Chance Claxton is a serial entrepreneur, a brand builder. Her most recent works involves axial flux motors, known as pancake motors. They are lighter weight, lower cost, and highly efficient electric motors. Her company, Orbis Elecric, has been working with the VW Group and other automotive OEMs to put these motors inside wheels. They can be positioned in two rear wheels or in all four wheels for high torque and high horsepower applications.Orbis is working in several verticals: The motors are also being employed in the refrigeration systems in refrigerated trucks, driving down costs and boosting efficiency. Recently, Orbis Electric has promoted its motors for cooling systems in AI data centers. Chance explains that this is a booming market, there are lots of eyes on it. Thus there is great interest and fundraising capabilities in deploying this type of innovation and efficiency in that energy-intensve vertical.Ted delves into Chance's diverse career, unearthing lessons learned in her path of entrepreneurialism. She began with a company designed to make Italian lines of furniture easily accessible, a company aptly called Design Within Reach.They developed an online catalog and then managed manufacturers in Italy to deliver the products.For 13 years, Chance was at the helm of U Konserve. That company was and still is about packaging to avoid food waste. With kids in school, she thought there must be a better solution than disposable ziplock bags. This career aligned with her sustainability values. U Konserve known for reusable containers and food wraps. It ultimately sold to a bigger company, teaching her about scaling up, and knowing when to step aside. It's all about timing she said more than once.Another job taught her when to throw in the towel. With a business partner/inventor, she decided to make the ultimate mask to protect from Covid. They were manufactured it in China. She was just about to release just as the requirements for masks in America were lifted! She called that venture a swing and a miss... all back to timing. Remarkably, she and that inventor went on to develop automotive breaks. Orbis Brakes has the goal of disrupting the $30 billion brake industry. Orbis makes an inside-out form of disc brake, a ring with lots of ventilation. The motor fits right inside; the wheel encompasses the whole system. Chance explains how the brakes not only cut material costs, but also reduce nano-particulate pollution.Orbis Electric is focused on the motors and how to commercialize them. She describes the two test vehicles supplied b by Volkswagen to prototype the in-wheel motor system, one being an ID4 modified in California and then extensively track tested. Her company is working to develop alternative magnet materials, decreasing costs while increasing the sustainability of products. Chance discusses raising capital, a big piece of the equation. It's not easy being a self-funded company, constantly working to balance opportunities and resources. Thus the current data center focus. You have to go where the money is... matching that with areas of huge potential. She describes how one-third of world's electricity is wasted by inefficient motors and their operation. Many are not "smart motors," they are running all the time even when not needed.The conversation ends with more advice and reflection: Timing, staying in lane, defining your path, sticking with it, and radically shifting if need be. She discusses passion, a key ingredient in being resilient, so critical for entrepreneurial paths... perhaps more important than eduction and specialization. And passion need not be singular... it can be applied in lots of different ways at different times. You can't know it all, she implores, but there's so much you can learn by rolling up your sleeves.
Having completed "The Impossible House" project, Robert Fortunato changed his career and switched from the corporate world of mergers and acquisitions to helping others tap into the green movement. He is now a green building advocate, an experienced practitioner, consultant, and educator. This episode is a follow-on interview. Episode #230 documented his inspiring green home construction project. While he was told repeatedly why he could not pursue a fossil-free and healthy home, Robert was determined, got educated, convened smart collaborators, and "impossible" was transformed into reality. He burns no fossil fuels, his home is healthier, and his family is saving money every day.Robert and Ted discuss the role of green building consultants, helping clients to plan carefully, and to tap into new technologies that make sense. Robert is an owner's rep; he who works on behalf of clients. Like Ted, he has worked with schools, businesses, and homeowners making sure they realize savings for their investments.Robert stresses the need for consideration of green measures early in the design process. Things like relatively small investments in whole house surge protection can be readily incorporated, providing insurance for years to come. Robert and Ted talk about the merits of "doing it right" the first time: They discuss orientation for solar, recognizing varying levels of shading throughout the year and both its cooling benefits and solar power generation demerits. The short and long-term benefits of solar and green measures are front and center in the conversation... providing dollar savings, healthier environments and comfort. Robert and Ted focus on lifecycle benefits - which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - versus the upfront costs of measures which can be in the tens of thousands. Solar and efficiency, and electric vehicles and heat pumps, can save money over time... serving as viable annuities. Robert presents his own home savings, now well over $60,000... money that he and his wife put into their son's college education.Robert describes the courses that he teaches for Southern California Edison. For the past ten years Robert has taught a course on building electrification, with invaluable lessons for architects, engineers, and lay people. They learn how to keep costs down while eliminating fossil fuels. A new course focuses on how to avoid costly panel upgrades through sophisticated controls and smart energy management, despite adding loads such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Georges Dyer is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), a non-profit, peer-learning network that helps endowed institutions make their endowments socially responsible. Of the 3,500 - 4,000 colleges and universities in America, some 2,000 have endowments that are valued at ~$900 billion in aggregate. These academic institutions -- as well as asset management firms, cultural institutions, museums, faith-based organizations, non-profit foundations, and others -- also have a similar value in retirement funds... which while highly regulated, are also being directed towards socially responsible and profitable investments.Georges explains the