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The Clean Power Hour: Best of 2025 #326 · Clean Power Hour

• 0:51
  Tim Montague: As we wrap up 2025 I want to take a moment to reflect on five conversations, actually six. I'm going to give you a bonus that really captured where the clean energy industry is headed and why this year felt like such a turning point. I have a bonus episode for you, which was our most popular episode of the year, a guest who's been on the show, I think, four times. So looking forward to sharing what that was with you. Stick around to the end for that.
• 1:26
  intro: Are you speeding the energy transition here at the Clean Power Hour, our host Tim Montague, bring you the best in solar, batteries and clean technologies every week. Want to go deeper into decarbonization.
• 1:36
  intro: We do too. We're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it together. We can speed the energy transition
• 1:51
  Tim Montague: before I get into my top five special episodes of 2025 I want to thank you for being here, for listening to the show, for telling your friends.
• 2:01
  Tim Montague: If you haven't told your friends, please tell your friends. We really want more people to know about the Clean Power Hour. So many interesting entrepreneurs, manufacturers, technologists, policy geeks, etc. So thank you. And I also really hope to meet more of you face to face in 2026 I've only met a handful of my listeners face to face honestly. So if you go to trade shows, reach out to me. I go to many. I'll be going to re plus northeast in Boston in February, I'll be going to inner solar in San Diego. Also in February, I'll be going to NABCEP in Milwaukee this year.
• 2:52
  Tim Montague: So lots of opportunities to connect and but otherwise, just chat me up on LinkedIn. All right. First up is episode 304 with jigger Shah Jiggs a repeat guest on the show. That episode was dropped in September. I think it's called what's really holding back solar. And jigger is the managing partner of multiplier, a investment firm, and he's former head of the loan program office at the doe. So jigger is just a fountain of knowledge and information about clean energy, and he has a podcast himself, check out open circuit, where he and Catherine Hamilton and Stephen lacy break down the market forces affecting the energy transition. This was one of those rare conversations that cut straight to the core and jigger challenged the industry to stop acting like a startup and start behaving like a political force. That was the theme of this interview. He thinks we need to put on our big boy pants and flex our muscles, and that means having a better ground game showing up at state fairs and building local support in communities where clean energy is happening. Clean energy projects, wind, solar, batteries are good for local economies, and a lot of these projects are happening in rural economies that are struggling and corn and bean and vegetable and other crop farmers can benefit from these projects, and their communities can benefit from the multiplier effects. The tax benefits to the community are many, and these communities are not doing well financially, so they need clean energy projects. So clean energy has arrived, and with scale comes responsibility. So some of the things we touched on were that 85% of new grid capacity will be solar, wind and batteries, despite policy changes, the massive political spending gap between clean energy and fossil fuels. So fossils are outspending clean energy by approximately a factor of 10 to one. And jigger points out that this isn't just about money in politics, but since we have a system that is rigged by money and politics, we have to play that game. Now. He also touches on how virtual power plants could shift 20% of peak load by 2030 and the VPP theme showed up a lot in 2025 and will continue to show. Up. So if you don't understand or aren't working on VPP projects, you want to jigger is very fond of what's going on in Minnesota with something called the DCP model that is spreading to other states. So check that out. That's a program in Excel territory. Why retrofitting batteries to existing solar systems could reduce electricity rates by 20% and I love it. That jigger shines a light on the fact that 20% of Americans can't afford their power bill. So we really need to take this seriously and leverage the fact that solar, wind and batteries are the cheapest sources of new energy on the grid, and the green grid needs lots of new energy. All right. Number two is episode 274 with Ryan Mayfield from Mayfield renewables and Jason Smith from CPS America, the number one three phase string inverter manufacturer. The topic of the day was CNI battery storage, and we recorded a short interview at inner solar San Diego last I think it was February. I love recording on site. If you'd like to do an on site recording, reach out to me. We broke down what actually works in CNI, battery storage, the economics, the technical realities and the lessons learned in the field. In a year when storage stopped being optional. This episode grounded the conversation in what developers and EPCs need to know right now about commercial, industrial batteries and the CPS Gonzo, their 125, 256, kWh, containerized solution. So some of the highlights of that product are that it comes in a couple different flavors, a 125, a 250 it can be a two hour or a four hour solution. It features 20 millisecond switch over time for grid forming capability. So if you need a micro grid, it can also be used for demand response. So it's a very flexible state of the art solution. The you can daisy chain up to 12 of these units in parallel. So you can go from, you know, 125 to megawatt scale has multi layered approach to safety that I really like, cell level monitoring, with three levels of soft cut offs, plus heat smoke and fire detection.
