Great to chat with Tim Montague, Solar Developer, NABCEP trainer and host of the Clean Power Hour podcast! The Clean Power Hour is a weekly news roundup of the latest solar, wind, storage and energy transition news! We discussed how Tim become a solar project developer, the challenges in developing solar projects, community solar and more!
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James
The unedited podcast transcript is below
James McWalter
Hello today, We’re joined by Tim Montague solar developer and host of the clean power hour podcast welcome to our podcast Tim! brilliant.
Tim Montague
Thanks James. It’s great to be here.
James McWalter
Sir would love to hear how you ended up becoming a solar developer.
Tim Montague
I grew up in the small city of Albuquerque New Mexico and my dad was a professor at the University Of New Mexico he taught environmental studies and we were doing backyard solar thermal meaning making hot water from sunlight. Was a thing back in the seventy s eighty s and 90 S Pv was hardly on the scene because it was very expensive pv was invented in the 50 s but it didn’t go mainstream and literally until the early 2000 so fast forward I was doing sustainability consulting. In the twenty ten s and was casting about for my next big thing and a canadian named paul was kind enough to cold call me on a saturday morning and said hey we’ve reached grid parody and what that means is that solar.
James McWalter
Man.
Tim Montague
Is now cost competitiveive with other sources of energy and that was in 2 sixteen I dove in with both feet I was primed for a career in clean energy and shortly thereafter I Found a a great solar installlar called Continental Energy Solutions. And I became the head of business development for continental selling and developing commercial solar projects so that was that was the long and short of it. But it was a homecoming you know sustainability is in my blood I was an ecologist by training both bachelors and masters and had never. Ah, really found traction until I started doing green business consulting I’m a business guy. That’s the bulk of my career is doing B Two B Sales marketing and consulting and so solar just brings it all together.
James McWalter
I yeah so interesting I mean if I think about my own kind of journey to here so much can be pointed back to the fact that the farm I was growing up on converted to organic farming in the late 90 s and that was like a point of like oh you know we actually do have to be better stewards of of the land had to be better stewards of. Environment more generally and you know even though I didn’t end up working on anything with a climate impact until the last year or so that was always kind of there in the background and so it’s fascinating how these kind of know elements of our um of our upbringing kind of affect us. But I guess you know diving into that when that you got that phone call you know going from there and you know making a decision to kind of. You know change career directions and so on. Um, what? What would the the kind of next you know, let’s say 6 to 18 months like what? what were the kind of learnings you have to do because one of the things I think we’re going to see particularly post-ira is a lot of folks trying to come into the industry become so developers and so on. And so yeah, how did you kind of optimize your own learning in that time. Yeah.
Tim Montague
Yeah, and and I love this question because I help dozens and dozens of people get into the solar industry and I want to help more. So if you’re listening to this and you’re interested in clean energy in the energy transition in any aspect of it whether that’s electric. You know electrification of transportation or making food systems more sustainable but obviously also solar wind and battery storage where I’m quite an expert I am a very curious person I love technology I love entrepreneurship I had worked as a business advisor. Ah, my local small business development center working with technology entrepreneurs. So I just I love that nexus of of technology and business and now sustainability and so pv while I had a lot to learn. About like construction and what are the components of a solar array and how do you discern the good. The bad from the ugly in terms of those products and how do you qualify a commercial solar project I had to learn that truly even though I knew a lot about b two b sales. I didn’t know a lot about selling projects that were you know these are projects that are $50000 at the very small end to 5000000 or even more maybe $10000000 in the c and I and small utility solar space and.
Tim Montague
So I had a ton to learn and I just dove in with both feet. Of course I had colleagues I was working with a gentleman named Brian Howe whose shoulders I stand on he was the president of the Illinois solar energy association and the president of continental energy solutions and i. Then worked very closely with a cadre of project managers at continental and then started networking like a mad dog with other solar professionals and other energy professionals I had actually gotten involved with Illinois solar energy association several years before when I was doing corporate relations for. The notoart nature museum which is a a well-known institution on the on the north side the near north side of Chicago they had a rooftop solar array and I hosted a meeting of isia at the at our facility. So I had an interest in in clean energy and was. Was gathering bits and pieces and and building a network and I still have many of those contacts that I made back that was back in like 2005 and now you know fast forward and the the industry is just exploding so I was an early adopter. And but it pays to be curious. It pays to be outgoing or take the risk of of stepping out of your comfort zone so to speak right? because I had never sold a solar project and then I was the head of business development for a oh you know about $100000000 business at the time and.
Tim Montague
Ah, you know it’s sink orwin but but I was well suited to the job and and I love working with business owners. You know, helping them reduce their ah cost of energy. That’s the bottom dollar for you know that is the impact that solar makes you reduce your energy bill with a rooftop or ground mountund solar array that that plugs into your facility.
James McWalter
Events.
Tim Montague
And that’s a feelgood right? because we’re greening the grid we’re reducing air pollution and we’re saving money which then can be used for other things like R and D or hiring So. There’s no one single path right for any particular career in clean energy. But it starts with being curious and then finding those organizations those networks and those nodes I Like to think of people and organizations as nodes and each node will then be a connector for you to many other nodes.
James McWalter
No, that that makes a ton of sense and there’s a phrase. Ah a friend of mine uses. You know you have to try to maximize serendipity right? You know like things don’t always come to you. It’s often good to try to find yourself and in yeah, in the middle of a node or try to build that yourself where all of a sudden people are connecting to you and you know I think. But of us do that individually with our own podcasts. Um I’ve done that with you know, events and and groups that I’ve run over the years and but if I think about like the business development side of things right? There’s actually a lot of you know I guess buying and selling within the energy space and at the different layers and you mentioned the kind of business owners that you were you know selling to um, what was kind of a. Ah, typical provo of of a customer and how has that change and not just in terms of maybe the profile of the customer over the years but also what they care about.
Tim Montague
1 of my favorite projects is a project called Simmons Knife S I M M O N S Simmons knife and they make knife blades for the food processing industry and for the furniture industry and this is a multi-generational family business. Have about a fifty Thousand Square Foot facility I made a small video about the project and I interviewed the Ceo on my podcast so this is not sensitive information. They’re they’re in the wild about them going solar and ah but they were. Um, you know they were intrigued by the opportunity to make their facility more sustainable. We were able to offset about 70% of their electrical load with a rooftop array. So the facility is constrained right? The roof wasn’t quite big enough to put a new array on to put a. A big enough array on to offset 100 % of their load but they were very particular about this about trying to achieve the greatest impact possible and and there are some subtle things about solar that that you have to tweak in this case. We used five degree tilt panels versus 10 degree and the difference is that you can squeeze more solar panels onto a roof by doing ° so it’s it’s a slightly lower degree tilt array and that way you can smash it smash more solar in and get more solar kwh out.
