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Dipuo Patel, CTO of Soluna Holdings, joins The Mining Pod! We dig into behind the meter Bitcoin mining, where miners work with local grid builds for cheaper, more stable energy.FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HEREWelcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Dipuo Patel, CTO of Soluna, joins us to talk about renewable-powered Bitcoin mining operations, including Soluna's Project Annie - a 75MW solar-powered data center in northeast Texas. We dive into the challenges of behind-the-meter renewable mining, curtailment solutions, production tax credits, and how Bitcoin mining can solve renewable energy's biggest problems.Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.comNotes:- Project Annie: 75MW data center, 140MW solar farm- Texas has massive renewable energy scale- Production tax credits incentivize green energy- Behind-the-meter regulations are complex- Wind farms often run at 30-40% capacity- Battery storage too expensive for Bitcoin miningTimestamps:00:00 Start01:51 Green energy07:34 Behind the meter10:36 Markets other than Texas14:01 Renewable energy credits17:05 Project Annie19:33 Tax credit rules26:38 Renewables, AI & uptime33:16 Owning vs service provider37:11 Headwinds for renewables44:43 Batteries
FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Dipuo Patel, CTO of Soluna, joins us to talk about renewable-powered Bitcoin mining operations, including Soluna's Project Annie - a 75MW solar-powered data center in northeast Texas. We dive into the challenges of behind-the-meter renewable mining, curtailment solutions, production tax credits, and how Bitcoin mining can solve renewable energy's biggest problems. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: - Project Annie: 75MW data center, 140MW solar farm - Texas has massive renewable energy scale - Production tax credits incentivize green energy - Behind-the-meter regulations are complex - Wind farms often run at 30-40% capacity - Battery storage too expensive for Bitcoin mining Timestamps: 00:00 Start 01:51 Green energy 07:34 Behind the meter 10:36 Markets other than Texas 14:01 Renewable energy credits 17:05 Project Annie 19:33 Tax credit rules 26:38 Renewables, AI & uptime 33:16 Owning vs service provider 37:11 Headwinds for renewables 44:43 Batteries
Louis The Child spin some absolutely killer tracks on #PlaygroundRadio, featuring tunes from BRUX, DJ HEARTSTRING, Taiki Nulight, pluko, Charlie Shell, AHEE, Soluna and more! 01. pluko & Jukaa - TALK2ME 02. AHEE - WubcraF 03. DJ HEARTSTRING - Staring Into The Sun 04. Charlie Shell - HITZ 4 THE HOOD 05. BRUX & DJ ADHD - U$ELE$$ 06. Devault - Body (Across The Floor) 07. Kiki, Chinonegro & Andre Butano - High Loco 08. Julian Jordan - Something To Believe In 09. Soluna - Can't Help But Worry (Every Night Every Day) 10. Normal Pleasure - Play With Fire 11. Kah-lo, Associanu, Karma Fields - It Girl (warner case Remix) 12. TOKiMONSTA, Anderson .Paak, Rae Rkalil - On Sum (Stresshead Remix) 13. Kito F. Baauer, brazy & Kah-lo - take your vibes and go (Taiki Nulight Remix) 14. Nero & Taiki Nulight - Innocence 2025 15. pluko - STUTTER 16. DJ Sugarush, Jai Piccone, Hotel Rubio - Speed Dadng 17. MELVV - When the Light Hits You 18. Snakehips & Louis The Child - Nobody Else But U
Two new valued-added products have been launched for the Bravo apple today. One is a rosy, pink apple juice and the other is fresh, long-life apple slices, both will be marketed under the trademark Soluna and both will be available shortly in local shops and eventually exported.
John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Computing, the world's first utility-scale company developing power plants and combining them with high-performance computing facilities. As a serial entrepreneur, John has successfully founded and scaled multiple industry-leading technology startups that have achieved market leadership and double-digit growth, including FirstBest, an insurance software company acquired by Guidewire, and The Theory Center, a software company acquired by BEA Systems. Before becoming an entrepreneur, John was the lead architect for Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. Soluna Computing builds modular, batchable computing centers for intensive applications like cryptocurrency mining, AI and machine learning. Soluna's scalable data centers provide a cost-effective alternative to battery storage or transmission lines. Soluna Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLNH) is the leading developer of green data centers that convert excess renewable energy into global computing resources. Soluna Holdings was formed when Mechanical Technology, Inc. (MTI) acquired Soluna Computing in 2021.https://www.solunacomputing.com/https://www.nexuspmg.com/
FEELS LIKE HOME Radio – Your weekly house music podcast by Kenn Colt. Tune in to this week's episode of FEELS LIKE HOME Radio, your one-stop playlist for an hour of the best house music. And check out my unreleased song “Vuwa” featuring Mavhungu! But that's not all… I'm beyond excited to bring SOLUNA to […]
March 2025 is a standout month, Astrologically speaking, packed with enormously potent Astrology: we have two eclipses, a Mercury AND Venus Retrograde, and Neptune ingressing into Aries after being in PIsces for the past 14 years!In this podcast, Alexander is joined by Aster Soluna, psychic Tarot reader and energy healer to talk about not just the Astrology of March, but also how that is reflected in the Tarot this month. The two talk about the major Astrological transits for the month, giving predictions as well as how to move through the energy with grace. Chapters:0:00 Title06:12 Venus Retrograde23:07 Lunar Eclipse in Virgo27:37 Mercury Retrograde in Aries36:48 Solar Eclipse in Aries46:22 Neptune in AriesWork with or connect with Aster:https://poplme.co/hash/VvPlPPRQ/1/shttps://www.instagram.com/astersoluna/Connect With Alexander or Book a Reading:www.dogstaroracle.comwww.instagram.com/dogstaroraclewww.tiktok.com/@dogstaroracleEmail: akriech@dogstaroracle.com
Soluna is pioneering a new category of renewable computing, building data centers co-located with renewable energy power plants to monetize stranded or wasted energy while providing sustainable compute power for AI workloads. With over $180 million in funding, Soluna is constructing a distributed network of facilities around the country that enables massive AI compute capabilities while driving demand and resiliency in the renewable energy sector. In this episode of Category Visionaries, John Belizaire shares Soluna's journey from addressing a stranded wind power project in Northern Africa to becoming a leader in sustainable computing infrastructure. Topics Discussed: The evolution of Soluna's business model from blockchain computing to AI workloads How renewable energy curtailment creates opportunities for data center innovation The landscape of renewable power plant ownership and development Building relationships with major power producers and investment funds The technical challenges of creating flexible, distributed computing facilities Content marketing strategies for category creation and demand generation GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Master the missionary sell: John emphasized the importance of education and de-risking in the early stages of category creation. When introducing a novel solution, focus on addressing customer concerns systematically and finding early adopters willing to validate your approach. The first six months were spent convincing power plant owners that computing facilities could work effectively with their operations. Leverage content marketing for scalable education: Initially relying on outbound calls, Soluna transformed their pipeline by investing heavily in content marketing through podcasts, newsletters, articles, and social media. This education-first approach led to 80% of their pipeline becoming inbound leads. B2B founders should view content as a scalable way to address common customer questions and concerns before the first meeting. Build an integrated content engine: Rather than viewing content creation as an overwhelming task, start with recorded conversations that can be repurposed across multiple formats. One conversation can become a blog post, podcast episode, video content, and email sequences. This approach creates a content library that continuously generates marketing assets while maintaining consistent messaging. Target the convergence of major trends: Soluna positioned itself at the intersection of renewable energy, cryptocurrency, and AI computing. While some of this alignment was fortunate timing, the company's planned evolution from cryptocurrency to broader computing applications allowed them to capitalize on the AI boom. B2B founders should look for similar convergence opportunities in their markets. Focus on systemic industry problems: Soluna identified that renewable energy curtailment was a widespread issue affecting plant profitability. By understanding the "McDonald's and Burger King problem" of optimal resource locations creating grid congestion, they developed a solution that addressed a fundamental industry challenge rather than a point problem. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co
Košarkarji Olimpije nadaljujejo lov na končnico evropskega pokala, v 14. kolu tekmovanja so včeraj gostili Aris iz Soluna. Do izteka rednega dela tekmovanja bodo štirikrat igrali v gosteh, v Stožicah pa le še proti vodilni Valencii. Ob slovenskih košarkarskih prvakih se posvetimo še sezoni hokejskih prvakov. Olimpija je v razširjenem avstrijskem prvenstvu včeraj v Tivoliju gostila Pustertal, v tem tednu jo čaka še ena domača tekma, in sicer že jutri proti Salzburgu.
Digital platforms can provide crucial mental health support to young people, offering resources that are both easily accessible and scalable. In this episode, Dr. Laura Tully, Vice President of Clinical Integrations & Partnerships at Kotth Digital Health, explains how the company's platform, Soluna, offers free, scalable mental health support to California youth through self-guided resources, peer community forums, and behavioral health coaching. They explore their passion for mental health, driven by personal experiences and a commitment to understanding the brain's role in mental health challenges while discussing their transition from academia to industry and the exciting work at Kooth. Dr. Tully emphasizes Soluna's youth-led design, quality control, and goal-based coaching model that supports young people in their mental health journey. They also underscore how behavioral health coaching on Soluna is goal-based, helping young people achieve progress in a single session, focusing on lived experience. Tune in and learn how innovative digital solutions are transforming mental health support for young people! Resources: Watch the entire episode here. Connect and follow Dr. Laura Tully on LinkedIn. Learn more about Kooth on their LinkedIn and website.
Send us a Text Message.Today I am speaking with John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Holdings, a pioneering developer of green data centers designed for batchable computing, utilizing wasted renewable energy. That's a mouthful - Soluna is essentially using unused energy or wasted energy from renewable energy, like solar power, to power AI servers. During our conversation, John shares his remarkable background, recounting his entry into the tech industry and sharing some fun anecdotes from his time at Intel during the era of Andy Grove. We then talk about the evolution of AI, discussing how Soluna (not to be confused with Solana) addresses energy challenges associated with AI and blockchain. John also shares a lot of insights into business, entrepreneurship, and his vision for the future of web3 and crypto.Show Notes and TranscriptsThe GRTiQ Podcast takes listeners inside web3 and The Graph (GRT) by interviewing members of the ecosystem. Please help support this project and build the community by subscribing and leaving a review.Twitter: GRT_iQwww.GRTiQ.com
Released every month by our DJ residents and guest DJs, the podcast brings COYA vibes to you wherever you are. COYA Music: www.instagram.com/coyamusic
About the Guests:Ally McElroy: Ally McElroy is the co-owner and instructor at Soluna Sage yoga studio and wellness center in Johnson City. She has a background in elementary education from East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and a rich history with yoga that began in high school. Formerly a school teacher who transitioned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ally is now a certified yoga instructor passionate about building community and holistic well-being.Andrew McElroy: Andrew McElroy is the co-owner of Soluna Sage yoga studio and a lifelong Johnson City native. Holding degrees in Political Science from ETSU and a Master's of Business from Tennessee Wesleyan University, Andrew transitioned into the wellness industry alongside Ally. He focuses on the philosophical aspects of yoga and contributes to the operational and strategic planning of the yoga studio.Episode Summary:In this vibrant episode, Colin Johnson sits down with Ally and Andrew McElroy, the dynamic duo behind Soluna Sage yoga studio and wellness center. The delightful conversation starts with the couple sharing their roots and what draws them to Johnson City. For Ally, it's the small-town vibe and walkability, while Andrew passionately discusses his favorite local drink, the Farquaad Fizz, evidencing their deep connection to the community.As the dialogue progresses, the McElroys dive into their unique journey from converting a van for travel to establishing a thriving yoga studio in downtown Johnson City. This episode is a treasure trove of insights into how to balance physical and mental well-being through yoga. Ally explains their approach to building an inclusive community, addressing the misconception that one needs to be flexible or have a certain body type to practice yoga. Andrew elaborates on the philosophy and mental fortitude that yoga instills, highlighting their innovative classes like Qigong that focus on grounding and holistic health.The episode takes a fascinating turn when discussing their strategic vision for Soluna Sage, including expanding their online presence and dreaming big about potential retreat centers. Andrew talks about their efforts to maintain the century-old building that houses their studio, tying the past's historical significance to their modern wellness mission. As Colin wraps up, listeners are left motivated to explore yoga for its myriad benefits, from injury reduction and toning to mental clarity and community connection.Key Takeaways:Yoga Benefits: Yoga improves both physical and mental well-being by balancing the body and tuning inward.Community Focus: The McElroys are committed to building a welcoming, inclusive yoga community in Johnson City and beyond.Innovative Classes: Soluna Sage offers a variety of classes that cater to different needs, including prenatal and restorative yoga.Business Strategy: Thorough market research and a cooperative mindset with other local businesses are crucial for success.Future Plans: They aim to host off-site yoga classes and eventually open a retreat center between Johnson City and Asheville.Notable Quotes:"Yoga is really great for not only your physical wellbeing but also just your mental well being." - Ally McElroy"You have to come into a market the size of Johnson City willing to work with the other businesses, including the ones doing what you're doing." - Andrew McElroy"Anybody can come take a class. There's a lot of different styles that we offer that cater to different people and what their goals are and what they're looking for." - Ally McElroy"I think yoga does build that mental fortitude to help you deal better with things in your day-to-day life." - Andrew McElroy"For someone opening a studio, make sure that you do your research and then build a community around it." - Ally McElroyResources:Soluna Sage: solunasage.comInstagram & Facebook: @solunasagestudioEast Tennessee State University: ETSUTune in to this episode to get inspired by Ally and Andrew McElroy's journey and learn how yoga can transform your body, mind, and community. Stay tuned for more engaging content from the Johnson City Living podcast!
