March 19, 2026
FEOC, ITC Phase-Out, and Storage: InterSolar 2026 Dispatch #340
FEOC compliance is the number one question solar buyers ask in 2026, and the answer determines which module manufacturers survive. In this episode, Tim Montague talks with Chris Lettman of Imperial Star, Benoy Thanjan of Reneu Energy, and the host of the Solar Maverick podcast, and Dean Solon of Create Energy at InterSolar San Diego 2026.
Here's what you'll learn in this conversation:
- Find out how Imperial Star offers "domestic light" module configurations that let developers hit their required domestic content percentage without overpaying for content they don't need.
- Learn why some module manufacturers will disappear this year as FEOC compliance separates companies with verified supply chains from those without.
- Understand what the ITC phase-out by 2028 means for project economics and why Dean Solon says the industry needs to "break free of that pacifier."
- You'll hear why Dean Solon built Create as an open-architecture system where project owners control their own data without recurring software fees.
- Learn how battery storage is expanding beyond California and Texas into Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Benoy Thanjan notes that residential customers in Florida are now buying storage for peace of mind during blackouts, not purely for economic payback.
The FEOC compliance deadline that took effect in January 2026 is reshaping the entire solar supply chain. With the ITC phasing out by 2028 and battery storage markets expanding into new states every year, solar professionals need to understand their module sourcing options, domestic content configurations, and post-incentive business models right now.
Connect with the Guest
Chris Lettman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislettman/
Benoy Thanjan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bthanjan/
Deon Solon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-solon-b8876649/
Imperial Star: https://www.imperialstar.com/
Reneu Energy: https://www.reneuenergy.com/
Create Energy: https://www.create.energy/
Connect with Tim
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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
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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
The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Please subscribe on your favorite audio platform and on Youtube: bit.ly/cph-sub | www.CleanPowerHour.com | contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com | Speeding the energy transition!
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I thought by now the solar coaster would end, but it just keeps getting more and more complicated. You're only talking about racking inverters and panels like how complicated it could be, but we made it in the United States one of the most complicated things to do, and I This is the
00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:17.500
craziest solar cycle I've ever been in, and I've never seen bigger, better projects on the table that has to get installed in the next three years. This is like the Gold Rush I've never seen in my history in solar.
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The brains behind our industry are going to be figuring out, how do we move into the subsequent years, beyond the ITC, how do we keep our industry moving forward without the ITC,
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the clean energy industry is moving fast. The deals are getting bigger. The technology is evolving, and the stakes have never been higher. Welcome to the Clean Power Hour, the podcast for solar, storage and micro grid professionals who want to stay ahead of it all each week, your host, Tim Montague, industry advisor and president of clean power Consulting Group, brings you unfiltered conversations with the leaders actually building the energy transition. Now here's your host, Tim Montague,
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today on the Clean Power Hour, we're bringing you a special field dispatch from inter solar San Diego, 2026 which happened just a couple of weeks ago. It's one of the most important gatherings in our industry. I spent time on the show floor talking with three veterans of the solar and storage space, and I want to bring you the highlights in one episode, because here's the thing, all three conversations kept coming back to the same themes, Fiat compliance, the ITC phase out storage as a game changer, labor, American manufacturing and the massive pipeline of projects that needs to get built in the next three years, we are roughly at 10% of a clean grid in the US. And if you believe the data were headed to an 80% clean grid by 2050 the road from here to there runs straight through your project pipeline. So let's get to it. My three guests today, Benoit thangen, founder and CEO of renew energy, and host of the solar Maverick podcast, one of my favorite people in this space, Chris luttman from Imperial Star Solar, one of the sharpest minds in Module manufacturing and domestic content. And Dean Solon, known as the founder of Shoals, now the founder of create energy, a company building an entirely new ecosystem for how solar plants get built, delivered and maintained right here in Tennessee. Let's start with what's on everybody's mind at the show. So what is going on in the solar industry that's on everybody's mind?
