In this week's podcast, we're looking at how to build a digital, intelligent platform to enable the rapid development of clean energy. We'll speak to smart grid expert Kurt Yeager about why the U.S. is falling behind in the race to develop the technologies of the future. And after 5 years, this will be the final Inside Renewable Energy podcast for a while. But don't fret! We've got a variety of newsletters, blogs, columns, videos, webcasts, etc to give you all the information you'll ever need on the business of clean energy. Just go to RenewableEnergyWorld.com for more. Also, to give your feedback on the podcast, email us at Podcast@RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

Years from now, when we look back on the growth of the solar industry, 2010 and 2011 will be seen as pivotal years for large-scale solar. But the size and scope of these plants is still new – making investors nervous about putting money behind a first-of-a-kind project, potentially limiting the amount of capital available for developers. In this podcast, we'll look at how the government and the private sector are working together to build the amount of capital available for solar projects. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon proposed becoming energy independent. More than 35 years later, we're further from that goal than ever. Why? The U.S. has never had a plan. With the environmental, social and geopolitical consequences of our energy choices growing far more significant by the day, lawmakers continue to bicker and play politics – delaying any real action that could make the U.S. more secure and environmentally sound. Our guest this week, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, takes American politicians to task for failing to display any sense of leadership on energy issues. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Companies are in a race to genetically modify algae to make them grow faster and fatter for biofuels production. But some people are sounding the alarm about the lack of regulatory standards around the potential environmental and public health impact of a bio-engineered invasive species. In this week's podcast, we'll look at the benefits and drawbacks of genetically engineered algae. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

In the wake of Japan's nuclear disaster, there are concerns about how the country will make up for such a big loss of power. Other countries are examining the same question: What happens if large numbers of power plants go offline at once? One answer to the problem is emerging -- virtual power plants. By using information technologies to aggregate distributed resources while dynamically controlling demand, utilities can call upon "virtual" power plants that act like large-scale generating units. In this podcast, we'll look at how this concept is evolving. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

It's going to be a long, bumpy road to mass adoption in clean energy. But what exactly will it look like? In this week's podcast, we'll have a roundtable discussion on how to ensure strong, sustainable growth in the renewable energy and smart grid space. Kurt Yeager of the Galvin Electricity Initiative talks about how to empower citizens through the smart grid; Karl Gawell of the Geothermal Energy Association discusses the political gridlock in Washington; and James Dehlsen, the founder of Clipper Wind, talks about the need for continued technological innovation to drive down the cost of renewable electricity. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

How do you create a national solar installation brand without all the capital intensity? Turn to the internet. In this week's show, we'll look at the efforts of one company, Sungevity, to create social and business networks around the buying of solar. Patrick Crane, the former VP of Marketing at the successful business networking website LinkedIn, talks about his new role at Sungevity and how he plans to leverage internet technologies to grow the solar market. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

The 2008 financial crisis stemmed from the false assumption that housing prices would always go up. It took a simple look at the underlying loans to realize how delusional that assumption was. We make similar delusional assumptions about energy and natural resources too. In the past, investors have fueled the growth of cities under the premise that energy and water would be limitless. Now that we're running into major problems with resource availability in regions around the country, municipal bond investors need to account for that risk. In this show, we'll talk about a recent report on the implications of resource scarcity for the growth of cities and the health of the financial markets. This week's interview came from the Ceres Sustainability Podcast, which you can find at Ceres.org. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Want a job in the clean energy space? Consider the utility sector. Over the next few years, 45% of the American utility workforce will be eligible for retirement – but there aren't enough workers to fill the gap. But what if you're not an engineer? In this show, we'll have some advice for how to find a job in your clean energy sector of interest. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