Corrientes Circulares 14x32 con noticias y novedades sobre Blur, Jimena Amarillo, María Hein ft Soluna, La Habitación Roja, Emdiv Music Festival, Amatria, Low Festival, Pixies, Brisa Festival, Lori Meyers, The Lightning Seeds, Florent & Yo, Siloé y Julieta Venegas!!! Dale al play!!!
Corrientes Circulares 14x32 con noticias y novedades sobre Blur, Jimena Amarillo, María Hein ft Soluna, La Habitación Roja, Emdiv Music Festival, Amatria, Low Festival, Pixies, Brisa Festival, Lori Meyers, The Lightning Seeds, Florent & Yo, Siloé y Julieta Venegas!!! Dale al play!!!
Corrientes Circulares 14x32 con noticias y novedades sobre Blur, Jimena Amarillo, María Hein ft Soluna, La Habitación Roja, Emdiv Music Festival, Amatria, Low Festival, Pixies, Brisa Festival, Lori Meyers, The Lightning Seeds, Florent & Yo, Siloé y Julieta Venegas!!! Dale al play!!!
Lena und Johannes sind wieder München bei den Bavaria Filmstudios und nehmen euch in der Sommerpause mit. Die zweite Folge der Spezialstaffel könnte man auch „Traumfrauenedition“ nennen, denn Soluna-Delta Kokol ist zu Gast. Diese Folge bietet eine einmalige Mischung aus persönlichen Geschichten, beruflichen Herausforderungen und ehrlichen Einblicken, die Fans der Serie und der Schauspieler gleichermaßen begeistern werden.Unsere Hosts versuchen aus Soluna herauszubekommen, ob sie eher „Team Vincent oder Team Philipp“ ist und was eine Traumfrau bei Sturm der Liebe mitbringen sollte.Soluna spricht auch über ihr Arbeitspensum und wie sie mit ihrem Energiehaushalt umgeht. Sie teilt ihre Tipps, wie man sein Energielevel hochhält, und betont die Wichtigkeit, auch mal „Nein“ zu sagen. Lena und Johannes begleiten Soluna mit ans Set und sind während der Voice Over Szene dabei. Was das genau geheißt und welche Bedeutung das Voice Over hat, kommentieren sie vor Ort am Set für euch mit.Außerdem wird der Tonmeister Chris Pribylla interviewt. Er erklärt, worum sich ein Tonmeister kümmert und teilt humorvolle Anekdoten, die er während seiner Karriere mit Schauspielern gemacht hat.Soluna berichtet auch über negative Kommentare zu ihrer Rolle. Wie geht sie damit um? Und was denken unsere Hosts darüber?Was Soluna mit dem ganzen Geld machen würde, das Ana zur Verfügung steht, welche Schauspielrolle sie sich nach dem Sturm vorstellen kann und – welchen der beiden Männer sie Ana wünscht, erfahrt ihr in dieser Folge.Der "Sturm der Liebe"-Podcast ist ein wöchentliches Talk-Format, in dem die Hosts Lena Conzendorf und Johannes Huth, beide vormals Teil des Maincast von "Sturm der Liebe", gemeinsam die jüngsten Folgen der Erfolgstelenovela besprechen. Neben den Hosts kommen auch regelmäßig Gäste von vor und hinter der Kamera sowie Fans zu Wort. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"¡Me llamaron negra, me vale verga!" Hola queridos oyentes de Mix(ed)tape! En el track 26 de Were You Listening? analizamos la canción Negra, interpretada por Soluna. ¿Y por qué le vale verga a Soluna? En Negra Soluna utiliza un ritmo contagioso para mofarse de quien hace la burla. A través de su canto y su rapeo, Soluna se mofa de aquella gente imbécil, lerda, y obtusa que se burla y que irrespeta la negritud de otras personas.¿Estábamos escuchando? Encuentra todos los episodios de la serie aquí.Para más información sobre nuestras fuentes échale un vistazo a nuestro sitio web aquí y a nuestro canal de Youtube aquí.Contáctanos en: themixedtapepodcast@gmail.comSi te gustó la música que utilizamos, encuéntrala en nuestros playlists aquí.Host/Director de la serie: Andrés Hincapié, PhDProductora: Melissa Villodas, PhDCreadora de contenido gráfico: Susan Mykalcio
"They called me negra, I don't give a damn!" Hi Mix(ed)tape listeners! In track 26 of Were You Listening? we analyze the song Negra interpreted by Soluna. Listen to find out why Soluna doesn't give a damn? In Negra, Soluna mocks the mocker as she puts it. She uses a catchy rhythm to jokingly sing and rap about moronic, dim-witted, obtuse and unintelligent people who mock and disrespect blackness.Were we listening? We hope this track helps to add value to your listening and awareness in your dancing!Find all of our Were You Listening? episodes here.For more info and resources check our website here and our YouTube channel here.Contact us at: themixedtapepodcast@gmail.comIf you like the music we use check our playlists here.Host/Director of Series: Andrés Hincapié, PhDProducer: Melissa Villodas, PhDGraphic Content Creator: Susan Mykalcio
Tracklist: 1. David Bailey feat.Mike City - Giving In (CDock's Orig. Concept Mix) 2. Arnaud D & Earl W. Green - If Luvin You Is Wrong (Main Mix) 3. DSF - Not Like You (Extended Mix) 4. Studio Bros, Soluna & Sila Lua - Mi Corazón 5. Lemon & Herb feat.Deena G - Find A Way (Original Mix) 6. Moon Rocket - Just Me & You (Original Mix) 7. Odasoul - The Guru Rhythm 8. Badbox & Bun Xapa - Ammo (Extended Mix) 9. Francis Mercier & Boukman Eksperyans - Imamou (Extended Mix) 10. Q Narongwate - Maa (Original Mix)
Data centers are an impressive energy success story. Over the last 25 years, internet traffic has climbed more than 500x while data center electricity use has remained flat. The servers and energy infrastructure have gotten wildly more efficient, and the biggest tech companies have focused on powering those warehouse-scale computers with renewables. But a lot of people are suddenly alarmed about data centers again, as energy demand for AI surges. Data centers are getting built so fast, many utilities are pushing for lots of new fossil gas plants to serve them. And while tech companies have made strong progress on building renewables to match data centers, grid constraints are making it harder. We have a very small window to fully decarbonize the grid – this may make it harder to squeeze through it. So, are growing concerns over AI's power demand justified? How are they contributing to America's growing hunger for electricity? And what technologies and grid management techniques can address it? This week, we've assembled a group of experts to answer those questions: Brian Janous, co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure; Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation; and John Belizaire, CEO of data center developer Soluna. This conversation was part of Latitude Media's Transition-AI series. Watch the full event here. Utility rates could make or break the energy transition – so how do we do it right? On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX are hosting a Frontier Forum to examine the imperative of good rate design, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register here. And make sure to listen to our new podcast, Political Climate – an insider's view on the most pressing policy questions in energy and climate. Tune in every other Friday for the latest takes from hosts Julia Pyper, Emily Domenech, and Brandon Hurlbut. Available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Theleading developer of green data centers that convert excessrenewable energy into global computing resources. Soluna builds modular,scalable data centers for computing intensive, batchable applications such asBitcoin mining, AI, and machine learning. Soluna provides a cost-effectivealternative to battery storage or transmission lines. Soluna uses technologyand intentional design to solve complex, real-world challenges. Up to 30% ofthe power of renewable energy projects can go to waste. Soluna's data centersenable clean electricity asset owners to ‘Sell. Every. Megawatt.'
I am so excited to once again welcome the wonderful John Belizaire onto this week's episode. John is the CEO of Soluna Computing, which involves crypto currency, AI, and machine learning powered by renewable energy. John has an impressive background as a successful CEO, architect, and author.John's mission at Soluna is “to make renewable energy a primary source of energy in the world”. Soluna goes to great lengths to make sure renewable energy is used to its fullest capacity, building specialized data centers to ensure all of the energy is put to use. In John's first episode, he detailed his hopes for this process at Soluna and we are proud to join him in admiring how far he has come! John Belezaire is doing commendable work to ensure a brighter future for us all through use of renewable energy and embracing the versatility of technology. To purchase John's new book: Keep Pushin': CEO Insights to Guide Your Journey to Mastery Read John's CEO Playbook BlogVisit Soluna's website Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It. You can also stream this episode on all streaming sites.
Soluna Holding's CEO John Belizaire joins WTR's Tim Regan and Graham Mattison to talk about Soluna's impressive business turnaround in 2023, including the projects that are online today and their growing adjusted EBITDA contributions. Belizaire also talks about new projects under development, incremental revenue sources, and the company's recently announced AI pilot at Project Dorothy.
Dip is a technologist, engineer, and entrepreneur. He lives on the beach with his fantastic family (Wife, Daughter, and Dog). He is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Soluna (Nasdaq: SLNH), a company aiming to make stranded green energy profitable using off-grid high-density computing. Before Soluna, he was a co-founder of Ecovent, a smart home technology company sold to ConnectM in 2016. Before Ecovent, Dip led the design, development, and production of complex radar systems at Lockheed Martin. Dip has a BSEE from Drexel University, an MSEE from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he currently serves as a lecturer. https://www.solunacomputing.com/ https://nexuspmg.com/
This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.This week's episode features The Hill energy and environment reporter Zack Budryks for a deeper look at Maine's public power referendum. This Week in Cleantech — Nov. 10, 2023This week's Cleantecher of the Week is Karl Shinn, the Site GM at Soluna's Project Dorothy. Karl has led Soluna's operations team in the company's flagship green data center, which is helping set the foundation for renewable energy's future. Project Dorothy has already used and monetized over 4,000 GWh of green energy that would otherwise have been wasted through curtailment. Congratulations to Karl Shinn, our Cleantecher of the Week. 1. Can America's south-east unseat Detroit as ‘Motown' of the EV age? — Financial Times2. This wind turbine looks like nothing you've ever seen before — Fast Company3. Who Will Pay For All the Carbon Removal? — WSJ Climate and Energy Newsletter4. How the fossil-fuel lobby weaponized Julia Child's gas stove — Vox5. Mainers vote down ballot measure to create consumer-owned utility — The HillWatch the full video on YouTubeHelp make This Week in Cleantech the best it can be. Send feedback and story recommendations to ThisWeekInCleantech@tigercomm.us. And don't forget to leave a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.Register for the GridTECH Connect Forum - Southeast event taking place in Orlando on Feb. 26 using promo code "PODCAST" to receive 10%. Take advantage of this unique opportunity for developers, utilities, and regulators to collaborate on the critical issue of interconnection. All GridTECH Connect attendees also receive complimentary access to DISTRIBUTECH International.
