Record-breaking EV milestones, the hidden dangers of fossil fuel crime, and a real-world test of what happens when a country bans new gas cars. In China, Nio pulled off an astonishing 175,000 battery swaps in a single day during the Lunar New Year travel rush — about two swaps every second — with drivers in and out in three to five minutes. It's a massive stress test that shows how battery swapping could compete with, or even outperform, traditional refueling for convenience and scale.

• Support The Clean Energy Show on Patreon for exciting perks including a monthly bonus podcast, early access to our content, behind the scenes looks, access to our members-only Discord community and thank-yous in the credits of videos and shoutouts on our podcast! Starting at just $1 per month!

We also examine how fuel theft in Mexico has evolved from small-time pipeline tapping into a billion-dollar criminal enterprise. Cartels now make enormous profits stealing oil and gas, and the consequences can be deadly. The 2019 pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, which killed at least 137 people, remains one of the most tragic examples of how dangerous this underground economy can be. What began decades ago as localized "Robin Hood" style fuel theft has grown into an industrialized operation that in some regions rivals drug trafficking in profitability.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia's 2024 ban on new combustion car sales is turning out to be less dramatic than critics predicted — and more effective. The move was driven largely by economics, as the country had been spending billions annually on refined fuel imports. With major hydropower expansion, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia now has excess clean electricity, growing EV adoption, and dramatically lower monthly fueling costs for drivers.

Plus, South Dakota approves its largest wind farm yet, Waymo surpasses 200 million autonomous miles, France sets a new fusion runtime record, Tesla tops a French reliability study, and a pilot project proves portable solar panels can charge an EV in the sub-Arctic.

Contact Us

cleanenergyshow@gmail.com or leave us an online voicemail: http://speakpipe.com/clean

Support The Clean Energy Show

Join the Clean Club on our Patreon Page to receive perks for supporting the podcast and our planet!

Our PayPal Donate Page offers one-time or regular donations.

Store

Visit The Clean Energy Show Store for T-shirts, hats, and more!.

Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.

A sixth-anniversary edition packed with clean energy wins, grid chaos, and a few absurd tech headlines. Brian and James start with a major electrification milestone: heat pumps outsold gas furnaces in the U.S. again in 2025, making it two years in a row. Even more telling, in September, heat pumps shipped more than central air conditioners for the first time.

The show then turns to Cuba, where aging oil-fired plants, failing infrastructure, and fuel shortages have led to frequent grid collapses and daily blackouts lasting over 20 hours. But Cuba also hit a solar milestone, generating over 800 MW at midday on Feb. 10, 2026, after adding more than 1 GW of solar in 2025.

In Australia, extreme heat is colliding with prepaid electricity meters, forcing families to top up power in advance or face automatic shutoffs. The episode also highlights solar-powered refrigerated semi-trailers that completed a brutal 1,600 km route with zero diesel burned.

The Lightning Round includes BYD passing Ford, geothermal investment surging, Waymo paying DoorDash to close robotaxi doors, and a drone charged by laser from a mile away.

Contact Us

cleanenergyshow@gmail.com or leave us an online voicemail: http://speakpipe.com/clean

Support The Clean Energy Show

Join the Clean Club on our Patreon Page to receive perks for supporting the podcast and our planet!

Our PayPal Donate Page offers one-time or regular donations.

Store

Visit The Clean Energy Show Store for T-shirts, hats, and more!.

Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.

Why Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show included a very real reference to the fragility of Puerto Rico's power grid, and what that says about outages, inequality, and the island's long fight for energy reliability. We also cover Japan restarting the world's largest nuclear power plant, and why nuclear is suddenly back in the conversation as countries chase carbon neutrality. In Canada, the federal government is officially bringing back EV rebates, with $2.3B in funding over five years, new eligibility rules, and a $50,000 price cap that leads to some… interesting conversations about who actually benefits. Plus: Australia's grid batteries are exploding in size, battery costs keep falling, and we look at what the last 10 years of EV growth tells us about what the next decade could look like. After the Lightning Round, climate lawyer Glenn Wright joins via letter with an update on coal litigation in Saskatchewan, the backlash facing local communities fighting coal, and a petition that needs signatures before the spring session.

Japan nuclear restart (Power Magazine):
https://www.powermag.com/japan-restarts-unit-at-worlds-largest-nuclear-power-plant/

Glenn Wright / SES press release:
https://environmentalsociety.ca/press-releases/2026/press-release-ses-and-co-applicants-file-notice-of-appeal/

Read about Bad Bunny and the Peurto Rican power grid in depth on Mother Jones.

Contact Us

cleanenergyshow@gmail.com or leave us an online voicemail: http://speakpipe.com/clean

Support The Clean Energy Show

Join the Clean Club on our Patreon Page to receive perks for supporting the podcast and our planet!

Our PayPal Donate Page offers one-time or regular donations.

Store

Visit The Clean Energy Show Store for T-shirts, hats, and more!.

Copyright 2026 Sneeze Media.