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Today's conversation is a wide-ranging look at how to provide reliable power using renewables while mitigating intermittency and helping Independent Power Producers (IPPs) deal with the annoying curtailment problem through novel software and hardware solutions.
"Curtailment" occurs when a clean energy electric generating system is prevented from exporting to the grid or is temporarily shut down by the grid operator (usually because of a glut of electricity in the market), effectively wasting energy.
Many people have talked about this issue, but few have delivered on it like John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna.
Soluna Holdings develops green data centers that convert excess renewable energy into global computing resources. Soluna builds modular, scalable data centers for computing-intensive, batchable applications such as cryptocurrency mining, AI and machine learning.
John said Soluna provides a cost-effective alternative to battery storage or transmission lines by using technology and intentional design to solve complex, real-world challenges. It's addressing significant electric grid changes—like the move away from fossil-fuel-fired power plants that contribute to climate change — to more sustainable green electricity generation.
Clean and green is desirable. But even the staunchest supporters of clean electricity acknowledge the industry is dealing with growing pains, including curtailment. As John explained, Mother Nature controls renewable energy generation, and sometimes there's too little; other times there is too much.
And sometimes — when supply is so high that the amount of electricity generated threatens to overwhelm the electric grid — large utility-scale generators (e.g., solar and wind farms) are curtailed (or curtail themselves.)
That wastes energy — a big problem. John said up to 30% of renewable energy goes to waste. To address it, Soluna is building data centers that enable clean electricity asset owners to 'Sell. Every. Megawatt.'
"People say, 'Oh, I see. So the energy is wasted. Well, John, can't you store it?' And I say, 'Yes, you can put batteries close to the power plant. And those batteries can store that extra energy. And then, when the grid needs that energy, you can send energy into the grid.'
"But there's another challenge: batteries aren't scalable and can't store that much energy. And they need to hold the energy longer than they can currently to be useful to the grid. There are also some environmental and safety concerns with batteries, so they aren't a perfect solution for this problem."
The other solution involves moving energy. Is it possible? "Well, yes. When everybody's asleep in the middle of the country, you could put the electrons on power lines and zap them across to Atlanta, where everybody's partying. The problem is that building those power lines takes a long time. So they're not an immediate solution."
But computing uses a great deal of energy — and it's ready now.
"If you could bring that computing to those power plants with excess energy and build a specifically designed data center that converts energy into computing, you've got a very scalable solution to this problem. And that's what we do at Soluna.
"We build green data centers at power plants with curtailment issues and buy the wasted energy. And then, we converted it into a global computing resource for specific applications that are compute-intensive and resilient to intermittent computing availability, something we call patchable computing," John said.
"We support specific applications that can live in these environments. So we won't run your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or your ecommerce platform. We only run specific applications and go after those markets with a niche-focused play.”
In today's podcast, John breaks down Soluna's mission and discusses how its solutions address curtailment. But he also delves into the experiences that brought him to this moment.
John is a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has founded and scaled multiple technology companies over a 20-year career. Before Soluna, he founded and ran FirstBest, a transformative insurance software company later acquired by Guidewire Software, and Theory Center, an e-commerce software company acquired by BEA Systems. Before starting his career as an entrepreneur, he was the lead architect for Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.
John sits on the advisory boards of several Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), data analytics, and insurtech startups. (Insurtech refers to using technology innovations designed to squeeze out savings and efficiency from the current insurance industry model.
He is the managing editor of CEOplaybook.co, an online publication full of advice for first-time founder CEOs. He is also a trustee of Harlem Academy, an independent school in New York City.
We share a fascinating conversation today. Join us to learn more about this exciting entrepreneur and his latest venture.
RESOURCES:
Connect with John Belizaire on LinkedIn and CEOplaybook.
NOTEWORTHY QUOTEs:
“I read a lot about being a CEO. And one of the things that I often like to see is, it’s okay to make mistakes, you know, as a CEO, as a management team, mistakes, that’s information like you’re gonna feel pain, all of that kind of stuff. But it’s not okay to make unoriginal mistakes, make original ones like ones no one ever thought about. And the way to have your mistakes be more original is to go spend time with people who’ve made lots of mistakes.”
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SUNGROW focuses on integrated energy storage system solutions, including PCS, lithium-ion batteries and energy management system. Pleae visit https://www.mysuncast.com/sungrow
ABOUT THE HOST OF SUNCAST:
Nico Johnson is the creator and host of SunCast, consistently rated a top solar podcast in the clean energy sector. The content of the show is geared towards listeners looking for insights on where the markets are headed, how to position themselves or their companies, and what today's market leaders do to stay ahead of the pack.
Nico is an Investor, Executive Coach, and 16-year veteran of the solar industry, having led development in the US and Latin America for global companies like Trina Solar and Conergy.
You can connect with Nico Johnson on Twitter, LinkedIn or email.
If you’ve been second-guessing your work decisions or maybe trying to reconsider how you "fit" in the renewable energy industry -> grab 20 minutes on Nico's calendar and discuss whether having him as Your personal coach might be the right next step.