The following solar and storage news comes from “The Clean Power Hour”:
In this engaging bi-weekly news roundup, host Tim Montague welcomes back John Weaver, the “CommercialSolarGuy,” to discuss major developments in the renewable energy sector. The episode highlights Bloomberg NEF’s report of nearly 50 gigawatts of solar deployed in the US in 2024, a significant increase from the previous year that demonstrates solar’s growing dominance over wind in capacity additions. John shares his analysis of California’s impressive clean energy progress, where solar generation is up 34% year-over-year and recently achieved the milestone of meeting 100% of the state’s electricity demand – remarkably in February. They discuss how battery storage deployment is revolutionizing California’s grid stability and enabling more solar integration. The conversation takes a serious turn examining the Trump administration’s executive order pausing IRA funding and its implications for domestic manufacturing, including the news that Freyr Battery (now T1 Energy) has canceled its planned US battery factory. Join Tim and John for this informative discussion on the triumphs and challenges facing the clean energy transition.
Tim Montague:
Welcome back to the clean Power Hour live with our weekly news by Weekly News Roundup. I’m Tim Montague check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com, give us a rating and review on Apple Spotify, and check out our YouTube channel where all of this great content lives. It’s my great pleasure to say that we are back with none other than John Weaver the CommercialSolarGuy himself, welcome John!
John Weaver:
Hey, Tim. It’s nice to be back.
Tim Montague: Been too long, brother.
John Weaver: Yep, yep. I crawled out of a hole. Uh, they let me out of jail for the weekend, early release program, something like that. You know how it goes.
How are you, Timothy?
Tim Montague:
I’m doing great. It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in central Illinois, in Champaign. We’ve had a real winter—it’s been very, very cold. I like real winter, I’m good with that. We’ve had some snow, we’ve had some ice, nothing really too gnarly, and it keeps us honest. It keeps the riffraff out, I like to say.
John Weaver: I almost wore my hat because I was outside eating lunch and it was chilly as I came up the building and felt a chill. But it’s just warm enough now. What I’m seeing around town, though, is that we were out at a site yesterday, and there’s still snow on some panels. We’re trying to close it out so that we can do our monitoring system. It’s a SolarEdge system, and in order to do the proper monitoring setup and commissioning, we need some bright sun.
Two weeks ago, we got some wet snow, then rain the next day, and then it plunged back into the teens. It kind of did a number on this particular site. So, we have icy modules, but it’s working out because we have the same blue sky today, which is really nice. That’s why I was outside, getting all that vitamin D in my eyeballs.
It’s interesting to see how modules react to different weather. One thing I’d love to learn—if you have knowledge on this, give me some data—is when we’re looking at residential modules sitting on the side of a roof, what variables lead the snow to melt off the modules or slide faster than the building?
There could be two buildings right next to each other, same roof angle, but modules are sticking on one and not the other. It makes me think about what’s going on inside the house—insulation, maybe? But I don’t know.
Tim Montague:
I think that theory is probably accurate because if the modules are getting the same amount of exposure, there can be subtle differences—like the lip on the edge of the module if they’re from different manufacturers. I was talking to someone who was making a product to cover that lip and make the snow slide off easier. But it turned out to be a bit of a dead-end product. It was just too complicated, and people couldn’t get excited about it, so it never took off.
But, John, we were in Boston—well, you’re always in Boston—but I was in Boston for RE+ Northeast. The coolest thing for me was that we got to witness the launch of the Lumi 3, the Lumi robotic system.
I’m producing a short video on it that’s going to drop over the weekend. This is a robot that picks up modules from a pallet and places them on the racking. In full disclosure, I’m on the advisory board of this little company—they’re based in Boston. Check it out: Luminous Robotics. Really cool new robot coming to a solar field near you.
They are actually deploying this robot as we speak in real solar construction projects. Reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to learn more about the Lumi 3, and check out our channel at cleanpowerhour.com on the web or on YouTube.