genesis of IEN. Spurred by the president of Hampshire College, Jonathan Lash, IEN was originally formed to help institutions divest from fossil-fueled industries that were counter to their climate action plans. Student and faculty concerns really started to press on endowment portfolios in 2013. Today, IEN works with some 250 endowments. Ted asks the bottom line question early: How are these endowments performing? Are they losing money, or are they on par, or are they ahead? Georges explains that on balance, they are at par or better.IEN provides a number of tools and resources for its members.. from virtual and in-person "convenings," to benchmarking tools, case studies, and more. The network provides insights and negative screening tools to weed out investments that run counter to an institution's mission and goals, while highlighting positive investment opportunities to reduce risk and steer institutions towards profitable investments in the green economy. The conversation shifts to case studies of "platinum" members: Georges discusses leading institutions including the University of California system and Arizona State University. He discusses how some institutions have found means to invest in their own facilities... for instance solar projects and facility upgrades that make dollars and cents while addressing inequality and other social issues. Georges sites the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as a shining example. Born of oil and gas and fossil fuels, Rockefeller has been a leading example of an organization whose Standard Oil roots are now focused on "intentional investments" with highly positive performance. For more on IEN and its mission and results, check out Georges' new podcast, "The Future of Finance."
Dr. Jason Huang is the co-founder and CEO of TS Conductors, a firm that manufacturers advanced conductors for electric utilities. The TS conductors, or transmission lines, carry up to three times as much power as conventional transmission lines (wires). They also cut power line losses by up to one half, often at a negative marginal cost... meaning they cost less than conventional lines and boost capacity. Jason explains that given today's thirst for power for data centers, building and mobility electrification, these conductors are critical in maintaining U.S. competitiveness in global markets, while providing critical services for renewable power generation.Jason explains that the power sector is very conservative, working diligently to provide safe and reliable transmission services. Many utilities are using 120-year old transmission technology... while others are using "advances" that are 50+ years old. TS Conductors uses a combination of carbon fiber cores, which double their strength and weigh 80% less, with encapsulated aluminum conductors. Through TS Conductors, utilities can invest in the future... restringing power lines at lower costs and faster than using traditional technologies.For years, utility transmission lines have been constrained by sagging in high heat and swaying in high winds. Many lines have to be derated in extreme heat events, times when utilities need the power the most. To add more capacity, utilities have had to make towers taller and to add towers. TS Conductors allows utilities to refurbish their transmission corridors and expand their power capacity without costly tower replacements. More important than the lower costs are avoiding permitting for new transmission corridors, processes that can take more than 12 years. In one case, TS Conductors were used in Montana, cutting CAPEX costs 40% and shortening the project schedule to provide means to bring wind farms' power to market by 12 months.The conversation concludes with a look at the massive potential and market for advanced conductors. There are nearly a million circuit miles in America, and many more millions of conductor miles given three-phase configurations. And the conductors can be used for 18 million+ distribution lines as well. For the United States to be competitive in the global AI market, and to boost sustainability, TS Conductors offers a win-win solution.
Joyce Coffee heads up Climate Resilience Consulting, advising cities and states and others on resilience to climate change. She explains to Ted that she learned early on in Chicago, that the impacts of climate change can be unpredictable and fierce. After 750 souls there lost their lives there in a heat wave, mostly black and brown citizens, she knew that she was going to focus on adaptation, and making people more resilient to the ravages of climate change.Joyce grew up in Colorado and then moved to the East Coat for her education at Tufts -- to focus on public health -- and then MIT where she was a student of Urban Studies and Planning. She talks about her first career step, working for an engineering firm that worked on the Three Gorges Dam project in China. The firm was helping China leap from a second world country to a first world country. Joyce's work surrounded relocating well over a million people whose land would be flooded by the dam. That prepared her for advocacy of relocating communities and towns to steer clear of the most threatening aspects of climate change.Ted and Joyce dig in on adaptation, a sorry reality. Why not cut greenhouse gases and avoid the need for adaptation? Joyce's climate action planning in Chicago made clear that even a city with a progressive mayor and populous, was falling short of its climate goals. Like it or not, citizens there -- and globally -- will have to adapt to rising CO2. Thus for nearly ten years, Joyce's firm has been providing consulting for cities and states... helping them prepare for floods, fires, droughts, windstorms, coastal inundation, and sea level rise.The conversation shifts to the brand-new guide that Climate Resilience Consulting has developed for small businesses. Sadly, one in three small businesses in climate change events have suffered financial losses. Data confirms that 26% of small businesses have resilience plans and fully 94% feel that they are prepared. But in areas ravaged by climate change events, 40% of small businesses are forced out of business. Not good. Joyce explains as small businesses employ half of all American workers and contribute 40% of our nation's gross domestic product. By helping small businesses -- with a practical guide complete with checklists and AI prompts - they can be more profitable, able to fare far better than ill-prepared others. They also "bounce back" more quickly... having moved to higher ground, or away from extreme fire risk areas. They are part of what Joyce calls the solution set... ripe with innovation and smarts in determining how to get "more crop for the drop," and formulating new kinds of exterior house paint that is more resistant to wildfires. Joyce gets great satisfaction in helping business and communities prepare for and reap the benefits of her grandmother's oft-stated view that "a stitch in time saves nine."