Tim Montague
And and this was just very interesting, right? that they were very clear at the get go and it was it was it was the the typical leadership team is the c-suite so we had the Ceo the Cfo the Ceo and the facility manager and and they were very aligned. Of course they were. They were you know following a charismatic. Leader Colin Murphy is his name and it was just they were just very clear that we want to be become more sustainable and we want to do something that’s good for our bottom dollar but also good for our employees and our other stakeholders meaning their customers right? So when you make saw blades. With clean green electricity. That’s a more sustainable product and so they’re greening their entire value chain and and becoming a leader in their you know in their ecosystem and and in their sphere of influence and showing others that hey this matters and this is an opportunity for you. You know. I almost never lead with sustainability because only about 1 in 10 business owners or leaders truly cares about sustainability and I’m not blaming them. You know you have to be very concerned with your bottom line as a business owner. It’s nontrivial to be profitable. And to be sustainable meaning to maintain your growth year over year and that involves you know, r and d and expansion and facilities and hiring and firing and running a business is complicated and then to layer on this this goal of well let’s become more sustainable that can be.
Tim Montague
Quite a journey but like luckily you know solar is not the most complicated thing in the world. It’s black panels that sit on your roof or on your field or on your parking lot and they make electricity from sunlight and then you’re just reducing your consumption from the grid so that was. That was kind of the long and short of it with Simmons life and they were just a model customer and my all time favorite to date.
James McWalter
Yeah I think absolutely the this tradeoff right between why I guess some people might get into specific industries. You know that that drive from the kind of conservation point of view. But then so these are all businesses and it was interesting like you didn’t get that phone call until the cost parodity. Had happened and now you know solar panels are in many parts of the world. The cheapest form of electricity generation that you can install and so that is what’s enabling. Yeah, the kind of dramatic distribution of these assets and building of these assets like you know incentives and things like inflation production act. These are all very very powerful ways of. Continuing to push things along, but it’s the actual cost curves coming down so quickly. That’s actually enabled um you know businesses to make profit building these things and then the customers to see that there is actual you know financial regions and to engage in it. But I guess like when you’re kind of think working through that particular project or other projects you know and I think this does very. Whether it’s ground-mounted or roof-mounted. What are some typical hurdles that you have to overcome and you know your kind of approach overcoming those hurdles change over the years
Tim Montague
Developing solar projects is not easy I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture. Um and it’s not so much that it’s changed a lot over the years it’s just I’ve experienced more nuances. You know you first run into the facility front and center. Ah, you’re looking for a rooftop that’s less than 10 years old and that’s hard to find many rooftops are more than ten years old and they have ah you know 20 years of life left in them and you just many times cannot put a solar array on that roof. And you know with Simmons knife they needed a new roof and they were prepared to put on a new roof and we were able to combine the 2 into a single cap x and that is a a trick of the trade that few installers know or use. So check that out and but you know, ah. It is a capital expense if they’re going to buy a project. Do. You don’t have to. They don’t have to cap x the project you could do a Ppa or third party ownership. There’s also commercial leases for these facilities. So there’s many ways to skin the financial cat so to speak and that can be a hurdle most. Of all, though you you need a you need to find a customer who’s dedicated to doing something right because you can spend a lot of time drilling down on a project and then go nowhere and it just kind of gets put on a shelf and.
Tim Montague
So time and money become constraints for these. Ah these facility owners. They’re busy doing whatever they do making widgets making you know, computer products or making monitoring systems for the solar industry. Perhaps and energy isn’t their first. Ah, line of business. They may be interested. Um, but you really have to be dedicated and so being able to sift through those. Ah you know those leaders and finding the team that is really going to get something across the line is is vital and that’s a very nuanced thing. Um. So I mean some of the other things are of course the landscape right in the us now we have really good legislation in 2022 called iro you refer to that in the introduction. The inflation reduction act that changed the landscape in in several ways. It’s it’s ah.
Tim Montague
Applying for example, an investment tax credit at 30 the investment tax credit was 26% and it was going to step down to 10% in the next couple of years now we have an a good 10 year run at 30% so that softens the blow so to speak or the capex for. Ah, for both third -party owners or first party host owners and it makes solar more affordable and it makes it pencil better and so that just increases the uptake we were growing at 40% a year in the solar industry. Globally now here in the us we’re going to start growing at 60% a year so on a very rapid trajectory. Um, so then there’s also so that landscape is very important legislation and that’s a local thing and a you know national thing you have to know what’s going on locally I happen to be in the industry because we have good legislation going on in illinois. And that was the other kind of perfect storm for me is that we had legislation that got signed in 2016 and really catapulted our state. We were. We only had eighty megawatts of solar in illinois in 2017 now we have over one point eight gigawatts five years later and that’s because of. The future energy jobs act and now we have something called the clean energy. Oh no, sorry the climate and equitable jobs act cija which has created a whole new host of of incentives which are an accelerant. Um, and then there’s things like you know, ah supply chain right? We had covid.
Tim Montague
Slowed things down then we had the chip shortage. There’s a human resource shortage right? There’s a shortage of labor. It’s hard to find installers. It’s hard to find engineers and project managers and financial analysts across the board. Everybody is. Is kind of hurting for proper staffing and this you know I can’t I kind of think it. It creates an awareness around how valuable people are and I like that because that’s at the end of the day. What this is about is creating a more a safer. And ah cleaner future for humanity one that is is going to be buffered from the ah the unpredictability of climate change. Hopefully if we can get there fast enough. It’s not a question of. Are we going to make the energy transition right? It’s It’s a question of will we make it fast enough.
James McWalter
Yeah, and I think it’s so interesting to talk about the like all the different elements all these different constraints on the deployment of these assets and I think what’s most fascinating to me again coming into this industry more recently is that money isn’t really the constraint anymore like Basically you have so much capital being deployed from public and private sources to buy these assets to operate these assets to develop these assets and the constraints are further upstream it’s constraints around land its constraints around people as you said, um, you know there are literal legal constraints from particular areas and all these kind of things. Supply chain’s a massive one. Um, you know you had some kind of wild things that happened earlier the year in terms of tariffs and and all these kind of things but to me, it’s like for folks who are thinking about coming into the industry. It’s like there’s a lot of problems to be solved but the money is not one of them. That’s a pretty solved problem. There’s just. A ton of money to be deployed and so if you can find a way to deploy assets faster develop assets faster help out in supply chain help out on retraining and getting more people who can be installers and work on the design and projects and all these different elements. There’s a lot of business to be done and a lot of smart people I think need to like look at the space in mophomore lotphomore detail.