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Chris, hands down, Fiat compliance. More more so now than ever, that's probably the first thing that gets asked by customers, prospective customers, new customers, coming up whether here at today's event, throughout the week, I'm expecting even more they're looking at Fiat compliance, because the importance of it so much more so now than ever before, they want to know, make sure that we are a company that is Fiat compliant. We're going to see some module manufacturers probably go away this year, or at least not be the same name they once were years before.
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Yeah, it's
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a dynamic landscape. It is solar. Modules are truly commodities. They've been around for 70 years. It's a very mature industry, but you mentioned Fiat compliance, okay, foreign entities of concern to take the full ITC, you have to find a way to fiat free products. And the solar module, being the most expensive component in a solar array, is a very important piece of the capex. But Chris, for our listeners not familiar with Imperial Star, which isn't necessarily a household name, you are a very established company in this industry. Tell us a little bit about Imperial Star. Where are you manufacturing and what are the products that you're selling in the US that are Fiat free?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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We've been around for well over a decade now. We started out as an OEM manufacturer. We have our facility still in Indonesia, so we do manufacture modules there that are Fiat compliant modules.
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We have a six gigawatt cell factory in Africa that is up and running now. We'll have more details on that being released, probably later next month.
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Moving over to the US side of manufacturing, we have a two gigawatt factory in Houston, Texas, Tomball, Texas, to be exact, which is about 20 miles northwest of downtown Texas. We offer the
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downtown Dallas,
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downtown Houston.
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I'm sorry, downtown Houston.
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Thank you for correcting me on that. So just outside of Houston, Texas, that is a two gig. Watt capacity within that two gigawatt capacity. We also have domestic content modules breaking that down further. We have a supply agreement with Suniva. Suniva is a domestic cell manufacturer based in Norcross, Georgia, and we do have cells that we procure from them that we can offer our customers a domestic cell panel via that cinema cell. Now if a customer needs a different configuration where they don't necessarily need that much domestic content, we call it domestic light. So maybe they need a frame encapsulant junction box. Maybe they need somewhere between 3% up to 11 or 12% domestic content, we can configure a module that meets that criteria, still meeting the overall percentage that they need for that certain project year. Let's say it's 2025 that's 50% depending on the type of project they're working on, we can help them
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meet that threshold. And this is one of the reasons I love you, Chris, is because you really help my clients work through the pros and cons of domestic content, Fiat, free or non FIAC free, because every type of panel, if you're using domestically made cells and modules, that's going to be a premium price versus a module made in Indonesia or Africa, which may also be Fiat free, but non domestic content.
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And so you really have to compare all your options and run the numbers. And you're very good at helping EPCs and developers do that. Yeah. And I want the I want
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customers to understand your customers, the customers that come to me and inquire, and I'm not trying to sell you a module. At that point, I take the salesperson hat off and I put my teaching hat on. And what I mean by that is I want them to understand exactly what kind of module do they need, because they don't need a module that has too much domestic content. If all they need is 11% they don't need a module that has 35% 38% domestic content, if they're working on a rooftop project and they're using a micro inverter and a rack racking solution that gets them the bulk of the domestic content, and they only need 7% derived from the module go with a domestic light configuration, and that's Where we have that discussion, and that becomes a teaching moment to the customer.
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I want to bring in another voice on FIAC, because this is just as critical in the storage space as it is in the module side, but only the engine was at the show, and we talked about exactly this.
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The big thing is obviously moving us manufacturing and production of storage here in the United States, that's what, obviously fiak is about. And right now, most of the supply chain is coming from China. Obviously fiak applies. Starting January 2026 there's only very few companies that actually could fit the Fiat requirements, not just with PV panels, like we saw with q cells and their manufacturing facility in Georgia, where basically the raw materials were left at the port because they could improve traceability from China. And then we're seeing that there's very few companies on the battery storage side that really could meet the Fiat. Yeah, I think
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LG is building a factory in Michigan, a cell factory. So it is happening, I don't know if it's happening at scale with the solar panels we're now doing. I think something like 50 gigawatts of manufacturing of solar panels now, some of it's just assembly and the cell, the cell manufacturer is coming. It's not there. I don't know. We have maybe 10 gigawatts of cell manufacturer.
