Wind, solar, and batteries are over 90% of new energy on the US grid. Solar is not emerging anymore. It is the incumbent. But there is still room to improve. The ITC phase-out will push the industry to cut costs that the 30% credit made easy to ignore. That is…
The ITC is going away. For many, that sounds like a crisis. Costa Nicolaou, founder of PanelClaw, sees it differently. He compares this moment to what automotive, pharma, and financial services went through. Industries mature when a few strong players emerge, drive out cost, and deliver value at scale. Solar…
The ITC was designed to build domestic manufacturing. Did it work? For PanelClaw, the answer is clear. Costa Nicolaou doubled their US production capacity in 2022 and scaled again after that. The company now operates enough American manufacturing to supply the entire flat roof racking market without holding inventory. Their…
The 30% ITC is going away. The safe harbor window closes July 2026. The question is not what we are losing. The question is what you do next. Costa Nicolaou, founder of PanelClaw, has a clear answer. Invest in partners who innovate. Collaborate across the entire project chain. Refuse to…
The ITC is phasing out. Margins are tightening. And too many solar companies are responding by cutting price instead of building value. Costa Nicolaou, founder of PanelClaw, gave three direct pieces of advice on the Clean Power Hour. Stop racing to the bottom. Cheap costs more in the end. Start…
What happens when 30 installers are on a rooftop and the racking is nowhere to be found? You make calls. You send emails. You wait hours. Sometimes days. And every hour, your profit shrinks. Costa Nicolaou, founder of PanelClaw, built Claw Logic to end that cycle. Real-time order tracking. Pallet…
Energy bills have jumped as much as 30% in the last year, and data center demand is outpacing grid growth. CPS America, with over 10 gigawatts of string inverters shipped in the US, is responding with a wave of new products: skidded string solutions, a 250kW 600V inverter platform, and…
The solar industry is entering a new era after the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). In this video, Andy Klump, CEO of Clean Energy Associates, explains why innovation is now critical for the future of solar energy. With changing incentives and evolving market dynamics, solar companies must rethink their strategies, technology,…
Why the Middle Market Is Storage’s Biggest Battleground | Energy storage’s next gold rush. LFP battery storage pricing dropped from over $1,000 per kilowatt hour to under $100 per kilowatt hour in a few short years. That single shift is reshaping project economics across the solar and storage industry. In…
Join us on Friday 13th March, 2026 at 1 PM ET as we cover the latest solar & storage news and analysis. Co-hosts Tim Montague, solar business coach and John Weaver, the Commercial Solar Guy, solar developer and PV Magazine author, reflect on the latest solar and storage news, tools,…
Most solar asset owners still manage performance data the same way they did 10 years ago. Dan Leary, founder of Denowatts, says that needs to change. In this episode, recorded live at RE+ Northeast in Boston, Tim Montague sits down with Leary and Doug Macmillan of Portside Systems to explore…
Join us this Friday, February 20th, at 1 PM ET as we cover the latest solar & storage news and analysis. Co-hosts Tim Montague, solar business coach, and John Weaver, the Commercial Solar Guy, solar developer and PV Magazine author, reflect on the latest solar and storage news, tools, technologies,…
#334 The 30% investment tax credit is going away. The safe harbor window closes July 3, 2026. After that, commercial solar stands on its own. So what separates the companies that thrive from the ones that disappear? Costa Nicolaou, founder and CEO of PanelClaw, joins Tim Montague at RE+ Northeast…
One LinkedIn post. Almost 400,000 impressions. Aaron Nichols has earned 1.8 million impressions on LinkedIn in one year, and he did it by breaking every rule the clean energy industry follows. His message is blunt: solar companies insist on being boring, and they are losing the public conversation because of…
Only 3 states are prioritizing resilience in their grid planning. That leaves 47 states building infrastructure for a climate that no longer exists. We have federal agencies. We have regulatory bodies. We have the technology. What we lack is coordinated action. I called this insanity on the Clean Power Hour.…
What is the most misunderstood myth about grid resilience? Sam Gomberg from the Union of Concerned Scientists says it is the belief that one party owns the problem. Utilities. States. Communities. All have responsibilities. And vulnerable populations need to be centered in investment decisions, not treated as an afterthought. This…
Nearly a million Americans lost power last week. I used to think of these storms as outliers. They are not. Sam Gomberg and Rachel Licker from the Union of Concerned Scientists joined me to discuss their new report, Power After the Storm. What they found: every worst outage of the…
I asked Sam Gomberg: what is the one investment we keep delaying that will cost us the most? His answer: targeted community-scale microgrids. That is how you protect the most vulnerable people. When I asked what metric should guide our response, he said something I will not forget. "Maybe that…
I think we energy professionals need to be honest with ourselves. A Stanford report puts the US on track to decarbonize by 2148. China is projected to hit 2050. Even if we beat expectations and reach net zero by 2050, we are still living in a 450 ppm world. That…
The death toll from extreme weather events is higher than official numbers show. Rachel Licker from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that indirect deaths are often missed. Carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. Medical equipment that stops working. Vulnerable people in mobile homes and low-income housing who cannot evacuate. These…
I asked Rachel Licker about the real consequences of storms like Fern. Her answer stayed with me. These extreme events do not hit everyone equally. Marginalized communities bear the brunt. And they are not prioritized when the lights come back on. This is about more than infrastructure. It is about…
Storm Fern just knocked out power for nearly a million Americans. But here's what the media won't tell you: this wasn't a freak accident—it's the new normal. New research from the Union of Concerned Scientists reveals that 100% of the worst power outages in the last decade share one shocking…
Why would a state try to ban solar construction to protect the environment? That's the framing behind a Missouri bill that would halt all solar through 2027. John Weaver and I discussed this on Clean Power Hour Live. A 430 MW project is already under construction. It would double the…
Global clean energy investment hit $2.3 trillion in 2025. Up 8% from 2024. The US grew 3.5% to $378 billion. John and I did the math on Clean Power Hour Live. If the world grew at 8% and the US grew at 3.5%, the rest of the world invested at…
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