Tim Montague
Yeah, I’m glad um, you’re drilling down on this. You know there’s a great opportunity in organizations like the department of energy right now the department of energy is the um, the department in the federal government that sets the tone for the future of. The energy landscape in the in the us and it is experiencing a renaissance right now they have new funding. They have some very charismatic leaders like Jigger Shah who’s the head of the loan program office. Yeah.
James McWalter
I was just about to mention jigger.
Tim Montague
and and jigger is ah is ah an og in the solar industry. He became famous for starting a company called Sun Edison which made the which popularized the commercial power purchase agreement or Ppa in the United States and and then he went on to ah to found generate capital which is a clean infrastructure finance company and now he’s the head of the loan program officer which is fueling next generation technologies and and helping to. Bring them to the light of day so to speak. But but the doe is hiring a thousand people now and these are guys like you and me James who have backgrounds in entrepreneurship or technology. Project management or sales and marketing all kinds of people are being hired by the doe and this is a great thing and just one of the many opportunities so there’s opportunities in government. There’s opportunities in the private sector. There’s ah opportunities as entrepreneurs. Or just for like recent high school grads right? You can become an electrician or a laborer on solar fields and make $30 an hour without a college degree which is a wonderful thing.
James McWalter
I absolutely and if I think about just the last few generations right? So when I came out of university in the early 2000 you know everyone who wanted to make money went into finance like it was you know pre the big crash in 2007 and that’s where everybody kind of flock to and then. After that is big tech right? Like if you wanted to make a ton of money and up to pretty much I would say just very recently that’s where you wanted to go to and now I think it’s it’s definitely going to be clean technology right with energy I think driving the vast majority. You’re starting to see just really impressive companies. You’re starting to see that support coming from those governmental agencies. Um Arpae is another like amazing organization that does a ton of funding for you know, moonshot type energy and related technologies that have a large climate component and so yeah, yeah, it’s ah a guy called sa griffith who talks about electrifying. Everything and you know he says there’s even this even roles for the lawyers right? like you know trying to navigate different permitting requirements and so on and so yeah, so anyone listening regardless of your skill set. There is a place right in this kind of revolution right.
Tim Montague
Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned Saul Griffith and electrify everything. Um I can’t remember the name of the organization. But but he’s got a book and sorry.
James McWalter
On their lab. Ah so Sal Griffa He’s a other lab I believe.
Tim Montague
Well, that is one of the organizations but there’s another one around electrify um that that he is spearheading and and they’re a nonprofit and you know so they’re they’re kind of a think tank and community organizing around. Okay, how do we transition. As fast as possible and he references things like the the world war ii effort right? that the us government made. We turned on a dime we converted our factories to making tanks and bombers instead of you know trucks and trucks and passenger airplanes. And and we did this in a very short period of time and it’s truly astounding that the federal government was able to form this joint partnership with private industry and just completely turn the economy towards defeating Hitler and it worked but it was a massive massive transformation ah transformation of the economy and that’s what we need. To see now in order to net zero the economy which is forty gigatons of co 2 equivalent per year that the economy is you know, spewing into the atmosphere and then we have to figure out how to reduce the eight hundred gigatons that are already up there from the last. You know one hundred and fifty years of industrialization it’s it’s no small feat but it’s totally doable. We have the technology like heat pumps and like solar arrays and wind farms and battery farms and other energy storage technologies. It really is a very a very exciting time.
James McWalter
And absolutely would’d would’d. Love to continue to get into some different parts of the development picture because we’re definitely talking a lot about you know the commercial industrial cni space but 1 of the kind of big developments in the last five years in particular is this idea of community solar and. You know there’s people from all around the country all around the world who may be you know in a jurisdiction that doesn’t really have a community solar program. What is community solar and why is it something that’s having a larger and larger impact on the development landscape. So.
Tim Montague
Community solar is a way to make solar accessible to people who don’t have a sunny roof or don’t own a home. Ah so this is renters and people who can’t afford to put a solar array on their home if they do own a home. Or people that have a shady roof right? which is many many people and um so you build a central array. Maybe a one megawatt to five megawatt solar farm these are say 5 to fifty acre solar farms and then you let. Residents in that geography subscribe to the solar array and thereby buying in directly to a solar project and it’s called community solar there’s subtle nuances and different ways of doing it but the most popular way in the you know United States is you build an array. And then you get subscribers from that territory in that utility territory. So in Illinois we have comet in Northern Illinois and amherin in central and Southern Illinois and then mid american in Western Illinois and in those 3 territories. Community solar is a thing. The state has a law that mandates those utilities these are investorowned utilities which you know covers a huge chunk of the population. Perhaps 70% of Illinois’s population lives in these io territories and now.
Tim Montague
If you’re an ammer and comment or mid american customer. You also have the ability to ah become a subscriber to a community solar project. You get a 10% discount approximately generally speaking. So you’re going to save money and not have a huge cash outlay a solar array costs. You know a residential solar project cost 20000 to $ 30000 it’s like buying a car and so while for some people that’s no big deal for many it is a big deal, especially if you don’t own your home the home right? You’re not going to install a solar array on a house that you rent or if you live in an apartment so community solar is very very important and it got started in Colorado. Ah. Ah, think sunchair was one of the first community solar developers in the Us. But now there’s dozens of community solar developers and there’s a handful of really good states that are driving this forward Illinois happens to be 1 Massachusetts is 1 New York up into Maine Maine has a good community solar program now. New Jersey has a struggling community solar program. But it is happening and California has a nascent community solar program. They really were a late comer. They had something called community choice aggregation which is a cousin to that. But. It really wasn’t this form of modern community solar. So now they’re they’re they’re getting in the game as well.
James McWalter
Yeah, what? what? I love about community. So as a concept is I mean it’s in the name right? It’s the community side of it. You know you are having people who don’t actually know you don’t know the other people in your community necessarily who signed up but I love this idea where you have you know thousands of people in. Couple counties. Let’s say worth of space and together they enabled through their pricing power through their buying decisions. You know a five Megawatts you know groundmounted solar farm you know, maybe 20 minutes drive from them and yeah, the kind of emergence of that kind of shared. Ability and like the way legislation has enabled that I think it’s like this is a really fascinating approach and and honestly it’s kind of ah surprising that it kind of emerge in the United States it’s something that sounds you know very european very irish or german to me, but it’s absolutely fantastic and I really love it. So.
Tim Montague
Yeah I have to say I’m I’m very excited about community solar because it does give such a broad swath of the populace access to solar and I mean I already so I live in urban illinois in central illinois. My city participates in a group purchase program called community choice aggregation and so they get together with a handful of other cities and they do this group by of clean energy. So they’re buying a contract to buy clean electrons from. Energy suppliers and and then the energy suppliers are going out on the open market and securing these large contracts from wind and solar developers for what’s called green tags or rex renewable energy credits and and that’s you know a legit way of buying clean energy. But it’s It’s so much more direct when you can say oh I’m buying power from the solar array on a closed landfill in downtown urbanna which there is a community solar farm on the closed landfill now in downtown Urbannna and it targets in their case, low income low and middle income residents. Of the city of Urbana which is wonderful right? because those people are already stressed financially and now they’re going to save money on their power bill consume local green electrons and it’s ah it’s just a win win.