Pittsburgh Coffee Week kicks off October 15, and we've got all you need to know to celebrate our local shops. Barista Clarisa Espinoza-Delgado shares some tips on how to order efficiently, how much to tip, and just how long you can camp out at a table. Check out Pittsburgh Coffee Week's website for a full lineup of events and drink specials. The coffeeshops we recommended include Trace Brewing, Commonplace Coffee, Inkwell, De Fer, La Prima, and Soluna. For even more recommendations, listen to our episode on the ABCs of Pittsburgh coffee where Zach Lucas tries a coffeeshop for every letter of the alphabet. Want some more Pittsburgh news? Make sure to sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We're also on Instagram @CityCastPgh! Not a fan of social? Then leave us a voicemail at 412-212-8893. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Vision of Children of the Rainforest: We envision a world of thriving rainforests, clean water, and abundant biodiversity. Where ancestral ways of nurturing the Earth are honored and children learn from elders how to care for the planet for all future generations. We believe Indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest play a crucial role in protecting and nourishing biodiversity and they must be protected as their land and people are under threat of deforestation. We believe the most effective solution to protect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation and exploitation is to empower Indigenous communities to remain on their reserves and strengthen and expand the demarcation of Indigenous land rights. We believe Indigenous languages hold millenary wisdom and functional knowledge of the plants and biodiversity of the rainforest that cannot simply be translated. When an Indigenous language goes extinct the biodiversity and land suffers. We believe that language is the heart of culture. When an Indigenous culture loses its language, the culture is in danger of extinction. Without Indigenous communities thriving on their reserves, what will happen to the land, rivers, animals. Who will protect the Amazon rainforest? This week we sat down with Andrew Soluna, a psychotherapist, director of Children of the Rainforest, and spokesperson and protector of the Yawanawá people of the Amazon rainforest. This episode is a powerful conversation about how to preserve ancestral wisdom cultures, why these traditions are so crucial for the flourishing of mankind, and what role each one of us can play in this guardianship. Andrew humbly shares his own personal story, of how he came to be in the role he is today, working on the grass roots level to support his teacher and friend, Chief Iskukua Yawanawa of the New Hope Village, in his vision of preserving and protecting the Yawanawa people and their language. Andrew shares about the journey he took to bring him to where he is today in his work and service, and the many lessons he learned along the way about the power of relationships and the interconnectedness of humanity. Children of the Rainforest is a beautiful organization, one that we at Four Visions back wholeheartedly, and it is a true pleasure to get to bring you this wonderful conversation today. In this episode, you will learn: About the important role thatIndigenous communities have in protecting and nurturing the biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest, and how vital this biodiversity is for the whole planet The impact of language on culture and how we can ensure that Indigenous languages are not lost. Lessons and wisdom we can all learn from traditional indigenous cultures and and how we can foster relationships with them from a place of awareness, humility, and respect In This Episode: Andrew Soluna | @andrewsoluna | @childrenoftherainforest Mariah Gannessa | @mariahgannessa This podcast is brought to you by Four Visions Website | fourvisions.com Instagram| @fourvisionstribe Facebook | Four Visions Youtube | Four Visions Nominate a podcast guest! Intro Music created from music by Juan David Muñoz | @jdmusicesencia Subscribe to the FVM Podcast and leave us a review! iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts This episode is sponsored by The Suma Causay Music Festival.
Today Will speaks with John Belizaire a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded and scaled multiple technology companies over a 20-year career. He is currently the CEO of Soluna, a company helping to shape the future of renewable energy development. This episode covers his journey to crypto, Bitcoin, surprising thoughts on the industry, renewable energy, the situation of markets, and so much more. Listen to learn more! TIMESTAMPS: 0:00-4:24 - John's journey to crypto 4:25-9:37 - Stories and challenges faced by John as a CEO 9:38-15:05 - John's introduction to Bitcoin 15:06-21:46 - John's initial vs current thoughts on the industry 21:47-26:47 - Role between Bitcoin mining and renewable energy sector 26:48-35:17 - John's take on the current situation of markets 35:18-37:12 - One belief the majority of the people would disagree with? WHERE TO FIND THE SHOW: → Website: https://www.podcasts.sazmining.com → Apple Podcasts: https://www.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-crypto-mining-the-sazmining-podcast/id1533055103 → Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7rldZMBuf447UHaWyV1UtV?si=SqsAW1aESNiiSbHwWSL8oQ&dl_branch=1 → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0_Ymrq6PVZcNZP_Thvb2w CATCH UP ON THE EPISODES: → Season One: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCcctgrDmFCN7aFLZkPRd20fNJbflXxZK → Season Two: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCcctgrDmFCN1gX3R1uKL2bqTI-uUzTd7 SUPPORT THE SHOW: → Have an idea for a guest? Email Us: Podcast@Sazmining.com FOLLOW US: → Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sazmining → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sazmining-inc/ → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0_Ymrq6PVZcNZP_Thvb2w → Website: https://www.sazmining.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sazmining/support
This week host Alex Kehaya joins serial entrepreneur John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing the leading developer of green data centers for batchable computing, Join us for a great conversation on renewable energy and powering the future.
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. Been wondering when I'd do an episode on Bitcoin mining + Renewables? Buckle up and let's roll."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 changes in the electric grid — away from power plants fired by coal, oil and gas that contribute to climate change — to more sustainable green electricity generation. But even the staunchest supporters of clean electricity acknowledge the industry is dealing with growing pains, including curtailment. 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.' In today's podcast, John breaks down Soluna's mission and how its solutions address curtailment. Join us for insights on an increasingly critical renewables issue.If you want to connect with today's guest, you'll find links to his contact info in the show notes on the blog.SunCast is presented by Sungrow, the world's most bankable inverter brand.You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you here: www.mysuncast.com/sponsorsRemember you can always find the resources and learn more about today's guest, recommendations, book links, and more than 550 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com.You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email.
A Jack-of-All trades on a mission for mastery - John Belizaire has a knack for starting businesses in some of the most difficult and cut-throat industries in American business - and thriving. The native New Yorker has been a serial entrepreneur in the insurance and finance spaces and then at the behest of a mentor and investor colleague, took his knack for solving problems to the energy space and is now running one of the fastest-growing companies in energy - Soluna. Determined to show the world how computing can help solve the energy gap, they're taking unused energy that would normally get wasted and monetizing it for its clients. He also runs The CEO Playbook, an insightful blog where Belizaire shares his notes, thoughts and input on what makes CEOs tick and how they can continue to evolve and improve because as he puts it - it's a flashy job, but it's a lonely one as well. Learn more about Soluna and John Belizaire here. Finally, The Power Connect is brought to you by the webinar ‘Getting into a Rhythm - Forecasting and Innovating in a Renewable Age.' This timely discussion focuses on what companies are doing for their short-term and long-term forecasting needs and how renewables are playing a vital part in adding to grid complexity. Join Innowatts' Chief Innovation Officer Krishnan Kasiviswanathan and Rhythm Energy's Roozbeh Amirazodi on Nov. 10th at 1p et / Noon Ct and come ready with questions and comments - we'll see you Nov. 10th.
When a grid gets congested, the excess energy generated at renewable plants is wasted. But what if there was something we could do to mitigate that curtailment and monetize our excess wind, solar or hydroelectric power? John Belizaire is Founder and CEO at Soluna Computing, the leading developer of green data centers for batchable computing, powered by wasted renewable energy. With 25 years of experience as an enterprise software entrepreneur, John is passionate about using flexible computing to unleash the potential of renewable energy. On this episode of Clean Power Hour, John joins Tim to discuss the curtailment assessment Soluna uses to determine how much power is wasted at a plant and simulate the revenue recovery potential of building an on-site data center. John walks us through examples of batchable computing applications that Soluna can run through its facilities and describes how crypto adoption is likely to increase our need for computing power. Listen in for John's insight on viewing data centers as a service to the grid and learn how Soluna can help you sell every megawatt of renewable energy your power plant generates.Key TakeawaysJohn's 25 years of experience as an enterprise software entrepreneurHow helping a stranded power plant in Morocco monetize power until the grid arrived led to the creation of Soluna ComputingSoluna's work with wind, solar and hydroelectric power plantsHow Soluna's flexible computing facilities monetize excess power generated at renewable power plantsHow Soluna's curtailment assessment determines how much power is wasted and simulates the revenue recovery associated with building an on-site data centerSoluna's presence in Texas, the Midwest and Northeast US as well as Canada and EuropeExamples of batchable computing applications that Soluna can run through its facilities (e.g.: the Netflix recommendation engine)What differentiates batchable from real-time computing processesHow Soluna's data centers might accelerate renewable energy developmentWhy the promise of crypto adoption increases our need for computing powerJohn's aim to educate the energy industry around data centers as a service to the grid (not a load)John's concerns around driving mass adoption of the Soluna solutionConnect with JohnSoluna ComputingSoluna on TwitterSoluna on LinkedInConnect with Tim Clean Power Hour Clean Power Hour on YouTubeTim on TwitterTim on LinkedIn Email tgmontague@gmail.com Review Clean Power Hour on Apple PodcastsResourcesERCOTSPPSponsor Clean Power Consulting GroupCorporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/ Twice a week we highlight the tools, technologies and innovators that are making the clean energy transition a reality - on Apple,
In this episode, we talk to John Belizaire. He is the CEO of Soluna Computing, Inc. John is on a mission to reimagine the renewable energy grid and to make renewable energy more efficient and environmentally friendly. Soluna is currently focused on some of the biggest unsolved problems for the economics of renewable energy: sustainable computing, sustainable data center spaces and wasted energy. During this episode we take a look at how we can use all the resources from sustainable energy. What we could use those resources for as well as take a deep dive into some of the energy hungry computing that can benefit from Soluna Computing. Links from the episodes: https://mamaearthtalk.com/episodes/162/ (Mama Earth Talk podcast episode with John Cooley) https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/ (Who is Gary Vaynerchuck?) https://www.solunacomputing.com/projects/project-dorothy/ (Dorothy Project) https://www.solunacomputing.com/careers/ (Soluna Career Page) https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits (Atomic Habits by James Clear) Where can people find John? https://www.linkedin.com/company/solunaholdings/ (LinkedIn - Soluna) https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbelizaire/ (LinkedIn - John ) https://medium.com/clean-integration (Medium) https://twitter.com/SolunaHoldings (Twitter - Soluna) https://twitter.com/jbelizaireCEO (Twitter - John) https://www.youtube.com/c/SolunaComputing (YouTube) https://www.solunacomputing.com/ (Website) https://clean-integration.simplecast.com/ (Clean Integration Podcast) KEY TAKE AWAY“The price of solar equipment has dropped by 99.6%”
The ZENERGY Podcast: Climate Leadership, Finance and Technology
In this episode, we will be talking to John Belizaire, who is the CEO of Soluna, a company helping to shape the future of renewable energy development. Soluna Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLNH) is currently the leading developer of green data centers that convert excess renewable energy into global computing resources. Prior to starting Soluna and early in his career, Mr. Belizaire was the recipient of the Intel Scholarship Program and after receiving his computer science and engineering degree from Cornell University, went on become the lead architect for Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. He then subsequently founded a software start-up company, which he later sold for $150 million. Topics discussed in this this interview: Renewable Energy Transition & Its Biggest Challenge: Wasted Energy Computing Is A Better Battery: Why Sustainable Computing Is Ready For Scale Now & Can Be The Best Catalyst For Making Renewable Energy A Superpower Cryptocurrency Mining, Blockchain & Why They Are Important Technologies That Can Fuel Future Energy The Future Of The Grid: How It Can Provide Efficient Energy That Reduces Energy Poverty & Enhance Economic Equality Globally The Evolving Role Of The CEO And Entrepreneur
Show notes: 00:36 John's background in computer science & his path to become CEO at Soluna 06:24 Moore's Law, Wright's Law, and their relationship to the energy industry 10:48 Transitioning from software to energy; providing grid flexibility through computing 22:38 Applications for Soluna's computing solutions, including crypto 30:11 The structure and scale of Soluna's projects 40:01 Why Soluna isn't pursuing flare gas or nuclear projects 46:11 What scares John about the energy sector, and John's advice for young professionals in energy John's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbelizaire/ John's podcast: https://clean-integration.simplecast.com/
We've launched a new show! Clean Integration.(The best of The Kingdom has been remastered for Clean Integration Season 1!)This season, we're focused on exploring the nexus of computing and clean energy.John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing, had some great conversations with top experts about the grid transition, policy implications, new computing technologies, the utility's perspective on crypto mining, and more.In the meantime, here are some of our favorite moments from Season 1.00:27 The Future of Renewable Energy with the Soluna Team, Dip Patel CTO of Soluna00:58 The Future of Renewable Energy with Sanjeev Kumar01:13 What It Will Take To Be 100% Renewable with Rob Gramlich, Phillip Ng, VP of Corporate Development at Soluna01:36 Renewable Energy in Bitcoin Mining with Jesse PeltanNow that The Kingdom Podcast has come to an end, be sure to subscribe to Clean Integration wherever you stream podcasts.Connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter @SolunaHoldingsSubscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know when our next episode drops.To learn more about Soluna, please visit soluancomputing.com
PODCAST GUEST BIO: Soluna Computing is a NASDAQ-listed public company that builds smarter, small-footprint data centers to buy and use excess renewable power. John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Computing and a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company at age 28 for $150 million. ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition? What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making? What are 1-2 lessons you've learned about funding your growth with outside investors? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you'd give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Our three offerings include: Climate CEO Mastermind Peer Groups — Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today's highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. Newsletter — A 3-minute weekly summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 3x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 60,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message
Renewable energy is still considered a new concept to many. in this episode I welcome CEO of Soluna, John Belizairen, as we dive into the world of renewable energy. From entrepreneurship to crypto currency mining, this episode covers a lot!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-shades-of-entrepreneurship/donations
John Belizaire's parents escaped Haitian dictatorship and potential death before reuniting and coming to the United States. Since the age of 14 selling floppy discs in high school, John has had an entrepreneurial spirit and interest in technology. He was a recipient of the Intel Scholarship Program and he went on to receive a computer science and engineering degree from Cornell University. When he was 28 years old, he sold his first start-up company for $150 million. He has gone on to become a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded and scaled several multi-million dollar technology and fintech companies. He is currently the CEO of Soluna, a computing company helping to shape the future of renewable energy development. His expertise as both a highly effective business leader and technology strategist has enabled his new venture and operational success steering complex initiatives from concept to funding to launch to growth. Soluna Computing builds modular, scalable data centers that convert wasted renewable energy into computing power for intensive, batchable applications such as cryptocurrency mining, AI, and machine learning.