What was the coolest thing that you saw at RE+ besides the Lumi? You were also there at the Lumi launch.
John Weaver:
I think I saw a shift in who was on the floor. The show was a smaller one—it always is. Boston RE+—who wants to come to New England in the middle of winter, literal middle of winter?
But what was most interesting is that on the floor were lots of contractors—not just walking around, but actually having booths.
Tim Montague: More EPCs having booths, right?
John Weaver: Yes! And there’s always a lot of EPCs, but it was the ratio, the volume that was different. The volume of professional services supporting the industry was higher.
There were still some racking people and some hardware people, but..
Tim Montague: Less manufacturers, more service providers…
John Weaver: Yeah, yeah, and so that’s what I thought was the most interesting..
Tim Montague: Is that a sign of the maturation of the industry, you think?
John Weaver: Maybe? It could also be related to the location and size of the show and details like that. But it could also be that people know how to get in touch with manufacturers, and at a show, it’s harder to find local specialists who don’t have big brand names.
For example, I spoke with an insurance guy—I’ll be publishing an article for pv magazine on Monday or Tuesday as a follow-up to the show. I met a good insurance person, a couple of engineers, finance people—just different supporting professionals rather than the big hardware manufacturers dominating the floor.
We still saw some, though. Like Solar Mounts LLC—they’re a carport racking manufacturer. They’re actually supplying racking for a portfolio we’re constructing right now, a couple of megawatts worth. So, as a team, our construction manager and GC had lots of conversations with them about the process.
But again, the volume of EPCs and other service-related people was significant. I thought that was cool—different from what I expected.
Tim Montague:
I was also hanging out in the CPS America booth—shoutout to CPS America, the three-phase string inverter manufacturer. I did a bunch of little interviews, including with two staff people, Peter Prisco and Brian Wagner from CPS.
I also interviewed Patrick Canning from Canning Engineering—check them out. I’ll be doing more with Canning Engineering this year. I also got to interview Noel Paige from Aspen Power—look for that interview to drop in the next month or so.
Aspen Power is a developer and IPP, and Noel is the VP of Development. She’s a really interesting person—her whole career has been in solar. John, she’s done her whole career in solar. I’m so jealous. That is one of my few regrets in life—not getting into the solar industry sooner.
What’s your regret in life, John?
John Weaver:
We’re gonna move on to the 50 gigawatts of solar that was deployed—no damn regrets today, Tim!
Tim Montague:
Haha! So.. coming up on Clean Power Hour Live, then, that’s your number one regret!
(Tim & John both laughing)
Let’s get into the news, John! We’ve got some great stories to cover.
Our number one story: Almost 50 gigawatts of solar deployed in the U.S. in 2024—I don’t believe it!
Tim Montague:
This comes from the Sustainable Energy in America 2025 Factbook, tracking market and policy. It’s a BloombergNEF publication, supported by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.
I’ve never heard of that organization, but I’m glad we have such a thing.
John Weaver:
So, check out page 22 if you’re going to share it.
This report tracks renewable energy deployment in the U.S. and shows that BNEF estimates roughly 49 gigawatts DC of solar deployed. That’s pretty cool.
Yeah, and that number over there—49 gigawatts DC—is still an estimate. However, my estimates suggest we should be just beyond 50 gigawatts.. But I’ll lay off because hey, I’m no Bloomberg!
But I just think that’s so neat.
Tim Montague:
Pretty nice uptick from 35 gigawatts in 2023.
And look how small wind is in comparison. My goodness.
I know wind had bigger years earlier—you look back and see 14 gigawatts in 2012, 17 gigawatts in 2019 and 2020—but solar is just blowing wind out of the water.
Take that, wind industry!
John Weaver:
Well, I don’t want to see wind get left behind—I want to see wind do well, too.