• 8:47
  Tim Montague: It has a deflagration panel for pressure relief and 60 minute fire rated construction. It is also rated to NFPA 68 and will soon be NFPA 69 compliant. The key differentiator with CPS is their service. They have wonderful products, but it is the service team that really sets them apart. 60% of CPS workforce is dedicated to service. So if you've never dealt with really good customer service, check out CPS America, and they have a wonderful Innovation Day, also in April. I believe it's April 22 this year.
• 9:31
  Tim Montague: So if you just Google Innovation Day, check it out. All right.
• 9:36
  Tim Montague: Next up, episode three was episode 307 with Peter Kelly Detweiler, author of The Energy Switch, Peter is a repeat guest on the show. He hosts his own Weekly energy news show called Insider's Guide to energy. Very dynamic speaker. This is part of my series on micro grids, and we geeked out hard on the different aspects of micro grids and things like this event that happened in Virginia in 2024 when 1500 megawatts of load from a data center went offline, when the data center went offline.
• 10:24
  Tim Montague: And so the challenge, the challenges that data centers present are both that they're being installed at in a rapid pace now, but when they go offline, it's a challenge for the grid operator to keep the load, to keep the grid balanced.
• 10:41
  Tim Montague: So fascinating discussion, Peter helped connect the dots between grid. Fragility, extreme events and the urgent need for storage, as well as forecasting and smart planning. This was one of the clearest examples all year of why energy of why the energy transition is no longer theoretical. It's operational.
• 11:03
  Tim Montague: Some key topics we covered were why NERC, the North American reliability Corporation, is concerned about data centers, the Dominion Virginia incident where 1500 megawatts of data center load was instantly disconnected. How PGM capacity prices jumped from $30 to $329 per megawatt day. AI driven grid controls and their role in managing 1000s of distributed resources, virtual power plants dispatching 535 megawatts from 100,000 homes in California and the economics of micro grids in high cost regions like PJM and California. And finally, he discussed a Brooklyn Queens demand management project where$150 million was a solution to a$1.2 billion infrastructure upgrade that the utility wanted.
• 12:08
  Tim Montague: So instead of doing T and D, they did batteries. All right.
• 12:13
  Tim Montague: My fourth favorite episode of 2025 was episode 310 with Jeff St John from Canary media. If you're not a reader of Canary media, check it out. It is one of the best publications on solar, wind and batteries, the tie the title of that show was how virtual power plants save millions in energy costs, and it takes us from individual assets to system level thinking. We explored how virtual power plants are already saving millions of dollars and quietly reshaping how the grid works.
• 12:51
  Tim Montague: This conversation showed why the future isn't just about building more solar and batteries, but about orchestrating them intelligently. If 2025 was the year coordination started to matter as much as capacity. This episode explains why the conversation revealed why distributed energy resources are becoming policy proof you can't weaponize federal permitting to stop a warehouse from installing rooftop solar or a community from deploying batteries. These technologies hedge against rising utility rates while reducing strain on an aging grid. So some of the things we talked about include that 93% of new US grid additions were solar batteries and wind and Texas now leads over California in utility scale solar and battery deployments, with ERCOT grid Now being 50% solar, wind and batteries on micro grid economics and incentives we touched on the California utilities are building utility owned micro grids for remote customers because it's cheaper than maintaining long distribution lines and wildfire mitigation. Texas allocated $1.8 billion for micro grids following winter storm Yuri, though primarily focused on natural gas with some solar and battery in the mix, and virtual power plants in California show two to one cost benefit ratio, saving $2 for Every $1 spent on incentivizing residential solar and battery battery participation. I love that two to one benefit. And we also talked about a micro grid project in south on the south side of Chicago, the Bronzeville micro grid, which took five years to develop from 2018 to 2023 but provides crucial learnings to accelerate future project, to accelerate future projects. And solar United neighbors, an advocacy organization, has created model VPP legislation that is being adopted by states like Virginia and Illinois. All right, number five, Episode 322, with Julia Wu and Anuj Saigal from Spark AI.