Today on the podcast, Michael Stausholm joins us. Michael is the founder and CEO of Sprout World, the company behind the world's only plantable pencil, with over 30 million pencils sold in over 80 countries. Michael has also advised the likes of Nike and Walmart on how to implement more sustainable production practices, and in addition to running Sprout World, he mentors green start-ups as a board member of Greencubator. Here is my discussion with Michael. Show Notes:Be sure to visit: Sprout World Visit Coolperx® home page: Coolperx® Reach out to Coolperx®: Phone: 1 (855) 429-0455 email: hello@coolperx.com Plus, don't forget to follow or sign up for my newsletter here: PODCAST WEBSITE Show Transcript: Seth Cysewski: Welcome John, thank you so much for for being here today. John Belizaire: Thanks for having me Seth. It's a pleasure looking forward to this conversation. Seth Cysewski: Absolutely. So I'm very fascinated about what you're doing. But, why don't we start just with the basics. Maybe if you could tell me more about John the person and and how and then maybe eventually how you ended up working around clean energy challenges. John Belizaire: I like to say I'm not an energy guy I'm actually a software guy I yeah studied computer science undergrad started my career at Intel really helping bring software to the personal computer and for the next. Twenty plus years I was ah following my passion really creating new companies I've been an entrepreneur. I hate to say serial entrepreneur because it's so cliche. But, it's true I started my career in the e-commerce space and primarily focus on selling technology to large enterprises I used to carry around lego blocks to big financial services companies and and and explain to them the future of software will be built like this you know and they're like well how much are those lego blocks these these are five bucks but the ones I'm gonna sell you. They're like a million dollars and so enterprise software has really been my focus and and most recently I was in the insurance software space did some work helping insurance the insurance industry sort of transition into the digital realm using data and analytics to make better decisions and then about four years ago I had just finished that experience and I was taking a bit of a break doing some writing I pen a blog where I sort of write down all my learnings and a close friend of mine and mentor who had been an investor in a number of my companies suggested that I look at this business that he was working on. And I said what business would you be doing that I would be focused on because you always do industrial companies. I'm a software guy and he explained well you've got to look at this one. It's the intersection between renewable energy and blockchain. And the only thing I heard in that sentence was blockchain I heard of that and that might be interesting and that started a 4 year journey until today where I am the CEO of Soluna Computing, a company focused on unlocking the potential of renewable energy. And by using computing as a catalyst so that's a quick tour. I'm from New York originally father of 2 two girls, extra extra data there. Seth Cysewski: It's awesome. I'm a father of one daughter and daughters the are amazing. They the best for sure. So you got a you got a good computing background and so they're bringing you in to Soluna. John Belizaire: Exactly. Seth Cysewski: Tell me more about Soluna Computing and I mean obviously the intersection of blockchain and renewable energy sounds very fascinating. So tell me about the problem. Maybe that Soluna is setting out to solve and and a little bit more about that. John Belizaire: Exactly, you know I get that a lot. You know we don't really have lots of cocktail parties these days given when we're recording this this podcast, but the the questions I get when people sort of asking me what are you doing now is like "What are you up to?" and "What does the Soluna do?" "What's the problem you solve?" and what I explained to them is that we solve a little unknown problem which happens to be a huge problem for renewable energy and the renewable energy transition. And that is that most renewable power plants, up to 30% of their power production never actually make it to the grid. Let me say that again over $700 to $ 750 billion dollars has been spent in the last two years alone clean tech clean energy infrastructure and a host of technology to bring more green electrons to the grid. But when you zoom in on the power plants that are actually producing those electrons big wind farms big solar farms spread around the country and around the world, up to about 30% of their power never makes it to the grid and the reason is because the grid was designed based on this concept that energy the energy that's produced must be synchronized with the energy that's used this concept of sort of direct synchronization. So it that grid infrastructure which is which is very brittle and inflexible. At this point really was focused on ah power plants that can be dispatched by the grid operator and controlled and and fired on literally you know fired on right? And as you begin to replace those old legacy fuels, coal plants etc, with green power plants, well the grid is no longer in charge of dispatching those power plants mother nature sets that schedule if the wind is blowing really heavily in in Oklahoma, there'll be lots of energy produced by the big wind farms out in the field there and there may not be any users of that because people might be asleep at night in Oklahoma and they're not. Many large pipes or transmission lines to take that power perhaps to down south where people might be ready at a party and use that energy. So that's the problem. There is lots of wasted energy which reduces the amount of renewable energy that you can actually bring on grid. That's the problem. How do we solve it the way we solve it is we bring ah another interesting user of energy that happens to be quite flexible right? What their grid needs is a user of power that can ramp up and ramp down if they can control that part of the equation. Then they can bring more power to the grid. So what we're bringing is these specially built onsite scalable data centers that absorb that wasted energy. We actually will use that energy instead of spilling it and we convert it to global, clean low cost computing and what type of computing are we focused on? Well we're not going to run your email. We're not going to run your e-commerce applications, your mission-critical applications. What we run are what we call batchable applications, anything that can be paused and restarted, put to sleep, that sort of thing because power might not be available. The types of applications that do that or any or anything that are highly compute intensive, okay, and have this ability to sort of pause themselves and examples of that are bitcoin mining. And kind of crypto mining application, AI, and machine Learning. So I you know write my Peloton in the morning as lots of data collected on me and then the next day it's a better. It's a better ride that's happening in the background in a model or or AI system that we never see but it's become a big part of just about every application out there. Scientific computing, for example, is a host of different applications that represent a a sizable slice of computing these days that is perfect for this type of data center and that's what we put inside of our facilities. And then we build these facilities around these green, these green power plants all around the world and that adds retroactively to flexibility that the grid needs. Seth Cysewski: Thank you, I have some follow up so that's really great. So just so I understand this, when I think about traditional legacy power generation, and we were just in Tennessee and they have peaker plants there using natural gas, right? They're just designed to to fire up when they're needed and so traditionally what you're saying is the energy energy generation was the one that was flexible but with renewables it's not as flexible. So in turn you're making the usage flexible and we're not quite there with. John Belizaire: Exactly. Seth Cysewski: Batteries which would be another another solution with this wasted or stranded energy which we could store and so essentially we're just repurposing computing. That's already going to be done and just moving it in to that 30% that that normally they wouldn't hit the grid typically. John Belizaire: Exactly, you got it Seth, basically computing is a capability something that you can do anywhere in the world. It is flexible in the sense that you can run a a computing process just about anywhere. Not every computing application is resilient enough to be put in an environment where it's not running in a 24 by 7 facility, but there are now a host of applications that are perfect for that environment. And what we're doing is basically taking the insatiable demand for energy created by computing because we all walk around with computers in our in our pockets, we talk to magic assistants at home that use computing somewhere in the cloud, and it just so happens that with a little lateral thinking, that opportunity or that technology can be applied here where a solution is needed today. It needs to be scalable and it needs to solve this wasted energy problem in the near term not in the long term. You're right Seth, batteries are also a solution. They're perfect. You can store the energy deploy it but there are some problems there because batteries are companies too. They have to at some point pull the power down when the power is cheap and that's usually when all that congestion and mismatches and then they need to put the power back on the grid at some point. The power is high so they work on an arbitrage model. Most people don't know that and so if you're in a situation where there's lots of renewables in a particular area, well the power is not going to be high very often and so it becomes very hard for the battery to actually be profitable and they're not scalable from a cost perspective yet. So we're not saying we're a replacement for batteries and transmission. What we're saying is, flexible computing is another somewhat counterintuitive solution to the problem. Seth Cysewski: Now that's very fascinating. So then who would your, it seems like to me that maybe you would have customers on both ends right? So you're either, you're probably working either and you can correct me, either with with the owners of these power generations or maybe even the people that sign these PPAs. I don't know if you work with them at all on the one end and then on the on the other end, you're you're working with computing companies or people that can then utilize your computing you you call it, batchable? Maybe you can tell me more about your customers on both ends and and how that works from their perspective. John Belizaire: That's right. Yeah sure on the power side. We work with what we call power partners they're exactly as you described, they're independent power producers, they're large utilities that have big, you know, assets that are renewable around the country, and big funds, infrastructure funds who deploy capital to build out projects. They may not be the development company. So sometimes they buy a site from a developer and then they build it out. Finance it and operate it. Those are the are the folks that are our power counter parties if you will on the on the other side. We focus on large enterprises enterprises that have a big data science arm or a growing one. And, they are really concerned about 2 things. Number 1: the rising cost of the computing as a percentage of their total revenue. Those Amazon bills start to add up after a while and the second is since what they're doing, this computing is so intense, is very compute intense. It's big. You know the data corps they're dealing with are quite large constantly processing them. The data scientists are now within their communities talking about whether you know are we destroying the world I mean pretty much every application has a data element to it. And are we essentially subsidizing the continuation of legacy fuels because we live inside of these not so flexible data centers that have to be on 24 7, 5 to 9. etc. But what if I told you I can take that slice of compute load, or that slice of computing processes? We like to call them jobs and maybe they represent single digits 2% to 3% of your total computing within an enterprise and move them over to these data centers that are catalyzers for renewable energy, that could be pretty compelling for a company that helps them with their ESG goals. They can point to their applications being directly powered by green electrons and, you know from a data scientist perspective, they just want to have lower cost access to computing that is good for the planet. Seth Cysewski: That makes sense. This reminds me, so this I probably is a good segue to talk about, you mentioned Blockchain and I think when most people think of, or maybe I don't know about most people, think a lot of people that hear blockchain think of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. You know some people are really into it and others are, you know, a little further out and so and they're just hearing about it, but I'm wondering, I was listening to your your recent financial call, and whatnot, so you guys are scaling pretty quickly which is really awesome, and I believe that bitcoin mining or cryptocurrency mining probably makes up a majority ah of your business right now. John Belizaire: Yes. Seth Cysewski: We're talking about like the intersection of how these come together and you're mentioning some of these companies are are a little concerned about their data usage. I think you know bitcoin so I'm just going to point out critics point out I guess that bitcoin can be really detrimental towards climate progress. Not that anyone anyone's going to stop it necessarily, but a recent Columbia paper noted that but bitcoin's currently using over 20 Million metric tons of CO2 each year, and China alone could be up to 130 Million metric tons by itself in 2024. So these are like super big numbers and I'm wondering about. It makes sense what you're doing and and why that would be a really good for that. So that's awesome. But maybe you could talk to me more about like from your perspective what is bitcoin or cryptocurrencies role in in a clean energy future. John Belizaire: Fantastic! So there are 2 narratives Seth around bitcoin 1 narrative is that it's an incredibly novel technology that could reshape the future of financial services but it's got this terrible side effect. And you've alluded to a number of examples of that. The other narrative is that it is an incredible catalyzer for the future of financial services that are not tied to authoritarian governments and gives people financial freedom money and wealth preservation is now democratized on a global basis and that's made possible by an incredible technology. And, the energy use is a feature, it is not a bug. It's a feature and so I want to talk about the second narrative because it's very easy to get access to information about the first narrative. It's sexy. It sells papers and online clicks and so forth and unfortunately it's a snapshot of the truth. The truth is that the young bitcoin industry was not very focused on its effect on climate and. Probably wasn't really aware of the eventual effect on climate and the reason was because it was a very small network really driven by a vision of really you know, bringing back the control of financial services and money to the people. And it was also driven by cracking some pretty challenging problems to create a decentralized form of money and you've got to solve some real real challenges, right? So as a result you started to see essentially two bitcoins. In fact, there are really 2 bitcoins. One is Bitcoin the capital B the other is bitcoin the lowercase b. Bitcoin capital B is the protocol that powers the global Bitcoin network which is now approaching over close to $1 Trillion in total value. It is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world and the underlying capabilities for providing security is what the crypto mining aspect or bitcoin mining aspect of the platform is, the platform is designed or the protocol, is designed to use mining as a mechanism to protect the blockchain. Transactions that occur on it and thereby protecting the assets that people are trusting the platform to deliver and so mining has as the value of the of the currency. The the lower case b has has increased mining has become a larger and larger enterprise if you will around the platform, and as a result it's matured significantly over the last decade. Number one, you're starting to see a re-shift. There's a movement underway, literally, of companies leaving China. Mostly driven by China kicking them out. They're, you know, domiciling themselves, repatriating themselves around the world in all sorts of different places. They're primarily first driven by where can I find cheap power. But now there's a sentiment around a really want to find the cheapest green power there is. Over $100 Million approaching over $1 Billion invested in very mature companies run by professionals. You know, some of the early versions of the company were run by young folks who didn't have a sort of, you know, business acumen, and they were not backed by institutional capital that asked really tough questions about what you're doing, and so as a result you now have companies much like ourselves out there that are taking a completely different approach to reshaping the next chapter in the Bitcoin landscape. And so the positive