James McWalter
And those are all the kind of positive sides of the community side but we also you know come across various issues from community objections to certain types of development. Um solar included have you come across any of those.. What are the typical reasons why a community might object to solar being built. Ah, you know at scale in their community and.
And so on the community Side. You know those are all the kind of positive aspects of Community solar. But you know Large-sca solar Definitely also has certain communities that object to it being built in their midst have you ever come across any ah you know projects that are struggling to get through. You know, public meetings and so on where there’s various objections and how have you dealt with that in your kind of own career.
Tim Montague
Well, this is a very important topic getting community buy in for large scale solar and I’m not a large scale solar developer I developed twenty megawatt and down projects. So 1 to Twenty Megawatt projects but even these community solar projects that I’m developing in Illinois are meeting pushback from local communities. So when you bring a change to the land. You know we’re talking about rural landscapes in many parts of the country. That’s where these community solar projects are getting built. It’s not only in rural landscapes some of it is um. On brown fields and and ah you know on the on the edge of of suburbia so to speak. But but here in the Midwest we have gobs and gobs of of flat farm ground and a landowner can triple their income by leasing their land to a solar or wind developer. So it’s compelling for the landowner to consider leasing their their land. So if the if the land is in the right geographic area meaning the right territory the right utility territory and has access to the right kinds of infrastructure meaning substations. And in ah, in my case threephase power lines because I do distributed generation or if you’re a large scale utility developer you want access to um, transmission lines the big power lines and and so when these changes are presented to local communities.
Tim Montague
It can create some pushback and that’s understandable. It is a change you’re going from corn and bean farming to solar farming and yes, you’re putting a structure of you know, steel and glass and silicon onto a field. I’m also an ecologist by training and so I care about the land and I know a lot about about ecology and this is actually really good for the land. So. It’s good for the landowner from an economic perspective. It helps them keep their land keep their family on the land. A lot of next generation. Farmers are you know their children want to go to the city and so farm communities are struggling and they’re struggling economically and so it’s also then creating a tax base for things like schools There are some huge number of taxing bodies in Illinois something like 15 different taxing bodies. So there’s many.
Tim Montague
Ah, institutions that benefit from this type of development. But so one of the biggest challenges is that then there’s neighbors to the facility. So There’s ah a farmhouse a couple doors down from this solar field or this potential solar field. And those landowners sometimes are not properly engaged in the discussion about the project prior to a meeting with a zoning board of appeals. For example, which is one of the permitting bodies that you have to talk about your project with in order to get a permit and. And so neighbors of projects do pushback sometimes and it’s both end. Um sometimes they can be educated and ah you know they come around and they will get behind a project and sometimes they don’t. And so we call this nimbyism in the industry not in my backyard. There’s also gimbyism. Yes in my backyard and and yeah and and and so my message to energy professionals is simply.
James McWalter
I I Proud D be over here. Why Proud I proud in my backyard on on my side. Yes, so.
Tim Montague
We need to up our game. We need to become more professional more proactive. We need to engage all the stakeholders in in the decision making process and and the more proactive we can be the the the smoother the transition is going to be 1 of the one of the risks here James is that. We’re not going to make the the energy transition fast enough to to really slow down climate change. Ah we have as you said the the money now the money’s on our side. There’s just gobs and gobs of finance flowing into wind solar and battery storage. But where where the rubber meets the road. Getting these things permitted and interconnected. So. It’s both the the local stakeholders and we have to be better about communicating the value proposition to local communities and working with local landowners and residents and then also utilities and getting the interconnection. Agreement for these projects and making sure that that is economical is also a major hurdle in some jurisdictions and and some geographies. So. It’s it’s a both end so we have many opportunities and and I say this with 100 % confidence that if you’re. Not in clean energy and you’re looking for a new a new career. Please come to clean energy. We are a nothing but pure growth for the next thirty years industry and then um, if you’re already in the industry.
Tim Montague
I can also help you find your you know your up your game and and find those best of breed companies and opportunities that are out there. So it’s it’s ah it’s a very exciting time.
James McWalter
Um, and I believe you’re also the host of the clean power hour podcast. Um, so yes I would love to hear about that and in particular is there anything surprising that’s come out from the you know the array of interviews that you’ve done with different guests.
Tim Montague
Well I’m never I never ceased to be amazed at how many passionate caring bright and and brilliant individuals. There are in the clean energy industry I um. I just did an interview with a lovely young woman named Kate Collardson who has started a nonprofit called solar recycle. It is a clearinghouse for the recycling and repurposing of used solar panels and while this is a small problem today because our industry is quite young. In the United States it’s going to be a big problem in 20 years we’re going to have to figure out better ways to repurpose and recycle and better ways to manufacture on the front end these products and. Um, create good legislation so that there are buyback programs so that the manufacturers have to take their products back and repurpose them themselves and that way they’re incentivized to create products that can be easily recycled because right now solar panels cannot be easily recycled. They can be recycled. But the the best debreed technology really is to grind them up and and sort them into their their component parts. The glass silicon aluminum etc. Um, so that’s the main thing is just I never cease to be amazed at the at the you know the caring and creativity.
Tim Montague
Of the professionals in our industry and that’s one of the things that I love about being in the solar industry is the vast majority of Professionals care about sustainability. Also right? they are purpose driven entrepreneurs and professionals and and that just is. You know who I prefer to be in relationship with and be colleagues with and do business with.. It’s not that I don’t want to do business with others of course I do business with all kinds of people and I and I welcome that diversity. But I Also want to be part of a tribe. And and that tribe is purpose driven professionals.
James McWalter
I absolutely and I definitely echo that and it’s it’s a great try to be part of very very pleased to be part of it myself as well and but Tim this has been brilliant really enjoyed the conversation. Um, yep before we leave off is there anything I should have asked you about but did not.
Tim Montague
Before I forget I identified the Saul Griffith organization it’s called Rewiring America and that’s the name of the website as well. Rewiringmerica.org check that out. Great book. Great organization. Um. No I don’t think I have anything else check out my podcast at clean powerhour.com I love to hear from my listeners I love to get your ideas for who to bring on to the show I um I love connecting with you if you’re interested in clean energy, bring it on.
James McWalter
I absolutely and we’ll include those links in the show notes. Thank you Tim.
Tim Montague
All right? Thank you James I really appreciate it.
