Paul Gerke (00:01.784)
It says it’s recording now. I think we’re good, Brian. All right, here we go. Three, two.
Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of This Week in Cleantech, your favorite 15-minute roundup of some of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy each week.
If you’re keeping score at home—which I hope you are, have a calendar of some capacity—it’s Friday, February 20th, 2026.
We’ve got a first-time guest on the show today—Arcelia Martin from Inside Climate News is waiting in our digital lobby.
I’m Factor This content director Paul Gerke, joined as always by cleantech commentator Mike Casey of Tigercomm.
I say “as always,” except for the last show—I was left in the lurch. Mike, we missed you.
Mike Casey (00:40.738)
Thanks, buddy. Well, I think it’s all a plot on the part of Brian Mendez. He wants to take my place. This has been his plot all along.
And I have my suspicions about your part in this court intrigue, but I’m going to let it go for now and be the bigger one.
Paul Gerke (00:56.970)
I just grease the wheels that move this machine along, brother. I am like water, as Bruce Lee would say.
Hey, we do appreciate hearing from the viewers, the listeners—however you digest this here podcast. If you want to get your voice on the show, it’s very easy to do that.
We’ve set up an email address specifically for your thoughts—it’s TWIC at tigercomm with two M’s dot U.S.
Is anyone checking that email, Mike? Who’s responsible for that? Was that me?
Mike Casey (01:23.938)
Yes, I think—yes—Clare Quirin checks it. Don’t worry, we screen out the millions of your fans who want your home address.
Paul Gerke (01:25.644)
We are checking it? Okay, that’s great. Shoutout—there you go, Clare, way to go.
Fans—yeah, that’s what you could call them. Phishing attempts might be another, but sure.
Mike, we’ve got five stories to get to this week. Let’s get started. Story number one—where are we going?
Mike Casey (01:40.174)
Yeah—David Gelles of the New York Times: Why Living in China Is Like Living in the Future, Paul Gerke.
Paul Gerke (01:51.062)
We talk about China positively on this show quite a bit because we focus on cleantech—and China is far and away the clear leader in deploying and scaling clean technologies.
Over the last year, David and his colleagues at the Times have been chronicling this—where China’s clean products are less expensive and more convenient than fossil fuel technologies.
Cleantech drove about $2.1 trillion in economic activity there last year.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is falling behind. The current administration is penalizing renewables—cutting incentives and promoting fossil fuels.
Just this week, the White House ordered the Pentagon to buy more electricity from coal. Clean coal, baby.
Mike Casey (02:43.159)
Yeah, yeah.
Paul Gerke (02:43.288)
And that’s on top of $30 billion already canceled in loans for clean energy projects.
Mike, your thoughts?
Mike Casey (02:51.553)
Chinese EV exports hit a record $70 billion last year, with sales in 115 countries.
I was in one of those countries last week—and I rode in my first BYD. It is a nice car.
China’s solar exports are also rising, even as panel exports level off due to oversupply.
And here’s the key point—China is now the global leader in wind and solar manufacturing and deployment, despite the U.S. inventing both technologies.
Right now, China is building the cheapest energy future on earth—and the rest of us are going to buy it.
Meanwhile, U.S. utility bills went up 6.7% in December alone, partly due to canceled solar and wind projects.
Paul, story number two.
Paul Gerke (04:19.595)
Second story this week is from Kirsten Korosec from TechCrunch, titled Ford Turns to F1 and Bounties to Build a $30,000 Electric Truck. Tell me more, Mike.
Mike Casey (04:29.389)
In a story that is sure to warm Paul Gerke’s heart—because he was ruining the end of the Lightning from Ford—
Paul Gerke (04:32.201)
It’s warming up.
Paul Gerke (04:38.773)
The Lightning didn’t make sense to me, to be honest.
Mike Casey (04:40.461)
Yep—and Ford said Tuesday it plans to launch an electric truck next year starting at $30,000. It says it can compete with Chinese automakers and still make a profit using 3D-printed Lego-like parts, Formula One thinking, and a bounty program.
Ford did not specify specifics like range, features, or charging times for this future EV.
This comes after Ford took a $19.5 billion hit in December and ended production of its battery electric Ford F-150 Lightning—causing Paul to cry on the show.
It said its new EVs will be lighter, cheaper, more efficient, and made with lithium iron phosphate batteries with licensed tech from China’s CATL. Paul.
Paul Gerke (05:26.311)
Ford says this new EV strategy is going to fall under the Universal EV platform—or UEV.
It’s going to debut under a mid-sized truck and later support a sedan, crossover, three-row SUV, maybe even small commercial vans.
Ford recruited talent from Formula One, Apple, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla, and Automotive Power Group.
They adopted a bounty program focused on efficiency—rewarding improvements in weight and aerodynamics.
They used thousands of 3D-printed Lego-like prototype parts for rapid wind tunnel testing early in development.
Ford says the result will deliver about 15% more range—or about 50 miles more—than a comparable gas pickup, and be 15% more aerodynamic than any pickup on the market today.
I’ll believe it when I see it, Mike.
If this replaces the Lightning and actually hits $30,000 MSRP, I’ll celebrate that day on the show.
In the meantime—story three.
Mike Casey (06:45.954)
You can take Paul Gerke out of Detroit, but you can’t take Detroit out of Paul Gerke.
All right, our third story—Claire Brown from the New York Times: Data Centers and Your Power Bill.
Paul Gerke (07:06.165)
Tech companies are investing billions into data centers, driving up electricity demand and costs.
That’s worrying politicians—because voters punish them when bills spike.