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Oh, you know this? Yeah, it's probably lower than that. It's interesting, because that's what I'm hearing.
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Like, these panel manufacturers really sell, if they're Fiat compliant, they talk about, like, how we have the cells here we're doing not just assembly, but most of the supply chain is actually here in in the US.
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Let's talk about the ITC, the investment tax credit. Because whether you're a solar installer, a developer, a module manufacturer or a financier, the phase out of the ITC is reshaping how every deal gets structured by 2028 it's gone for solar unless something changes, and most of the insiders I talked to are not counting on it coming back. What other trends should solar installers and developers be aware of in our industry? We're headed into the post ITC world.
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The ITC is phasing out for solar. It's extended on batteries, but it is phasing out for solar by 2028 it's gone unless something changes, and most insiders who I talk to don't expect the ITC to come back. But what else should solar installers know of? Out and
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see coming? Yeah, I think they should expect newer models, more dynamic models on the financial side, that aren't going to be part of the ITC, and everything the brains behind our industry are going to be figuring out, how do we move into the subsequent years, beyond the ITC, how do we keep our industry moving forward without the ITC, I know we can do it. I know there's people out there smart enough to do it.
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I've worked with them before.
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I've met them. I know they're out there, you know them, and they are going to come up with the right tools, the financial tools, the installation tools, all the tools that we need to keep our industry moving forward.
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Dean Solon has been in solar long enough to have seen every cycle, and he has a distinctive take on where we are right now. What do you think the solar industry needs most? We're moving into the post ITC world. There is consolidation going on this trade show is perhaps a third smaller than it was a year ago.
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Yes, for sure, and it's going to get worse before it gets better, but the industry is going to be better off when we get through this. So what does the solar industry need that it doesn't know it needs?
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First of all, it needs American manufacturing, once again, which we're giving solution sets that aren't proprietary to this person or that person's system, right? The inverter is one set of software, the trackers, another set of software. The mowers are different. And then you're paying all these monthly recurring revenue charges, right? Because you're having to buy proprietary software. We're basically saying we have an open architecture of a system, and the data is yours. You have a knock and you want to run it with your own M crew. The data goes straight to you, and you have control of it. If you want us to help monitor we're more than happy to help. But ultimately, we want to build you the hardware. Hand it over to you, and then you don't owe us a recurring revenue fee, right?
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Because in publicly traded companies, recurring revenue is the business model of choice, right? Sell as much hardware as you can, but get to the recurring revenue, right? But that's publicly traded. I'm not publicly traded, so I want to sell you the absolute best hardware available, and then you do what you want with it. But right now, it's this is the craziest solar cycle I've ever been in, and I've never seen bigger, better projects on the table that has to get installed in the next three years. This is like the Gold Rush I've never seen in my history in solar, and nobody wants to acknowledge that, but literally, we got we can fielding calls. I need 500 megawatt field here. I need a 700 there. I need a gig here.
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Everything actually, because of the phase out of the ITC, right?
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That yes, yes. And everybody thinks that's going away in three years. And listen, how many times have we listened to that story? It's always going away a decade plus. Now it's gonna end in three years. It's gonna end soon, blah, blah, blah, and here it
00:13:55.819 --> 00:13:57.860
is. I'm not counting on it coming back,
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but if it doesn't, who cares? We don't need it.
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Doesn't need it. They got to break free of that. That the pacifier, and it's their mouth.
00:14:05.598 --> 00:14:16.899
If there was one word that summed up the vibe on the show floor at inner solar 2026 it was storage, as Benoit engine put it to me, storage, storage, storage. Let's dig in.
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Let's talk more about storage.
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This is a very important topic.