The news from the advanced biofuels sector has been grim: Companies struggling, investors balking, targets slashed. But as we'll hear in this week's podcast, the problems aren't as bad as they seem. We'll talk to a couple insiders about why the advanced biofuels sector is still on track, despite the many technical and financial challenges companies have faced. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Renewable Energy Credits, known as RECs, are an important tool for financing clean energy projects in the U.S. In this week's show, we'll look at a couple different types of REC markets and ask if they're working. First, we'll examine whether the voluntary REC markets are having an impact on bringing new renewable generation online. Then, we'll go to the Northeast and take a look at how states are using RECs to create a sustainable (and somewhat complicated) market for solar. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

It's taken almost 25 years, but superconductors for electricity transmission are finally being adopted on a large scale. We'll take a tour of the largest high-temperature superconductor factory in the world, run by American Superconductor, and then talk to AMSC CEO Greg Yurek about why the time is right for the technology. We'll also talk to John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance about why large, centralized projects that need new transmission lines often face "dis-economies of scale." Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

For some reason, clean energy stocks have been hit hard while the broader stock market has improved. Why is that? And how should an investor approach the sector? In this week's show, we'll get some advice from Money Manager and AltEnergyStocks.com Writer Tom Konrad about how to evaluate companies and sub-sectors. He'll also talk about the performance of his top 10 stock picks from 2010. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

There are more than 37,000 oil wells along the Gulf Coast that pump around 25 billion gallons of warm water to the surface each year. Rather than treat that water as a waste product, some companies are working on using that resource to generate electricity. The potential in the U.S. and internationally is immense; but there are many technical and economic challenges to overcome. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

As world leaders gather in Cancun, Mexico for the COP16 Climate Change Conference, attention is back on international policy. But expectations for broad-based action are low. In the United States, where the political environment has shifted in a more conservative direction, the passage of comprehensive energy and climate legislation is also very unlikely. So what to do? Many advocates and policymakers are talking about taking a different approach: To focus on incremental, politically viable action rather than an “all-or-nothing” course. In this podcast, we'll look at some potential options. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

In today's environment, institutional investors are looking for stable places to put their money. Infrastructure is increasingly looking like a good bet. But how do you make the right infrastructure investments in anticipation of a carbon-constrained world? We'll hear stories about how fund managers and city planners are making smart decisions about how to build power plants, roads and ports. Thanks to Ian Gray of the Ceres Sustainability podcast and Denis DuBois of Energy Priorities for providing this week's stories. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Some analysts estimate that marine renewables could provide far more energy than the world uses. While that may be theoretically true, such estimates often ignore the realities of developing new, complicated energy technologies. In this show, we'll examine some of the major problems companies in the marine energy sector face: Cost, reliability and resource accessibility. We'll also take a look at the Pelamis P2 device – a snake-like wave converter that is leading the race to develop new technologies. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Back in 2006, a company called Citizenre came out with a controversial solar lease model based on a multi-level marketing structure. It raised a storm of controversy in the U.S. But after the dust settled and Citizenre faded away, a number of companies emerged with successful solar-as-a-service models. What made them different? In this show, we'll speak with Lyndon Rive of SolarCity and Ed Fenster of SunRun about what it takes to build a sustainable business one step at a time.

There’s a big push underway to develop third and fourth-generation solar technologies that can be used as building materials, inks, paints and for a variety of other uses. And while the advances in this area have been promising, we still need to see improvements in efficiency, durability, and cost to achieve commercial scale. So what is the pathway to bringing these technologies from lab to market? And how close to market are some of them today? In this podcast, we'll do our best to answer those questions. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

The promise of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, known as EGS, is great. Below our feet, pretty much everywhere on earth, is a ubiquitous source of heat trapped in rocks. Some estimates put the energy potential from these hot rocks at hundreds of thousands of MW. But estimating the resource is one thing. Actually harnessing it is a lot more difficult. Traditional geothermal plants, which use hot water hundreds or thousands of feet beneath the earth, is, in comparison, much easier to develop. EGS requires special drilling and fracturing techniques to access the hot rock miles underground. In this week's show, taped at the Geothermal Conference and Expo in Sacramento, California, we've got a roundtable discussion on the prospects and challenges for EGS. We'll talk to Charles Baron from Google.org, JoAnn Milliken from the Department of Energy and Will Osborn of AltaRock. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