Tim Montague: If we’re talking about clean electricity, it’s gonna be about 40% of the clean grid, right? Like 40% wind, 50% solar, and 10% other.
John Weaver:
Yeah, if that’s what it ends up being, that’d be great! As long as we have a lot of clean electricity, that’s what matters.
But this is great: 49 gigawatts—I think maybe up to 40-45 gigawatts of that is utility-scale? And then the last 8-ish gigs were distributed. And that’s just pretty great! I mean, 50 gigs, it’s a big fat number and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Tim Montague:
So solar actually passed the wind industry in cumulative installs back in 2022, it looks like?
John Weaver: Yeah, in 2023. They were just behind wind in 2022—141 gigawatts for solar versus 147 gigawatts for wind.
Tim Montague:
But now we have 226 gigawatts of solar… I can remember when we hit 100 gigawatts installed, and that was a big deal. Now, we’re at 226!
John Weaver:
But look at the chart on the right—even though solar is now 50% higher than wind, (75 gigs up) if you look at total generation, wind is still producing 456 TWh while solar was in the 200 TWh range.
Capacity factor matters—a 20% capacity factor on solar versus 35–45% on wind.
So it’s good that we’re adding more solar coming in. It does look like it’s going to pull back next year, unfortunately. There’s a lot of complexity going on in the world right now.
But, associated with this is the next article—I just wanted to show off something I wrote for pv magazine usa, and that’s that California is looking really good for clean electricity for the first few days of the year.
The next key neat little thing, three data points:
- Solar is up ~34% year-over-year. We’re talking about data from January 1 through February 17.
- Solar already hit 100% of electricity demand in California’s CAISO region—and this happened in February!
- Energy storage is aggressively scaling in California, now over 10 gigawatts deployed and likely greater than 40 gigawatt-hours.
Tim Montague:
So we’re talking about a story you wrote for pv magazine usa, it’s called “California off to a strong clean electricity start with solar up 33.8%.” That’s YoY you’re suggesting?
John Weaver:
Correct, from Jan 1 through and including Feb 17, that’s the analysis.
Tim Montague:
And why is that?
John Weaver:
Well, first, solar’s getting built again in California, ‘cause we’ve had a lot moving forward. But there’s a beautiful nuance that started last year, and that’s that energy storage is now aggressively scaling in California. California’s moved past 10 GW, probably greater than 40 GWh being deployed.
And so if you look at this image, there’s two things happening; one of them you can see, one of them you can’t.
First, let’s look at what you can see in the data—that big “chunk” of yellow?—that’s solar.
Then, if you look at it, that line that’s going across at 100%? That’s roughly the electricity demand in California in CAISO. And I looked at the numbers and while solar doesn’t exactly meet 100% of the grid demand, it’s at around 99.99%, so it’s right around there. So that’s solar meeting demand.
The next thing: you see that big dark blue chunk that’s on the left and right side of both images? That’s batteries. You know where that dark blue is coming from?
Tim Montague:
I have no idea
John Weaver:
That’s batteries soaking up cheap daytime solar. Because if you look at the charging, when do those batteries charge? It’s between 11am and 1pm. The system doesn’t necessarily recognize that that is solar, it calls them “batteries.”
Tim Montague:
Sure. The batteries are storing renewable energy, right.
John Weaver:
So we can call that “clean,” but what also matters, and here’s the thing you can’t see in that image. The batteries are allowing the solar to run more, because they’re absorbing and keeping the system from curtailing. So batteries are bringing system stability. And that I think is a really massive story. Everybody was worried about the California grid going a little funky in the summertime, and in September. I wrote a story about it in 2019 that I referenced in this story, and since then energy storage has been exploding.
Tim Montague:
I have a question, what kind of batteries? Are these utility or grid scale or DG (distributed generation) batteries?
John Weaver:
Mostly utility California’s probably in the 13–14 gigawatts total energy storage distributed, with 10–11 gigawatts of that being utility-scale. So 70-80% are utility, with another 2–4 gigawatts made up of distributed batteries..
