In the latest episode of the Clean Power Hour Live, hosts Tim Montague and John Weaver (the CommercialSolarGuy) returned from a busy week at RE+ Northeast in Boston to breeze through a group of recent global news stories about offshore wind victories, the rapid evolution of construction robotics, the shifting economics of the global battery market, and more.
Here is a rundown of the most important points in the conversation:
RE+ Northeast and the rise of “Pallet Lumi”
Fresh off the floor at RE+ Northeast, the hosts reflected on the maturation of the New England solar market. Montague estimated attendance at around 1,500 people, noting the event’s growth from a hotel ballroom to the main convention center.
While Weaver focused on his “business goal” of talking with racking manufacturers about upcoming projects, Montague highlighted the “human” element of the show, including interviews with industry veterans from Chint Power Systems, PanelClaw, and Denowatts.
The conversation then shifted to a major technological update from Luminous Robotics, a company Montague advises. Luminous has released the “Pallet Lumi,” a specialized robot designed to carry a pallet of solar modules and follow a module-picking robot around. The robots work together to install the modules in a large-scale array.
The hosts discussed how the design of the robots has improved over time, as the paid are now housed in sleek yellow bodies, low enough to the ground that they can travel under the rows in an array to get their job done.
Wind: 5, Trump: 0
In what Weaver dubbed the “Wind Show,” the hosts discussed a significant legal and practical victory for the U.S. offshore wind industry. Weaver outlined how the excuses put forward by the Trump administration to block wind projects have fallen away one by one as judges have removed the barriers put in place by the Executive branch and reinstated the projects.
Here are the key facts:
- Construction resumes: Five wind farms on the East Coast have resumed construction after judges lifted stop-work orders issued by the Trump administration. The initial orders cited radar interference, but when that was disproven, the justification shifted to “top secret” reasons, which courts have now rejected.
- The cost of delay: Weaver pointed out that these stoppages cost projects between $5 million and $10 million per day. Vineyard Wind faces additional logistical headaches involving a specialized vessel scheduled to leave for another contract in March, complicating the replacement of blades from a faulty batch.
- Global context: The wind sector isn’t without its physical risks. The hosts reviewed footage of a 20-year-old turbine in South Korea collapsing onto a road. However, they contrasted this with success stories from Great Britain, where wind farms drove down day-ahead wholesale energy prices by nearly a third in 2025.
Data centers: a “race to the top”
With data centers driving price spikes for consumers in some regions, the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) in Chicago is proposing a new approach.
- “TSA PreCheck” for data center interconnection: The ELPC suggests that data centers willing to pay their own transmission costs, bring their own clean energy, and protect local communities from noise and pollution should be granted accelerated grid access.
- Becoming grid assets: Weaver mused on the potential of these facilities to act as distributed power plants, utilizing their massive battery backups and on-site generation to support the transmission network during peak demand.
Global trade and tech
Later in the episode, the discussion moved to the details of manufacturing and the broad strokes of trade policy.
- Trade wars, old and new: China has extended import tariffs on U.S. polysilicon — a relic of 2015-era trade disputes that pushed U.S. companies out of the market. Meanwhile, the WTO ruled that the Inflation Reduction Act’s 10% domestic content bonus violates international trade rules.
- Ultra-thin wafers: Hongyuan has rolled out a 40-micrometer engineering-ready silicon wafer, roughly one-third the thickness of the current 120-micrometer standard. This reduction could significantly cut material and energy costs per module.
Batteries: the grid awakens
Finally, the hosts analyzed a new report from Benchmark indicating a major shift in battery demand.
- Grid vs. EV: For the first time, grid storage demand is growing faster than EV demand, with grid deployment up 51%.
- EV market share: While EVs still represent about 75% of global battery demand, the rapid uptake of stationary storage suggests the grid is becoming a primary driver of the battery industry, outpacing earlier predictions.
Wrap-up
Catch the full context of these stories at the Clean Power Hour website. Connect with Tim Montague in person at Intersolar in San Diego (Feb 18-19) or at NABCEP in Milwaukee (March 16-19).
And as always, if you want CommercialSolarGuyto bring your project to life, contact us here.