narrative is that the bitcoin mining is now seeing its role as a dual purpose one is protecting the Bitcoin network and the second is finding a way to become more sustainable. And catalyzed to renewable energy ah transform transition and bitcoin small b, by the way, is gone from, you know, being really so you know this speculative asset, actually playing a very important role in the global economy in asset allocations for some of the largest asset management companies in the world. It's now made its way into pension pension plans people are getting paid in it. It's maturing. It's a young thirteen year old technology. And it reminds me of another technology. That's a little older. It started when I started my entrepreneurship career, it had this sort of similar concept of you know capital letter lowercase letter, and it was focused on bringing the world's information to 1 digital place, and it eventually evolved to e-commerce, and then it evolved to connecting people, and it evolved to pretty much everything, and by now you you can guess who the character is I'm describing, and that's the internet. It has the same characteristics as Bitcoin. It evolved over a 20 year period and most of that development happened in the the last decade or so, and we now take for granted the role. The internet has played, and so I often say you should never underestimate the potential technology and the fact that it can really advance way beyond your current expectations, and it can happen very quickly and Bitcoin is gaining momentum and we're proud to be helping to make that happen. Seth Cysewski: That's fascinating. I thought I was there, I used to dial into my local BBS and I remember Prodigy. I remember when we got my first Encarta CD, it changed all my school projects. Yeah, it's interesting and I hear what you're saying about as it becomes, I almost say more legitimate, but maybe more mature, as a process and as a currency that the stakeholders are more mature too and the things that they're looking for and their external pressures are are different. John Belizaire: Exactly. That's exactly right. You know the public companies that are doing this for example, their shareholders put tremendous pressure on them, like we need to know where your powers are sources. And you now need to be carbon zero or negative right? And so there's a lot of pressure. And as more of the industry moves to countries that have rule of law that have access to these renewable resources and this pressure to put to to leverage those over others that industry you know has no choice but to mature and sort of accept those those things. So it's interesting to see the transition over to in the short four years that I've been involved. Seth Cysewski: Yeah, no, that that makes a lot of sense. We were just out in in rural America, and we have some direct solar investments for for our company, and I remember talking to some of the economic development officials out there and they were saying that it's not even a competitive advantage. It's a requirement now. So their communities need to have green power. Otherwise you're not going to recruit in any sort of job creating companies, because that's a requirement from them, and so I see that parallel as just being really a requirement moving forward, and that's everywhere. So it's a very exciting I think trajectory that that we're starting to to see. Maybe tell me a little bit more. This is all really fascinating, can you tell me more about maybe your company and the challenges you guys face right now like as you as you guys are scaling? John Belizaire: Indeed. Seth Cysewski: And, what are you guys running into and and what are you doing about it. John Belizaire: Yeah, good. Good, great question. Once a year Seth, I write what I like to call sort of the kickoff letter, and it's usually right after the holidays we we we have this shutdown period where we we really encourage everyone to sort of take a real break. You know, stay off of email and whatnot and I try to be an example, but usually I fail, but recently, I guess I would say but before when there was travel, I'd force myself to go someplace where there's only but just rocks and sand around and you know there's nothing to connect to. But after that, after that break, I feel that it's really important to give the team sort of 1 focusing message around what's going to be important in this coming year as we execute and and build out the next phase of our business and in my note this year, the the overarching word if you will and it's usually 1 word that I sort of sort zoom around, and is called scale. How do you scale the business that we're in, and I used a question that Peter Thiel asks a lot too. Set up what I wanted to ask the team to do and the question is if let's say you have a 10 year vision you know everybody sort of sees a picture of themselves a few years out if you have a 10 year vision to do something. Why can't you do it in six months another way, to ask the question is what's the 1 thing you can do in the next six months to get you closer or to ensure that you'll reach that 10 year vision? Everything we're doing right now as an organization going from 50 Megawatts, you know, about 3 data centers around the country, to building an entire fleet of hundreds to if not Gigawatts of facilities around the world is going to be focused on finding new and clever ways to scale our operations the way we operate our facilities the way we manage inventory. We have thousands of pieces of equipment in our data centers. The way we recruit employees, the way we communicate as a very large distributed organization, the way we raise capital at scale, you know, going from tens of millions dollars of financing to hundreds of millions of dollars of of financing, this is a very capital intensive business to build data centers and operate them., these are all things that we need to figure out. How do you create a iconic brand around renewable energy and catalyzing renewables using the blockchain and crypto without ah without that brand being associated with hubris right? We have to be a humble participant in the new community that we're part of to help to drive the future of this industry. These are the questions that we pose ourselves here at Soluna, that I asked the team to think about, and on a regular basis. We generate ideas on how to tackle those gnarly problems around scale. And that's what we've been working on. Yeah, it's hard to tell how long it's been in '22, but I feel like a year has passed already in the in the short two weeks that we've been back to the office but, there's a lot to do Seth, and you know, our big challenges are are really around scaling the operation in a way that is repeatable, we learn from quickly, and continue to grow. Seth Cysewski: Is the grid and the way it's structured one of them for you? John Belizaire: Yeah, so the grid is a is a very rigid thing in many ways right? So it's technically architected for a legacy approach to grid a lot of the laws that govern grid operations in just about every region around the country are also legacy and they actually create barriers to innovation and they also ah slow down. Very much the rate with which you can deploy new and interesting approaches to actually bring the very thing that the grid needs which is the flexibility and so, there is a lot of challenge related to that we ah spent a lot of our time as a company. Educating, and this isn't new to me, when you're when you're a new technologist. You're constantly a missionary. You've got to train folks and and explain to them why they should do something different that they that they've always done. You know all that. All that smells is risk for them and when you're in the business of providing reliable always on power to the country, one of the greatest countries in the world, risk is not something that's in your vocabulary and so, what we've done in addition to the technology that we use for our data centers, the way we, you know, manage the facilities the way we deal with jobs and everything we've actually built a ah set of principles structures both financial and technical in nature. To mitigate a lot of the risk associated with placing our. Next to the power plants, tying it into the grid, we spend a lot of time, you know, talking to the grid operators and, you know, government officials associated with the regions that we're in to make sure we're not doing anything that threatens the service that they are mandated to deliver, but only enhancing it right? That's improving it and making it more flexible and actually allowing them to to deliver I like to say that you know what's our mission, our mission is to help deliver clean green low-cost power locally, and deliver clean, sustainable computing on a global basis and so that does require lots of education especially when you have words like blockchain and crypto and anything, any of your marketing materials. Forget about it. You better be ready to do a lot of education. Seth Cysewski: I hear you, so I guess maybe, if you could, you have a very unique perspective and a lot of experience here, especially with what you're doing looking into your crystal ball. You're talking about a tenure like exercise. But maybe you could tell me what you think for you, the the next five and 10 years looks like, either for the grid or you could even add in or talk about maybe the future of of how computing is either executed or powered? John Belizaire: Yeah, you know I think that there are 2 perspectives we have on the future over here. Number one is that the transition to green power is inevitable at this point. We're basically all sitting in a fast-moving Tesla heading toward the renewable energy transition, and by the way, we're probably nobody's probably driving the car. We're just hanging out there talking about how, you know, can you believe we used to power the world by burning old pieces of, you know, households, and now it's completely powered by electrons that are are powered by Mother Nature essentially because that is the case you're going to see massive amounts of change. You know who are in the back of that who are in the back of that that vehicle? They're not energy experts, they're like, you know, dumb guys like me who don't know anything about energy but have brought sort of experience from other places to really help fight the the the good climate fight. So their technologists PHDs, data scientists, software engineers, all sorts of people who usually don't have anything to do with power power will become about computing. And that's because you're going to see more ah science and technology inserted into the grid to improve its flexibility. Its ability to sort of evolve almost future-proofing, if you will, the grid and I see that in a short period of time. All utilities are now sort of waking up. You're also seeing a change of the guard, Seth, at these places. Even legacy people need to be moved out, I hate to say, and new open minded people around technology and sort of finding ways to to address things. For example, I met an amazing young entrepreneur who built this drone system powered by AI that flies over the power lines to evaluate maintenance and things that can be done to reduce forest fires and potential issues that could significantly impact grid stability. But never thought about that right? You're just used to guys drive around trucks. They're on a maintenance and they'll eventually get to no. But if you had these systems that are constantly checking, you could you could prevent a lot of things happening so we're seeing that you know that that fast moving Tesla sort of evolving on the on the energy side. On the compute side I think you're going to see a step change in what we describe as data centers today. Data centers are these you know Ferraris, fast-moving cars, super resilient. And we're building a truck. We're building a facility that is specifically designed to be in the rugged environments far away from ah metro places super flexible and and and and resilient and agile in these environments. And it's going to be powering what will be and I believe today is probably 1 of the fastest growing segments in computing today and that's all of these batchable and AI-based environments. I read something that described it as somewhere around 20% is where it is today but it's growing at 40 to 50%. I don't think I know a single software company that doesn't have some sort of data science behind their business. Actually it sort of you got to ask the question if they don't right? Compass Real Estate, one of the most amazing real estate companies I was reading about a fact, the founder found it has a Masterclass, you know, the Masterclass app, and a very good friend friend of mine heads up data science for him ,and he explained to me how that whole thing works. And it's more of a data science company than it is a real estate company. To be honest, and it's just fascinating to me, that that is really touching just about everything in the world at this point. And so in 10 years, that's going to be an immutable truth and it will spawn these different types of platforms where you can run those things in a way that is good for the planet. So that's our perspective on it and I really hope you know that the young folks, anybody who was young, you know, technologist or if you're in school listening to this, I think there's a lot of opportunity to jump into this industry. You know I talk a lot about the need for some sort of climate Peace Corps or something like that, you know, where before you go work for Google or go work for Google for a year but then come back and just like jump in and see if you can bring a fresh look at, the energy systems of the world and see if you can help to make that. Part of helping us survive all of these climate issues. Seth Cysewski: I love how youth is just so open. They just they haven't been taught. They haven't learned what what's what they can and cannot do yet. Yeah, the sky's the limit. John Belizaire: Exactly. Nobody's pounded into them. They know we don't do it like that, we do not do that. So don't even think about it. You know and learn behavior is what I like to call it. You know they they haven't exposed a lot of learned behavior yet they're just they're just raw and that's what you need when you're looking at hard problems like this. Seth Cysewski: Well I think that leads me into to my last question then, and maybe it's along these lines maybe not. What advice would you have for you know any business leaders or people that want to make a difference entering maybe emerging markets, either in the sustainability space, you know, in the future space. John Belizaire: Yeah. So the way I got into the Soluna business, I didn't share at at the beginning, but that project my friend asked me to go run it. It was actually in in Southern Morocco and it was in a place otherwise known as the kite surfing capital of the world. Amazing wind, really high speed. I don't really keep my hair very long. So it's hard to to show you film of how fast but when you go to the airport. There are really 2 types of... Seth Cysewski: You look aerodynamic. John Belizaire: There are only 2 types of people at the airport. Renewable energy people and kite surfers. I'm talking about Olympic-class kite surfers in Dahkla, Morocco, and what was fascinating to me spending time trying to develop a wind farm there, and develop, you know, and get the idea for shifting our our whole focus during the pandemic to this computing company, was that there is so much energy poverty on that continent, really caused by 2 important things. Number 1, you don't have an economy to support the energy so you have this sort of chicken and egg problem like why are you building power, there's not enough use for the power. And 2, bringing in financial constructs. You know, attracting capital to build out resources is very challenging. And, by the way, it's not like there aren't resources to be developed. There's and there's an incredible abundance of natural resources hydro wind solar that can be turned into. Ah, economic growth. You know by building power plants and the solution we've developed helps to drive that. That's really what got me super passionate about that. This could be a new way to build renewable energy and so I think the message for folks out there is spend some time over there. If you really want to understand what it's like to not experience what you enjoy here, which is you know, clean, eventually green power that is consistent and persistent that helps to drive our our economy, go to a place where a young child doesn't have access to to medical services because there's no power to provide it and see if there's there's a way for you to help there. I would encourage everyone to do that to get a real sense of the opportunities for changing the world in a major way by solving problems at home that can be brought elsewhere. And that's the message I would leave with folks out there. Seth Cysewski: Thank you for sharing that. That's great. Well John it has been really lovely. I just want to tell you I don't think I was aware of the solution, and not really so much. The problem outside of batteries before kind of looking into what what you were doing and I just think it's it's a very clever and a needed solution. So I'm glad you're doing it and and I and I appreciate you coming on and and and sharing. John Belizaire: Thank you. Thanks Seth I really enjoyed the time great questions and thank you so much for the opportunity. Support Coolperx®'s podcast by subscribing and reviewing! Music is considered “royalty-free” and discovered on Audio Blocks. Technical Podcast Support by: Jon Keur at Wayfare Recording Co. © 2022 Coolperx®. All Rights Reserved.