Tim Montague:
I had a great conversation with Andrew Birch, the founder of OpenSolar.
He worked a lot in the Australian market, where residential solar is a dollar a watt, John!
Here in the U.S., residential solar is $3.40 a watt—more than three times more expensive.
There were two things that really stood out for me from that conversation—you can look forward to the interview dropping soon on the Clean Power Hour with “Birchy”—there was:
Batteries and Permitting.
Australia and Europe have super fast, easy permitting, and they don’t rely on net metering as much.
So, for people in clean energy who are frustrated about utilities clawing back net metering—or never giving it to them in the first place—just focus on deploying storage, and all will be well.
But we also need easier permitting—much easier permitting, actually, and batteries.
So. California is proving that point right? Because they have horrible net-metering laws now. And it did cause a nosedive in the residential solar industry. But, those contractors are just leaning into storage and moving into C&I (commercial and industrial). And if you’re a contractor listening to this and you want help going into large C&I—reach out to me, that’s one of my expertises.
John, who is your audience? Who needs to call John Weaver, the Commercial Solar Guy, and what is it that you do, anyway?
John Weaver:
Good timing, Tim, because our next link is the Project of the Week!
So, Commercial Solar Guy—what do we do?
- Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) – Full Builds
If you’re in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or New Hampshire, we’re a general contractor, master electrician, and EPC company.
- We do everything—permitting, engineering, buying hardware, installing, connecting to the utility.
- We build rooftop systems for businesses and homes.
- We have a residential brand, Whaling City Solar.
- Solar Development & Consulting – Nationwide
- If you need help with land leases, rooftop leasing, construction contracts, or financial models, we do that.
- We help developers vet contractors and review construction documents.
But our number one goal? Building your solar project.
Tim Montague:
Awesome. Let’s take a look at this Project of the Week.
John Weaver:
Great. So, this is a rooftop solar project in downtown New Bedford—six stories up, on a storage facility.
I pulled up these images because the last two weeks have been brutally cold.
When you’re six stories up, you get even colder—wind chill, freezing temperatures, and you’re working on metal.
- Racking system: KB Racking.
- Modules: ZNSHINE Solar.
- Inverter: SolarEdge.
- Electrician: Edwards Electric—our master electrician and partner.
These guys are freezing, but they’re making it happen.
Tim Montague:
They really look cold!
Tim Montague:
Yeah, and not only is it cold, but you’re dealing with wind on top of a six-story building.
Your installers seem to like KB Racking—what made you go with them?
John Weaver:
They had the right solution with the fewest number of tie-downs.
Since we had to mechanically attach the racking, KB had a chop system that minimized penetrations.
Tim Montague:
Is this a fully attached system or a partially attached one?
John Weaver:
These are partially attached. As you can see in the photos—there’s plenty of ballast, but we have strategic tie-downs to secure the system because of the nature of the roof.
So that’s what we do! We build solar. We design, engineer, and assemble projects.
And we’re almost done with this project—we got a certificate of completion
Today, we’re finalizing the monitoring system today, and we should be wrapped up soon.
Tim Montague:
Alright, we only have time for one or two more stories.
Do you want to talk about Trump challenging the IRA?
John Weaver:
Yeah, I think it’s an important one.
You know, as an industry, we’ve got a lot of questions now.
Tim Montague:
We do. I like to say there’s going to be a lot of noise, and very little signal, or a lot of turbulence. Or both. So you have to be patient. This is a marathon, this energy transition we’re a part of.
The story is called “Trump Orders Pause to IRA Funding” – pv magazine usa, January 21, 2025, by none other than John Fitzgerald Weaver, so what’s the story John?
John Weaver:
On Day One, the new administration paused funding leaving government accounts for IRA-related programs.
