Compressed Air Storage: Key to Renewable Energy's Future

What is Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

Dunja Jovanovic: To kick things off, could you share a bit about yourself and the challenges TerraStor is addressing in the energy market?

Matthew Ciardiello: I'm Matthew Ciardiello, CEO, and co-founder of TerraStor Energy Corporation. TerraStor specializes in compressed air energy storage (CAES), a technology that tackles the challenges posed by intermittent renewable energy sources. My background spans both finance and the oil and gas industry, providing a unique perspective on CAES. 

DJ:  Could you explain CAES to our listeners who may not be familiar with it and its practical applications?

MC: Of course. While renewable energy is fantastic, it has a drawback—intermittency. Wind and solar energy only generate power when the conditions are right. CAES solves this problem by storing excess energy as compressed air and releasing it when needed. Think of it as a large-scale, long-duration battery system. It's the missing link to making renewable energy more reliable.

Brand Development and Impact on the Energy Landscape

DJ: What inspired you to create TerraStor and work with this specific technology?

MC: Three key principles guided our journey. First, we believe in working with what nature provides. CAES leverages natural resources like compressed air and subsurface geology. Second, the oil and gas industry should support the energy transition by applying its engineering expertise. CAES, with its geological components, aligns well with this. Finally, to make a real impact on the energy transition, we need solutions that work at scale. CAES fits this criterion perfectly.

DJ: Can you share any use cases or success stories that showcase the impact of Terra Store's technology?

MC: CAES isn't entirely new; it's been used in industrial applications for over a century. In the 1970s, it was deployed to address the inflexibility of nuclear and coal power plants. Projects in Germany and Alabama still operate today, highlighting the technology's durability. CAES has a bright future as it's well-suited for long-duration storage.

DJ: Great to hear about its longevity. Can you provide key metrics that demonstrate CAES's effectiveness compared to other storage technologies?

MC: CAES excels in long-duration storage, typically over eight hours, while technologies like lithium-ion batteries are better suited for shorter periods. As renewables grow, the need for extended storage becomes crucial, and CAES becomes cost-effective in this space.

Overcoming Challenges: TerraStor's Vision for CAES Growth

DJ: You've outlined a promising future for CAES. What obstacles have you encountered along the way?

MC: The primary obstacle is finding suitable geological locations for CAES facilities. These sites, often in salt formations, are not widespread. Financing large-scale projects like CAES is also challenging. These projects require significant capital, making it essential to gain investors' trust in their long-term viability.

DJ: Given these challenges, what's Terra Store's long-term vision for growth?

MC: Terra Store aims to develop and own multiple CAES projects over the next decade. We want to be actively involved in construction and operation as these projects transition into their operational phases.

DJ: How do government policies and regulations impact your operations and the renewable energy storage industry?

MC: Government policies play a crucial role. In the US, recent policies provide substantial subsidies for energy storage projects, benefiting CAES and other technologies. This levels the playing field and accelerates the adoption of energy storage solutions.

DJ: Any upcoming features or developments on Terra Store's horizon?

MC: Our focus is on the development phase of several CAES projects, with announcements coming soon as we begin development.

0:00:00.000,0:00:10.800
Welcome to the Green New Perspective 
, your go to podcast to learn about clean tech,

0:00:10.800,0:00:15.440
nature, tech and agritech breakthrough 
solutions and the marketing strategies

0:00:15.440,0:00:21.560
used to accelerate growth. We invite you to 
learn from and be inspired by the game changers,

0:00:21.560,0:00:26.800
the disruptors and the pioneers who are 
redefining our future. This episode is

0:00:26.800,0:00:31.320
proudly sponsored by New Perspective and Next 
Gen marketing agency. Hailing from Boston,

0:00:31.320,0:00:36.520
Massachusetts, working with clean tech clients. 
So if you want to learn more about our sponsor,

0:00:36.520,0:00:42.760
please check out the info below this episode. So 
today we are talking about Terrastor, a company on

0:00:42.760,0:00:49.240
a mission to help electrical grids go fully green. 
Well, how do they do that, you ask? Well, they

0:00:49.240,0:00:55.880
got some cool tech up their sleeves. Of course, 
Terrastor is creating massive, long lasting energy

0:00:55.880,0:01:03.120
storage systems that make it possible for grids 
to rely on 100% renewable energy. They do this,

0:01:03.120,0:01:08.920
but by using advanced compressed air energy 
storage technology to build gigantic mechanical

0:01:08.920,0:01:14.747
batteries and get this, they use free and abundant 
air and natural geology to make it all work.

0:01:14.747,0:01:19.160
 So it's clean, simple and budget 
friendly solution that's changing the game. So if

0:01:19.160,0:01:31.160
you want to learn more, tune in to this episode 
and enjoy. Hello, Matthew. And first of all,

0:01:31.160,0:01:36.360
thank you for being my guest on the Green 
New Perspective podcast. For starters,

0:01:36.360,0:01:42.867
can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about 
your company, Terrastor, that you co-founded?

0:01:42.867,0:01:48.400
Sure. Yeah. Thank you. So again, my 
name is Matthew Yellow. I'm the CEO and one of

0:01:48.400,0:01:54.680
the three co-founders of Terrastor Energy 
Corporation. And Terrastor is a developer

0:01:54.680,0:02:01.320
of a not very common, but in other ways 
not very new technology called compressed

0:02:01.320,0:02:09.880
air energy storage. I will use the acronym 
Kase, Kas. That's kind of a weird acronym,

0:02:09.880,0:02:18.600
but KS and KS is a really great technology that 
works for energy storage. A very large scales. Um,

0:02:18.600,0:02:26.320
maybe just backing up my, my, my career has 
been spent roughly half and half between the

0:02:26.320,0:02:30.800
finance industry, where I focused on 
energy and infrastructure projects,

0:02:30.800,0:02:36.280
including power, power, distribution, 
energy distribution, pipelines, etcetera.