Title: Becoming a Solar Developer – E116
Great to chat with Tim Montague, Solar Developer, NABCEP trainer and host of the Clean Power Hour podcast! The Clean Power Hour is a weekly news roundup of the latest solar, wind, storage and energy transition news! We discussed how Tim become a solar project developer, the challenges in developing solar projects, community solar and more!
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James
The unedited podcast transcript is below
James McWalter
Hello today, We’re joined by Tim Montague solar developer and host of the clean power hour podcast welcome to our podcast Tim! brilliant.
Tim Montague
Thanks James. It’s great to be here.
James McWalter
Sir would love to hear how you ended up becoming a solar developer.
Tim Montague
I grew up in the small city of Albuquerque New Mexico and my dad was a professor at the University Of New Mexico he taught environmental studies and we were doing backyard solar thermal meaning making hot water from sunlight. Was a thing back in the seventy s eighty s and 90 S Pv was hardly on the scene because it was very expensive pv was invented in the 50 s but it didn’t go mainstream and literally until the early 2000 so fast forward I was doing sustainability consulting. In the twenty ten s and was casting about for my next big thing and a canadian named paul was kind enough to cold call me on a saturday morning and said hey we’ve reached grid parody and what that means is that solar.
James McWalter
Man.
Tim Montague
Is now cost competitiveive with other sources of energy and that was in 2 sixteen I dove in with both feet I was primed for a career in clean energy and shortly thereafter I Found a a great solar installlar called Continental Energy Solutions. And I became the head of business development for continental selling and developing commercial solar projects so that was that was the long and short of it. But it was a homecoming you know sustainability is in my blood I was an ecologist by training both bachelors and masters and had never. Ah, really found traction until I started doing green business consulting I’m a business guy. That’s the bulk of my career is doing B Two B Sales marketing and consulting and so solar just brings it all together.
James McWalter
I yeah so interesting I mean if I think about my own kind of journey to here so much can be pointed back to the fact that the farm I was growing up on converted to organic farming in the late 90 s and that was like a point of like oh you know we actually do have to be better stewards of of the land had to be better stewards of. Environment more generally and you know even though I didn’t end up working on anything with a climate impact until the last year or so that was always kind of there in the background and so it’s fascinating how these kind of know elements of our um of our upbringing kind of affect us. But I guess you know diving into that when that you got that phone call you know going from there and you know making a decision to kind of. You know change career directions and so on. Um, what? What would the the kind of next you know, let’s say 6 to 18 months like what? what were the kind of learnings you have to do because one of the things I think we’re going to see particularly post-ira is a lot of folks trying to come into the industry become so developers and so on. And so yeah, how did you kind of optimize your own learning in that time. Yeah.
Tim Montague
Yeah, and and I love this question because I help dozens and dozens of people get into the solar industry and I want to help more. So if you’re listening to this and you’re interested in clean energy in the energy transition in any aspect of it whether that’s electric. You know electrification of transportation or making food systems more sustainable but obviously also solar wind and battery storage where I’m quite an expert I am a very curious person I love technology I love entrepreneurship I had worked as a business advisor. Ah, my local small business development center working with technology entrepreneurs. So I just I love that nexus of of technology and business and now sustainability and so pv while I had a lot to learn. About like construction and what are the components of a solar array and how do you discern the good. The bad from the ugly in terms of those products and how do you qualify a commercial solar project I had to learn that truly even though I knew a lot about b two b sales. I didn’t know a lot about selling projects that were you know these are projects that are $50000 at the very small end to 5000000 or even more maybe $10000000 in the c and I and small utility solar space and.
Tim Montague
So I had a ton to learn and I just dove in with both feet. Of course I had colleagues I was working with a gentleman named Brian Howe whose shoulders I stand on he was the president of the Illinois solar energy association and the president of continental energy solutions and i. Then worked very closely with a cadre of project managers at continental and then started networking like a mad dog with other solar professionals and other energy professionals I had actually gotten involved with Illinois solar energy association several years before when I was doing corporate relations for. The notoart nature museum which is a a well-known institution on the on the north side the near north side of Chicago they had a rooftop solar array and I hosted a meeting of isia at the at our facility. So I had an interest in in clean energy and was. Was gathering bits and pieces and and building a network and I still have many of those contacts that I made back that was back in like 2005 and now you know fast forward and the the industry is just exploding so I was an early adopter. And but it pays to be curious. It pays to be outgoing or take the risk of of stepping out of your comfort zone so to speak right? because I had never sold a solar project and then I was the head of business development for a oh you know about $100000000 business at the time and.
Tim Montague
Ah, you know it’s sink orwin but but I was well suited to the job and and I love working with business owners. You know, helping them reduce their ah cost of energy. That’s the bottom dollar for you know that is the impact that solar makes you reduce your energy bill with a rooftop or ground mountund solar array that that plugs into your facility.
James McWalter
Events.
Tim Montague
And that’s a feelgood right? because we’re greening the grid we’re reducing air pollution and we’re saving money which then can be used for other things like R and D or hiring So. There’s no one single path right for any particular career in clean energy. But it starts with being curious and then finding those organizations those networks and those nodes I Like to think of people and organizations as nodes and each node will then be a connector for you to many other nodes.
James McWalter
No, that that makes a ton of sense and there’s a phrase. Ah a friend of mine uses. You know you have to try to maximize serendipity right? You know like things don’t always come to you. It’s often good to try to find yourself and in yeah, in the middle of a node or try to build that yourself where all of a sudden people are connecting to you and you know I think. But of us do that individually with our own podcasts. Um I’ve done that with you know, events and and groups that I’ve run over the years and but if I think about like the business development side of things right? There’s actually a lot of you know I guess buying and selling within the energy space and at the different layers and you mentioned the kind of business owners that you were you know selling to um, what was kind of a. Ah, typical provo of of a customer and how has that change and not just in terms of maybe the profile of the customer over the years but also what they care about.
Tim Montague
1 of my favorite projects is a project called Simmons Knife S I M M O N S Simmons knife and they make knife blades for the food processing industry and for the furniture industry and this is a multi-generational family business. Have about a fifty Thousand Square Foot facility I made a small video about the project and I interviewed the Ceo on my podcast so this is not sensitive information. They’re they’re in the wild about them going solar and ah but they were. Um, you know they were intrigued by the opportunity to make their facility more sustainable. We were able to offset about 70% of their electrical load with a rooftop array. So the facility is constrained right? The roof wasn’t quite big enough to put a new array on to put a. A big enough array on to offset 100 % of their load but they were very particular about this about trying to achieve the greatest impact possible and and there are some subtle things about solar that that you have to tweak in this case. We used five degree tilt panels versus 10 degree and the difference is that you can squeeze more solar panels onto a roof by doing ° so it’s it’s a slightly lower degree tilt array and that way you can smash it smash more solar in and get more solar kwh out.