There are a few ideas to lower costs:
One—make tech companies pay their way. We’re seeing that now, with data centers covering grid upgrades and bringing their own generation.
Companies like Anthropic are pledging to generate more power than they use. But actually delivering on those promises is complicated.
Utilities build infrastructure for projects that may never materialize.
The White House even urged PJM to require data centers to pay for new power—even if they don’t use it.
That’s going to matter—because data center alley is running out of capacity fast. Mike.
Mike Casey (08:29.550)
Two other options:
One—make data centers build their own power plants. Microsoft, Google, Meta are already doing this with nuclear, gas, and renewables.
But they still need grid backup—unless you’re doing batchable computing.
The last option? Ban data centers altogether.
Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed a moratorium, and New York and Wisconsin have introduced bills to temporarily halt construction.
Lawmakers may prefer that over rushed grid upgrades that leave taxpayers footing the bill.
Paul, story four.
Paul Gerke (09:28.545)
Story number four—Lindsay Whitehurst at AP News: Court Strikes Down Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs, Upending Central Plank of Economic Agenda.
The writing’s been on the wall here, Mike. Tell me what’s in this article.
Mike Casey (09:41.543)
Otherwise known as a BFD—the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s global tariffs.
The ruling says tariffs are taxes—and taxing power belongs to Congress, not the president.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion.
Three justices dissented—Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh—with Kavanaugh arguing tariffs may be good or bad policy but are legally allowed.
The court didn’t settle what happens to the billions already collected.
Companies like Costco are suing for refunds, and the process could get messy.
This doesn’t end tariffs entirely—the administration can try other legal pathways.
Paul?
Paul Gerke (10:44.939)
My first thought—does anyone actually know where all this tariff money is?
Is there some imaginary pot of money sitting somewhere? Can we get it back?
From a cleantech perspective, these tariffs drove up costs massively.
Even with domestic manufacturing investments, we still import critical materials—cells, lithium, steel.
If your project suddenly costs 40% more, that can kill it entirely.
We’ll see if tariffs come back through Congress.
In the meantime—we’ve got a guest to get to.
Mike Casey (11:44.941)
Yeah—Arcelia Martin, first time from Inside Climate News. She has a great story: Retired EV Batteries Scored a New Gig Bolstering Texas’s Grid.
Arcelia, welcome to the show. I love this story. If people haven’t read it yet—which we want them to do—what’s the big takeaway?
Arcelia Martin (12:04.222)
The takeaway is there’s this company, B2U Storage Solutions, that is taking batteries from EVs once they’ve reached the end of their automotive life—around 80% state of health—and then using them in grid applications.
So you get battery storage solutions that are becoming really popular in ERCOT. There are very few people doing it, so that’s kind of the main point there.
Paul Gerke (12:33.579)
I actually had a chance to see one of these firsthand. When I was out in San Diego for DTECH a couple weeks ago, I went to UC San Diego’s DER Connect Lab.
They had big shipping containers with old Tesla batteries, testing what they could still get out of them.
What other applications are there for this? Are other companies exploring it? And how could this scale in a meaningful way?
Arcelia Martin (13:07.626)
There are only a few companies doing this beyond pilot projects.
Redwood Materials is one—they started in recycling and are now moving into reuse. There’s also a California company called Element Energy.
Scalability is still debated. Some analysts are skeptical, others say as more EV batteries cycle out, this becomes more viable.
Right now, batteries can either be recycled immediately or exported to emerging EV markets where they still have use.
This “second life” application delays recycling.
The key question is whether the economics work—and B2U says they do because they use the batteries as-is, without major reprocessing.
Mike Casey (14:39.917)
In your reporting, what are companies saying about performance?
If a battery is done in a car, how good is it really?
Arcelia Martin (15:02.526)
They say there are still years of useful life left.
The requirements for a car are much higher than for stationary storage.
In this application, they estimate about six to eight years of additional life—and they think that’s conservative.
At the site I visited near San Antonio, you can see each battery operating on a dashboard.
If something fails, like a fuse, they fix it and it’s back online.
And when a battery fully degrades, they can swap it out in about 15 minutes.
Mike Casey (16:24.149)
Wow. All right—last question or Cleantecher of the Week?
Paul Gerke (16:29.471)
Arcelia, I’m curious about grid impacts.
Can utilities use this to lower costs? What are the long-term applications?
Arcelia Martin (16:50.535)
In ERCOT, batteries have already become incredibly important.
Five years ago, there was basically no storage—now it’s critical during extreme weather.
This kind of technology could extend the life of materials and improve grid reliability.
We’re still early, but one analyst told me this may seem small now, but by 2040 it could be very important.
Paul Gerke (18:07.647)
Well said—and Texas is a great example of what you can do in a deregulated market.
All right, time to wrap with our Cleantecher of the Week.
This week it’s David Kirkpatrick, managing director at SJF Ventures.
He recently published a piece titled Climate Tech Is Not Endangered, arguing that despite policy setbacks, global momentum toward electrification and decarbonization will continue.
Congrats, David—our Cleantecher of the Week.
Mike Casey (18:44.725)
Yes sir—we need that these days.
And thanks to our wonderful producer Brian Mendez, Clare Quirin, and Alex Peterson for helping gather these stories.
Paul Gerke (18:54.867)
And Arcelia Martin for joining us on this episode of This Week in Cleantech.
If you enjoyed the show, subscribe, leave feedback, or share story suggestions to the email we mentioned earlier.
You can read all the articles we discussed in the episode description and on factorthis.com.
Be good, people.