The role of renewable energy and battery technology in the push toward a greener economy

A new wave of companies has emerged in renewable energy and electric vehicle technology that could accelerate the push toward a greener economy. Join Washington Post Live for back-to-back conversations with First Solar CEO Mark Widmar and Sila Nanotechnologies CEO Gene Berdichevsky about the innovative industry solutions that could curb carbon emissions and create new jobs.

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Highlights

“The architecture of that bill probably couldn’t have been done much better and the reason I say that is because it gave something to everyone… I’m very excited about how it was originally architected, where I’m a little concerned is that will It stay true to the spirit of what was envisioned?” – Mark Widmar (Video: Washington Post Live)

“Did the forced labor in the Uygur Act have some impact at First Solar? It was but we are so far ahead of the game in terms of how we lead and what we do in this industry from a responsible standpoint and our customers are looking across the horizon and they see demand, hundreds of gigawatts of demand for the next several years and decades to come.” – Mark Widmar (Video: Washington Post Live)

“If there’s one more thing that could be done to push the electric revolution further faster, it would have to do with the permitting requirements and how can we make it easier and faster to permit new plants, new mines. I think it’s sort of naïve to think that just because we’re not going to mine here in the United States that mining isn’t going to happen somewhere else in the world.” – Gene Berdichevsky (Video: Washington Post Live)

“All of our materials are sourced from democratic countries, we do audits on our suppliers. We have a code of ethics that we work with our suppliers on as well, but predominantly our technology requires sand and energy, that’s really the key inputs for us and so those can be sourced in quite a lot of places.” – Gene Berdichevsky (Video: Washington Post Live)

“20th century was based on fossil fuels, the 21st will be based on storage and renewables. Pushing EVs faster today isn’t going to solve the conflict in Ukraine, and that’s unfortunate, but pushing EVs faster today might solve the next Ukraine-like conflict… Energy independence is critical and I think if anything the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is showing us how important it is for the 21st century not to be a repeat of the 20th.” – Gene Berdichevsky (Video: Washington Post Live)

Mark Widmar

CEO, First Solar

Gene Berdichevsky

Co-Founder & CEO, Sila

Content from 3M

The following content is produced and paid for by a Washington Post Live event sponsor. The Washington Post newsroom is not involved in the production of this content.

(Video: Washington Post Live)

The Evolution of Electrification and Innovating to Build Resilience

In a segment presented by 3M, Vice President of Research and Development Electrical Markets Division, Terry Collier, will explore the evolving landscape of electrification, the critical nature of building systems resilience and how innovative clean energy solutions can enable broader adoption and access. Terry will discuss the electrification of our energy consumption, the ability to integrate more renewable energy sources and how adapting solutions for industrial applications are crucial technical innovations that can help mitigate the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change. Companies that are invested in the energy transition and working to bolster grid infrastructure can help drive progress toward ambitious climate goals while future-proofing their business.

Terry Collier

Vice President, Research & Development, Electrical Markets Division, 3M