Shows / Clean Power Hour
Clean Power Hour
The Clean Power Hour podcast is speeding the clean energy transition. Tim Montague and John Weaver highlight clean energy innovations shaping the next generation of renewable energy sources. We discuss the latest solar PV, battery storage, wind, water, wave, and other low-carbon technologies. We answer the question: How can we decarbonize the economy? We promote the economic opportunity of electrifying everything - transportation, energy, industry, and the built environment. Let's speed up the…
Episodes
Clean Power HourCan Microgrids Solve America’s AI Power Crisis? | Lester Crafton #379
The U.S. is facing a major energy challenge. AI data centers are driving electricity demand higher, grid infrastructure takes years and billions of dollars to…
Clean Power HourBuilding the World's First Utility-Scale Solar Plant Designed for Cattle. #378
Can you put cattle beneath solar panels without damaging the equipment or driving up project costs? Silicon Ranch set out to answer that question, and the…
Clean Power HourTennessee’s Nuclear Renaissance Needs Solar Now | Cortney Piper #377
America’s nuclear renaissance is gaining momentum, but new nuclear power plants can take around a decade to build. With electricity demand rising and the grid…
Clean Power HourBatteries vs. Gas Peakers, China's Solar Export Restrictions, and the Future of Clean Energy
Solar and battery storage are reshaping the energy industry, but policy uncertainty, grid constraints, manufacturing challenges, and equipment reliability…
Clean Power HourThe Business of Solar EPC: Profitability, Policy Risks, and Project Delivery #376
Solar EPCs face growing pressure to deliver projects on time, manage costs, secure financing, and navigate changing energy policies. So how can smaller…
Clean Power HourHow to Make Affordable Housing Solar Work | Resonant Energy #375
A 100 kW rooftop can be a meaningful source of energy savings—and a difficult project to finance. How do you make solar work for affordable housing, churches…
Clean Power HourTVA’s Grid Is Under Pressure. Solar, Storage and Microgrids Could Be the Answer #374
Rising electricity demand and prolonged outages are pushing the Tennessee Valley to rethink how it builds and operates the grid. Where do solar, batteries, and…
Clean Power HourCalifornia Just Changed the Game for Solar & Batteries
Solar and storage are moving into a new phase, and this week's Clean Power Hour Live covers the technologies, policies, and market shifts shaping that…
Clean Power HourWhy Batteries Are the Key Technology Behind the Next Energy Economy with Simon Engelke #373
A battery only earns its keep when it can connect to the grid and get to work. What does it take to turn better battery technology into a viable energy…
Clean Power HourThe Battery Boom Is Moving Beyond EVs
Grid storage is growing faster than the industry expected. EVs accounted for more than 70% of global battery deployment in 2025, down from almost 80% in 2024…
Clean Power HourInside a 365 kW Commercial Solar Project: First Solar Series 7 + Custom Racking #372
How do you take a 365 kW commercial solar project from a customer conversation to steel in the ground? In this episode of the Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague…
Clean Power HourThis Startup Pays You to Run AI on Your Solar Power #371
What if your solar system could earn far more by powering AI compute than by selling electricity back to the grid? In this episode of Clean Power Hour, Tim…
Clean Power HourThe U.S. Needs 230 GW of New Power. Where Will It Come From? #370
America may need more than 230 GW of new power capacity through 2030. Regulated utilities are expected to deliver only about 93 GW. So where does the rest come…
Clean Power HourSolar, Vanadium Flow and a Flywheel: Inside G&W's Microgrid #369
G&W Electric's vanadium flow + flywheel microgrid matched a full year of frequency regulation revenue in under three months Vanadium flow batteries rarely…
Clean Power HourHow Do You Get 20 MW When the Utility Offers 7? #368
Speed to power: Bala Ramamurthy of Critical Loop on cutting grid connection from years to days with modular microgrids. Speed to power is the problem Critical…
Clean Power HourSection 232 Is a Price Floor, Not a Tariff: Solar Module Prices Explained.
