Factor This This Week in Cleantech (02/27/2026) - Clean energy bans 'skyrocket'
Feb 27, 2026
Elizabeth Weiss, USA Today reporter who maps county-level roadblocks to wind and solar. She discusses how local bans and copy‑paste ordinances are spreading. She explores the roles of social media, newcomer cultural dynamics, and common objections like viewscape and farmland loss. Short, sharp reporting that tracks the rising web of local resistance to renewables.
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Make ADS Economically Viable By Raising Efficiency
- Improve ADS economics by boosting accelerator efficiency and reducing cooling needs to enable commercial deployment.
- Researchers aim to run components at warmer temperatures and partner with Radiabeam, General Atomics, and Stellant to scale.
Tariff Whiplash Is Choking Cleantech Investment
- Rapid, high‑profile tariff shifts create acute investment uncertainty for U.S. cleantech manufacturers.
- Supreme Court decisions, emergency tariffs, and new 10–15% global levies now threaten battery and solar supply chains and investment signals.
Imported Cells Make Storage Businesses Tariff‑Vulnerable
- Major manufacturers like Tesla are exposed because they import battery cells, and tariffs produce large near-term hits.
- Tesla reported a ~$400 million quarterly hit tied to tariffs and storage businesses are especially vulnerable.