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Anyone in solar is now a storage professional as well. I learned about a company called lunar, which is a storage as a service company. They're actually entering the Illinois market as their first go to market.
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They're partnering with signature solar, another company I had on the show recently.
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James Showalter checked that interview out, but I'm a big fan of putting big batteries, whether it's paired with solar or not, on a home right? Because then you have this dispatchable energy. You can do energy arbitrage. You have backup power. But what are your thoughts about VPP? For example, you live here part of the year in California, which is one of the more storage friendly markets. What are your thoughts about storage?
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Obviously, storage, we've been talking about this for such a long time is a game changer for intermittent power sources like solar and wind, and it's dispatchable at any time. What we're really seeing is like the big price declines that we saw with solar, with lithium ion technologies, I think for grid resiliency, like storage makes a lot of sense, especially to help with congestion and obviously time of use. And then when you need electricity, it you could it's faster dispatchable than like a peaking plant that takes more time. And then what we're seeing too is obviously with a lot of blackouts, weather related events that people are not necessarily looking at, the economics when it comes to storage. They really just. Want to have that, that they don't lose peace of mind. So we're actually seeing a lot of like residential storage and solar installations in Florida, which predominantly has a lower cost of electricity than other parts of the country. Obviously, Texas, California is really pushing, pushing, like, utility scale standalone storage through utility RFP processes. So it's interesting to see how quickly storage has ramped up.
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Yeah, it's taken off in California, Texas, now in the Midwest, with Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey.
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The list is growing. As soon as it'll be 30 states, right? It's still just a handful of states where storage really pencils.
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But in five years, it'll be 30 states, right? There's no doubt it's so good for the grid, if you're a grid operator, right?
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It's a sponge. You It's a sponge or a power plant, instantaneously. And so for balancing the grid, it's an amazing thing, right? And if you just put a bunch of batteries, whether they're big batteries, 20 megawatt hours, or 100 megawatt hours, or small batteries, a bunch of resi 40 kilowatt hour batteries, right?
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It's a both end. We're going to have utility, we're going to have DG, and it's good for the grid. It's good for the consumer and the business owner. It brings down your cost of operation. And with power prices, as you mentioned, going up. It's the only way to hedge right. Invest in solar and storage. That's your hedge against rising power, definitely.
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And obviously, it's interesting too. Rising power prices has really now been talked about by residential customers. It's being used in, obviously, campaigns, and meaning, political campaigns.
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And so it's interesting how it's coming to front and center. I love it in a
00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:57.619
way, like at the kitchen table. Now people are talking about the cost of energy. We historically didn't do that very much, except in certain markets, the Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America's number one, three phase string inverter with over 10 gigawatts shipped in the US.
00:17:53.059 --> 00:18:50.879
The CPS product lineup includes string inverters ranging from 25 kW to 350 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 350 KW is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts. CPS is the world's most bankable inverter brand, and is America's number one choice for solar plants now offering solutions for commercial utility ESS and balance of system requirements go to Chint Power Systems com or call 855-584-7168, to find out more. One of the mega trends I keep hearing about and seeing in my own consulting work is the shift from residential solar to commercial and industrial. The residential market is feeling a serious crunch, and smart installers are pivoting to CNI.
00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:53.104
Let's hear from Benoit. First.
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I've been now in the solar industry for 16 or 17 years. I thought by now the solar coaster would end, but it just keeps getting more and more complicated. You're only talking about racking inverters and panels like how complicated it could be, but we made it in the United States, one of the most complicated things to do, and I, by the way, I also think there's a huge opportunity, as you said, with residential going to commercial and industrial. So obviously you're seeing a lot of residential companies trying to diversify their business, not only to commercial industrial, but trying, like other energy related energy efficiency, maybe partnering with roofing contractors, obviously, to get more work, but adding, I'm seeing like people trying to add more like systems in place more discipline on EPC, I'm seeing also interesting financing options here at InterSolar, obviously, with residential, you really Only could do leases, but people are trying to come up with creative products with those leases. I know there's a company I can't believe I'm forgetting their name, but they're actually helping residential homeowners who really still want to own the system through a home equity loan.
