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 clean energy transition together. Join the movement - www.CleanPowerHour.com
Episodes
433 episodes
How 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 REAP grant with a Maryland MEA grant and drives the customer's levelized energy cost t...
Georgia'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, CEO of Cherry Street Energy, joins Tim to break down how behind-the-meter solar and st...
Why 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 flexible capacity is already plugged in, and explains why only 20% of eligible devic...
Wildfire 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 hours compared to the forecast. Tim Montague and John Weaver dig into that ...
The 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 reliable ways to secure power.In this episode of Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague ...
The 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 was built and started in the late 1800s and early 1900s, more than a century ag...
Swift 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 tandem solar cell gap. Dr. Gunter Erfurt, managing director at Swift Solar and fo...
Lives 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 right now. She tells you what separates the ones that succeed from the ones that ...
Carport 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 Engineering), James Strizki, Project Manager and CFO of GenMounts and Renewable Energy...
CATL'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. CATL frames that as a 25 to 30 year service life, and it takes only 34 modules to st...
The 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 quality design actually looks like, why AI cannot replace a licensed engineer reviewi...
Battery 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 Specialist and Fire Consultant at Hiller Companies, brings a rare perspective: he buil...
Solar 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 developers racing toward the July 4, 2026 deadline. Meanwhile, at the Shanghai...
They 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 first community solar garden in America. Haskell Werlin and Steven Strong trace solar...
Clean 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 in grid value are being left on the table. Craig Lewis, Founder and CEO of the Clean...
Can 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 and battery storage. Nicole Tomasin, Chief Commercial Officer at EAI, joins Tim Mont...
Perovskite 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 Solar, explains the technology, what the Meyer Burger acquisition brings, and where tand...
US 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 means 70% of modules coming off certain lines require rework before they ship. The fi...
Why 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 explains why wires laws block resilient grid solutions and what it costs us to keep bury...
Why 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 year alone. In this episode, he walks Tim Montague through his vertically integrated ...
SDE'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 (Sinclair Designs and Engineering), joins Tim Montague to explain how USA-made steel and 4-d...
LG 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 (MI, IL, AZ, OH, GA). The company also projects a 15% cost reduction on its next-genera...
This 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 morning rates. In this episode, Tim Montague sits down with Rod Matthews, President of Bre...
Why 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 successful battery projects in 2020 have since banned the technology outright. In thi...
California 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 kilowatt hour up by 4.2 cents, adding around $10,833 of revenue to solar asset owners in a...
