This week’s episode features Izzy Ross from Grist, who wrote about how Michigan’s fast-tracking of renewable energy projects under a new law, Public Act 233, is facing legal pushback from about 80 townships and counties.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Robert Wilson and Louisa Ziane, Co-Founders of Toast Brewing, which brews beer with the surplus of fresh bread from bakeries, reducing agricultural demand for barley and food waste. Every second loaf of bread is wasted in the UK, but since 2016, Toast Brewing has saved enough bread to stack more than four times the height of Mount Everest. Congratulations Robert and Louisa!

1. Utilities build flow batteries big enough to oust coal, gas power plants — The Washington Post

Japan’s Hokkaido island has enough wind energy to power itself and export clean energy to the rest of the country, but not without battery storage. The island is looking to deploy a new generation of battery storage called flow batteries, which stores energy in large tanks of metallic liquid. Lithium-ion batteries only last about 10 years, whereas the vanadium in these flow batteries can be reused over and over again. 

Right now, the flow batteries can store energy for about 4 hours, approximately the same as a lithium-ion battery, but there are plans to double that duration. One major problem with these batteries is that they have double the upfront cost of lithium, skeptical financiers, and a market dominated by China and Russia.

2. Northvolt, Europe’s Hope for a Battery Champion, Files for Bankruptcy — The New York Times

Northvolt, which makes lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, was viewed as Europe’s strongest competitor to Chinese battery manufacturers, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. last Thursday. The company has been cutting jobs for months, and faced several challenges this year, including a plant accident and a loss of a contract with BMW worth $2.15 billion.

The company plans to restructure its debt so it can continue operations in the future. Two planned factories in Germany and Canada are financed separately and will continue to operate, and the company’s factories in Sweden will continue to make deliveries and pay vendors and employees.

3. US Solar Installs Facing Flat Growth — and That’s Before Trump — Bloomberg

In four of the last five years, we’ve seen double-digit growth for solar installations. But according to a SEIA and Woodmac report released Wednesday, solar installations will drop 1.8% in 2024. The pace of solar installations is expected to plateau through the end of the decade, and that’s without considering the potential changes from Trump. Over the next five years, average annual growth is expected to stay around 2%.