In this week's podcast, we have a remembrance of the great solar hero, Dr. Hermann Scheer. Without his tireless push to promote solar and other renewables, the industry would not have reached the scale it's at today. Mike Eckhart of the American Council on Renewable Energy speaks about Scheer's legacy. Then, we'll look at what comes after the German PV boom. Where will the global market shift next? With shaky financial markets, European incentive reductions and more competition from low-cost Chinese producers, 2011 will likely be a challenging one for many companies. Shyam Mehta of Greentech Media Research and Greg Sheppard of iSuppli give us their predictions for the coming year. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

As we've seen, renewables aren't always clean. Recent high-profile arrests in Italy and Central Europe show that Mafia leaders are increasingly doing illegal business in the wind and solar sectors. We'll take a look at what this activity means for the industry. We'll also look at how companies are making dirty energy cleaner. We'll talk to a power company in Ontario that's converting a coal facility to burn biomass, and we'll also discuss the importance of using biomass for thermal energy, not just electricity. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Treating wastewater is a dirty business. It's also very expensive and energy intensive. That's why researchers around the world have been experimenting with novel ways to turn residential and industrial wastewater into energy. This week, we'll look at the viability of microbial fuel cells and microbial electrolysis cells for creating electricity, hydrogen and high-value chemicals. Paul O'Callaghan of the water consultancy O2 Environmental talks about the energy potential of wastewater. Rene Rozendal of the University of Queensland talks about the innovation taking place in bioelectochemical systems. And Sam Jaffe of IDC Energy Insights talks about why the over-hyping of the hydrogen economy made companies and investors in the fuel cell sector much more realistic. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Biomass is the most flexible renewable energy. As a carbon-containing resource, it can be converted into a variety of materials, chemicals and fuels. And unlike the wind and sun, it can be stored. So why doesn't biomass get more respect? In this podcast, we'll look at a variety of biomass sectors: Gasification, combustion and conservation, and make the case for more sustainable use of the resource. We'll travel to the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands where researchers are working on a gasification technology that could be key to creating cost-competitive synthetic natural gas from waste biomass. Then we'll talk with Christiane Egger of the Upper Austrian Renewable Energy Agency and Wilson Rickerson of Meister Consultants Group about the stark differences between the European and American renewable heating markets. Finally, Ian Gray of the Ceres Sustainability podcast talks with Dorjee Sun, CEO of Carbon Conservation, about the emerging carbon credit market for forest conservation projects. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Somewhere between invention and commercialization, there's a desolate place where new technologies go to die alone. It's called the Valley of Death, and it's littered with the decaying corpses of technologies that never get to realize their potential. Aside from the lack of long-term policy support, The Valley of Death is the single biggest threat to the progress of the renewable energy industry. This is the place where a technology is too capital intensive for a venture capital firm to continue investing, but too risky for a project financier to bring it to scale. In this podcast, we'll talk to a range of renewable energy companies and finance professionals about how to close this very wide gap. We'll also look at why the comparison between Information Technologies and Energy Technologies is misguided. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

Remember back in the good 'ol days of 2008 when getting solar PV production costs below a dollar a watt was a big deal? How quaint that vision seems today. The sub-one dollar production cost is still a major milestone. But as more companies approach or cross the threshold, the solar industry is starting to compete at a much different level. This week, the amorphous silicon thin film company Oerlikon Solar announced that its new fab line could produce solar modules for below 70 cents a watt. The news sounds monumental. But is it really as big as it seems? We'll take a look at what it takes to compete in today's solar industry. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