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You think about across us the installation of solar, we're still less than 10% of grid power nationally coming from solar. We're nipping at those heels. And if you run an industrial facility or large warehouse, let's say cold storage, you can benefit from solar in pretty much any market in the US. But I think that CNI is a great opportunity, it is.
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And I'm curious when it comes to CNI versus utility, do you make products for both markets?
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We do. We do absolutely Unfortunately for us, a lot of the modules, the power bin and the physical dimensions of the modules, are pretty much the same for the most part. It just depends on which region that. CNI project is being built in, but for the most part, those modules, we're making those simultaneously, between a CNI configured module versus a utility type configured module, whether it's here at our Tomball Texas facility or in Indonesia.
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I want to spend some time with Dean soleyn and what he's building at create because in all my years covering the industry, I don't think I've encountered a company with a more ambitious vision. Dean is building an entire ecosystem for the solar plant of the future, racking modules, inverters, Balance of System, energy storage and now automated mowing, all under one roof, all available, all a cart. Why do I care about create?
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Few years ago, you wouldn't have really cared because we were a startup coming up with new ideas and new products, and developing those products, getting them built, getting them listed, from inner tech. And so the first couple of years of our life, we were designing building, putting in infrastructure for the manufacturing. And then this year, we come out of the gate, and we've already picked up about 600 megawatts just in January alone on E boss trackers and a bunch of other stuff. So we went from startup development phase to now launching products.
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It's like in the chapter book, we moved on from being the crazy startup, acting like a bunch of nutty kids in in the Silicon Valley style life, to now it's here. We've got production capacity available. We have customers, and it's becoming more of a mainstream most people still
00:23:27.509 --> 00:23:35.370
don't know what create is okay? You're building an ecosystem. You're building an entire system, chip to nuts.
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You're you want to make everything that goes into a solar plant, right? Yes, the racking, the modules, the inverters, the E boss, yes, the batteries, automated mowing.
00:23:48.289 --> 00:23:49.490
We're in the silicone booth
00:23:49.490 --> 00:23:56.870
we're building. So come energy storage solutions with them. We're building sma's inverters in our in our factory.
00:23:56.870 --> 00:23:58.490
Yes, they're string inverters.
00:23:58.670 --> 00:24:05.170
So why do this. It sounds awfully complicated.
00:24:05.170 --> 00:24:19.509
Dean, I have to say I like the idea of a snap in module, and that has stuck with me since I first saw you talk about that you're building a solar module that snaps in mechanically and electrically. It's very unique.
00:24:15.610 --> 00:24:21.490
No more MC for, yes, we love that. No more MC for it'll be
00:24:21.490 --> 00:24:45.769
a different version, but it'll be built into the frame of the module, and it'll mechanically and electrically lock. And right now, I'm working with agencies on how to get this thing listed, because it's very unique in the solution listing UL Intertech TV, and it's not an easy task, because they've never seen anything like that before.
00:24:41.610 --> 00:25:05.769
So we're you come up with a lot of great ideas in solar, and sometimes listings of those products takes a long while, because they have to come up with a protocol and a plan. And right now they're trying to figure out what that plan should look like. So right now, we've launched our own create tracker.
00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:31.289
We have our own e bus. We have we have modules available, white, white labeled. Or bring your own modules part of our solution set, which is the McDowell's menu board on one side and Amazon Prime delivery on the other. So you could click on, I want the tracker, I want the module. I want the E boss. I want the automated mowing. I want inverter station, or I want SMA string inverters. You get to pick what you want, right? We don't force you to take what you don't want, just take the things you want.
00:25:31.710 --> 00:25:50.029
This is one of your hallmarks. Also, you like to show a photo of a very unfit man who lives in his mother's basement eating hamburgers and playing video games. And you say, This is my target audience.
