In the first Clean Power Hour Live of 2026, hosts Tim Montague and John Weaver discussed articles related to these three important themes:
- The widening gap in the deployment of solar and storage capacity between the United States and China
- Why green energy has taken an economic lead over fossil fuels, with Wall Street generating more revenue from clean tech than legacy energy investments and Big Tech recognizing the long-term value of asset ownership over power purchase agreements.
- How granular engineering evolutions are driving cost reductions in solar technology. Some aim to stabilize module pricing by reducing exposure to volatile global commodities markets, while others seek to increase power conversion efficiency.
Here’s a look at how these themes carried through the Clean Power Hour discussion:
The widening gap in energy infrastructure deployment
The sharpest contrast in this episode was the disparity between how big projects get built in the U.S. and China. Montague and Weaver discussed the idea of “bureaucrats as engineers” as covered in the book Breakneck, by Dan Wang. The author argues that this mindset allows for rapid infrastructure deployment. In contrast, Wang posits, the U.S. system is often bogged down by litigation and “bureaucrats as attorneys.”
To support this argument, the hosts discussed a recent article in pv magazine about a study that found China will reach a clean economy by 2051, while the US is on track to reach the same goal by 2148 — a nearly 100-year gap. Weaver tied the findings of this study in with the recent U.S. invasion of Venezuela, pointing out that the Chinese government has a drive to overcome its dependence on oil from countries like Venezuela, which may no longer be reliable trading partners.
The hosts also discussed two other disparities between the U.S. and China. First, the pair discussed how the coast of China is now surrounded by wind farms, and the country has commissioned a 1-GW open-sea offshore solar farm, while developers in the U.S. spend millions of dollars per day as they litigate court cases to restart offshore wind projects shuttered by the Trump administration.
Later, Weaver cited an article from Benchmark, in which data shows how the storage capacity of Chinese battery installations in the month of December, 2025 surpassed all energy storage capacity installed in the United States for the whole year.
The distinctions between the strategies of the world’s two energy production leaders couldn’t be clearer.
The new green economics
Another major theme of the episode was the new paradigm in energy economics. Weaver pointed out that climate tech is “powering ahead” with financial benefits available to many different stakeholders.
In support of this claim, the hosts discussed a Bloomberg story (paywall) that highlights how Wall Street now makes roughly 20% more revenue from structuring climate-related deals than fossil fuel deals.
Another key story that describes this shift is Google’s acquisition of clean energy developer Intersect. Using the metaphor of buying the cow instead of the milk, Weaver pointed out that Google is likely looking beyond Intersect’s existing portfolio of 10.8 gigawatts in clean energy capacity and instead anticipating a yield of 50 to 100 gigawatts of new renewable energy assets within the next decade.
A clear shift in financial motivation links these stories. The connection here is that capital is technology agnostic and rational: whether it’s a tech monopoly needing guaranteed power or a bank seeking yield, the smart money has decided that clean energy is the superior asset class, regardless of political headwinds.
Technological innovation
While the macro conversation focused on geopolitics and finance, the technical segments of the show highlighted how the industry is solving problems with novel physical structures, on scales ranging from the micro down to the atomic.
In the former case, Montague and Weaver discussed changes to module construction in the face of rising silver prices. They pointed to a Bloomberg article regarding Longi’s plan to move toward copper back-contact cells. The change should initially help the company shave a fraction of a penny per watt off the cost to make its modules, but will also mitigate its exposure to the volatile silver market.
With regard to the atomic scale, the hosts discussed a pv magazine article about a pilot program to perform real-world testing on perovskite tandem solar modules. Montague pointed out that modules made using perovskite tandem solar cells are nearing 30% conversion efficiency compared to the 23% typical of traditional silicon-cell modules, but that long-term reliability is still unknown.
Weaver expressed excitement about this real-world test in the U.S. (following a 5 MW installation in China in 2025). He went on to compare the development of perovskites to raising a child, saying that all the money and time put into “giving birth” to this new technology was finally bringing about the kinds of economic benefits promised over the past decade of perovskite research. He thinks there will soon be new financial tools to allow large scale projects wherein the first generation or two of perovskite-containing solar modules can be installed, with the expectation that the modules may need to be replaced once or twice in the projects’ first 20 years of operation.
The connecting thread here is optimization. Whether we’re talking about a new technology finally about to make its real-world debut or new ways of constructing a solar module to hedge against commodities market volatility, the solar industry’s focus has shifted from “does it work?” to “how do we make it cheaper, safer, and more efficient at scale?”
Connect and learn more
Catch the full context of these stories at CleanPowerHour.com. Connect with Tim and John in person at RE+ Northeast in Boston on February 3-5, 2026.
And as always, if you want Commercial Solar Guy to bring your project to life, contact us here, or call (508) 499-9786.