This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.
This week’s episode features special guest Martha Muir from The Financial Times, who discusses how the cost of clean energy power purchase agreements is set to rise 40 to 120 percent as Inflation Reduction Act subsidies wind down.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Dr. Bill Ho, CEO of GRST, whose company makes a PFAS-free, water-soluble battery binder. Conventional binder relies on “forever chemicals” and toxic solvents to process. GRST’s version dissolves in water, making recycling to high-purity black mass simpler and cheaper. Congratulations, Bill!
Researchers at Woodwell Climate Research Center are studying microbes in Maine’s Howland Research Forest that consume methane, hoping to speed up how fast the planet naturally breaks the gas down. Methane accounts for roughly 30% of global warming and is 80 times more potent than CO2. A new bipartisan bill, the Methane Removal Research and Innovation Act, would fund federal research into methane-removal strategies, including these microbes.
Global methane levels have kept climbing despite the 2021 Global Methane Pledge, which nearly 160 countries joined. One of the biggest wildcards is Arctic permafrost, which holds massive stores of trapped methane that could be released as it thaws.
About 33% of India’s 54.8 GW of recently commissioned renewable capacity is being evacuated through a temporary grid-access route, according to ratings agency ICRA, with curtailment hitting 50-60% during solar generation hours. A 107 GW pipeline of projects is slated to connect to the interstate transmission system between now and 2031.
Transmission projects face land fights, right-of-way disputes, and regulatory delays. Only 12% of competitively bid projects hit their scheduled completion date. ICRA estimates India needs $52 billion in transmission investment through 2032 to keep pace with its target of more than 900 GW of non-fossil generation by FY2036.
European climate-focused funds raised $61 billion last year, well past the $37 billion raised in the US, but almost all of that money backs mature technologies. The gap shows up at Series B: only 15% of European climate tech companies that raised a seed round from 2010-2020 made it to Series B, versus 25% in the US. The backlog of companies waiting to raise grew from 220 in 2020 to 533 by mid-2025.
The U.S. closed 29 climate funds of $500 million or more; Europe closed just 11. Europe is testing fixes, including Germany’s €1 billion Wachstumsfonds and a new €5 billion pan-EU Scaleup Europe Fund managed by EQT.
A recent European heatwave that pushed temperatures past 40°C buckled roads, warped rail tracks, and knocked out traffic lights across the continent. The UN Economic Commission for Europe says transport infrastructure is increasingly exposed to pavement deterioration, rail deformation, and thermal stress as extreme heat becomes more common.
Maguire argues the next infrastructure spending cycle may shift from decarbonization toward adaptation. Potential beneficiaries include TotalEnergies and Shell on heat-resistant road materials, rail suppliers like Vossloh and Pandrol, and grid and materials companies including Prysmian, Nexans, and Holcim.
The cost of clean energy power purchase agreements is set to rise 40 to 120 percent as Inflation Reduction Act subsidies wind down, according to a developer survey by clean energy marketplace LevelTen Energy. In Texas, PPA prices could jump from $55 per megawatt hour to $111. Projects starting construction after July 4 lose a tax break worth roughly 30% of development costs, which helped U.S. solar capacity nearly double from 141 to 279 GW between 2022 and 2025.
U.S. electricity demand is forecast to grow 25 to 50 percent by 2030, and industrial buyers say data centers willing to pay premium rates are making it harder for them to compete for clean energy contracts. Some corporate buyers are stepping back amid uncertainty over proposed Greenhouse Gas Protocol accounting changes expected in 2027.
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