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Why hasn't somebody else already made solar super easy to install
00:25:53.690 --> 00:27:05.529
from all the customers I'm interacting with, their biggest issue is labor, skilled labor, and people cutting the grass, so when we can make it nearly bulletproof systems for general labor to come onto that solar field and not make a mistake, it helps not only the site, but it helps keeping the labor down the installation quicker, and the reliability goes through the roof, and it basically for everybody involved, it gives them value, right? Because the systems we're building, we're going after the utilities and the IPPS, the people own these sites for very long time, and they want highly reliable and when they pick up, to call us to see if. Is an issue. We pick up the phone 20 years later, we haven't closed up our shop because we were on venture capital money, and we're gone for the week, so we're we're basically in a consolidating market. We are bringing a different tact on how to install your solar field, and we're not forcing you to take either the full solution or you get nothing, but you're
00:27:05.529 --> 00:27:14.710
also forming partnerships with established manufacturers like SMA and so come back. What are you looking for in partners and why so come back? Why SMA?
00:27:15.970 --> 00:27:55.610
I've been friends with stabbly, with MC four since 2003 I've been friends with SOCOMEC guys since 2005 and disconnects, right? SMA, I've been I was building stuff for SMA back in 2008 so people, I have old friendships that I trust, and they need help in the manufacturing side, I'll help all establish friendships and manufacture their stuff for them. Our core is selling our solution set. And this kind of stuff is fun to do. I know it's complicated and all that, but I've been a manufacturer for 30 some years, so to me, this is just more a hobby.
00:27:55.970 --> 00:27:59.930
One last question, the graze robotics acquisition.
00:28:00.829 --> 00:28:06.730
Why graze? You could have acquired numerous other robotics companies. What do you see in graze
00:28:07.630 --> 00:28:13.690
if you could mow grass on a solar field? That's the hardest thing to do in a solar field, is mow the grass.
00:28:13.809 --> 00:28:47.809
You got potholes, you got stumps, you got downed trees, you got dead animals, you got swampy lands. If you could cut that grass and keep it in control and not run into every post everywhere in that solar field, it's much easier to get modules mounted. It's much easier to do a bunch of other operations, O and M services, material management, material handling around the site. Mowing is the hardest thing, and all of our customers are complaining that they can't keep people on mowers, cutting grass full time.
00:28:43.610 --> 00:28:55.069
The turnover rates outrageous, because think about it. You're sitting in a solar field. You're in snake chaps, right? You're you're in clothes like crazy.
00:28:55.069 --> 00:29:51.529
You got a safety jacket on, you got a helmet. It's 100 degrees, and you're out there turning controls 10 hours a day plus, and you do a five it's a hard, hard job, and most people don't want to do it. And I don't care what sector of labor you come from, it's terrible across it, right? So let's take that away and get machines to do that, and have have those people doing more the technical install, where they at least can enjoy what they're doing. So let's again, that's why I bought grays, is they're the only ones that concentrated really on mowing solar and did it pretty well. So I'm taking what they have, I've taken their IP, and I'm building next generation machines to go Steve Austin, better, faster, cheaper, but we're going to have one centralized unit that just has implements, just like a farm implement. I need to cut grass today. I do O and M services.
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Tomorrow, I do module installation the day after. And it's the same platform, same machine.
00:29:55.730 --> 00:30:31.470
Before we wrap, I want to give some time to the boots on the ground. Side of development, Benoit engine has a day job beyond the solar Maverick podcast. He's actively developing projects right now in some of the most complicated markets in the country, but only in our last couple of minutes together. Tell us about renew energy. My audience is energy professionals writ large, clean energy professionals, but I think you're a well kept secret in many regards, because you're so well known as a podcaster, people forget that you have a day job. What is that day job?
00:30:28.589 --> 00:30:31.470
Yeah, it's a
00:30:31.470 --> 00:30:59.089
day job, and the day job never ends most. My companies renew energy. We I started the company actually in 2012 we're a solar developer and consulting firm. We're actually developing 80 megawatts of solar projects in New York and New Jersey. A lot of them is community solar in upstate New York, which is basically five megawatts AC on land sites. And then we're actually doing the largest solar project in Manhattan, on 22 buildings with the New York Housing Authority.