• 15:20
  Tim Montague: This was one of several AI focused episodes I did in 2025 and there'll be many more in 26 the title of this episode is AI is revolutionizing clean energy permits, and so technology is meeting one of our industry's biggest pain points, and that is permitting. We talked about how AI is starting to unlock gigawatts of projects that have been stuck in per. Permitting have been stuck in permitting hell for years. And what I love about Spark AI is they're really going way, way beyond the hype and and leveraging AI to scour millions of documents every week to get accurate and up to date information on zoning, permitting requirements, local sentiment and news articles for every jurisdiction in the United States, the platform compresses what used to take four to 10 hours of manual research down to seconds. Three core use cases, early stage, greenfield site selection monitoring projects in development for regulatory changes and rapid acquisition due diligence. And they gave a list of wonderful case studies, standard solar, which is a Brookfield company, reduced acquisition diligence for from months to one week, cutting time by 75% dynamic energy, accelerated site screening while improving community sentiment, risk assessment. Uge, a, you know, a New York and Canadian developer who's been on the show uses spark to assess, used spark to assess a massive portfolio, determining which parcels had viable zoning paths. The platform is LLM neutral. So of the frontier models. They they leverage multiple models, but you can easily swap between chat, GPT, Gemini, Claude, deep seek, etc. The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over 10 gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS product lineup includes string inverters ranging from 25 kW to 350 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 350 KW is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts. CPS is the world's most bankable inverter brand and is America's number one choice for solar plants now offering solutions for commercial utility ESS and balance of system requirements go to Chint Power Systems com or call 855-584-7168, to find out more. Alright, so those were my five favorite episodes for 2025 my bonus episode is episode 296.
• 18:40
  Tim Montague: Featuring Mark Palmer, CEO of conductor solar, an online marketplace for PPAs and project finance and tax credit swapping ranked number one by Spotify for most listens and shares. Thank you. Mark Palmer, Mark is a great friend of the show. I think he's been on the show now four times. Very dynamic CEO based in Ohio, although I heard through the grapevine he is moving back to Illinois in 2026 so we're looking forward to having Mark back in Illinois.
• 19:09
  Tim Montague: And some of the things we touched on, though were so we were breaking down the O triple B. And you know, what does this mean for our industry? Things like developers and financiers are tightening standards, quality, first deal selection and saying no more often, financing shift more conservative pricing, risk, tolerance and diligence across debt, tax equity and M and A, industry behavior, investors pausing, acquisitions developers rushing Safe Harbor and near term milestones. I'm sure if you're a developer, you can relate to this. We talked about tariffs and supply chain concern imported components driving cost pressure and operational distraction. State policy matters. Okay? This is a big signal when the O triple B comes in at the federal level to try to push back on clean energy.
• 20:16
  Tim Montague: The the whack a mole is state levers and Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Texas.
• 20:30
  Tim Montague: These are all places that are pushing back at the state level and incentivizing growth of the industry. So states are doubling down. And this is a trend that if you're a EPC developer, out.
• 20:50
  Tim Montague: Set owner in particular states, you need to be more active at the state level. And then we touched on some macro drivers, like load growth, you know, AI and electrification, how that keeps long, a long term need for solar and storage intact. We are going to triple the grid, and then expect consolidation.
• 21:13
  Tim Montague: There's going to be more M and A and shakeout of weaker players and and very likely contraction in the market. And then it'll rebound. So right now, we're going through a bit of a boom with with Safe Harbor and the rush to leverage the ITC. There will be a contraction, and then there will be a rebound when the market realizes that clean energy is the most economical, fastest and cheapest way to get new power on the grid, whether that's DG or utility scale. With that, I'll say thank you very much for being a listener and supporter of the show. If you'd like to sponsor, reach out to me. I'm easy to find. You can hit the contact page on clean power hour.com you can hit me up on LinkedIn. My email is Tim at clean power hour.com and with that, I'll say, let's grow solar, and let's have a wonderful 2026 Take care.