Tim Montague
And and this was just very interesting, right? that they were very clear at the get go and it was it was it was the the typical leadership team is the c-suite so we had the Ceo the Cfo the Ceo and the facility manager and and they were very aligned. Of course they were. They were you know following a charismatic. Leader Colin Murphy is his name and it was just they were just very clear that we want to be become more sustainable and we want to do something that’s good for our bottom dollar but also good for our employees and our other stakeholders meaning their customers right? So when you make saw blades. With clean green electricity. That’s a more sustainable product and so they’re greening their entire value chain and and becoming a leader in their you know in their ecosystem and and in their sphere of influence and showing others that hey this matters and this is an opportunity for you. You know. I almost never lead with sustainability because only about 1 in 10 business owners or leaders truly cares about sustainability and I’m not blaming them. You know you have to be very concerned with your bottom line as a business owner. It’s nontrivial to be profitable. And to be sustainable meaning to maintain your growth year over year and that involves you know, r and d and expansion and facilities and hiring and firing and running a business is complicated and then to layer on this this goal of well let’s become more sustainable that can be.
Tim Montague
Quite a journey but like luckily you know solar is not the most complicated thing in the world. It’s black panels that sit on your roof or on your field or on your parking lot and they make electricity from sunlight and then you’re just reducing your consumption from the grid so that was. That was kind of the long and short of it with Simmons life and they were just a model customer and my all time favorite to date.
James McWalter
Yeah I think absolutely the this tradeoff right between why I guess some people might get into specific industries. You know that that drive from the kind of conservation point of view. But then so these are all businesses and it was interesting like you didn’t get that phone call until the cost parodity. Had happened and now you know solar panels are in many parts of the world. The cheapest form of electricity generation that you can install and so that is what’s enabling. Yeah, the kind of dramatic distribution of these assets and building of these assets like you know incentives and things like inflation production act. These are all very very powerful ways of. Continuing to push things along, but it’s the actual cost curves coming down so quickly. That’s actually enabled um you know businesses to make profit building these things and then the customers to see that there is actual you know financial regions and to engage in it. But I guess like when you’re kind of think working through that particular project or other projects you know and I think this does very. Whether it’s ground-mounted or roof-mounted. What are some typical hurdles that you have to overcome and you know your kind of approach overcoming those hurdles change over the years
Tim Montague
Developing solar projects is not easy I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture. Um and it’s not so much that it’s changed a lot over the years it’s just I’ve experienced more nuances. You know you first run into the facility front and center. Ah, you’re looking for a rooftop that’s less than 10 years old and that’s hard to find many rooftops are more than ten years old and they have ah you know 20 years of life left in them and you just many times cannot put a solar array on that roof. And you know with Simmons knife they needed a new roof and they were prepared to put on a new roof and we were able to combine the 2 into a single cap x and that is a a trick of the trade that few installers know or use. So check that out and but you know, ah. It is a capital expense if they’re going to buy a project. Do. You don’t have to. They don’t have to cap x the project you could do a Ppa or third party ownership. There’s also commercial leases for these facilities. So there’s many ways to skin the financial cat so to speak and that can be a hurdle most. Of all, though you you need a you need to find a customer who’s dedicated to doing something right because you can spend a lot of time drilling down on a project and then go nowhere and it just kind of gets put on a shelf and.
Tim Montague
So time and money become constraints for these. Ah these facility owners. They’re busy doing whatever they do making widgets making you know, computer products or making monitoring systems for the solar industry. Perhaps and energy isn’t their first. Ah, line of business. They may be interested. Um, but you really have to be dedicated and so being able to sift through those. Ah you know those leaders and finding the team that is really going to get something across the line is is vital and that’s a very nuanced thing. Um. So I mean some of the other things are of course the landscape right in the us now we have really good legislation in 2022 called iro you refer to that in the introduction. The inflation reduction act that changed the landscape in in several ways. It’s it’s ah.
Tim Montague
Applying for example, an investment tax credit at 30 the investment tax credit was 26% and it was going to step down to 10% in the next couple of years now we have an a good 10 year run at 30% so that softens the blow so to speak or the capex for. Ah, for both third -party owners or first party host owners and it makes solar more affordable and it makes it pencil better and so that just increases the uptake we were growing at 40% a year in the solar industry. Globally now here in the us we’re going to start growing at 60% a year so on a very rapid trajectory. Um, so then there’s also so that landscape is very important legislation and that’s a local thing and a you know national thing you have to know what’s going on locally I happen to be in the industry because we have good legislation going on in illinois. And that was the other kind of perfect storm for me is that we had legislation that got signed in 2016 and really catapulted our state. We were. We only had eighty megawatts of solar in illinois in 2017 now we have over one point eight gigawatts five years later and that’s because of. The future energy jobs act and now we have something called the clean energy. Oh no, sorry the climate and equitable jobs act cija which has created a whole new host of of incentives which are an accelerant. Um, and then there’s things like you know, ah supply chain right? We had covid.
Tim Montague
Slowed things down then we had the chip shortage. There’s a human resource shortage right? There’s a shortage of labor. It’s hard to find installers. It’s hard to find engineers and project managers and financial analysts across the board. Everybody is. Is kind of hurting for proper staffing and this you know I can’t I kind of think it. It creates an awareness around how valuable people are and I like that because that’s at the end of the day. What this is about is creating a more a safer. And ah cleaner future for humanity one that is is going to be buffered from the ah the unpredictability of climate change. Hopefully if we can get there fast enough. It’s not a question of. Are we going to make the energy transition right? It’s It’s a question of will we make it fast enough.
James McWalter
Yeah, and I think it’s so interesting to talk about the like all the different elements all these different constraints on the deployment of these assets and I think what’s most fascinating to me again coming into this industry more recently is that money isn’t really the constraint anymore like Basically you have so much capital being deployed from public and private sources to buy these assets to operate these assets to develop these assets and the constraints are further upstream it’s constraints around land its constraints around people as you said, um, you know there are literal legal constraints from particular areas and all these kind of things. Supply chain’s a massive one. Um, you know you had some kind of wild things that happened earlier the year in terms of tariffs and and all these kind of things but to me, it’s like for folks who are thinking about coming into the industry. It’s like there’s a lot of problems to be solved but the money is not one of them. That’s a pretty solved problem. There’s just. A ton of money to be deployed and so if you can find a way to deploy assets faster develop assets faster help out in supply chain help out on retraining and getting more people who can be installers and work on the design and projects and all these different elements. There’s a lot of business to be done and a lot of smart people I think need to like look at the space in mophomore lotphomore detail.