00:30:59.569 --> 00:31:10.509
It's going to be the first community solar project in Manhattan. It also has a workforce development component, rooftop solar. It's all rooftop.
00:31:05.890 --> 00:31:17.410
So it's on 22 buildings in Harlem, with the New York Housing Authority, two housing developments, as I said, in Harlem, and then we all
00:31:17.470 --> 00:31:19.390
high rises or low rise. So it's
00:31:19.389 --> 00:32:13.568
not a total it's like maybe 10s, eight to 10 stories. So it's interesting, because New York City and Manhattan is one of the most complicated places to build, sort storage, sorry, build solar, and then also it's just extremely complicated with, for example, getting a crane. And then I'm actually working on an investment fund I want to get out of development I've developed. Over 100 megawatts of projects right now is a really difficult environment to develop projects. My background is in finance, and now I have the development expertise, so we're going to raise a fund that invests in projects, early stage companies. It's interesting with the podcast, the solar Maverick podcast, being about solar entrepreneurship, I have a lot of early stage companies like looking for me to be on the advisor board, or potentially strategic alliances and investing. So I've invested in several early stage cleans, clean energy companies as well.
00:32:14.529 --> 00:32:15.730
What's the scale of the fund?
00:32:15.730 --> 00:32:46.850
So hopefully we just are starting the capital raise process. It's obviously extremely challenging time right now, it is 25 million to start off with, we do have investors interested, but let's see when we put pen to paper and they actually have to send us the check. And then obviously we're trying to figure out Fiat, because what we're seeing is everyone's focused on the later stage projects that applied under 2025 and not Fiat. We ourselves are basically staying back until we understand Fiat.
00:32:43.850 --> 00:33:00.529
But I could tell you, I read the Treasury, it's really complicated. I don't know how people are going to prove that it fits fioc, and then how much the government's actually going to enforce it. So those are, like the two big question mark.
00:33:01.370 --> 00:33:26.190
Hey guys, are you a residential solar installer doing light commercial but wanting to scale into large CNI solar. I'm Tim Montague. I've developed over 150 megawatts of commercial solar, and I've solved the problem that you're having you don't know what tools and technologies you need in order to successfully close 100 KW to megawatt scale projects.
00:33:26.730 --> 00:33:33.390
I've developed a commercial solar accelerator to help installers exactly like you.
00:33:29.610 --> 00:33:54.890
Just go to clean power hour.com click on strategy and book a call today. It's totally free with no obligation. Thanks for being a listener. I really appreciate you listening to the pod, and I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage. Go to clean power hour and click strategy today. Thanks so much.
00:33:49.190 --> 00:35:30.750
Three guests, three corners of the industry, and every single conversation kept coming back to the same thing. We are at an inflection point. FIAC is real, and if you're not thinking about module and battery supply chain traceability right now, you need to start the ITC phase out is real, and the smart money is already working on what comes next. Storage is no longer an add on. It's the product. And CNI, if you're a residential installer who hasn't started the pivot. The time is now. There is a massive wave of projects that needs to get built over the next three years. Dean Solon called it the gold rush he's never seen in his career in solar. I believe him. The question is whether your company is ready to capitalize on it. A huge thank you to Benoit thangen, Chris letman and Dean Solon for spending time with me on the show floor. These are the conversations that make this show worth doing. You can find Benoit at solar Maverick podcast.com, and renew energy.com. That's re n e u energy. Find chris@imperialstar.com and Dean Solon and team at create dot energy. Find them at the solar shows, or just buy Dean a cup of coffee. Check out all of our content at clean power hour.com please tell a friend about the show. If you enjoy this content, telling a friend is the best thing you can do to help others find this content, and with that, I'll say, See you at the next trade show. I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage. Tim.
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