In this wild energy market, it is big fun talking to industry experts. It's even more fun when we talk about the critical infrastructure, solutions and how to get to the lowest cost kWh to the consumers with the least impact on the environment.

The grid is one huge problem looming in the shadows in the energy transition and is not funded, or given the proper attention. Industry experts like Tim are essential for the transition, and sustainable energy.

Please reach out to Tim on his LinkedIn here:

Scale Microgrids website HERE:

00:00 - Intro

01:03 - As a Co-Founder how did Tim Hade Get started in Micro Grids and who are his partners

01:48 - What is Co-Generation or CHP?

02:53 - Knowing More on What Tim Hade do and the History of Scale Micro Grids

05:11 - Talks about Scale Microgrids to Build Clean Energy System with the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians

06:43 - Talks about Tribal Lands from an energy infrastructure perspective

10:19 - How can the integration of renewable energy sources like solar power with energy storage systems and natural gas standby generators be optimized to create a cost-effective micro-grid solution that balances sustainability with reliability?

14:38 - Talks about the Best Business Cases for Microgrids

16:06 - Talks about Electricity Economics, Differentiating Whole Sale and Retail Prices

19:48 - Talks about Distributed Energy Resources Community in the Microgrid Space/ FERC 22-22 / Energy Cost

23:47 - Talks about Supply Chain on Microgrids and the Supply Storage

27:34 - The topic discusses the status of utility grids in certain areas and the potential for microgrids to address issues of poor, unreliable, and expensive energy services in rural and isolated communities, with a particular focus on island nations and states.

29:37 - Talks about Microgrids with Distributed Energy / ERCOT/ Transmission

32:22 - Talks about Small Modular Reactors (SMR)

34:06 - Talks about The Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act

38:47 - Talks about the Department of Energy (DOE) and what they were able to do

40:14 - Talks about Permitting and What do we do with existing Nuclear Reactors

42:24 - Talks about Small Modular Reactors and the importance of it being maintained

43:48 - What is coming around the corner for his grid and what's coming around the corner for Tim

45:59 - Outro

Tim Hade [00:01:48] Sure. So co-generation and also sometimes called combined heat and power is essentially using typically a fossil gas asset to generate both electricity and heat simultaneously. I think about how we typically use natural gas in the electricity you know, you're generating at about 40 to 50% electrical efficiency and then the waste heat in a combined cycle plan is reused in the typical peaker plant. It's not. But that efficiency loss is, you know, potential energy that's not being used on the system.

Tim Hade [00:02:22] And so co-generation actually sort of flips that on its head by capturing the waste heat and using it for some sort of useful function that can be heating, it can be cooling, it can be dehumidification in different applications. But that's really the basics of, you know, co-generation or CHP.

Stuart Turley [00:02:40] In the in the industries. But, you know, in the energy space, there's so many acronyms going around. And I got blasted a lot on some of my earlier pocket. What was that? So thanks. Keep on going. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Yeah.

Tim Hade [00:02:53] So, you know, we were pretty laser focused on on co-generation, but then also very, very closely watching, you know, developing markets and developing technologies. And I think the things we are most interested in back in those days was really battery storage. Right? What's the story with battery storage? What's the technology for? How quickly is this going to become a commercially viable product that we can use in the power generation space.

Tim Hade [00:03:19] And so we are kind of doing that. We're kind of at all, you know, R&D work going on. And then Hurricane Sandy happened. And I think for us, Hurricane Sandy was really kind of a light switch event. As I mentioned, we were based in northern New Jersey, so we were kind of at the eye of the mess that Hurricane Sandy caused and saw the impact that had on the local community that we were a part of, but also sort of the region in general.

Tim Hade [00:03:44] And I think the conclusion that came to us was that we got to go a lot faster with this stuff. You know, our infrastructure today really isn't ready for extreme weather events during a time when, you know, having reliable electricity is becoming increasingly more important to society on almost a daily basis.

Tim Hade [00:04:04] And so, you know, that was kind of the event that made us step back and think about kind of the direction we were headed, how drastic we were, and things like that. And ultimately what that led to is the three of us breaking off and starting to scale in 2015.

Tim Hade [00:04:19] Since then we've really been building micro-grids that use solar and storage is kind of the hub of the systems we build, but we also still use a lot of dispatchable generators. We still do some CHP projects for messing around with all sorts of new energy storage technologies and chemistries.

Tim Hade [00:04:38] And so it's really become a distributed energy resources focused business. You know, we kind of have our specific menu of technologies that we like, but we're branching out pretty quickly.

Stuart Turley [00:04:48] Nice. Hey, Ray, before we started, I mean, 40 minutes ago, this is hot off the press. I saw your release on their scale microgrids to build clean energy system with the sobba brand. Luiseño . Indians I hope I said that right. I didn't want to barbecue anything there.

Tim Hade [00:05:08] It's close enough.

Stuart Turley [00:05:09] Okay, cool.

Tim Hade [00:05:11] Yeah. So this is a project that, you know, we're really excited about. And I think, you know, maybe to take a step back. You know, one of the things that that we as a company have been thinking a lot about for a long time is the issue of environmental justice. And so, you know, one of the downsides or potential downsides of distributed energy is that it sort of puts the buying power of quality electricity in the hands of the consumer.

Tim Hade [00:05:37] And if that consumer is always a Fortune 500 company, what the end result of sort of this energy transition will be a very inequitable solution, right? Where certain portions of society will have access to a higher quality of electricity service than other parts of society, which is a preventable outcome. But we have to work to prevent it.

Tim Hade [00:06:02] And so, you know, out of that sort of awareness, we started looking at different projects that we could work with in low income communities. One of the things that jumped right on our radar kind of early in that was some of the issues that are happening on tribal lands across Niger. And, you know, one of the crazy statistic, you know, to sort of put this in perspective is less than 1% of the United States population lives on tribal lands. 95% of on electrified facilities in the United States are on tribal land. And so.

Stuart Turley [00:06:36] No way.

Tim Hade [00:06:37] That so so for centuries really.

Stuart Turley [00:06:39] Again, that so.

Tim Hade [00:06:41] Less than 1% of the US population lives on tribal lands, more than 95% of on electrified facilities in the country are on tribal. So, yeah, you know, it really creates a situation where, you know, for centuries, from an energy infrastructure perspective, tribes haven't gotten a fair shake and unfortunately have been put in a lot of terrible situations as a result of that.

Tim Hade [00:07:08] And so, you know, one of the things that decentralized, distributed energy does is it allows people to acquire cheaper, cleaner and more resilient kilowatt hours without having to go through a very bureaucratic process typically associated with, you know, dealing with utility, you know, where your power is coming from, all that kind of stuff. 

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