My guest on the show today is Michael Toporek, CEO of Soluna Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLNH). Soluna Holdings is a leading developer of 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. We recorded the interview on March 28, 2022, and since then, the company has announced the MTI Instruments subsidiary to Vitrek LLC. The company, as it states in their announcement, "expects that it will be solely focused on developing and monetizing green, zero-carbon computing and cryptocurrency mining facilities." Michael and I discuss the company's focus and: Why the company is thrown into the crypto mining bucket, when as the title states, their a "Solutions Provider to the Renewable Energy Generating Business" Description of their suite of services and how they helping energy providers What investors tend to misunderstand about Soluna With that, please enjoy my conversation with Michael Toporek, CEO of Soluna Holdings, Inc. For more information about Soluna Holdings, Inc., please visit: https://www.solunacomputing.com/ This podcast was recorded and is being made available by SNN, Inc. (together with its affiliates and its and their employees, “SNN”) solely for informational purposes. SNN is not providing or undertaking to provide any financial, economic, legal, accounting, tax, or other advice in or by virtue of this podcast. The information, statements, comments, views, and opinions provided in this podcast are general in nature, and such information, statements, comments, views, and opinions, and the viewing of/listening to this podcast are not intended to be and should not be construed as the provision of investment advice by SNN. The information, statements, comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast do not constitute and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or other course of action. The information, statements, comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast (including by guest speakers who are not officers, employees, or agents of SNN) are not necessarily those of SNN and may not be current. Reference to any specific third-party entity, product, service, materials, or content does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the SNN. SNN assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of the content contained in third party materials or on third party sites referenced in this podcast or the compliance with applicable laws of such materials and/or links referenced herein. The views expressed by guest speakers are their own and their appearance on this podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. SNN does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any of the information, statements, comments, views, or opinions contained in this podcast, which may include forward-looking statements where actual results may differ materially. SNN does not undertake any obligation whatsoever to provide any form of update, amendment, change, or correction to any of the information, statements, comments, views or opinions set forth in this podcast. SNN EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY INDIVIDUAL'S USE OF, REFERENCE TO, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PODCAST OR THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS PODCAST. By accessing this podcast, the listener acknowledges that the entire contents and design of this podcast, are the property of SNN, or used by SNN with permission, and are protected under U.S. and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this podcast may save and use information contained in the podcast only for personal or other non-commercial educational purposes. No other use, including without limitation, reproduction, retransmission, or editing of this podcast may be made without the prior written consent of SNN.
AYO! Back and with a new name. Welcome to the soluna medicines podcast. This here episode is a welcome episode -- the beginning of an era. Tune in weekly for more. MWAH! solunamedicines.com solunamedicines on Instagram
Welcome to the Energy Transition Solutions podcast — brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network by AWS Energy. This week our host Joe Batir talks with John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing. Joe and John discuss Soluna Computing's modular data centers and how they are paired with renewable energy to utilize wasted energy through batchable computing. Topics covered include the infinite need for computing power, how computing can be combined with renewable power generation to increase renewable energy penetration into the grid, and a quick crypto mining 101 primer. John's book recommendations: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins You can find John's entire 2021 booklist >> HERE. Additional links from the show that were discussed can be found here: (1) Bitcoin Primer -- all about the Magic Machine is HERE. (2) Episode with Dr. Andrew Chien on grid resiliency and renewable grid penetration can be found HERE. It's episode 26. Learn more about AWS Energy here. More from OGGN ... Podcasts LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Company Page Get notified about industry events
We explore the potential for computing to serve as effective "energy sinks" for renewable energy with Soluna Computing CEO John Belizaire. For pictures and more info, visit http://www.energy-cast.com/136-soluna.html
John's parents escaped Haitian dictatorship and potential death before reuniting and coming to the United States. Since the age of 14 selling floppy discs in high school, John has had an entrepreneurial spirit and interest in technology. He was a recipient of the Intel Scholarship Program and he went on to receive a computer science and engineering degree from Cornell University. When he was 28 years old, he sold his first start-up company for $150 million. He has gone on to become a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded and scaled several multi-million dollar technology and fintech companies. He is currently the CEO of Soluna, a computing company helping to shape the future of renewable energy development. His expertise as both a highly effective business leader and technology strategist has enabled his new venture and operational success steering complex initiatives from concept to funding to launch to growth. I speak with John about cryptocurrency mining, stranded renewable energy, the future of the grid, and their very clever solution to utilize batchable computing to accelerate the renewable energy transition. Here is our interview. Show Notes: Be sure to visit: SolunaComputing.com Personal Blog: ceoplaybook.co Social Media: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/solunaholdings/ Twitter: @solunaholdings Visit Coolperx® home page: Coolperx® Reach out to Coolperx®: Phone: 1 (855) 429-0455 email: hello@coolperx.com Plus, don't forget to follow or sign up for my newsletter here: PODCAST WEBSITE Show Transcript: Seth Cysewski: Welcome John, thank you so much for for being here today. John Belizaire: Thanks for having me Seth. It's a pleasure looking forward to this conversation. Seth Cysewski: Absolutely. So I'm very fascinated about what you're doing. But, why don't we start just with the basics. Maybe if you could tell me more about John the person and and how and then maybe eventually how you ended up working around clean energy challenges. John Belizaire: I like to say I'm not an energy guy I'm actually a software guy I yeah studied computer science undergrad started my career at Intel really helping bring software to the personal computer and for the next. Twenty plus years I was ah following my passion really creating new companies I've been an entrepreneur. I hate to say serial entrepreneur because it's so cliche. But, it's true I started my career in the e-commerce space and primarily focus on selling technology to large enterprises I used to carry around lego blocks to big financial services companies and and explain to them the future of software will be built like this you know and they're like well how much are those lego blocks these these are five bucks but the ones I'm gonna sell you. They're like a million dollars and so enterprise software has really been my focus and and most recently I was in the insurance software space did some work helping insurance the insurance industry sort of transition into the digital realm using data and analytics to make better decisions and then about four years ago I had just finished that experience and I was taking a bit of a break doing some writing I pen a blog where I sort of write down all my learnings and a close friend of mine and mentor who had been an investor in a number of my companies suggested that I look at this business that he was working on. And I said what business would you be doing that I would be focused on because you always do industrial companies. I'm a software guy and he explained well you've got to look at this one. It's the intersection between renewable energy and blockchain. And the only thing I heard in that sentence was blockchain I heard of that and that might be interesting and that started a 4 year journey until today where I am the CEO of Soluna Computing, a company focused on unlocking the potential of renewable energy. And by using computing as a catalyst so that's a quick tour. I'm from New York originally father of 2 two girls, extra data there. Seth Cysewski: It's awesome. I'm a father of one daughter and daughters are amazing. They are the best for sure. So you got a good computing background and so they're bringing you into Soluna. John Belizaire: Exactly. Seth Cysewski: Tell me more about Soluna Computing and I mean obviously the intersection of blockchain and renewable energy sounds very fascinating. So tell me about the problem. Maybe that Soluna is setting out to solve and a little bit more about that. John Belizaire: Exactly, you know I get that a lot. You know we don't really have lots of cocktail parties these days given when we're recording this this podcast, but the questions I get when people sort of asking me what are you doing now is like "What are you up to?" and "What does the Soluna do?" "What's the problem you solve?" and what I explained to them is that we solve a little unknown problem which happens to be a huge problem for renewable energy and the renewable energy transition. And that is that most renewable power plants, up to 30% of their power production never actually make it to the grid. Let me say that again over $700 to $ 750 billion dollars has been spent in the last two years alone clean tech clean energy infrastructure and a host of technology to bring more green electrons to the grid. But when you zoom in on the power plants that are actually producing those electrons big wind farms big solar farms spread around the country and around the world, up to about 30% of their power never makes it to the grid and the reason is because the grid was designed based on this concept that energy the energy that's produced must be synchronized with the energy that's used this concept of sort of direct synchronization. So it that grid infrastructure which is which is very brittle and inflexible. At this point really was focused on ah power plants that can be dispatched by the grid operator and controlled and fired on literally you know fired on right? And as you begin to replace those old legacy fuels, coal plants etc, with green power plants, well the grid is no longer in charge of dispatching those power plants mother nature sets that schedule if the wind is blowing really heavily in Oklahoma, there'll be lots of energy produced by the big wind farms out in the field there and there may not be any users of that because people might be asleep at night in Oklahoma and they're not. Many large pipes or transmission lines to take that power perhaps to down south where people might be ready at a party and use that energy. So that's the problem. There is lots of wasted energy which reduces the amount of renewable energy that you can actually bring on grid. That's the problem. How do we solve it the way we solve it is we bring ah another interesting user of energy that happens to be quite flexible right? What their grid needs is a user of power that can ramp up and ramp down if they can control that part of the equation. Then they can bring more power to the grid. So what we're bringing is these specially built onsite scalable data centers that absorb that wasted energy. We actually will use that energy instead of spilling it and we convert it to global, clean low-cost computing and what type of computing are we focused on? Well, we're not going to run your email. We're not going to run your e-commerce applications, your mission-critical applications. What we run are what we call batchable applications, anything that can be paused and restarted, put to sleep, that sort of thing because power might not be available. The types of applications that do that or any or anything that are highly compute-intensive, okay, and have this ability to sort of pause themselves and examples of that are bitcoin mining. And kind of crypto mining application, AI, and machine learning. So I you know ride my Peloton in the morning as lots of data collected on me and then the next day it's better. It's a better ride that's happening in the background in a model or AI system that we never see but it's become a big part of just about every application out there. Scientific computing, for example, is a host of different applications that represent a sizable slice of computing these days that is perfect for this type of data center and that's what we put inside of our facilities. And then we build these facilities around these green, these green power plants all around the world and that adds retroactively to flexibility that the grid needs. Seth Cysewski: Thank you, I have some follow up so that's really great. So just so I understand this, when I think about traditional legacy power generation, and we were just in Tennessee and they have peaker plants there using natural gas, right? They're just designed to fire up when they're needed and so traditionally what you're saying is the energy generation was the one that was flexible but with renewables, it's not as flexible. So in turn you're making the usage flexible and we're not quite there with. John Belizaire: Exactly. Seth Cysewski: Batteries which would be another solution with this wasted or stranded energy which we could store and so essentially we're just repurposing computing. That's already going to be done and just moving it into that 30% that normally they wouldn't hit the grid typically. John Belizaire: Exactly, you got it Seth, basically, computing is a capability something that you can do anywhere in the world. It is flexible in the sense that you can run a computing process just about anywhere. Not every computing application is resilient enough to be put in an environment where it's not running in a 24 by 7 facility, but there are now a host of applications that are perfect for that environment. And what we're doing is basically taking the insatiable demand for energy created by computing because we all walk around with computers in our in our pockets, we talk to magic assistants at home that use computing somewhere in the cloud, and it just so happens that with a little lateral thinking, that opportunity or that technology can be applied here where a solution is needed today. It needs to be scalable and it needs to solve this wasted energy problem in the near term not in the long term. You're right Seth, batteries are also a solution. They're perfect. You can store the energy deploy it but there are some problems there because batteries are companies too. They have to at some point pull the power down when the power is cheap and that's usually when all that congestion and mismatches and then they need to put the power back on the grid at some point. The