Clean Power Hour

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 
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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

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 
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Connect with Tim  
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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

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 
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Connect with Tim  
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Tim on Twitter
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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

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 Critical Loop, a California modular microgrid company that brings megawatts to industrial facilities and data centers when a utility interconnection is years away. Before energy, Bala spent 12 years at SpaceX as chief engineer on the first human spaceflight mission, and he applies that same high-reliability systems thinking to the grid. 
This conversation covers how their Cygnus controller orchestrates batteries and on-site generation to close the gap between what a utility can deliver and what a site needs. Tim pushes Bala on the hard questions: whether Critical Loop competes for scarce batteries, and why a site like San Diego International Airport needs them at all. It matters now because load growth is outpacing what the grid can build.
Here is what this conversation reveals about closing the gap between grid capacity and industrial demand:
How do you power a 20-megawatt site when the utility offers seven?
Why does a rocket engineer see the grid as the same problem as a launch?
What does Critical Loop's Cygnus controller actually do on site?
When does a temporary bridge microgrid become a permanent asset?
Why does San Diego International Airport need Critical Loop at all?
What keeps a founder up at night as load growth outpaces the grid?
Critical Loop is betting that the fastest way to add power is not to build more grid, but to orchestrate what a site already has. Bala Ramamurthy makes the case that a controller, batteries, and on-site generation can close the gap between what a utility delivers and what a factory or data center needs, turning a years-long interconnection wait into weeks.
For anyone building, financing, or powering industrial load right now, this conversation is a look at how speed to power becomes a business. 
Connect with Guest:
Balachandar Ramamurthy | LinkedIn 
Critical Loop Website 
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Connect with Tim  
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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

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. 
Chris explains why the new policy works as a price floor, not a simple tariff, setting a minimum import price plus a 15 percent tax on cells, wafers, and modules. The three break down domestic cell shortages, First Solar litigation, and how developers hedge against monthly price hikes. 
Anyone buying solar panels before the December 4 deadline needs this pricing and procurement picture.
Chris Lettman answers the pricing questions every solar buyer is asking before December 4:
Why is Section 232 a price floor instead of a normal tariff?
How much do imported, hybrid, and fully domestic modules now cost per watt?
Which companies make solar cells in the U.S. today?
How is John Weaver stockpiling modules to beat rising prices?
Why does only PERC ship domestically while TOPCon stays blocked?
What happens to overseas module factories after December 4?
Section 232 changes the math for every solar buyer heading into 2027. The tariffs raise prices across all three module tiers and close the gap between imported and domestic panels, with fully imported modules near 45 cents per watt and fully domestic near 53. Imports look set to stop around December 4, domestic cell supply stays tight behind ES Foundry and Saniva, and buyers like John Weaver are stockpiling now to beat monthly price hikes. Tim, John, and Chris disagree on whether the policy drives real U.S. manufacturing or adds cost and friction, but they agree on the takeaway: know your pricing tiers, lock in supply early, and plan procurement through 2027 before the next increase hits. 
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