Henk van Alphen was born and raised in Holland. After serving in the army, he sought adventure and travelled to Canada where he and his girlfriend took a float plane into the wilderness, built a cabin, hunted and fished, and lived off the land for a year. It took them seven days to walk back into civilization. Henk then went to college in Canada and began to work part time for a mining operation. His wilderness experience was a perfect match for the needs of mining developers who relied on "grubstakers" to trek into the wild, searching for mineral deposits to develop mines.Henk's career in mining began in Canada, and then led him to extensive works in Argentina, Chile, and other South American countries. He was agnostic about what minerals he sought to develop... working with coal, iron ore, gold, silver, copper, zinc, uranium, and ultimately lithium. He discusses the process of developing mine sites... noting his style and business model of working collaboratively with indigenous populations, making them part of the process which ultimately led to longer term successes.The conversation then shifts to lithium mining. Henk discusses where lithium is found - in brine, clay, and pegmatites - and how it is mined. His work involved extracting lithium from brine in "salars" or drying lakes. This was not well received because in arid countries, solar evaporation of the brine wastes precious water... so he and his colleagues have focused on DLE or Direct Lithium Extraction.Ted and Henk discuss the value of lithium, a mineral at the core of the clean energy revolution. Henk is articulate about the role of lithium in electric vehicles, and in laptops and cellphones. He notes China's preeminence in this field. While other battery chemistries are being examined, Henk notes that advances in lithium batteries are extending EV's range, making EVs clear winners in the automotive future. And he posits that lithium will be with us for some time even if other chemistries are promising and may ultimately replace lithium. That will be, he jokes, when he is six feet under!
Ted Flanigan first met Gene Rodrigues in 1998. Ted was Director of Efficiency Solutions at LADWP; Gene the Director of Energy Efficiency at Southern California Edison. For years, Gene was the voice and the face of energy efficiency, his sincere and happy demeanor on local television in the evenings. Ted and Gene begin with a reflection that Ted recounted of Gene's mother making sure that Gene knew that every morning that he had a choice about the day ahead. She made clear that you have the choice to be happy and productive each day.Gene was born in Japan to a U.S. serviceman and a Japanese mother. He grew up in Arizona before getting his law degree. In short order he realized that he wanted his law to be important, to make a difference to our society. He applied that vision to his work in regulatory law at Southern California Edison. He became Director of Efficiency, a role that expanded to include distributed energy resources of all kinds.The conversation shifts to Gene's deep appreciation for the field of efficiency... what he calls a foundational element for every utility to boost reliability and local economic development, to cut consumer costs and increase affordability, while protecting the environment at least cost. Gene stressed that California did it right, aligning good business sense with environmental concerns, and meeting the needs of all stakeholders. Calling it a group effort in California, he saluted leaders, John Bryson, Mike Peevey, Ralph Cavanagh, and Art Rosenfeld. They were successful in defining the role of efficiency. Gene explains that it's not a soft customer service, but part of the make-up of a reliable energy system.Gene left Edison in 2014 to work for the consulting firm ICF, noting that it was a company whose "moral compass was facing due north." When reflecting on his work there in the ICF Clean Energy division, Gene notes that he is most proud of the collaborations that he helped seed and nurture in meetings of cohorts. He found those forums most impactful. The conversation ends with a discussion of Gene's tenure at the U.S. Department of Energy where he served the Biden/Harris administration as Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Office of Electricity. While the DOE's Forrestal Building is stark, formidable, and intimidating, Gene stressed that he found the staff there to be the most committed group he has every worked with. His heart aches for the current administration's policy to decimate the role of these non-political, career servants. So then, asked Ted, "Are you optimistic?" Gene said no, he is not optimistic about the current changes, but he commented that when he was appointed, he was confirmed by a voice vote of unanimous consent, representing both sides of the aisle. Gene said, those on the R side are still there. While they knew that Gene came from a deep green background, importantly, they understood his common sense approach to energy management. And they are still there.