Section 232 tariffs are reshaping solar module pricing across the United States. Tim Montague and co-host John Weaver sit down with returning guest Chris…
Clean Power HourDerek Hansen on what makes a solar company great, not just good #367
Clean energy company culture is what separates good solar EPCs from great ones, and Mynt CEO Derek Hansen has a name for how he builds it: inspire, empower…
Clean Power HourWhat does it take to build solar that lasts 30+ years? #366
Solar asset management inside a 35-year ownership model: CJ Colavito and Jay Smith of Standard Solar explain what it actually takes to own distributed…
Clean Power HourForeign Inverter Ban Hits US Solar: Here's What Changes
The Federal Communications Commission's new ban on foreign-produced solar inverters left the industry without clear answers on warehoused stock, firmware…
Clean Power HourHow to Build a Great Solar Company: Lessons from LightWave Solar CEO Chris Koczaja #365
Chris Koczaja grew LightWave Solar to 30 million dollars by refusing to chase every deal. This is the discipline that got him there. Chris Koczaja is the CEO…
Clean Power HourHow do we Remove 1.7 Trillion Tons of CO₂? #364
Enhanced rock weathering pulls carbon dioxide from the air using crushed rock. Jim Mann, CEO and founder of Undo, explains how the process works and why the…
Clean Power HourHow a 700kW Commercial Solar Project Saves $3M+ Over 25 Years #363
Dual-use solar financing in action: Sunrise Solar's Richard Stoltzfus built a 700 kW behind-the-meter array for Harbor Sales Company. The build stacks a USDA…
Clean Power HourGeorgia's Data Center Boom Is Straining the Grid. Here's How Solar Fits In #362
Georgia is the second-largest data center market in the country, and its grid is straining under load growth no one predicted five years ago. Michael Chanin…
Clean Power HourWhy 80% of Grid-Ready Devices Are Still Sitting on the Sidelines? #361
The U.S. needs 400 GW of new capacity over the next two decades. Michael Grasso, CEO and founder of Grid Rails, tells Tim Montague that roughly twice that much…
Clean Power HourWildfire Smoke Cuts New England Solar Output by 40 Percent
Wildfire smoke from Canada cut solar production across New England by as much as 40 percent, according to ISO New England, a loss of 2,500 megawatts at peak…
Clean Power HourThe Grid Can't Keep Up. Can Linear Generators Solve the Power Crisis? #360
Power generation is changing fast. As utilities struggle with interconnection delays and growing electricity demand, businesses are looking for faster, more…
Clean Power HourThe Grid Was Built Over a Century Ago. Here's How We Fix It. #359
America's electric grid wasn't built for AI, electric vehicles, battery storage, or the rapid growth of renewable energy. So how do we modernize a system that…
Clean Power HourSwift Solar's Plan to Close the 10x U.S. Solar Cell Gap
What does it take to turn next-generation solar technology into a bankable commercial product? Swift Solar is closing the U.S. heterojunction and perovskite…
Clean Power HourLives Saved: The Case for Community Microgrids #358
Community microgrids saved lives during a PG&E shutoff in Humboldt County. Lisa Cohn of Microgrid Knowledge has tracked every project getting built in America…
Clean Power HourCarport Solar Done Right: Engineering, Pricing, and Building for the Long Haul #357
Solar carport installation costs can swing by 12 cents per watt before a single panel goes up. Kyle Sinclair, CEO and co-founder of SDE (Sinclair Designs and…
Clean Power HourCATL's Sodium Ion Battery Could Last 30 Years: Rebuild Your Storage Model Now
CATL unveiled its TENER Sodium energy storage system at Intersolar Europe in Munich, rated for 15,000 cycles to 70 percent state of health at room temperature…
Clean Power HourThe Engineering Gap Costing Solar Companies A Fortune #356
A single design error on a commercial solar project can cost $60,000 to $70,000 to fix. Scott Wyssling and Catherine Kelso of Wyssling Consulting explain what…
Clean Power HourBattery Storage Fires: Myths, Facts, and What Actually Happens #355
Battery energy storage fire safety is one of the most urgent permitting challenges facing solar and storage developers in 2026. Mike Nicholas, Energy Storage…
Clean Power HourSolar Safe Harbor Court Ruling: What Developers Need to Know Now
A US federal court just ruled the IRS acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner on solar and wind safe harbor rules, shaking up project timelines for…
Clean Power HourThey Put Solar on the White House. Here's What Solar Design Associates Learned #354
Solar & storage pioneers Solar Design Associates share 50 years of firsts on the Clean Power Hour. They put solar on the White House in 1979 and built the…
Clean Power HourClean Coalition's Craig Lewis on Microgrids, VPPs, and the Resilience Gap #353
Community microgrids and virtual power plants are two of the most misunderstood concepts in clean energy, and the gap between them is where billions of dollars…
Clean Power HourCan Homeowners Finally Afford Whole Home Backup? #352
Energy resilience for homeowners is the mission behind Energy Access Innovations, a multi-brand clean energy company building an end-to-end ecosystem for solar…
Clean Power HourPerovskite Tandem Solar: Breaking the 30% Efficiency Limit #351