Tim Montague
Yeah, I’m glad um, you’re drilling down on this. You know there’s a great opportunity in organizations like the department of energy right now the department of energy is the um, the department in the federal government that sets the tone for the future of. The energy landscape in the in the us and it is experiencing a renaissance right now they have new funding. They have some very charismatic leaders like Jigger Shah who’s the head of the loan program office. Yeah.
James McWalter
I was just about to mention jigger.
Tim Montague
and and jigger is ah is ah an og in the solar industry. He became famous for starting a company called Sun Edison which made the which popularized the commercial power purchase agreement or Ppa in the United States and and then he went on to ah to found generate capital which is a clean infrastructure finance company and now he’s the head of the loan program officer which is fueling next generation technologies and and helping to. Bring them to the light of day so to speak. But but the doe is hiring a thousand people now and these are guys like you and me James who have backgrounds in entrepreneurship or technology. Project management or sales and marketing all kinds of people are being hired by the doe and this is a great thing and just one of the many opportunities so there’s opportunities in government. There’s opportunities in the private sector. There’s ah opportunities as entrepreneurs. Or just for like recent high school grads right? You can become an electrician or a laborer on solar fields and make $30 an hour without a college degree which is a wonderful thing.
James McWalter
I absolutely and if I think about just the last few generations right? So when I came out of university in the early 2000 you know everyone who wanted to make money went into finance like it was you know pre the big crash in 2007 and that’s where everybody kind of flock to and then. After that is big tech right? Like if you wanted to make a ton of money and up to pretty much I would say just very recently that’s where you wanted to go to and now I think it’s it’s definitely going to be clean technology right with energy I think driving the vast majority. You’re starting to see just really impressive companies. You’re starting to see that support coming from those governmental agencies. Um Arpae is another like amazing organization that does a ton of funding for you know, moonshot type energy and related technologies that have a large climate component and so yeah, yeah, it’s ah a guy called sa griffith who talks about electrifying. Everything and you know he says there’s even this even roles for the lawyers right? like you know trying to navigate different permitting requirements and so on and so yeah, so anyone listening regardless of your skill set. There is a place right in this kind of revolution right.
Tim Montague
Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned Saul Griffith and electrify everything. Um I can’t remember the name of the organization. But but he’s got a book and sorry.
James McWalter
On their lab. Ah so Sal Griffa He’s a other lab I believe.
Tim Montague
Well, that is one of the organizations but there’s another one around electrify um that that he is spearheading and and they’re a nonprofit and you know so they’re they’re kind of a think tank and community organizing around. Okay, how do we transition. As fast as possible and he references things like the the world war ii effort right? that the us government made. We turned on a dime we converted our factories to making tanks and bombers instead of you know trucks and trucks and passenger airplanes. And and we did this in a very short period of time and it’s truly astounding that the federal government was able to form this joint partnership with private industry and just completely turn the economy towards defeating Hitler and it worked but it was a massive massive transformation ah transformation of the economy and that’s what we need. To see now in order to net zero the economy which is forty gigatons of co 2 equivalent per year that the economy is you know, spewing into the atmosphere and then we have to figure out how to reduce the eight hundred gigatons that are already up there from the last. You know one hundred and fifty years of industrialization it’s it’s no small feat but it’s totally doable. We have the technology like heat pumps and like solar arrays and wind farms and battery farms and other energy storage technologies. It really is a very a very exciting time.
James McWalter
And absolutely would’d would’d. Love to continue to get into some different parts of the development picture because we’re definitely talking a lot about you know the commercial industrial cni space but 1 of the kind of big developments in the last five years in particular is this idea of community solar and. You know there’s people from all around the country all around the world who may be you know in a jurisdiction that doesn’t really have a community solar program. What is community solar and why is it something that’s having a larger and larger impact on the development landscape. So.
Tim Montague
Community solar is a way to make solar accessible to people who don’t have a sunny roof or don’t own a home. Ah so this is renters and people who can’t afford to put a solar array on their home if they do own a home. Or people that have a shady roof right? which is many many people and um so you build a central array. Maybe a one megawatt to five megawatt solar farm these are say 5 to fifty acre solar farms and then you let. Residents in that geography subscribe to the solar array and thereby buying in directly to a solar project and it’s called community solar there’s subtle nuances and different ways of doing it but the most popular way in the you know United States is you build an array. And then you get subscribers from that territory in that utility territory. So in Illinois we have comet in Northern Illinois and amherin in central and Southern Illinois and then mid american in Western Illinois and in those 3 territories. Community solar is a thing. The state has a law that mandates those utilities these are investorowned utilities which you know covers a huge chunk of the population. Perhaps 70% of Illinois’s population lives in these io territories and now.
Tim Montague
If you’re an ammer and comment or mid american customer. You also have the ability to ah become a subscriber to a community solar project. You get a 10% discount approximately generally speaking. So you’re going to save money and not have a huge cash outlay a solar array costs. You know a residential solar project cost 20000 to $ 30000 it’s like buying a car and so while for some people that’s no big deal for many it is a big deal, especially if you don’t own your home the home right? You’re not going to install a solar array on a house that you rent or if you live in an apartment so community solar is very very important and it got started in Colorado. Ah. Ah, think sunchair was one of the first community solar developers in the Us. But now there’s dozens of community solar developers and there’s a handful of really good states that are driving this forward Illinois happens to be 1 Massachusetts is 1 New York up into Maine Maine has a good community solar program now. New Jersey has a struggling community solar program. But it is happening and California has a nascent community solar program. They really were a late comer. They had something called community choice aggregation which is a cousin to that. But. It really wasn’t this form of modern community solar. So now they’re they’re they’re getting in the game as well.
James McWalter
Yeah, what? what? I love about community. So as a concept is I mean it’s in the name right? It’s the community side of it. You know you are having people who don’t actually know you don’t know the other people in your community necessarily who signed up but I love this idea where you have you know thousands of people in. Couple counties. Let’s say worth of space and together they enabled through their pricing power through their buying decisions. You know a five Megawatts you know groundmounted solar farm you know, maybe 20 minutes drive from them and yeah, the kind of emergence of that kind of shared. Ability and like the way legislation has enabled that I think it’s like this is a really fascinating approach and and honestly it’s kind of ah surprising that it kind of emerge in the United States it’s something that sounds you know very european very irish or german to me, but it’s absolutely fantastic and I really love it. So.
Tim Montague
Yeah I have to say I’m I’m very excited about community solar because it does give such a broad swath of the populace access to solar and I mean I already so I live in urban illinois in central illinois. My city participates in a group purchase program called community choice aggregation and so they get together with a handful of other cities and they do this group by of clean energy. So they’re buying a contract to buy clean electrons from. Energy suppliers and and then the energy suppliers are going out on the open market and securing these large contracts from wind and solar developers for what’s called green tags or rex renewable energy credits and and that’s you know a legit way of buying clean energy. But it’s It’s so much more direct when you can say oh I’m buying power from the solar array on a closed landfill in downtown urbanna which there is a community solar farm on the closed landfill now in downtown Urbannna and it targets in their case, low income low and middle income residents. Of the city of Urbana which is wonderful right? because those people are already stressed financially and now they’re going to save money on their power bill consume local green electrons and it’s ah it’s just a win win.
