At an event celebrating the opening of its new Chicago headquarters, leading community solar developer Nexamp highlighted how Illinois is setting a national benchmark by rapidly scaling renewable energy while deeply embedding equity, labor standards, and inclusive workforce development into the core of its clean energy transition. On June 24, Nexamp, the nation’s largest community…
Read More
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 reviewing plans, and how battery integration really fits into commercial solar today. In this episode, Tim Montague…
Read More
Battery energy storage fire safety is one of the most urgent permitting challenges facing solar and storage developers in 2026. Mike Nicholas, Energy Storage Specialist and Fire Consultant at Hiller Companies, brings a rare perspective: he built Kern County’s entire BESS permitting program from scratch in 2019, when no national standards existed, and now travels…
Read More
In the wake of winter storms Elliott and Fern, utilities in the Tennessee Valley have taken different approaches toward building resilience, offering examples to those still planning for the next storm. Billion-dollar weather disasters now strike the United States every 19 days, up from every 90 days in the 1980s. That shift explains why the…
Read More
A US federal court just ruled the IRS acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner on solar and wind safe harbor rules, shaking up project timelines for developers racing toward the July 4, 2026 deadline. Meanwhile, at the Shanghai Solar Show (SNEC), energy storage claimed more floor space than solar panels for the first time,…
Read More
Storage has moved from add-on to anchor. Here is how to build the muscle to develop and install commercial battery projects. For most of the last decade, C&I solar installers treated battery storage as a value-add. That era is over. In 2026, storage is becoming THE DEAL at a growing share of C&I sites, and…
Read More
Solar & storage pioneers Solar Design Associates share 50 years of firsts on the Clean Power Hour. They put solar on the White House in 1979 and built the first community solar garden in America. Haskell Werlin and Steven Strong trace solar’s fall from $16 to $1 per watt, explain why the battery cost curve…
Read More
Community microgrids and virtual power plants are two of the most misunderstood concepts in clean energy, and the gap between them is where billions of dollars in grid value are being left on the table. Craig Lewis, Founder and CEO of the Clean Coalition, returns to The Clean Power Hour to break down how community-scale…
Read More
Energy resilience for homeowners is the mission behind Energy Access Innovations, a multi-brand clean energy company building an end-to-end ecosystem for solar and battery storage. Nicole Tomasin, Chief Commercial Officer at EAI, joins Tim Montague to explain how the company serves the consumers the rest of the industry ignores, including DIYers and rural markets. Battery…
Read More
Silicon solar is approaching a hard physical efficiency ceiling at 30%. Perovskite tandem solar is the only proven path through it. Joel Jean, CEO of Swift Solar, explains the technology, what the Meyer Burger acquisition brings, and where tandems sit on the road to commercial scale. After seven decades, silicon solar is closing in on…
Read More
To receive ongoing updates and notifications on new episodes, please sign up to our Newsletter and we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop!
The Clean Power Hour podcast is your source for the latest cleantech and clean energy news, thought leaders, and innovators!
Our mission is to accelerate the energy transition through knowledge, insights, and conversations.
© 2026 Clean Power Hour