centers are exploding nationwide, why are so few being built in California? Why is that, Paul Gerke?
Paul Gerke (07:39.33)
Probably because they don't want exploding data centers, Mike. No, not funny at all. Monterey Park, California became the first U.S. city to permanently ban data centers by popular vote earlier this month, if you missed that. A recent poll found about 70% of Californians don't want them anywhere near them. But unlike in Virginia or Texas, California has some structural barriers keeping data centers out. Industrial electricity prices rather more than double the national average. The same reason we don't see a lot of data centers up in like New York, for example. It's just too pricey. The math doesn't pencil.
Paul Gerke (08:09.471)
Long grid connection wait times leaving some Silicon Valley centers sitting empty. We talk about interconnection all the time. Make sure to check out the new podcast coming out next week about grid generator interconnection with Advanced Energy United that myself just put together at the Transmission and Interconnection Summit out in DC. And a state rule certifying any backup generator over one hundred megawatts as a power plant. That's a big deal too. That one hundred megawatt cap keeps facilities pretty small. I mean, we're talking about huge data centers being built, way bigger than a hundred megawatts elsewhere. The average US data center is expected to demand about six hundred megawatts or even more by twenty thirty. Californias are all under that one hundred side. Mike, your thoughts?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (08:47.458)
So you're admitting to being down here and not letting me know so we could meet up for lunch. All right, Paul.
Paul Gerke (08:52.267)
We don't have enough time on the show for me to explain how stressful this quick trip to DC was for me this week. You know I had my kid with me. Did you wanna meet the eight month old and discuss data centers? Yeah, I mean you could have got some mango on ya.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (08:56.724)
I'm never gonna be able. Yes, I would like to. All right, and I wanna know, we are both affable Midwesterners. I say data and you say data, and I'm just noting.
Paul Gerke (09:07.885)
Let's call the whole thing off. Should I have a musical number on the show?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (09:15.298)
First, let's start with the environment data center developers are facing. So 70% of all Americans do not want them built near them, and that number is climbing. Seventy-four percent think that AI will be bad for the country. So if you go to datacenterbans.com, you can see a live map of bans that are in place or being considered across the country. Yeah, it's something. So with each passing day, data center developers are facing a tougher landscape. Some of the factors that are driving this landscape's hardening are existential, but many have to do with things that are within their ability to influence. And I think developers are going to have to overhaul their way to engaging communities better. Money alone is not gonna buy this approval. So just check this out. PJM expects data centers to add roughly 40% to total demand by 2035. In California, the energy regulators expect just two gigawatts by 2030. That's just 4% of peak load. So California currently makes up 5% of national data center power demand, but the share is projected to fall to 1% as building accelerates elsewhere. One analyst said almost all the demand California generates is being serviced by Phoenix and Las Vegas instead. Paul, four story.
Story 4: Why American Data Centers Can't Plug In
Paul Gerke (10:38.913)
Yep. I think that last point really sums it up. All right, last story before we bring our guest in. Story number four this week, Chris Gillette from Works in Progress. It's titled Why American Data Centers Can't Plug In. We're all data centers all the time today, Mike. What's in this one?
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (10:52.96)
We are. All right, so Chris argues that America isn't short on electricity to power data centers. The problem is connecting the data centers and the new plants that serve them to the grid. So I thought this was absolutely fascinating. The grid, as many of you know, runs on a first-come, first-served basis in terms of getting your project hooked up. So high-value projects often sit behind speculative ones. Check this out. Since 2000, 72% of connection requests were eventually withdrawn, which clogs the queue and forces costly restudies of everyone behind them. The piece argues that the fix isn't fixing the power source, it's removing the bottleneck of the queue. Paul.
Paul Gerke (11:34.626)
Yeah, I mean there's, I know man, I could talk about this for a really long time. I gotta choose what I wanna say here. So coming back from the heels of the Infocast Transmission and Interconnection Summit, I've got fire in my mouth talking about this. And actually the data that you shared, Mike, has actually been updated. So the data that you had is that an average power plant spent about fifty-five months in the queue by twenty twenty three. That's up to sixty months in twenty twenty five. And the number of interconnection request withdrawals is up even higher, north of seventy-five percent now. It's a big deal. These are regional problems we're talking about. The issues in PJM and SPP and MISO and CAISO are all very different. There's a lot of data we could dive into. If you're really interested in this stuff, I strongly suggest you check up the podcast that I so shamelessly plugged just a moment ago. I think there's a lot more teeth to that than whatever I can say and delay our guest even further. So, Mike, let's get to story number five and bring her in.
Story 5: Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home Have 16 Gigawatts Up for Grabs
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (12:26.122)
Yeah, our last story is by returning guest, Emily Pontecorvo from Heatmap News. Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home have 16 gigawatts up for grabs. I'm gonna note that another former guest, Jennifer Hiller, from that obscure invite-only email list you've never heard of, the Wall Street Journal, also wrote about this. But because we're big stars on the show, Paul, we insist on stars coming on. That's why we picked Emily to come on and talk about this. So, Emily, big star. This is really cool. Like I think this is really innovative. Tell people who haven't read your piece, which we want them to do, what's the significance of what you found?
