Texas' battery betrayal, the billionaires behind climate denial, and Biden's EV boost

The Crossett battery storage project in Crane County, Texas (Source: Jupiter Power).

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features MIT Tech Review climate and clean energy reporter Casey Crownhart, who shares insights around the Biden administration’s $400 million loan to alternative battery maker Eos Energy.

This Week in Cleantech – September 8, 2023

1. Texas fracking billionaire brothers fuel rightwing media with millions of dollars — The Guardian

Billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks are using their Texas-sized oil and gas fortunes to bankroll conservative lawmakers and climate-denying media organizations.

The Wilks brothers sold their majority stake in Frac Tech Services for $3.2 billion in 2011, now routinely distributing six- and seven-figure donations to pro-fossil fuel and religious projects, The Guardian reports.

2. Batteries helped keep Texas grid afloat, but operators worry ERCOT rules could ‘chill’ the industry — San Antonio Express-News

Throughout a half-dozen warnings and conservation requests over the past month, grid-scale battery storage has helped the Texas grid survive fossil fuel generation outages and a brutal heatwave.

But the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator, appears poised to implement new regulations that advocates say would stifle battery storage development in the state.

The rules would require battery storage assets to maintain a two-hour state of charge.

3. Powered by wind, this $10B transmission line will carry more energy than the Hoover Dam — Associated Press

After more than a decade of waiting, Pattern Energy broke ground on the $10 billion SunZia transmission line, which will carry clean power generated by a wind farm in New Mexico to Arizona and California.

The project’s prolonged development timeline highlights the urgency of permitting reform to achieve decarbonization goals. While the Biden administration has advocated for new transmission projects, developing these assets on federal lands is cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming.

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4. White House launches billion-dollar effort to speed EV production — Axios

The Biden administration is using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide up to $10 billion in loans and $2 billion in grants to help car manufacturers convert factories to produce electric vehicles.

The Department of Energy aims to address labor concerns by “prioritizing projects that retain collective bargaining deals and/or applicants with wages in the top industry quartile,” Axios reports.

5. Zinc batteries that offer an alternative to lithium just got a big boost — MIT Tech Review

Zinc battery manufacturer Eos Energy received a conditional loan commitment of $400 million from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to expand its footprint for manufacturing an alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

Eos said a $500 million expansion plan will support 8 GWh of clean energy storage production capacity.

In addition to some technical challenges, alternative batteries must also overcome manufacturing and market barriers. Earlier startups have failed due to inadequate access to capital and small customer bases over the past decade, MIT Tech Review reports.

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This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.