Silicon solar is approaching a hard physical efficiency ceiling at 30%. Perovskite tandem solar is the only proven path through it. Joel Jean, CEO of Swift…
Clean Power HourUS Solar Has a Quality Problem: What Buyers Need to Know
A new report from Clean Energy Associates found that some solar module factories in their first year of production are hitting yield rates as low as 30%. That…
Clean Power HourWhy Community Microgrids Are Illegal in Most of the US #350
Community microgrids are functionally illegal in most of the United States, yet climate-driven outages are getting worse. Cameron Brooks of Think Microgrid…
Clean Power HourWhy Utility-Scale Solar Is Quietly Failing in 2026? #349
American solar manufacturing is getting a reboot. Dean Solon, founder of Create Energy and formerly of Shoals Technologies, sold 1 GW of product in Q1 of this…
Clean Power HourSDE's Approach to Solar Racking: What DG Installers Need to Know #348
Solar racking is one of the lowest-cost line items on a DG project and one of the highest-risk failure points. Kyle Sinclair, Co-founder and CEO of SDE…
Clean Power HourLG Energy Solution Targets 50 GWh With 5 US Battery Factories
LG Energy Solution plans to bring over 50 gigawatt hours of annual battery manufacturing capacity online in the US by the end of 2026 across five facilities…
Clean Power HourThis Microgrid Model Pays Businesses to Go Solar #347
San Diego pays the second-highest electricity rates in the United States, trailing only Hawaii, and peak-hour pricing from 4 pm to 9 pm runs up to triple…
Clean Power HourWhy Most Battery Developers Fail at Zoning? #346
Eighty-five towns across New York state sit under battery storage moratoriums right now, and two of three Westchester County towns where Joe Tassone Jr. built…
Clean Power HourCalifornia Batteries Just Killed Negative Daytime Solar Prices
John Weaver calls California's daytime pricing shift the story of the year. Battery demand has pushed wholesale solar prices from negative five cents per…
Clean Power HourWomen in Solar Construction: Why the Industry Is Failing Them? #345
One large solar company reported less than 1% of its field employees were women. The solar industry overall sits at 25 to 30% women across all roles, but the…
Clean Power HourWhy is USA Residential Solar So Expensive? The Real Reason U.S. Solar Is So Expensive #344
Solar modules once cost $8 per watt. Geoff Greenfield bought his first panels from a classified ad in Home Power magazine. Twenty-six years later, he leads an…
Clean Power HourHow AI Agents Are Reshaping the Solar Industry Right Now? #343
A 10-person, three-month estimating process. Compressed into 12 hours by a single AI agent. That is what Jesse Anglen, co-founder of Ruh AI, is building for…
Clean Power HourThe $65/kWh Incentive Making US Batteries Compete with China
US battery manufacturing capacity is set to hit 145 gigawatt hours by the end of 2026, enough to cover 100% of domestic grid storage demand. Tim Montague and…
Clean Power HourCommunity Microgrids Are Proven. So Why Aren’t They Everywhere? #342
Billion-dollar weather emergencies hit the United States every 19 days. In the 1980s, they came every 90 days. The grid is still running, but communities are…
Clean Power HourOld Solar Panels Are a Gold Mine (Here's the Math) #341
Revenue from aging solar assets can now more than double through redevelopment. Matt Murphy, CEO of Flux Energy, joins Tim Montague on the Clean Power Hour to…
Clean Power HourLG Ditches EV Batteries for Grid Storage. Big Signal.
LG Energy Solution and GM are converting their Tennessee EV battery plant to LFP production for the US grid storage market. The $70 million retooling signals a…
Clean Power HourFEOC, ITC Phase-Out, and Storage: InterSolar 2026 Dispatch #340
FEOC compliance is the number one question solar buyers ask in 2026, and the answer determines which module manufacturers survive. In this episode, Tim…
Clean Power HourIran War Sends Natural Gas Prices Soaring: What It Means for Solar
Natural gas prices in Europe surged roughly 80% after the Iran war disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off 20% of the world's oil supply…
Clean Power HourLuminous Robotics Lumi 4: Faster Solar at 30% Lower Cost #339
Third-party testing shows robotic solar panel installation reduces micro cracks and defects by 16 to 20%. In this episode, Tim Montague sits down with Jay…
Clean Power HourScattered Solar Monitoring Is Costing You Thousands #338
Every disconnected monitoring platform in your stack is a blind spot. And every blind spot is lost revenue. On this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim…
Clean Power HourI Asked 6 CPS America Insiders What's Changing in Solar #337
Energy bills have jumped as much as 30% in the last year, and data center demand is outpacing grid growth. CPS America, with over 10 gigawatts of string…
Clean Power HourWhy the Middle Market Is Storage's Biggest Battleground
LFP battery storage pricing dropped from over $1,000 per kilowatt hour to under $100 per kilowatt hour in a few short years. That single shift is reshaping…
Clean Power HourBatteries Now #1 Morning Power Source in California
For the first time, batteries and solar powered California around the clock, with batteries running as the number one morning electricity source at nearly…