Rebecca Tickell is an actor, singer, writer, producer, and environmental activist. Born in Ohio in a farming community, her roots are deep in agriculture. After moving to Vermont with her mother, at nine years old she became a movie star, playing a leading role in the Christmas-classic Prancer. She was instantly famous, appearing on the Today show and the Tonight show, among others. From that early age, she knew that she wanted to be a storyteller, using films to reach the masses.After a start in Hollywood, and a role in a horror film, Rebecca knew that she wanted to focus on films that make a difference. After seeing Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, it became clear to her that she wanted to tell stories about the ravages of climate change and ways to save the Earth. Working with her husband Josh, they have produced over 20 climate-conscious films... reaching some 2 billion people.Their first films focused on oil... its devastating impacts... made crystal clear by their documentary on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Filming the accident poisoned Rebecca and solidified her commitment to caring for the planet.Influenced by a colleague, they shifted from oil to soil, highlighting the great value of soil in carbon sequestration. Paul Hawken's Project Drawdown influenced Rebecca. By caring for the soil through regenerative agriculture, Hawken stated that the teraton of carbon that humans have released to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution could be captured. She and Josh then bought a farm in Ventura County to practice what they preached.Rebecca discusses the basic tenets of regenerative agriculture, and how it can not only boost production, but address the vast areas of land globally that have been desertified. Their award-winning and broadly revered films -- Kiss the Soil and Common Ground -- have been rooted in rebuilding the soil. And they highlight successes, more profitable forms of agriculture, a greater diversity of products able to withstand droughts, fires, and flood. Farmers are finding that eliminating herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides can save them $400 an acre... helping them break out of the vicious farming cycle of loans and risk and unhealthy produce.Today, Rebecca notes that about 5% of American agriculture is based on the principles of regeneration,. But this is ten times what it was five years ago... and projections suggest that 10% of American farming will be regenerative in the next few years. This is the tipping point... when the forces of logic in agriculture become unstoppable, both domestically and worldwide.Healthy soils lead to healthy food, which leads to healthy people. Our health, Rebecca makes clear, is a reflection of the health of our soil. The health of our guts is a reflection of the health of the microorganisms in our soil. This will happen acre by acre, inch by inch. For more information and to download Rebecca's films, visit bigpictureranch.com.
Clean Power Alliance is in its eighth year serving cities and unincorporated areas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, providing power to over one million electric meters in 35 cities and county areas with a generating capacity of 3,400 MW. This episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic features Ted Bardacke who has been its CEO throughout this tenure... creating the nation's largest community choice aggregator. CPA is also the nation's largest clean energy provider, and has been for the past two years. Its annual sales of 10 - 11 TWh, make it the fourth largest power provider in the State of California. Recently, it eclipsed San Diego Gas and Electric in power sales.Ted explains that CPA provides three tiers of rates, important choices for its members: About 10%of its members have selected its Lean Power rates, pricing that is about 2% less than the rates offered by Southern California Edison (SCE). Another 25% have selected the Clean Power rates that are equal in price but a better environmental product. Two-thirds of its members are on the 100% Green Power rate, paying about 6% more than they would if they were still buying power from SCE. These choices have been key to CPA's remarkably low opt-out rate (and its 93% participation rate)... meaning that members are pleased with the CPA products and have for largely have not returned to SCE.CPA is now mature and offering a suite of programs that enhance its services. Ted explains that there are two types of programs: CPA offers programs for its member agencies that feature resilience for critical facilities as well as up to $250,000 grants for building electrification. CPA also offers a suite of customer programs... things like incentives for advanced battery energy storage and EV charger incentives. By working closely with its board of directors, Ted explains that CPA's services are locally rooted, and that CPA has a fine-grained understanding of its customers' needs.The conversation then shifts to the current presidential administration's decrees... retarding wind and solar. Fortunately CPA "resourced" its portfolio of green power early and at relatively low cost, putting the CCA in a strong financial position. But Ted explains that there is no question that the administration is changing the market for renewables... with less tax credits, policies making it harder to permit renewables, and the effects of tariffs on supply lines. Without question, these changes are impacting the "ecosystem" supporting renewables... making it harder for customers to "do the right thing" to control costs and drive down emissions. Ted notes that "California will do a good job of holding this ecosystem together" though "there will be some backsliding.'When asked about next steps for CPA, Ted flags directions including refining and expanding programs, exploring asset ownership, and working with customers to make them co-managers of electrification. Just as Californians have and will respond to water shortages, Ted wants CPA to lead a cultural shift such that electricity consumers are active participants.... driving down costs and emissions for all.
