How Solar Took Over the Grid

Tim Montague is President of the Clean Power Consulting Group and host of the Clean Power Hour podcast, bringing over 30 years of experience from recruiting Silicon Valley talent to coaching clean energy entrepreneurs. His journey from forest ecology graduate student to clean energy catalyst perfectly embodies the age of adoption story. Tim's bold prediction that we're heading toward a grid powered by 50% solar and 40% wind reflects his deep understanding of both technology and market forces. "Photons are free and super abundant, raining down 10,000 times more energy than all of society can use," he explains, emphasizing why renewable dominance is inevitable.

What makes Tim's perspective particularly compelling is his focus on climate restoration beyond the traditional net-zero approach. He advocates for ocean iron fertilization, citing Mount Pinatubo's 1994 explosion as proof that iron dust can dramatically impact CO2 levels. "Net zeroing the economy addresses only one-twentieth of the climate problem," Tim reveals, "since there's a trillion tons of legacy carbon in the atmosphere that must also be removed." How can entrepreneurs navigate current policy uncertainty while building scalable clean energy businesses? Tim counsels focusing on commercial, industrial, and utility-scale segments rather than residential solar, riding the "tide of finance" that's pushing the industry forward.