Clean Power Hour

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 construction side drops to an estimated 1 to 3%. Riley Neugebauer, founder of Solar for Women, joins Tim Montague on the Clean Power Hour to talk about why women are missing from solar installation and what the industry needs to do about it. Riley Neugebauer is the founder of Solar for Women, a nonprofit building a network of women in the solar trades. 
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
You will learn why girls outperform boys in STEM subjects through middle school but drop off by high school, and how socialization pushes women away from trades careers before they ever consider them.
You will hear Riley describe how one employer told her she had no natural ability after a year of work, while hiring men around her for the field roles she wanted. That experience led her to start the Facebook group that became Solar for Women.
Riley explains that companies need to do specific work: put women in visible roles, show diversity in marketing materials, create employee resource groups, offer mentorship, and allow schedule flexibility for parents.
You will hear about organizations already training women in solar, including Grid Alternatives, Remote Energy, and the Solar Energy International (SEI) women's lab programs. Riley credits Grid Alternatives with producing many of the women she knows in the solar construction workforce.
Tim and Riley discuss the broader U.S. trades shortage. The country needs a million new electricians, many are aging out, and K-12 education still steers students toward college rather than skilled trades.
This episode matters because the solar industry faces a labor shortage while half the population remains almost entirely absent from its construction workforce. Riley Neugebauer and Solar for Women are working to change that by building community, advocating for workplace culture shifts, and connecting women to training resources. The opportunity is large and the barriers are solvable.
Connect with Riley Neugebauer, Solar for Women 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riley-neugebauer-5a534a5/
Website: https://www.solarforwomen.com/
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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:  [email protected]
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

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 EPC division building 67 MW projects and negotiating 100 MW contracts.
In this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague sits down with Greenfield to trace the full arc of the U.S. solar industry, from off-grid battery systems with lead-acid batteries to utility-scale construction backed by a multi-billion-dollar general contractor. They cover NABCEP's role in professional standards, why U.S. residential solar costs two to three times more than in Australia or Germany, and why the industry needs to prepare for a future without tax credits.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Starting a solar company in 2000 meant buying used 53-watt panels from classified ads at $6 per watt. Greenfield traces how the economics shifted from pure environmental motivation to grid parity and beyond.
NABCEP credentials go beyond technical competence. Organizations have lost certification over ethical violations, and state attorneys general are now pursuing solar bad actors.
Panel efficiency is approaching physical limits, but economic efficiency still has room.
In PJM territory, commercial battery storage pays for itself through peaking value and ancillary services, sometimes faster than solar alone. Resilience sells in residential, but the commercial case depends on grid services math.
The solar tax credit is likely not returning. Companies preparing for 2028 and beyond are cutting soft costs, joining procurement cooperatives like Amicus Solar, and building business models that work without incentives.
This conversation provides a 26-year field perspective on what it took to grow from a one-person off-grid installer to a utility-scale EPC, and what comes next for companies facing the same transition.
Connect with Geoff Greenfield, Kokosing 
Geoff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-greenfield-595a406/
Kokosing Website: https://kokosingsolar.com/
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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:  [email protected]
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

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 construction and solar companies right now. In this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague sits down with Anglen to break down what a digital workforce actually looks like in practice, how solar contractors and EPCs can start using agentic AI today, and what it means when AI agents take over knowledge work at scale.
Episode Highlights
Anglen breaks down the three categories of AI agents and explains why most of what people call "agents" today are not actually agents at all.
One construction firm with projects in the hundreds of millions of dollars had a core operational process that took 10 people three months to complete. Ruh AI turned that same process into an overnight task.
Solar contractors are sitting on a lead generation opportunity that most have never considered. AI agents make it possible to act on it at scale, at almost no cost.
The administrative burden of running a billion-dollar construction or solar company is staggering. Anglen explains exactly which back-office functions AI agents are already handling, and what that means for headcount.
Anglen gives a clear breakdown of what it actually costs to build and run a custom AI agent, from the entry-level option any business owner can start today to the complex systems designed to replace entire departments.
Anglen shares a number that reframes the entire AI conversation. It is not about chatbots or writing emails. It is about the total size of the knowledge economy and how much of it AI is already capable of doing without a human in the loop.
Solar and EPC companies are already operating under margin pressure, competing on thin spreads while administrative overhead continues to grow. The tools Jesse Anglen describes are available today, at a price point that is lower than hiring a single full-time employee. The window to adopt these systems before competitors do is narrowing fast.
Connect with Jesse Anglen
Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseanglen/
Website: https://www.ruh.ai/
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Connect with Tim  
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Email [email protected] 
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:  [email protected]
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

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 John Weaver break down this milestone and seven more stories on this Clean Power Hour Live.
This live episode covers battery manufacturing economics, solar panel technology shifts, offshore wind project costs, global installation records, grid stability regulation, and DIY plug-in solar.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
US grid battery manufacturing capacity is expected to double from 70 to 145 gigawatt hours by the end of 2026. (Canary Media)
Tesla officials visited Chinese equipment makers, including Maxwell Technologies, to source up to 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing equipment. (Reuters)
India deployed 49 gigawatts of solar in 2025, surpassing the US at 45 gigawatts for the first time. (PV Tech)
The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind facility, an $11.5 billion project, delivered its first power to the grid. (Riviera)
GCL OptoElectronics secured China's first commercial perovskite silicon tandem PV module order at 1.2 megawatts. (PV Magazine)
Fraunhofer researchers found that certain solar panel cleaning agents damage anti-reflective coatings and reduce module performance by up to 5%. (PV Magazine)
Battery manufacturing economics, tariff math, and grid regulation changes are moving faster than most project timelines. If you develop, finance, or install clean energy systems, the numbers in this episode affect your next bid.
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
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Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email [email protected] 
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:  [email protected]
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

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 paying the price when it fails. Elisa Wood, founder of Energy Changemakers and host of the Energy Changemakers podcast, joins Tim Montague on The Clean Power Hour to explain why community microgrids are the missing layer in grid resilience, where they are actually working, and what is stopping most communities from building them.
In this Episode:
You will learn exactly how a community microgrid differs from standard solar and storage, specifically the islanding capability that keeps critical services running when the main grid fails.
You will understand why the "over the fence" rule blocks most community microgrid projects and how California is beginning to create exceptions that other states could follow.
You will learn why resilience has no assigned dollar value in today's grid market, and why that missing valuation is the root cause of the community microgrid funding problem.
You will hear which states are leading on community microgrid development right now and why federal funding cuts have made state and local action the only real path forward.
You will learn why utilities have a structural reason to resist community microgrids and what financial incentive changes could shift that dynamic.
You will take away a community engagement lesson from Cascadia Renewables in Washington State, showing that talking to residents before doing engineering studies is what determines whether a project wins local support or stalls.
With federal support retreating and extreme weather intensifying, the window for state-level action on community microgrids is narrow. The case studies in this episode show that community microgrids save lives, reduce economic losses from outages, and create local energy wealth. Clean energy professionals who want to move these projects forward need to understand the regulatory barriers, the funding gaps, and the community engagement strategies that separate successful projects from stalled ones.
Connect with Elisa Wood
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisawood/
Website: https://energychangemakers.com/
Support the show
Connect with Tim  
Clean Power Hour 
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn 
Email [email protected] 
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:  [email protected]
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