Rinaldo Brutoco has been at the helm of the World Business Academy for over 38 years. He founded it to focus on the role that businesses should play in solving humanity's greatest challenges. The Academy promotes the responsibility of business in relation to the moral, environmental, and social concerns of the day. To spur change, and where markets are not acting fast enough, Brutoco and his non-profit have spun off for-profit businesses... taking ideas and convictions and turning them into products and services to drive change.He and Ted dig into his education and the value of his law degree, what he calls a "set of tools" that have served him well. As a young lawyer he took on the largest of the baby bell telephone companies, and won a $132 million settlement at the California State Supreme Court. But as he lamented, he lost further lawsuits in the same case, disillusioning him about the value of lawsuits and the profession of law. At the urging of Ralph Nader, he formed the California Public Interest Law Center... to highlight issues of great importance in need advocacy. He explains that his mission has been about shifting human consciousness... and allowing businesses to lead the masses, building new business paradigms, replacing old-school business school metaphors of jungles and wars... with noble professions and stewardship. The conversation digs into nuclear power, a technology that he says will never have a viable role in our clean energy future. Small nuclear modular reactors, he explains, have all the same problems as large nuclear reactors. And despite millions of dollars of investment and the government's promotion, no businesses are buying it. Instead, hydrogen is the future... providing high temperature applications for cement and steel, powering locomotives and large 18-wheelers.The current administration, he implores, is doing everything wrong. "What isn't it doing to hurt green energy?" The United States has lost its leadership in solar and wind and now in hydrogen. While the Chinese have latched on to electrification, the White House has been pushing "drill baby drill." But Rinaldo explains that oil company executives, while taking advantage of government subsidies and tax breaks, see the writing on the wall too. They do not want to drill baby drill as markets for oil are falling. Every EV driver is stripping away the value of oil, and thus major investments in its infrastructure are becoming less and less valuable.The discussion ends with a focus on the electric power grid, and how it is fast becoming obsolete. It will be replaced, Rinaldo states, with honeycombed microgrids that are resolute in tapping solar and wind and geothermal, while reducing the need for costly and inefficient transmission that tie us to fossil fuels of waning importance and value. The 100% Clean Energy Moonshot he envisions for California, has no oil or nuclear... just resources that tap the sun's infinite and free energy. This he makes clear, is where wealth will be generated. This is where businesses will lead.
Robert Fortunato and his wife needed to expand their home in Hermosa Beach, California to welcome a child and incorporate two home offices, and they wanted it to be healthy and sustainable. After traveling the world, Robert wanted to incorporate best practices.. like the clever and complete use of materials in island countries demonstrated with coconuts in Sri Lanka, to passive solar design akin to Mesa Verde in Colorado, and non-toxic building material use in Denmark. As he and his wife planned their home remodel, Robert was struck by the black soot on his windowsills, and struck even more so when he learned that his own home was producing the soot... from cooking, water heating, his furnace, and his garaged car. He certainly didn't want that for his family. After employing a reputable green architect to create a healthy home, and having his vision suffer disappointment, Robert questioned authority. What he dubbed his "impossible home" became a labor of love, community involvement, and a demonstration of what is possible. Robert is a musician from Philadelphia. His dance band there became highly popular because Robert bought an early Mac computer and learned to market his gigs. His tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit earned him a spot at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania where he studied business. When he met Monica, who became his wife, they travelled the world visiting 20 countries with their eyes wide open. They learned many lessons that they wanted to incorporate in their home... and they did.The architect was fired. Robert used Sketch-Up to design a home with a major overhang to keep out the summer heat and keep the home cool. He ditched natural gas in favor of solar and an all-electric home. He turned to his community and found an abundance of talented folks all keen on pitching in. Fully 97% of the materials in the old home were repurposed, he cut his energy use by 70%, solar produced enough energy for his home and car, and he capped his natural gas line. All told, the project engaged 70 collaborators, and at its conclusion he'd had 5,000 visitors to witness his Living Building Challenge certified home, it garnered lots of press and a Los Angeles County green leadership award.Robert today runs ForStrategy Consulting, a firm that coaches leadership and innovation. He notes that he likes to "coach clients out of dark places!" In addition to playing his drums, being a band leader, and continuing his passion for music.. he provides green home and building decarbonization consulting for Southern California Edison and others... proving that if you have a vision, and you pursue it diligently, you can serve yourself and others with a healthy home and fulfilling lifestyle.