- The official language in the order says all agencies must pause disbursements from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
- The order also references terminating the Green New Deal—which, technically, doesn’t exist, it’s the Inflation Reduction act, but we know how politics work.
Tim Montague:
And there’s another great quote here we should read:
BLOCKQUOTE “All agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58).
So, this is real pain. I had a conversation with Dean Solon—the co-founder of Shoals—who’s now launching a new company called Create, which is making a solar panel which among other things will have no leads.
One thing he told me was:
“Solar needs to learn how to stand on its own two legs.”
And I was like “no energy industry stands on its own two legs. There are subsidies in all energy industries, and it’s appropriate to subsidize energy.
But, here we are, we have Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Elon is a promoter of renewable energy so WTF.
John Weaver:
So it’s complex, you know, some of the feedback I’ve heard is that this doesn’t affect the tax credits and that can’t occur until Congress acts. And I’ve also heard judges ruling against the actions that are occurring but they’re still happening. I don’t know what the hell’s going on with our rule of law here in the country, I guess we don’t have that anymore, but it’s complex, it’s challenging, there are people who have already lost their jobs in our industry. Massive numbers of people in the Department of Energy. And of course Jagar Shaw—he’s moved on, his whole team is gone, and you know it’s a complex time and so you know…
Tim Montague:
Will they try to get rid of the DOE? I wonder. They’re trying to get rid of the Department of Education, and the Consumer Protection Agency which protects consumers from abuse by things like the credit card industry and the banking industry, and I see this as a consolidation of power by the wealthy elites. And I also think that Elon is just playing Trump. He recognizes that he’s smarter and way richer, but by teaming up he can get inside the DC machnine and play it to his favor, with things like SpaceX. He wants to deregulate SpaceX and not have to worry so much about killing baby birds when he launches massive rockets to go to Mars? He just wants to launch.
John Weaver:
Who knows what he wants, I mean…
Tim Montague:
He wants to have babies, too. Apparently he has 13 children now. I think he had 2-3 children while we were on hiatus, John.
John Weaver:
We’re straying politically, and I have no idea where that guy’s head is anymore.
Tim Montague:
Crazy days.
I want to cover one more quick story, unless you have anything to say about the IRA.
John Weaver:
Well, you’re about to say something about the IRA.
Tim Montague:
Well it is! My friends at FREYR battery—shout out to Tom Jensen—I had the CEO of FREYR on the last show maybe two years ago now, and one of the big stories for them
Here is the fully formatted transcript with clear speaker separation:
Tim Montague:
Well, you were about to say something about the IRA.
Tim Montague:
Well, my friends at Frier Battery—shoutout to Tom Jensen! I had the CEO of Frier on the show maybe two years ago now, and one of the big stories for them was, “We are building a 5-gigawatt-hour factory in Georgia.”
Well, guess what, John? There is no more battery factory happening in Georgia—correct?
And Frier is no longer called Frier. It is now called T1 Energy.
They rebranded. They also bought a 5-gigawatt solar panel plant that Trina propped up—I think in Texas.
Where is that, do you know?
John Weaver:
Yes—Wilmer, Texas.
Tim Montague:
So now FREYR—or T1 (which is easier to say)—has rebranded.
By the way, FREYR is a Norse god, in case you’re wondering, so it’s not easy to say or remember.
I’m glad they rebranded to something more recognizable.
But they’re really doubling down on the whole “America First” branding—you see the flag, the bucolic landscape photos on their website.
They’ve now officially said: “We are a solar and battery company.”
But I don’t see how that’s possible if they’re not going to build batteries in America.
John Weaver:
Well, I mean, they’re definitely not a U.S. battery company, so…
Tim Montague:
So what does this have to do with the IRA, in your opinion?
John Weaver:
Well, it has to do with Trump and the IRA, I mean—
Number one, there are a lot of questions about how the IRA is going to exist for domestic manufacturers going forward.
- Are they going to change the law?
