Clean Power Hour

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 unpack stationary battery storage growth and follow the batteries to two places: 230 GW of data center interconnection requests and a solar plus storage copper mine in Congo. They also cover China clean tech investment, EV charging costs, and agrivoltaics. These stories show where new batteries are going and why.
Episode Highlights:
Stationary storage is taking a larger share of global battery deployment. EVs fell to more than 70% in 2025, down from almost 80% in 2024 (IEA), as EV growth ran slower than projected and grid storage grew faster. Tim opened with a 95% EV figure, John corrected it with the IEA data live, and the hosts named CATL, BYD, and Illinois' new grid law as drivers of grid-scale battery storage. 
Cross Boundary Energy's Kamoa Copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo pairs 233 MW of east-west solar with a 526 MWh battery and 30 MW of output. John calls the roughly 8 to 1 DC to AC ratio the largest he has seen. (Crossboundary Energy)
Tim reports 230 GW of data center interconnection applications across the U.S., against a grid running near 500 GW. He argues 20 million Powerwall 3 units, or one in five homes, would match that load. The hosts discuss grid edge computing from Lektra and Base Power's 40 kWh home batteries, which entered Illinois through the state's virtual power plant legislation.
China's share of global clean manufacturing investment fell from 71% in early 2023 to 33% in Q2 2026 (Reuters). Tim asked why this counts as good news for solar. 
Maize under the panels produced 19.6% more dry matter than an open control plot during a drought and heat wave. The panels cut evapotranspiration by 20% (PV Magazine). 
A Sydney green roof ran 28 degrees Celsius cooler, and its solar outperformed a metal roof array by 11% (Renew Economy).
This episode serves battery storage professionals, solar developers, clean energy investors, and policy watchers. Data center load, gas price spikes, and shifting battery demand all affect project economics right now. Tim and John give you the numbers and more.
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The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email:  CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems.  Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

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 in West Branch, Michigan, with Jordan Rhyne of Countryside Energy and Kyle Sinclair of Sinclair Designs & Engineering.
The project brought together domestic-content solar modules, custom racking engineering, structural analysis, field installation lessons, and a challenging interconnection process with Consumers Energy.
Jordan and Kyle walk through what it took to make the project work, including why the customer wanted a truly domestic solar system, how First Solar Series 7 modules changed the racking design, and what the team learned from taking the system from engineering drawings into the field.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Countryside Energy identified Griffin Beverage as a strong commercial solar customer
• Why the customer prioritized a truly domestically sourced solar array
• How First Solar Series 7 modules created unique racking and engineering challenges
• Why the racking team developed a purpose-built bracket and clip connection
• How structural analysis and FEA helped validate the module-to-racking connection
• What installers need to consider when working with frameless thin-film modules
• Lessons from module handling, breakage, installation speed, and field tolerances
• What EPCs should know before taking on their first First Solar Series 7 project
The 365 kW system was designed to offset 110% of the facility's load, the maximum allowed by Consumers Energy for the project. The team also had to coordinate an upgrade of the site's service transformer from 250 kVA to 500 kVA before the system could be energized.
Connect with Guests 
Jordan Rhyne | LinkedIn
Kyle Sinclair | LinkedIn 
Learn more about Sinclair Designs & Engineering:
https://www.sinclair-designs.com/
Learn more about Countryside Energy:
https://countryside-energy.com/
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
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Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com 
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email:  CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems.  Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

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 different approach to the growing power demands of AI. Lektra places GPU servers alongside distributed energy resources such as solar and batteries, turning homes, businesses, and other energy sites into small-scale data centers. 
Instead of exporting excess solar to the grid, an energy host can use that electricity to power GPU workloads and earn revenue from the compute generated. Karl says Lektra typically gives energy hosts 80% of the resulting revenue while retaining 20% for providing the compute marketplace and infrastructure.
The conversation explores why rapidly growing AI demand is exposing limitations in today's electric grid, and whether distributed energy, microgrids, batteries, and edge computing could form part of a more decentralized Grid 2.0.
In this episode, Tim and Karl discuss: 
• Why AI is creating a new market for distributed energy
• How Lektra turns solar and other energy assets into edge-scale data centers
• The economics of selling compute instead of electricity
• How Lektra's 80/20 revenue-sharing model works
• Why edge computing could benefit autonomous vehicles, robotics, logistics, and physical AI
• How distributed compute could help address data-center grid constraints
• Lektra's approach to data sovereignty and on-premises AI
• What a more decentralized energy system could look like over the next several decades 
The future of AI will require enormous amounts of energy. This conversation explores whether some of that demand can be met where energy is already being generated, and whether compute can provide the economic incentive to build a more distributed and resilient energy system.
Connect with Karl Andersen, Lektra 
Karl Andersen | LinkedIn 
Lektra - Powering Intelligence 
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
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Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com 
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email:  CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems.  Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

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 North America Utility-Scale Solar at Wood Mackenzie, on a crossover with her show Interchange Recharged. They work the gap from opposite ends of the industry: utility-scale generation versus C&I, community solar, storage, and microgrids. 
They cover safe harbor strategy under the ITC phase-out, how projects get financed, and how the AI data center boom reshapes demand. Tim makes his case that distributed energy deploys faster than the interconnection queue allows, and lands on his thesis that the future grid is a grid of microgrids. 
Tim and Sylvia work the gap between what the U.S. needs and what utilities will build:
Where does utility scale end and distributed generation begin?
How does the ITC phase-out drive the safe harbor rush?
Why do most C&I projects skip PPAs for commercial loans?
What does the 230 versus 93 gigawatt gap mean for developers?
Which states give community solar its strongest footing?
Why does Tim believe the future is a grid of microgrids?
Links
Interchange Recharged | Wood Mackenzie
Climate Restoration Book — Peter Fiekowsky
Sylvia Leyva Martinez | LinkedIn 
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
Clean Power Hour 
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com 
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email:  CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems.  Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

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 solar, battery, and flywheel system at its Bolingbrook, Illinois headquarters. John Gounaris, VP of Global Marketing, and John Pederson, Principal Staff Engineer and the project's manager, walk Tim Montague through the build. 
G&W Electric manufactures switches, reclosers, and grid automation gear used across US utility grids, and its 121-year-old campus needed resilient power to protect production. The project runs on Intelligent Generation's earn, save, protect framework: earn through frequency regulation, save on capacity charges, protect with backup power. Tim presses the guests on capex, opex, and why they skipped lithium-ion. 
The conversation covers real storm performance in 2026, revenue swings, and how domestic vanadium sourcing shaped the battery choice.
Gounaris and Pederson explain the choices behind one of the few flywheel microgrids in operation:
Why did G&W skip lithium-ion for a vanadium flow battery?
How does a flywheel hold full building load for 62 seconds?
What earned G&W more in 10 weeks than all last year?
How much of an industrial bill do capacity charges reach?
Which US source supplied the vanadium, and why does it matter?
How did the microgrid perform during the 2026 Chicago storms?
Connect with Guests
John Gounaris | LinkedIn
John Pederson | LinkedIn
G&W Electric | Innovative Power Grid Solutions & Electrical Systems 
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
Clean Power Hour 
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com 
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email:  CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems.  Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com