Bob Freling has been the Executive Director of the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) since 1997. Its mission is to design, fund, and implement solar energy solutions to benefit those in poor communities without access to the electricity grid, helping others to overcome energy poverty. SELF provides energy access in the developing world and has an impressive track record of providing more than 750 solar systems in over 20 countries. Bob Freling was born and raised in Dallas, Texas and was educated at Yale University where he earned his degree in Russian Studies. He has an intense appreciation of linguistics having studied Spanish, French, Russian, and Mandarin. After colleage, and when on assignment in Taiwan, he joined the antinuclear movement, and came upon clean solar energy and SELF. He never looked back, realizing the life-changing value of solar in the developing world.Bob discusses SELF's evolution from providing small household, 50-watt solar solutions -- which powered a few lights and a radio -- to the "whole village development model" which provides a broader spectrum of benefits including community water pumping, power for health clinics, streetlighting, and microenterprise centers. One memorable project was in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in South Africa. There, SELF installed a satellite dish and 2.4 kW solar array that powered a school which received 20 personal computers donated by Dell Computers. All of a sudden, that community had access not only to energy but to "the universe of information." Another project was in the African country of Benin where SELF supported water pumping and drip irrigation, and hydroponics, fostering solar market gardens run by women's farming cooperatives.Recently SELF has been promoting new forms of agriculture in Masai villages in Kenya... using water most judiciously and effectively. SELF is also focused on e-cooking using advanced electric cooking devices. Bob discusses the great value of the sun in supporting the energy-water-food nexus and is thankful for the support SELF has received from foundations, philanthropists, corporations, and international aid agencies. For his dedication and important works, Bob was honored to receive the King Hussein Leadership Award which was presented to him by Jordan's Queen Noor. For more information and to support SELF, please visit www.SELF.org.
Geoff Stapleton is considered "a force" in the solar industry, particularly in Australia and the Pacific Islands. So far, he has worked in 39 countries supporting solar... introducing standards and training to validate and shore up the solar industry. His work has been widely recognized, culminating recently in his recognition and award of the "Order of Australia" title.Geoff Stapleton began his career in off-grid solar in Australia, originally working for BP Solar Australia. He then formed his own company, Southern Solar Australia, that he managed for over 20 years, designing and installing solar systems primarily in New South Wales where he lives. Geoff's company promoted solar, wind, micro-hydro, and even diesel gen-sets. He explains that the Australian government had been subsidizing grid-connected power consumers for years, and when this cross subsidy was recognized, government subsidies for off-grid systems were introduced that boosted the installation of off-grid systems there. For two decades Geoff worked for, and continues to work for, Global Sustainable Energy Solutions (GSES). After serving as its managing director, he stepped down from that management role three years ago to direct GSES's international solar training program, and to carve out time to be Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy Industries Association of the Pacific Islands. His life-long passion for promoting solar, and extending the great value of solar for Pacific Island nations, and his dedication to training and standards is clear. He recounts different experiences in Australia, the Pacific Islands, as well as in Africa and other countries.The discussion shifts to his views on the drivers for successful solar programs and policies in different countries. What makes a country a leader in solar deployment? Geoff explains that while cultures, traditions, policies, and programs are important parameters... it is the people on the ground that really make the difference. In some countries, there are passionate and dedicated and effective professionals are key to mobilizing the solar industry. Those are the champions that deliver success.The interview ends with a discussion of the online solar museum that Geoff and others have created, a great tribute to the rise of solar power, its remarkable evolution to being one of the world's most important sources of power, and certainly a major key to uplifting communities around the world.
In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted interviews Julia Kintsch, the Principal and Senior Ecologist at Eco-Resolutions. Julia grew up in Boulder, Colorado where she was ingrained with a deep love of nature. She went to University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a degree in Environmental Conservation. Then, after serving in the Peace Corps in Africa, she enrolled at Duke University and earned a masters degree in Landscape Ecology. After working for The Nature Conservancy and other non-profits, she formed Eco-Resolutions with the goal of minimizing and mitigating the impacts to nature of human activity.For the past 16 years, Julia has supported a number of transportation agencies and other groups... finding ways to protect both wildlife and motorists from accidents. She explains that her work with transportation ecology is at the intersection of the human and natural environment. She is a collaborator no doubt, bringing together diverse interests to build underpasses and overpasses and other roadway mitigation measures such as motorist warnings activated by cameras that detect the presence of wildlife. Every project and community is unique, different terrain and different species --deer, elk, moose, bears, coyotes, and smaller animals -- require different forms of crossings. Ted chimes in with his experience dodging deer in Vermont and monkees on roadways in Malaysia. Julia then presents the results of a number of her projects in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Virginia. The Colorado State Highway 9 wildlife protection project, she explains, is really a "system" made up of seven crossings, 10.8 miles of fencing, as well as 62 motion-sensor activated cameras at 49 locations to track the results of the protection systems. What years of careful evaluation has proven is a 90% decrease in accidents... a success rate that has earned significant recognition of the efficacy of careful and early planning, including both mitigation and crossing feasibility studies. Most recently, Julia has been consulting for Roaring Fork Safe Passages, working for its Director, Cecily DeAngelo, to prioritize wildlife crossings on Colorado State Highway 82, the busy transportation corridor that connects Aspen and Glenwood Springs.