Emily Pontecorvo (13:07.619)
So I think actually what this news is is more of a strategic announcement than like a new thing that's happening. Basically, Sunrun, Tesla, Renew Home, these are three of the biggest home energy companies in the country, have come out and said, guess what? We have 16 gigawatts of capacity that we can make available on the grid through our distributed energy devices, solar panels, batteries, programmable thermostats, programmable water heaters. And so you know, they're coming out and saying like, we're on the market. This is for sale. Like this is a huge amount of capacity. This is like 16 nuclear plants worth of capacity. And, you know, basically to date like virtual power plants, which is, you know, the name for this aggregated capacity between all these devices. They have pretty much played this like niche role on the grid where they kind of turn on once in a while during like a heat wave to help the grid, you know, to help prevent blackouts. But what they're saying now is we think that this can play a much bigger role. It can meet the needs of data centers. It can, you know, be, these devices can be called on every day, not just during a heat wave.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (14:35.788)
You know, there's a question in my mind. Consumers, they need to agree to do this. You have all the stuff installed. What is the incentive for me as a homeowner to participate in this program if I'm in California, say?
Emily Pontecorvo (14:52.396)
You get paid. So yeah, I was actually having lunch with a friend the other day who lives in San Diego and has Sunrun solar on his roof and Tesla battery in his garage. And he was saying, yeah, I just got an alert the other day saying that they were gonna activate this VPP. Like, can you tell me about that? I said I was gonna get paid, you know, between fifty and a hundred dollars for this event. And that's a significant amount of money when you live in California and your electric bills are as high as they are. You know, and what was funny was he said to me, why do they only do that once in a while? I've got battery available all the time that they're free to take it whenever they want. So he was kind of interested in getting paid more often.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (15:23.048)
Absolutely.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (15:39.606)
Have these companies told you much about the level of response they're getting? Like what's their customer base showing in terms of a willingness to participate? And what does it take to get people to participate?
Emily Pontecorvo (15:55.478)
Yeah, I guess I haven't discussed that as much with at least Sunrun, which is who I spoke to for the story. I mean, I think, you know, their model, a lot of the customers that they have will lease their solar panels from Sunrun rather than buy them. They offer both options, but oftentimes these are leases. And I think often in the lease terms, that is one of their requirements is that Sunrun says, you know, we have to be able to kind of call on these devices once in a while to participate in these events. But for the sales customers, I'm not exactly sure how that works.
Paul Gerke (17:10.268)
Emily, I'm glad you mentioned a minute ago that this was more of just like a hey, this exists, because once I had a second to sit with that announcement, that's kind of where my head went too. I was like, well, it's not like they launched sixteen gigawatts of new flexible, you know, demand resources. We've been doing this stuff. Sunrun's been doing it in California. They had a massive power plant test last summer that I covered. It's just really the application to data centers and being able to tap into those distributed resources. Do you have any idea how quickly some sort of power plant might be able to say, you know what? Yeah, I'm gonna start powering this thing off of home batteries and solar.
Emily Pontecorvo (17:53.174)
That's a little bit unclear. I mean, they're coming out and saying we have this available. I think the big question in all of this is will you, because they're gonna go out to utilities, they're gonna go out to data centers, and will those entities, are they ready to kind of take them up on this offer? There's probably some regulatory changes that need to happen, you know, technological issues like data sharing between all the devices and the utilities. Like there's just, there's reasons why virtual power plants haven't been adopted kind of like at scale yet, and them just coming out and saying we have this capacity, I don't think it's gonna solve those overnight. So I think there will be a little bit of time before we start to see that people take them up on this offer.
Cleantecher of the Week
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (18:41.452)
Paul, we're just out of time. I think we need to go to our Cleantechers plural of the week. I just want to say that the ad that these people put together that we pick them for is so good, it makes me want to cry. And so it is really cool. So Paul, give it the description. This is your part of the show.
Paul Gerke (19:03.418)
Yeah, so it looks like somebody maybe edited the script and took some important words out, but I'm gonna go ahead and try to give it my best, Mike. So a lot of people like you talk about how renewables need to be positioned as like a classic American blue collar, fit with rural communities, sort of owning your land, owning your sunshine. And it really is that way. And Luigi Resta and Melee Resta just did that. If you don't know these folks, I've known Luigi for a couple of years now. I profiled him when they broke ground on the project that we're shouting out here. Makes me feel like I've been in this industry for a hot second now. Their utility scale developer, rPlus Energies, out of Utah, just featured one of their crews doing work on a solar project, just like earlier generations of his family did in coal mines, showing the sort of connection between the old energy brethren and the sort of modern day workforce. We want to congratulate them for showing us how to make the case for clean energy to the country, and congrats to the biggest solar and storage site in Utah, now operational out there, rPlus Energies. Big news this week. Congratulations to Luigi and Melee Resta, our cleantechers of the week.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (20:02.7)
Yeah, man. We want to thank Brian Mendez, our wonderful producer, and Clare Quirin and Alex Petersen for helping gather these stories.
Paul Gerke (20:10.376)
And thanks for sticking around for another episode of This Week in Cleantech. We do the show every Friday, except for next Friday. We're not gonna be here. We're taking a little break. We'll be back the Friday after that, though. Just a reminder. One last thanks to Emily for joining this week's show. Really appreciate you sharing your story. If you haven't read it yet, like we said, please get out and check it out. If you enjoyed this show, subscribe, leave a little feedback, share a story suggestion to the email link we mentioned. You could also check out every article we feature each week. There are links in the episode description as well as where this lives on factorthis.com. Until next time, people. Be good.
Mike Casey, Tigercomm (20:41.324)
Take care.