Solar modules once cost $8 per watt. Geoff Greenfield bought his first panels from a classified ad in Home Power magazine. Twenty-six years later, he leads an EPC division building 67 MW projects and negotiating 100 MW contracts.

In this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague sits down with Greenfield to trace the full arc of the U.S. solar industry, from off-grid battery systems with lead-acid batteries to utility-scale construction backed by a multi-billion-dollar general contractor. They cover NABCEP's role in professional standards, why U.S. residential solar costs two to three times more than in Australia or Germany, and why the industry needs to prepare for a future without tax credits.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Starting a solar company in 2000 meant buying used 53-watt panels from classified ads at $6 per watt. Greenfield traces how the economics shifted from pure environmental motivation to grid parity and beyond.
• NABCEP credentials go beyond technical competence. Organizations have lost certification over ethical violations, and state attorneys general are now pursuing solar bad actors.
• Panel efficiency is approaching physical limits, but economic efficiency still has room.
• In PJM territory, commercial battery storage pays for itself through peaking value and ancillary services, sometimes faster than solar alone. Resilience sells in residential, but the commercial case depends on grid services math.
• The solar tax credit is likely not returning. Companies preparing for 2028 and beyond are cutting soft costs, joining procurement cooperatives like Amicus Solar, and building business models that work without incentives.

This conversation provides a 26-year field perspective on what it took to grow from a one-person off-grid installer to a utility-scale EPC, and what comes next for companies facing the same transition.

Connect with Geoff Greenfield, Kokosing

Geoff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-greenfield-595a406/

Kokosing Website: https://kokosingsolar.com/

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The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com

Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

A 10-person, three-month estimating process. Compressed into 12 hours by a single AI agent. That is what Jesse Anglen, co-founder of Ruh AI, is building for construction and solar companies right now. In this episode of The Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague sits down with Anglen to break down what a digital workforce actually looks like in practice, how solar contractors and EPCs can start using agentic AI today, and what it means when AI agents take over knowledge work at scale.

Episode Highlights

• Anglen breaks down the three categories of AI agents and explains why most of what people call "agents" today are not actually agents at all.
• One construction firm with projects in the hundreds of millions of dollars had a core operational process that took 10 people three months to complete. Ruh AI turned that same process into an overnight task.
• Solar contractors are sitting on a lead generation opportunity that most have never considered. AI agents make it possible to act on it at scale, at almost no cost.
• The administrative burden of running a billion-dollar construction or solar company is staggering. Anglen explains exactly which back-office functions AI agents are already handling, and what that means for headcount.
• Anglen gives a clear breakdown of what it actually costs to build and run a custom AI agent, from the entry-level option any business owner can start today to the complex systems designed to replace entire departments.
• Anglen shares a number that reframes the entire AI conversation. It is not about chatbots or writing emails. It is about the total size of the knowledge economy and how much of it AI is already capable of doing without a human in the loop.

Solar and EPC companies are already operating under margin pressure, competing on thin spreads while administrative overhead continues to grow. The tools Jesse Anglen describes are available today, at a price point that is lower than hiring a single full-time employee. The window to adopt these systems before competitors do is narrowing fast.

Connect with Jesse Anglen

Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseanglen/

Website: https://www.ruh.ai/

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Connect with Tim

Clean Power Hour
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Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn

Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com

Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com

Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com

US battery manufacturing capacity is set to hit 145 gigawatt hours by the end of 2026, enough to cover 100% of domestic grid storage demand. Tim Montague and John Weaver break down this milestone and seven more stories on this Clean Power Hour Live.

This live episode covers battery manufacturing economics, solar panel technology shifts, offshore wind project costs, global installation records, grid stability regulation, and DIY plug-in solar.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• US grid battery manufacturing capacity is expected to double from 70 to 145 gigawatt hours by the end of 2026. (Canary Media)
• Tesla officials visited Chinese equipment makers, including Maxwell Technologies, to source up to 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing equipment. (Reuters)
• India deployed 49 gigawatts of solar in 2025, surpassing the US at 45 gigawatts for the first time. (PV Tech)
• The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind facility, an $11.5 billion project, delivered its first power to the grid. (Riviera)
• GCL OptoElectronics secured China's first commercial perovskite silicon tandem PV module order at 1.2 megawatts. (PV Magazine)
• Fraunhofer researchers found that certain solar panel cleaning agents damage anti-reflective coatings and reduce module performance by up to 5%. (PV Magazine)

Battery manufacturing economics, tariff math, and grid regulation changes are moving faster than most project timelines. If you develop, finance, or install clean energy systems, the numbers in this episode affect your next bid.

Support the show

Connect with Tim

Clean Power Hour
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn

Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com

Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts

The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com

Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com