John Belizaire heads up a company called Soluna. It's business model is to tap curtailed renewable capacity -- wind and solar -- and to use this previously wasted energy to power data centers. John explains that 30 - 40% of all wind and solar farms is curtailed... essentially "stranded " capacity. By utilizing this renewable energy is it monetized... boosting the economics of the renewables while powering data centers with green energy.John, a self-decribed nerd in his youth growing up in Brooklyn, New York, was always at the cutting-edge of computers, even as a young man selling floppy discs in school while others were selling magazines and running newspaper routes. He then went on to Cornell University where he earned two degrees in Computer Science. He then followed that up with an MBA fron the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. That was followed up by a career that began in finance... prior to tapping into the convergence of the megatrends of renewable power generation and artificial intelligence. The notion of co-locating data centers with renewable facilities first occurred to John when he was visiting a project in Morroco, Africa. How could excess wind there be used? At the time, block chaining and bitcoin mining was on the rise, and there were -- and still are major concerns with the electricity required for these functions. Now most of John's 800 MW of data centers is used for regenerative AI. Instead of building and repowering massive power plants - even nuclear installations -- for data centers, John envisions a future in which data centers are distributed. Soluna has found a logical niche... one which is green in both ways... both in power generation and in data center applications.
In this Crash Course, hosted by Sierra Flanigan, she and her father, Ted Flanigan, dig into the key issue related to the combustion of green hydrogen in peaker power plants. Ted learned of the adverse impact of burning hydrgoen last year from his friend and colleague, Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director of Climate Resolve. Together they wrote a white paper to clarify the issue... the basis of this Crash Course.There has been understandable concern that to meet the Los Angeles mandate of 100% clean energy generation by 2035, that green hydrogen will have to be used and that it will likely have to be used in peaker plants to keep the power on. Early studies on the combustion of green hydrogen make clear the great benefit of this carbon-free fuel, but note that its combustion may actually increase nitrogen oxide emissions. Why? Hydrogen burns hotter than natural gas, amplifying the "endothermic reaction" whereby air -- loaded with nitrogen - is drawn into the heat where it forms nitrogen oxides.This finding of increased NOx, which is both a greenhouse gas, and a regional air pollutant causing smog and health issues, has alarmed the Los Angeles environmental justice community that had been looking forward to their neighborhoods' power plants being permanently closed. Now they face continued operations albeit with hydrogen, and the threat of local air quality hazards in the form of increased NOx.The paper digs into ways to mitigate NOx emissions from combustion turbines and there are many. Some are before a power plant's combustion chamber, some are inside the chamber, and others outside. Hydrogen burns hot, but it can be lean, lowering the temperature. Inside the fire are adjustments to reduce NOx, and 70 - 95% of the NOx can be captured in selective catalytic reduction systems.The Crash Course covers the big picture too. Electric utilities are electrifying mobility -- witness the EV explosion -- and decarbonizing buildings. These functions have huge CO2 and NOx reduction benefits. Furthermore, power plants contribute less than 1% of all NOx in our region. Bottom line: Los Angeles may well explore and can certainly justify limited green hydrogen combustion, until efficiency and fuel cells and other technologies can help meet peak demands on the hottest days of summer.Past Crash Courses have focused on microgrids, net energy metering, electric vehicles, vehicle to grid, microgrids, offshore wind, climate action, energy storage... and Ted's experimental solar home in Colorado. The father/daughter duo works again in this sixteenth Crash Course to take a somewhat complex subject, and to make it clear and easy and interesting to digest.Flanigan's Eco-LogicEpisode 225June 30, 2025★ Episode details: https://share.transistor.fm/s/63c98026★ Additional episodes: https://flanigansecologic.transistor.fm/© 2025 Flanigan's Eco-Logic
Cecily DeAngelo read an article in the New York Times about wildlife crossings, and ever since, she has been laser-focused on developing wildlife crossings in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado. She grew up there and has witnessed first hand the carnage along Pitkin County's roadways... dead bears, deer, elk, rabbits, and more and more moose. These vehicle wildlife accidents decimate wildlife in the Roaring Fork Valley and are responsible for 30% of vehicle accidents there. What Cecily learned is that the Roaring Fork Valley, which runs from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, is bisected in terms of wildlife and biodiversity. Highway 82, which runs parallel to the Roaring Fork River, has caused a dangerous divide for wildlife. To address this she formed Roaring Fork Safe Passages, a citizen-led coalition that raises awareness about the opportunity to build wildlife crossings, either overpasses or underpasses. Supported initially by the Aspen Skiing Company, she and her colleagues developed a "Prioritization Study" that ranks sections of the highway for safe crossings. Now, working with the communities in the Valley, and hopefully with the Colorado Department of Transportation, she is working raising funds to build overpasses in key areas, funneling wildlife in specific areas thanks to well-designed fencing for safe crossings.The podcast also features Cecily's determination to get involved in politics. Inspired by the former president of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who gave birth when in office, Cecily is passionate about urging young citizens -- reproductive age and underrepresented -- to take action and to get involved with school boards, commissions, and councils. In 2024, she ran for Snowmass Village City Council and won, expanding its female majority... working on key issues such as community planning, affordable housing, and sustainability. Despite the challenging juggling act of raising a family, managing Roaring Fork Safe Passages, and serving her community on City Council, Cecily is excited and fulfilled by positively influencing the region where she lives, and encourages others to follow suit.
