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
447 episodes
California 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 transition.Tim Montague and John Weaver break down the latest developments across sola...
Why 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 project?In episode 373 of the Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague speaks with Dr. Simon En...
The 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, according to the IEA. On this CPH Live, Tim Montague and John Weaver unpa...
Inside 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 goes behind the scenes of a 365 kW commercial solar project for Griffin Beverage ...
This 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 Montague talks with Karl Andersen, founder and CEO of Lektra, about a diffe...
The 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 from?Tim Montague takes that question to Sylvia Leyva Martinez, Director of N...
Solar, 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 anchor a commercial microgrid, but G&W Electric built one around a so...
How 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 Loop was built to solve. Bala Ramamurthy is the founder and CEO of Critic...
Section 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 Lettman, a solar module supply chain and technology expert with Imperial Star Solar. ...
Derek 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, support.Company culture in the solar and storage industry gets talked about far ...
What 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 generation projects for decades, from evaluating tracker and inverter reliability to redesign...
Foreign 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 updates, and grid cybersecurity risk. On this episode of The Clean Power Hour ...
How 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 of LightWave Solar, a residential and commercial solar and storage installer in ...
How 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 technology scales fast. Undo turns rock dust into permanent carbon storage and sells cr...
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...