power is high so they work on an arbitrage model. Most people don't know that and so if you're in a situation where there's lots of renewables in a particular area, well the power is not going to be high very often and so it becomes very hard for the battery to actually be profitable and they're not scalable from a cost perspective yet. So we're not saying we're a replacement for batteries and transmission. What we're saying is, flexible computing is another somewhat counterintuitive solution to the problem. Seth Cysewski: Now that's very fascinating. So then who would your, it seems like to me that maybe you would have customers on both ends right? So you're either, you're probably working either and you can correct me, either with the owners of these power generations or maybe even the people that sign these PPAs. I don't know if you work with them at all on the one end and then on the other end, you're working with computing companies or people that can then utilize your computing you call it, batchable? Maybe you can tell me more about your customers on both ends and how that works from their perspective. John Belizaire: That's right. Yeah sure on the power side. We work with what we call power partners they're exactly as you described, they're independent power producers, they're large utilities that have big, you know, assets that are renewable around the country, and big funds, infrastructure funds who deploy capital to build out projects. They may not be the development company. So sometimes they buy a site from a developer and then they build it out. Finance it and operate it. Those are the folks that are our power counterparties if you will on the other side. We focus on large enterprises that have a big data science arm or a growing one. And, they are really concerned about 2 things. Number 1: the rising cost of the computing as a percentage of their total revenue. Those Amazon bills start to add up after a while and the second is since what they're doing, this computing is so intense, is very compute intense. It's big. You know the data corps they're dealing with are quite large constantly processing them. The data scientists are now within their communities talking about whether you know are we destroying the world I mean pretty much every application has a data element to it. And are we essentially subsidizing the continuation of legacy fuels because we live inside of these not so flexible data centers that have to be on 24 7, 5 to 9. etc. But what if I told you I can take that slice of compute load, or that slice of computing processes? We like to call them jobs and maybe they represent single digits 2% to 3% of your total computing within an enterprise and move them over to these data centers that are catalyzers for renewable energy, that could be pretty compelling for a company that helps them with their ESG goals. They can point to their applications being directly powered by green electrons and, you know from a data scientist perspective, they just want to have lower-cost access to computing that is good for the planet. Seth Cysewski: That makes sense. This reminds me, so this I probably is a good segue to talk about, you mentioned Blockchain and I think when most people think of, or maybe I don't know about most people, think a lot of people that hear blockchain think of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. You know some people are really into it and others are, you know, a little further out and so and they're just hearing about it, but I'm wondering, I was listening to your recent financial call, and whatnot, so you guys are scaling pretty quickly which is really awesome, and I believe that bitcoin mining or cryptocurrency mining probably makes up a majority ah of your business right now. John Belizaire: Yes. Seth Cysewski: We're talking about like the intersection of how these come together and you're mentioning some of these companies are a little concerned about their data usage. I think you know bitcoin so I'm just going to point out critics point out I guess that bitcoin can be really detrimental towards climate progress. Not that anyone's going to stop it necessarily, but a recent Columbia paper noted that but bitcoin's currently using over 20 million metric tons of CO2 each year, and China alone could be up to 130 million metric tons by itself in 2024. So these are like super big numbers and I'm wondering about. It makes sense what you're doing and why that would be a really good for that. So that's awesome. But maybe you could talk to me more about like from your perspective what is bitcoin or cryptocurrencies' role in a clean energy future. John Belizaire: Fantastic! So there are 2 narratives Seth around bitcoin 1 narrative is that it's an incredibly novel technology that could reshape the future of financial services but it's got this terrible side effect. And you've alluded to a number of examples of that. The other narrative is that it is an incredible catalyzer for the future of financial services that are not tied to authoritarian governments and gives people financial freedom money and wealth preservation is now democratized on a global basis and that's made possible by an incredible technology. And, the energy use is a feature, it is not a bug. It's a feature and so I want to talk about the second narrative because it's very easy to get access to information about the first narrative. It's sexy. It sells papers and online clicks and so forth and unfortunately it's a snapshot of the truth. The truth is that the young bitcoin industry was not very focused on its effect on climate and. Probably wasn't really aware of the eventual effect on climate and the reason was because it was a very small network really driven by a vision of really you know, bringing back the control of financial services and money to the people. And it was also driven by cracking some pretty challenging problems to create a decentralized form of money and you've got to solve some real challenges, right? So as a result you started to see essentially two bitcoins. In fact, there are really 2 bitcoins. One is Bitcoin the capital B the other is bitcoin the lowercase b. Bitcoin capital B is the protocol that powers the global Bitcoin network which is now approaching over close to $1 Trillion in total value. It is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world and the underlying capabilities for providing security is what the crypto mining aspect or bitcoin mining aspect of the platform is, the platform is designed or the protocol, is designed to use mining as a mechanism to protect the blockchain. Transactions that occur on it and thereby protecting the assets that people are trusting the platform to deliver and so mining has as the value of the of the currency. The lower case b has increased mining has become a larger and larger enterprise if you will around the platform, and as a result it's matured significantly over the last decade. Number one, you're starting to see a re-shift. There's a movement underway, literally, of companies leaving China. Mostly driven by China kicking them out. They're, you know, domiciling themselves, repatriating themselves around the world in all sorts of different places. They're primarily first driven by where can I find cheap power. But now there's a sentiment around a really want to find the cheapest green power there is. Over $100 Million approaching over $1 Billion invested in very mature companies run by professionals. You know, some of the early versions of the company were run by young folks who didn't have a sort of, you know, business acumen, and they were not backed by institutional capital that asked really tough questions about what you're doing, and so as a result you now have companies much like ourselves out there that are taking a completely different approach to reshaping the next chapter in the Bitcoin landscape. And so the positive narrative is that the bitcoin mining is now seeing its role as a dual purpose one is protecting the Bitcoin network and the second is finding a way to become more sustainable. And catalyzed to renewable energy ah transform transition and bitcoin small b, by the way, is gone from, you know, being really so you know this speculative asset, actually playing a very important role in the global economy in asset allocations for some of the largest asset management companies in the world. It's now made its way into pension plans people are getting paid in it. It's maturing. It's a young thirteen-year-old technology. And it reminds me of another technology. That's a little older. It started when I started my entrepreneurship career, it had this sort of similar concept of you know capital letter lowercase letter, and it was focused on bringing the world's information to 1 digital place, and it eventually evolved to e-commerce, and then it evolved to connecting people, and it evolved to pretty much everything, and by now you can guess who the character is I'm describing, and that's the internet. It has the same characteristics as Bitcoin. It evolved over a 20 year period and most of that development happened in the last decade or so, and we now take for granted the role. The internet has played, and so I often say you should never underestimate the potential technology and the fact that it can really advance way beyond your current expectations, and it can happen very quickly and Bitcoin is gaining momentum and we're proud to be helping to make that happen. Seth Cysewski: That's fascinating. I thought I was there, I used to dial into my local BBS and I remember Prodigy. I remember when we got my first Encarta CD, it changed all my school projects. Yeah, it's interesting and I hear what you're saying about as it becomes, I almost say more legitimate, but maybe more mature, as a process and as a currency that the stakeholders are more mature too and the things that they're looking for and their external pressures are are different. John Belizaire: Exactly. That's exactly right. You know the public companies that are doing this for example, their shareholders put tremendous pressure on them, like we need to know where your powers are sources. And you now need to be carbon zero or negative right? And so there's a lot of pressure. And as more of the industry moves to countries that have rule of law that have access to these renewable resources and this pressure to put to leverage those over others that industry you know has no choice but to mature and sort of accept those things. So it's interesting to see the transition over to in the short four years that I've been involved. Seth Cysewski: Yeah, no, that that makes a lot of sense. We were just out in rural America, and we have some direct solar investments for our company, and I remember talking to some of the economic development officials out there and they were saying that it's not even a competitive advantage. It's a requirement now. So their communities need to have green power. Otherwise, you're not going to recruit in any sort of job-creating companies, because that's a requirement from them, and so I see that parallel as just being really a requirement moving forward, and that's everywhere. So it's a very exciting I think trajectory that we're starting to see. Maybe tell me a little bit more. This is all really fascinating, can you tell me more about maybe your company and the challenges you guys face right now like as you as you guys are scaling? John Belizaire: Indeed. Seth Cysewski: And, what are you guys running into and what are you doing about it. John Belizaire: Yeah, good. Good, great question. Once a year Seth, I write what I like to call sort of the kickoff letter, and it's usually right after the holidays we have this shutdown period where we really encourage everyone to sort of take a real break. You know, stay off of email and whatnot and I try to be an example, but usually, I fail, but recently, I guess I would say but before when there was travel, I'd force myself to go someplace where there's only but just rocks and sand around and you know there's nothing to connect to. But after that, after that break, I feel that it's really important to give the team sort of 1 focusing message around what's going to be important in this coming year as we execute and build out the next phase of our business and in my note this year, the overarching word if you will and it's usually 1 word that I sort of sort zoom around, and is called scale. How do you scale the business that we're in, and I used a question that Peter Thiel asks a lot too. Set up what I wanted to ask the team to do and the question is if let's say you have a 10-year vision you know everybody sort of sees a picture of themselves a few years out if you have a 10-year vision to do something. Why can't you do it in six months another way, to ask the question is what's the 1 thing you can do in the next six months to get you closer or to ensure that you'll reach that 10-year vision? Everything we're doing right now as an organization going from 50 Megawatts, you know, about 3 data centers around the country, to building an entire fleet of hundreds to if not Gigawatts of facilities around the world is going to be focused on finding new and clever ways to scale our operations the way we operate our facilities the way we manage inventory. We have thousands of pieces of equipment in our data centers. The way we recruit employees, the way we communicate as a very large distributed organization, the way we raise capital at scale, you know, going from tens of millions of dollars of financing to hundreds of millions of dollars of of financing, this is a very capital intensive business to build data centers and operate them., these are all things that we need to figure out. How do you create an iconic brand around renewable energy and catalyzing renewables using the blockchain and crypto without that brand being associated with hubris right? We have to be a humble participant in the new community that we're part of to help to drive the future of this industry. These are the questions that we pose ourselves here at Soluna, that I asked the team to think about, and on a regular basis. We generate ideas on how to tackle those gnarly problems around scale. And that's what we've been working on. Yeah, it's hard to tell how long it's been in '22, but I feel like a year has passed already in the in the short two weeks that we've been back to the office but, there's a lot to do Seth, and you know, our big challenges are really around scaling the operation in a way that is repeatable, we learn from quickly, and continue to grow. Seth Cysewski: Is the grid and the way it's structured one of them for you? John Belizaire: Yeah, so the grid is a is a very rigid thing in many ways right? So it's technically architected for a legacy approach to grid a lot of the laws that govern grid operations in just about every region around the country are also legacy and they actually create barriers to innovation and they also ah slow down. Very much the rate with which you can deploy new and interesting approaches to actually bring the very thing that the grid needs which is the flexibility and so, there is a lot of challenge related to that we ah spent a lot of our time as a company. Educating, and this isn't new to me, when you're when you're a new technologist. You're constantly a missionary. You've got to train folks and explain to them why they should do something different than they that they've always done. You know all that. All that smells is risk for them and when you're in the business of providing reliable always-on power to the country, one of the greatest countries in the world, risk is not something that's in your vocabulary and so, what we've done in addition to the technology that we use for our data centers, the way we, you know, manage the facilities the way we deal with jobs and everything we've actually built a set of principles structures