In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted welcomes Catherine Sands, Director of Fertile Ground, to the podcast. After years of working in development and promoting special fund-raising concerts for Natural Resources Defense Council, Catherine moved north from New York City to the Berkshires of Massachusetts to raise a family and live closer to the land. There, she became involved with schools and asked a very basic question: Why do local schools have such lousy food?These questions led Catherine to a career working with schools and communities, linking education and applied learning to food systems. She sought to emulate the edible schoolyard program that Alice Waters created in Berkeley, California. There, students were learning growing food in their schoolyards, gaining an appreciation of healthy food, and developing pathways for lifelong wellness. This inspired Catherine to work with local schools in Massachusetts, working on applied learning, food procurement, and linking local schools to local farms... all to bring healthy, pesticide-free food, and "scatch-made" meals to students. She explains that much of her work involves diligent networking and matchmaking to support food policy councils, school districts' food procurement professionals, and local farms.Determined to better understand food systems and food policy, and to undo the food inequity she found distressing, Catherine earned a graduate degree from University of Massachusetts to advance Fertile Ground and its work with schools and communities. Since then, Fertile Ground has provided food system evaluations with recommendations for school districts on how to best tap Farm Bill funds to advance healthy food. Fertile Ground develops approaches and programs and gardens. She then joined the U Mass faculty where she has inspired and guided hundreds of students on a similar mission, work that she continues... driven by passion and fulfillment in her successes. "What's in your garden this spring?" Ted asks Catherine in closing. She responds that, yes, "It's planting time. The greens are going in. Tomatoes too." And not only in her own garden: She relishes in having fostered and continuing to support hundreds of gardens at schools and within the communities that she serves. Catherine makes clear that providing healthy food at schools and in our communities is challenging, but more so, it is rewarding as it nurtures young minds and healthy souls and organically supports communities.
Grant Gunnison is the founder and CEO of Zero Homes, a Denver-based firm that specializes in electrification of homes in Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, and California. Grant gave up his post-MIT work at NASA and returned to Colorado to run his family's construction business, shifting its focus to tackle climate change. He recognized the need to decarbonize some 60 million American homes, with 4 - 5 measures per home. What he did then was revolutionize the retrofit process, uncovering efficiencies to drive down costs and to boost the customer experience. Grant, an enthusiastic soul, has clearly been a beneficial disruptor!Zero Homes is unique in many ways: Its primary focus is on electrifying homes... their space and water heating, cooking, etc, to help solve the climate crisis. He works to upgrade electrical panels to make homes ready for heat pumps, EVs, and solar systems. Of note, Zero Homes has reformed the front end of all construction processes... the process of bidding on construction jobs. Zero Homes provides interested parties with an online tool. It gives homeowners some homework... wiping out the inefficiency of multiple firms coming to the property to analyze and compete for opportunities for jobs and savings.Grant came up with the business model after working on his family's construction business. Free quotes cost all contractors and their customers time and money. By using Zero Homes' online tool, homeowners take photos and videos of their home and provide other pertinent data Then Zero Homes builds a 3D model of the home and identifies and prices measures for decarbonization. Zero Homes collapses the sales cycle; it also provides the design and quality assurance services. As a licensed general contractor, Zero Homes maintains a roster of vetted subs who complete the installations. Zero's process is faster and more efficient, and the result is projects that cost ~10% less while improving both the contractor and customer experience.
In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted interviews Susan Gladwin. She's just finished a 2.5 year role in the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office (LPO). The office, under the leadership of Jigar Shah, had an amplified mandate to foster innovative companies launching energy innovations. The Inflation Reduction Act boosted the LPO's budget from $40 billion to $400 billion making it the world's largest green bank.Jigar Shar brought Susan and other professionals to Washington to help with the LPO's surge of activity, what they all knew was a moment in time. Susan's role at the LPO was in supporting loans for Clean Energy Title 17 projects... focusing on virtual power plants. The key was helping companies on a "bridge to bankability," helping promising firms with solid technologies in their execution of business plans to scale up and seek conventional financing.Since leaving the LPO, Susan has been on assignment with Planetary Boundaries, a UK-based organization with leading, global sustainability professionals that has established nine principles/indicators of planetary well-being. Alas, there are still many red-light indicators, but a framework has been established that is helping countries in their policies and practices.In this episode, Susan shares aspects of her career and what motivates her: She was educated in science and information technology, worked for Apple on the launch of I-Tunes, and she developed AutoDesk's clean energy design integration. She's now moved up from Washington and is working globally, keen on applying her aspiration of accelerating the adoption of clean energy through capital and creativity.