Tim Montague

Derek Hansen on what makes a solar company great, not just good

Clean energy company culture is what separates good solar EPCs from great ones, and Mynt Systems 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 less than it should, and this episode makes the case for why that…

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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 redesigning inverter specs around eventual failure. In this episode of Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague sits down with CJ Colavito,…

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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 Live, hosts Tim Montague and John Weaver break down the foreign inverter ban alongside new Section 232 solar tariffs that set a…

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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 Nashville, Tennessee, now in its 20th year in business.  In this conversation, Tim Montague asks…

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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 credits to Microsoft and British Airways at $350 a ton, a price Mann expects to…

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Commercial Solar Reality: A 700 kW Project, 5 Years in the Making #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 to near zero. A 700 kW behind-the-meter solar array now offsets 70 percent of the electric load…

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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 storage are stepping in, why utilities need private capital to keep rates in check, and…

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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 devices are enrolled in virtual power plant programs today. Data centers, EVs, heat…

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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 data, including John’s own project numbers, on the Clean Power Hour Live. They also…

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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 sits down with Walt Jordan, Chief Revenue Officer at dGEN Energy Partners, to explore one of the least talked-about emerging…

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