both financial and technical in nature. To mitigate a lot of the risk associated with placing ours next to the power plants, tying it into the grid, we spend a lot of time, you know, talking to the grid operators and, you know, government officials associated with the regions that we're in to make sure we're not doing anything that threatens the service that they are mandated to deliver, but only enhancing it right? That's improving it and making it more flexible and actually allowing them to deliver I like to say that you know what's our mission, our mission is to help deliver clean green low-cost power locally, and deliver clean, sustainable computing on a global basis and so that does require lots of education especially when you have words like blockchain and crypto and anything, any of your marketing materials. Forget about it. You better be ready to do a lot of education. Seth Cysewski: I hear you, so I guess maybe, if you could, you have a very unique perspective and a lot of experience here, especially with what you're doing looking into your crystal ball. You're talking about a tenure-like exercise. But maybe you could tell me what you think for you, the next five and 10 years looks like, either for the grid or you could even add in or talk about maybe the future of how computing is either executed or powered? John Belizaire: Yeah, you know I think that there are 2 perspectives we have on the future over here. Number one is that the transition to green power is inevitable at this point. We're basically all sitting in a fast-moving Tesla heading toward the renewable energy transition, and by the way, we're probably nobody's probably driving the car. We're just hanging out there talking about how, you know, can you believe we used to power the world by burning old pieces of, you know, households, and now it's completely powered by electrons that are powered by Mother Nature essentially because that is the case you're going to see massive amounts of change. You know who are in the back of that who are in the back of that vehicle? They're not energy experts, they're like, you know, dumb guys like me who don't know anything about energy but have brought sort of experience from other places to really help fight the the the good climate fight. So their technologists PHDs, data scientists, software engineers, all sorts of people who usually don't have anything to do with power will become about computing. And that's because you're going to see more ah science and technology inserted into the grid to improve its flexibility. Its ability to sort of evolve almost future-proofing, if you will, the grid and I see that in a short period of time. All utilities are now sort of waking up. You're also seeing a change of the guard, Seth, at these places. Even legacy people need to be moved out, I hate to say, and new open-minded people around technology and sort of finding ways to address things. For example, I met an amazing young entrepreneur who built this drone system powered by AI that flies over the power lines to evaluate maintenance and things that can be done to reduce forest fires and potential issues that could significantly impact grid stability. But never thought about that right? You're just used to guys drive around trucks. They're on a maintenance and they'll eventually get to no. But if you had these systems that are constantly checking, you could you could prevent a lot of things happening so we're seeing that you know that that fast-moving Tesla sort of evolving on the on the energy side. On the compute side I think you're going to see a step change in what we describe as data centers today. Data centers are these you know Ferraris, fast-moving cars, super resilient. And we're building a truck. We're building a facility that is specifically designed to be in the rugged environments far away from ah metro places super flexible and and and and resilient and agile in these environments. And it's going to be powering what will be and I believe today is probably 1 of the fastest-growing segments in computing today and that's all of these batchable and AI-based environments. I read something that described it as somewhere around 20% is where it is today but it's growing at 40 to 50%. I don't think I know a single software company that doesn't have some sort of data science behind their business. Actually, it sort of you got to ask the question if they don't right? Compass Real Estate, one of the most amazing real estate companies I was reading about a fact, the founder found it has a Masterclass, you know, the Masterclass app, and a very good friend of mine heads up data science for him, and he explained to me how that whole thing works. And it's more of a data science company than it is a real estate company. To be honest, and it's just fascinating to me, that that is really touching just about everything in the world at this point. And so in 10 years, that's going to be an immutable truth and it will spawn these different types of platforms where you can run those things in a way that is good for the planet. So that's our perspective on it and I really hope you know that the young folks, anybody who was young, you know, technologist or if you're in school listening to this, I think there's a lot of opportunity to jump into this industry. You know I talk a lot about the need for some sort of climate Peace Corps or something like that, you know, where before you go work for Google or go work for Google for a year but then come back and just like jump in and see if you can bring a fresh look at, the energy systems of the world and see if you can help to make that. Part of helping us survive all of these climate issues. Seth Cysewski: I love how youth is just so open. They just haven't been taught. They haven't learned what's what they can and cannot do yet. Yeah, the sky's the limit. John Belizaire: Exactly. Nobody's pounded into them. They know we don't do it like that, we do not do that. So don't even think about it. You know and learn behavior is what I like to call it. You know they haven't exposed a lot of learned behavior yet they're just raw and that's what you need when you're looking at hard problems like this. Seth Cysewski: Well, I think that leads me into my last question then, and maybe it's along these lines maybe not. What advice would you have for you know any business leaders or people that want to make a difference entering maybe emerging markets, either in the sustainability space, you know, in the future space? John Belizaire: Yeah. So the way I got into the Soluna business, I didn't share at the beginning, but that project my friend asked me to go run it. It was actually in Southern Morocco and it was in a place otherwise known as the kite surfing capital of the world. Amazing wind, really high speed. I don't really keep my hair very long. So it's hard to show you film of how fast but when you go to the airport. There are really 2 types of... Seth Cysewski: You look aerodynamic. John Belizaire: There are only 2 types of people at the airport. Renewable energy people and kite surfers. I'm talking about Olympic-class kite surfers in Dakhla, Morocco, and what was fascinating to me spending time trying to develop a wind farm there, and develop, you know, and get the idea for shifting our whole focus during the pandemic to this computing company, was that there is so much energy poverty on that continent, really caused by 2 important things. Number 1, you don't have an economy to support the energy so you have this sort of chicken and egg problem like why are you building power, there's not enough use for the power. And 2, bringing in financial constructs. You know, attracting capital to build out resources is very challenging. And, by the way, it's not like there aren't resources to be developed. There's and there's an incredible abundance of natural resources hydro, wind, solar that can be turned into. Ah, economic growth. You know by building power plants and the solution we've developed helps to drive that. That's really what got me super passionate about that. This could be a new way to build renewable energy and so I think the message for folks out there is spend some time over there. If you really want to understand what it's like to not experience what you enjoy here, which is you know, clean, eventually green power that is consistent and persistent that helps to drive our economy, go to a place where a young child doesn't have access to medical services because there's no power to provide it and see if there's a way for you to help there. I would encourage everyone to do that to get a real sense of the opportunities for changing the world in a major way by solving problems at home that can be brought elsewhere. And that's the message I would leave with folks out there. Seth Cysewski: Thank you for sharing that. That's great. Well John it has been really lovely. I just want to tell you I don't think I was aware of the solution, and not really so much. The problem outside of batteries before kind of looking into what you were doing and I just think it's it's a very clever and a needed solution. So I'm glad you're doing it and I and I appreciate you coming on and and and sharing. John Belizaire: Thank you. Thanks, Seth I really enjoyed the time great questions and thank you so much for the opportunity. Support Coolperx®'s podcast by subscribing and reviewing! Music is considered “royalty-free” and discovered on Audio Blocks. Technical Podcast Support by: Jon Keur at Wayfare Recording Co. © 2022 Coolperx®. All Rights Reserved.
Quantum Quote: “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” – Edward de Bono There is exponential growth in new clean energy production, with numerous companies creating solar & wind power plants across the globe. Clean energy is now the least cost source of new electricity virtually everywhere on Earth, and renewable energy was 87% of all new electric power plants in the US in 2021. Unfortunately, a lot of that energy doesn't reach the grid due to a mismatch of consumer demand with nature's power. Clean energy growth is exponential - and so is the increase in the world's information consumption and processing needs. Enter Soluna Computing. Soluna was founded to bring flexible data centers that are powered by clean energy - maximizing the value of solar & wind plants when they aren't being used for general electric capacity. As Soluna CEO John Blizaire says “the renewable energy industry needs more flexibility; the computing industry needs more green power. It's a perfect match”. Join us today as we see how information technology and renewable energy can be combined and dive into the potential to make renewable energy the world's superpower resource for the information age. John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Computing Inc. He is on a mission to reimagine the renewable energy grid to make renewable energy more efficient and environmentally friendly. Soluna is currently focused on some of the biggest unsolved problems for the economics of renewable energy: sustainable computing, sustainable data center spaces, and wasted energy. Since his days of selling floppy discs in high school, John has had an entrepreneurial spirit and interest in technology. He was a recipient of the Intel Scholarship Program and he went on to receive a computer science and engineering degree from Cornell University. When he was 28 years old, he sold his first start-up company for $150 million. He is a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded and scaled several more multi-million dollar technology companies. Today, he is CEO of Soluna, a company helping to shape the future of renewable energy development. His expertise as both a highly effective business leader and technology strategist has led his new venture to operational success by steering complex initiatives from concept to funding, launch, and growth. Today's podcast is being brought to you by EarthKind Energy and the Ampion-Clearpoint Community Solar program. Community solar is a way for everyone to participate and enjoy a solar experience and save money on your bill, just through the simple act of subscribing! If you have Central Hudson as your electric utility – check out this special Community Solar opportunity. With no sign-up fees, nor any cancellation penalties or any other fees, Central Hudson's customers can now participate in a community solar program that provides a positive environmental benefit and saves $100 – $150 per year, With the Ampion/ClearPoint Community Solar subscription, there's no need to build your own solar system. Sign up and in just 30 days, you will see community solar credits reduce your utility bill. By paying 10% less on our electricity bills – just by signing a piece of paper - community solar is giving everyone the opportunity to help create momentum towards sustaining the planet and the 8 billion humans alive today – and for our children's future. Learn more by going to ampion.net/clearpoint. Check “Yes” when asked if there is an agent or salesperson helping you and type in “EarthKind”. SuperNova #1. Most people want more green power but they don't understand the challenges with getting it. I don't think people understand the challenge with renewables. The grid has this very structured way in which to build that infrastructure, and at the heart of it is this concept of dispatchability. With renewables, Mother Nature is deciding dispatchability, and most people don't know that. This creates the wasted energy issue. SuperNova #2. There's a lot of renewable energy that's being built, but what most people don't realize is that up to one-third of that green energy never actually makes it to the grid. That's because the grid here in the US - and just about everywhere - suffers from an architecture problem. It was originally designed to synchronize the production of the power to the consumption of the power. But as we start to change those power plants and replace them with intermittent green power resources that are really controlled by Mother Nature, that synchronization no longer exists. SuperNova #3. Most people don't know how powerful storytelling is, and they aren't very good at storytelling. But stories are at the heart of how you get action, and how you turn ideas into execution. You have to get people to buy into a vision of the future that they can all believe. Then, they can see a path to creating that vision of the future. Worst Career Moment: “We were developing a power plant. To develop a power plant, you have to be on the ground. You've got to be meeting with the government officials and you've got to have local interaction with the local communities. In March 2020, that was totally shut down. We had to sit down and really think about what our business is going to be. We hunkered down. We made time to really think broadly and laterally. One of the things we're able to do was to get this big renewable energy agency to talk to us over the phone. In cracking that code to deliver them a firm set of power, firm price, firm delivery, the computing was actually the answer.” – John Belizaire Most Energized About Today: “Today, I'm most energized about building our team. We've been attracting some fantastic people from different industries - from the renewable energy industry to financial expertise. We're forming new partnerships with some of the largest infrastructure companies in the world.” – John Belizaire Parting Advice: “Keep pushing. No matter what happens, just keep pushing. Never stop. That's how you get to success.” – John Belizaire Connect: Website: www.solunacomputing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solunaholdings Twitter: @solunaholdings; @jbelizaireCEO We have a climate change problem, and if we don't do something drastically different – bring some new ideas and put those ideas into action – we're in big trouble.
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