James McWalter
And those are all the kind of positive sides of the community side but we also you know come across various issues from community objections to certain types of development. Um solar included have you come across any of those.. What are the typical reasons why a community might object to solar being built. Ah, you know at scale in their community and.
And so on the community Side. You know those are all the kind of positive aspects of Community solar. But you know Large-sca solar Definitely also has certain communities that object to it being built in their midst have you ever come across any ah you know projects that are struggling to get through. You know, public meetings and so on where there’s various objections and how have you dealt with that in your kind of own career.
Tim Montague
Well, this is a very important topic getting community buy in for large scale solar and I’m not a large scale solar developer I developed twenty megawatt and down projects. So 1 to Twenty Megawatt projects but even these community solar projects that I’m developing in Illinois are meeting pushback from local communities. So when you bring a change to the land. You know we’re talking about rural landscapes in many parts of the country. That’s where these community solar projects are getting built. It’s not only in rural landscapes some of it is um. On brown fields and and ah you know on the on the edge of of suburbia so to speak. But but here in the Midwest we have gobs and gobs of of flat farm ground and a landowner can triple their income by leasing their land to a solar or wind developer. So it’s compelling for the landowner to consider leasing their their land. So if the if the land is in the right geographic area meaning the right territory the right utility territory and has access to the right kinds of infrastructure meaning substations. And in ah, in my case threephase power lines because I do distributed generation or if you’re a large scale utility developer you want access to um, transmission lines the big power lines and and so when these changes are presented to local communities.
Tim Montague
It can create some pushback and that’s understandable. It is a change you’re going from corn and bean farming to solar farming and yes, you’re putting a structure of you know, steel and glass and silicon onto a field. I’m also an ecologist by training and so I care about the land and I know a lot about about ecology and this is actually really good for the land. So. It’s good for the landowner from an economic perspective. It helps them keep their land keep their family on the land. A lot of next generation. Farmers are you know their children want to go to the city and so farm communities are struggling and they’re struggling economically and so it’s also then creating a tax base for things like schools There are some huge number of taxing bodies in Illinois something like 15 different taxing bodies. So there’s many.
Tim Montague
Ah, institutions that benefit from this type of development. But so one of the biggest challenges is that then there’s neighbors to the facility. So There’s ah a farmhouse a couple doors down from this solar field or this potential solar field. And those landowners sometimes are not properly engaged in the discussion about the project prior to a meeting with a zoning board of appeals. For example, which is one of the permitting bodies that you have to talk about your project with in order to get a permit and. And so neighbors of projects do pushback sometimes and it’s both end. Um sometimes they can be educated and ah you know they come around and they will get behind a project and sometimes they don’t. And so we call this nimbyism in the industry not in my backyard. There’s also gimbyism. Yes in my backyard and and yeah and and and so my message to energy professionals is simply.
James McWalter
I I Proud D be over here. Why Proud I proud in my backyard on on my side. Yes, so.
Tim Montague
We need to up our game. We need to become more professional more proactive. We need to engage all the stakeholders in in the decision making process and and the more proactive we can be the the the smoother the transition is going to be 1 of the one of the risks here James is that. We’re not going to make the the energy transition fast enough to to really slow down climate change. Ah we have as you said the the money now the money’s on our side. There’s just gobs and gobs of finance flowing into wind solar and battery storage. But where where the rubber meets the road. Getting these things permitted and interconnected. So. It’s both the the local stakeholders and we have to be better about communicating the value proposition to local communities and working with local landowners and residents and then also utilities and getting the interconnection. Agreement for these projects and making sure that that is economical is also a major hurdle in some jurisdictions and and some geographies. So. It’s it’s a both end so we have many opportunities and and I say this with 100 % confidence that if you’re. Not in clean energy and you’re looking for a new a new career. Please come to clean energy. We are a nothing but pure growth for the next thirty years industry and then um, if you’re already in the industry.
Tim Montague
I can also help you find your you know your up your game and and find those best of breed companies and opportunities that are out there. So it’s it’s ah it’s a very exciting time.
James McWalter
Um, and I believe you’re also the host of the clean power hour podcast. Um, so yes I would love to hear about that and in particular is there anything surprising that’s come out from the you know the array of interviews that you’ve done with different guests.
Tim Montague
Well I’m never I never ceased to be amazed at how many passionate caring bright and and brilliant individuals. There are in the clean energy industry I um. I just did an interview with a lovely young woman named Kate Collardson who has started a nonprofit called solar recycle. It is a clearinghouse for the recycling and repurposing of used solar panels and while this is a small problem today because our industry is quite young. In the United States it’s going to be a big problem in 20 years we’re going to have to figure out better ways to repurpose and recycle and better ways to manufacture on the front end these products and. Um, create good legislation so that there are buyback programs so that the manufacturers have to take their products back and repurpose them themselves and that way they’re incentivized to create products that can be easily recycled because right now solar panels cannot be easily recycled. They can be recycled. But the the best debreed technology really is to grind them up and and sort them into their their component parts. The glass silicon aluminum etc. Um, so that’s the main thing is just I never cease to be amazed at the at the you know the caring and creativity.
Tim Montague
Of the professionals in our industry and that’s one of the things that I love about being in the solar industry is the vast majority of Professionals care about sustainability. Also right? they are purpose driven entrepreneurs and professionals and and that just is. You know who I prefer to be in relationship with and be colleagues with and do business with.. It’s not that I don’t want to do business with others of course I do business with all kinds of people and I and I welcome that diversity. But I Also want to be part of a tribe. And and that tribe is purpose driven professionals.
James McWalter
I absolutely and I definitely echo that and it’s it’s a great try to be part of very very pleased to be part of it myself as well and but Tim this has been brilliant really enjoyed the conversation. Um, yep before we leave off is there anything I should have asked you about but did not.
Tim Montague
Before I forget I identified the Saul Griffith organization it’s called Rewiring America and that’s the name of the website as well. Rewiringmerica.org check that out. Great book. Great organization. Um. No I don’t think I have anything else check out my podcast at clean powerhour.com I love to hear from my listeners I love to get your ideas for who to bring on to the show I um I love connecting with you if you’re interested in clean energy, bring it on.
James McWalter
I absolutely and we’ll include those links in the show notes. Thank you Tim.
Tim Montague
All right? Thank you James I really appreciate it.