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Michael Leggett (@leggett) & Cris Eugster (@Cris_Eugster) are the co-founders of Ever.green, a company making investing in solar projects easier, faster, and more impactful.
Their audience are companies and real estate developers to whom they sell RECs (renewable energy certificate), for a soon-to-be-built solar project (think of a field of solar panels in a rural area). They then work with solar developers to execute the project (remember this word: additionality). And finally, they report the impact the solar project had for the environment & communities!
These guys are wicked smart, each bringing different strengths and some legendary experience (for example, Michael was the design-lead for Gmail 😱).
We dive deep into…How is the REC market far from perfect? Why do companies buy renewable energy? Is it easy for companies to participate in renewables? Can companies who buy renewables get both impact AND profit? How about startups? And finally, What’s it like having extremely tall, twin sons 👬🏼?
This episode is particularly valuable for…renewable energy geeks who want to nerd out on how solar projects and RECs work, or entrepreneurs who want to hear from top-notch founders who know how to take something from 0 to 100 and make it fly high 🦅
These guys are the real deal!
Bon appetit! It would mean the 🌎 to us if you subscribed on Spotify or your favorite podcast app. It keeps us jazzed to make new episodes for you 🤞🏽
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Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show Notes
- [3:40] What’s surprisingly awesome to have twin sons?
- [4:44] You come from a family of tall people. You’re pretty tall, right?
- [5:29] Can you dunk?
- [6:22] What is bad design?
- [9:15] Is there a product or invention that exemplifies your mental model?
- [12:15] What got you interested in the climate, sustainability space? When did you start thinking about these issues?
- [17:58] Michael, what about you?
- [20:11] Is that when you started working at Nori?
- [21:49] What were some of the early ideas and how Ever.green came out?
- [25:40] What was Michael’s experience of the early days of Ever.green?
- [26:38] Where is the (solar) industry today? What are you offering.
- [28:46] So people can by 25 Mwh, but 5 Mwh? Is that right?
- [30:25] How they translate Mwh into a carbon impact, for customers
- [32:14] What is ‘additionality’?
- [35:37] What are carbon offsets? What is the concept of distributed solar fields?
- [40:04] What is ‘additionality’ with a solar farm?
- [40:44] What about energy storage?
Links from Episode
- Connect with Michael Leggett: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website
- Connect with Cris Eugster: Twitter | LinkedIn
- Follow Ever.green: Blog | Website
- Simplify
- What is product excellence
- Google Glass
- McKinsey
- Bill White (former Mayor of Houston)
- Houston, Texas
- Rick Perry
- What is a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
- What are Building Codes
- What is Weatherization
- What is Energy Efficiency
- What is a Kilowatt Hour
- CPS Energy
- OCI Solar Power
- Pioneer Square Labs
- The Inflation Reduction Act (the ‘Climate Bill’ mentioned)
- An Inconvenient Truth (documentary)
- Nori (carbon marketplace)
- What are nature-based solutions (in carbon removal)
- Greg Gottesman
- What is renewable energy
- What is B2C
- What is a K-1 (tax return)
- What is B2B
- What is a solar field
- What is a megawatt-hour?
- What is Scope 2 emissions
- What are renewable portfolio standards (RPS)
- What is rooftop solar
- What is distribution infrastructure
- What is an electrical substation
- What is electrical transmission
- What is intermittent power
- Ben Dickson
- What is the Goldilocks Principle
How do you envision solar technology transforming our daily lives? We’d love to hear you think below.