As more wind turbines are developed closer to communities, a number of homeowners within close range are complaining about noise. Some wind advocates label these people “anti-wind.” At the same time, anti-wind advocates latch onto the sound issues, saying they are a public health problem. Surely, there's a middle ground. Unfortunately, no one has done a comprehensive study on the impact of wind turbine noise on people. Without an objective examination of the issue, miscommunication and mistrust will likely continue. In this podcast, we'll go to the island of Vinalhaven off the coast of Maine to hear about the complaints of a group of homeowners who are aggravated by the noise of three 1.5 MW wind turbines in their backyards. We'll ask, “is it okay to sacrifice a few people for the greater good of the many?” We'll talk with Jim Cummings, founder of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, about how widespread complaints about noise are. He'll also talk about the various trade-offs when making concessions to homeowners. Finally, we'll go to one small town in Texas and hear about the positive economic and cultural impact of the world's largest wind farm. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

We are living in an unprecedented time in history when the theory of unlimited economic growth is running into the reality of limited energy. Many people think that renewables are simply a drop-in replacement for oil, gas and coal – but it's clear that is not the case. Renewables offer less “net energy” than fossil fuels have historically delivered. We have grown our global economy on the assumption that we'd always have abundant energy. However, with renewables, which are less energy dense and more diffuse, we may have to re-evaluate our vision of growth. In this podcast, we'll look at the “Renewables Gap,” and what it means for the transition away from fossil resources. Author and Activist Bill McKibben talks about what society will look like on this new “Eaarth” being formed by climate changes and limited energy resources. Lionel Badal talks about his adventures as a student uncovering a peak oil conspiracy at the International Energy Agency. Energy expert Vaclav Smil gives some historical context to the current energy transition. Author and speaker Jeff Vail talks about his worries that the “Renewables Gap,” will hinder the transition to cleaner sources of energy. Writer and Financial Analyst Tom Konrad talks about why he's a technological optimist, but a social pessimist. And Jack Oswald, the CEO of Syngest, outlines his scenario of future “Energy Abundance.” Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

The sluggish economy has hurt renewable energy project developers. In many cases, it's incredibly difficult for companies to sign contacts to sell power. So why is the solar PV market going to grow by 100% globally this year? Solar PV is starting to enter a “sweet spot.” Because the technology is falling so dramatically in cost, is less capital intensive to develop, is more adaptable and requires less permitting, investors are taking a keen interest in solar PV projects. In this podcast, we'll examine the factors that make the market so attractive. Jack Ehnes, the CEO of California's second-largest public pension fund, CalSTRS, talks about the need for fund managers to look at broader sustainability issues in order to limit risk. The interview comes from the Ceres Sustainability Podcast. Then we'll have a roundtable discussion on how solar companies are engaging the financial community. Dan Alcombright, vice president and general manager of Solon North America, talks about the company's vertical strategy to manufacture panels, develop projects and work with financiers to fund the PV plants. Wim Goethals, managing director of Enfinity Americas talks about the “brain damage” involved in financing projects of all sizes. And Marie Schnitzer, director of solar services at AWS Truepower, explains why it's important for the solar community to keep educating investors. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.

This is a unique time in history for energy inventors and entrepreneurs. As the need for clean, renewable sources of energy becomes more important, investors are looking for unique “Black Swan” technologies that could revolutionize the sector. The trouble is, they're not exactly easy to find or create. In this podcast, we'll talk to a couple inventors who are riding the new wave of innovation and trying to bring their early-stage technologies to scale. We'll also talk with about the need to be realistic in our view of groundbreaking (if not sometimes completely nuts) inventions. David Doty, founder and CEO of Doty Energy, tells us about his production of “WindFuels,” a variety of hydrocarbon fuels made from wind electricity and recycled carbon dioxide. He'll talk about how the fuel is made and how much it will cost to produce. Scott Brusaw, president and CEO of Solar Roadways, talks about why putting solar panels on roads could actually be a good idea. He'll tell us how he first got the idea and why he believes the concept could work on a mass-scale. And Eric Wessoff, an editor and analyst with Greentech Media, describes the fine line that investors and journalists walk when evaluating new technologies. He'll also outline a common mistake that people make when thinking about how to bring new energy technologies to market. Inside Renewable Energy is a weekly audio news program featuring stories and interviews on all the latest developments in the renewable energy industries.