- Are they going to keep the domestic content requirements?
- Will they make domestic content mandatory to get the 30% tax credit, which could help U.S. manufacturers?
And on the flip side—will they allow for additional import tariffs on battery subcomponents?
For example—graphite. Right now, there’s a new trade case going in front of the commissions.
I don’t know the exact details—Christian Roselund would know—but the headlines I’m seeing are saying that the cost of batteries could double if this one component increases in price by 900%.
Now, I don’t know exactly how that will shake out, but it’s now on the table.
So yeah—it’s related. It’s related to Trump’s pressure on the IRA, and it’s a big question mark for the industry.
I believe T1 said they left because interest rates are too high.
Which is interesting, because when they announced the Georgia factory, interest rates were higher than they are today.
So maybe they were expecting rates to come down more, or maybe… they just don’t want to say out loud:
“We’re doing this because Trump is insane and it’s hurting our industry.”
Because saying that in a big business world—that hurts.
Tim Montague:
I mean, domestic content is a big deal.
Everybody wants to buy domestic content solar panels, if they can.
But to get the 10% adder on solar panels, you have to have the cell made in America.
Some manufacturers have figured this out, and some are actively pursuing it.
- Hounen Solar is already doing panel assembly and building a cell factory to qualify for domestic content.
- Canadian Solar is building a cell factory in Indiana.
- First Solar, of course—though they do thin-film PV, not traditional silicon.
- Heliene is another one.
All these panel manufacturers are chasing domestic content, and all the developers and IPPs want to buy domestic content.
You know, the story I remember—I think it was in Canary Media—was that the IRA spurred the growth of at least 40 gigawatts of solar panel manufacturing in the U.S., right?
John Weaver:
Actually, 50 gigawatts—that’s what I’m seeing in the recent headlines.
Tim Montague:
Okay.
And if we truly hit 50 gigawatts, that’s exactly what we need domestically, right?
That’s on par with what we’re consuming—so that would be a good thing.
I’m not opposed to making solar panels in Southeast Asia—I just think we need to be able to get them faster and more safely, without the risk of a war or another supply chain crisis like we saw during COVID.
We need a smooth energy transition.
We already have a reputation for being a solar coaster.
What do they call the solar coaster in the oil industry?
John Weaver:
We call it the market. (laughter)
Tim Montague:
They don’t have a nice expression for it?
John Weaver:
Nope. It’s just the way it works.
Tim Montague:
Well, this is true of many industries.
Right now, we’re experiencing an AI boom—there’s going to be an AI bust.
Or… we’ll just go extinct, John.
John Weaver:
Haha! Well… yeah, hopefully we don’t go extinct.
Global societal collapse? Maybe. Decent chance.
Tim Montague:
Alright, so we’ll be back on March 7th—we’re doing this every other week at:
- 1 PM Eastern
- 12 PM Central
- 11 AM Mountain
- 10 AM Pacific
So, look forward to seeing you here.
All of this content, of course, is on our YouTube channel and our audio podcast on Spotify and Apple.
So check it out at cleanpowerhour.com or just Google “Clean Power Hour” on YouTube.
John, how can our listeners find you?
John Weaver:
CommercialSolarGuy.com—that’s our website.
We’re on LinkedIn, we’re on BlueSky, and I write for pv magazine usa.
But really, just visit commercialsolarguy.com.
And if you need to reach us directly, our main number is 508-499-9786—that’s “nine-sun.”
Talk to Craig—and ask him how the weather in Kansas is, because apparently, it’s really cold there today.
Tim Montague:
Awesome—Commercial Solar Guy!
Thank you so much, John Weaver.
I’m Tim Montague—let’s grow solar and storage!
I’ll see you in two weeks!
Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Clean Power Hour. For more solar and storage news, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and follow us at cleanpowerhour.com. We’ll be back soon with more updates on solar projects, battery deployments, and the latest developments in the clean energy transition.