0:02:36.280,0:02:41.040
And then for the last ten years I've 
been in the upstream oil and gas industry where

0:02:41.040,0:02:48.240
I've had finance and operational roles and got a 
very good grasp through those roles of subsurface

0:02:48.240,0:02:54.120
engineering as it relates to oil and gas, 
compressed air energy storage, as you will come to

0:02:54.120,0:03:01.120
learn through this talk, is a power or electricity 
storage technology that relies on subsurface

0:03:01.120,0:03:07.720
engineering that's similar to skill sets used in 
the oil and gas industry and then of course, on

0:03:07.720,0:03:15.080
power systems. So you have facilities that a cave 
system really looks like a power plant at surface,

0:03:15.080,0:03:21.440
but it's situated above certain subsurface geology 
that we use as a storage tank for compressed air.

0:03:21.440,0:03:28.120
So all to say that in in putting Terrastor 
together a couple of years ago, I really was

0:03:28.120,0:03:33.507
drawing from my backgrounds and my career both 
in the oil and gas side and the power side for.

0:03:33.507,0:03:38.160
Our listeners who are 
not informed about compressed air

0:03:38.160,0:03:43.027
storage. So what does that mean 
and what how can we use that?

0:03:43.027,0:03:47.627
Okay, sure. So obviously 
renewable energy is a good thing.

0:03:47.627,0:03:52.560
And the world or, you know, countries 
around the world are deploying lots of renewable

0:03:52.560,0:03:58.200
energy on grids. And that's a that's a great 
thing. The problem with renewable energy is

0:03:58.200,0:04:04.360
in most cases, it's fundamentally intermittent. 
So the wind only blows when it blows and you can

0:04:04.360,0:04:08.920
only make electricity when the wind is blowing. 
You can't make electricity at night with a solar

0:04:08.920,0:04:15.960
panel. You also can't use solar very well if 
there's an unexpected storm and cloud cover. Um,

0:04:15.960,0:04:21.320
when you have 5 or 10% of the electricity on 
your grid coming from those intermittent sources,

0:04:21.320,0:04:28.600
that's not a very big challenge. But when you 
start getting to 30% or 40% of your electricity

0:04:28.600,0:04:32.760
coming from renewable sources, that becomes 
a very big challenge for grid operators to

0:04:32.760,0:04:39.160
manage. It becomes uneconomic for solar and 
wind in a lot of cases. And it's just it's

0:04:39.160,0:04:45.160
not a sustainable situation. You'll never be 
able to get to 50% or greater of your energy

0:04:45.160,0:04:49.840
coming from renewables unless, of course, 
you have big batteries on your grid that can

0:04:49.840,0:04:54.840
absorb electricity when it's generated 
and then dispatch it when it's needed.

0:04:54.840,0:04:58.640
 And that's because it's a sort 
of a unique feature of electricity markets,

0:04:58.640,0:05:03.160
is that your your supply of electricity 
and your demand for electricity have to

0:05:03.160,0:05:07.320
be perfectly balanced. So that supply always 
has to be adjusting, you know, every second

0:05:07.320,0:05:12.240
of the day to match the demand on the grid. And 
so you really need big batteries if you're going

0:05:12.240,0:05:19.720
to have lots of renewable energy. Compressed air 
or KS is a big battery technology. You make these

0:05:19.720,0:05:24.240
facilities or they're they're most economic. 
When you make very large scale facilities,

0:05:24.240,0:05:30.960
sort of power plant scale in terms of power 
output and with long durations of storage

0:05:30.960,0:05:35.440
so that you can take, say, a power plants worth 
of power output and dispatch it for eight hours

0:05:35.440,0:05:41.867
with a compressed air facility. So think of KS 
is really just big mechanical battery systems.

0:05:41.867,0:05:46.787
What inspired you to create your 
company, Terrastor and to work on that technology?

0:05:46.787,0:05:50.480
Really three, three things. 
There's sort of three principles that me

0:05:50.480,0:05:55.240
and my partners live by. Um, one is 
that if you're going to do anything,

0:05:55.240,0:06:01.040
whether it's an oil and gas power or anything 
else, you need to work with what nature gives you.

0:06:01.040,0:06:04.640
You're not going to fight against 
nature. You're not going to win. You're not

0:06:04.640,0:06:12.160
going to win economically anyway. So if you're 
looking for solutions to do renewables or support

0:06:12.160,0:06:16.800
renewables, look for things that nature 
gives you already compressed air. As said,

0:06:16.800,0:06:24.520
it's a mechanical battery technology. It relies 
on pressure. It relies on using geology as a

0:06:24.520,0:06:31.200
storage. Tank and it uses air, which is free 
and very abundant. So it checks that box for

0:06:31.200,0:06:38.160
us. Another principle. That I like you know, 
think for too often the oil for too long,

0:06:38.160,0:06:43.120
the oil and gas industry has kind of not 
participated in the energy transition,

0:06:43.120,0:06:48.840
kind of been skeptical of it, let's say, and 
think that rather than having that attitude,

0:06:48.840,0:06:55.760
the oil industry should use the skill sets that 
it has to support the energy transition because,

0:06:55.760,0:07:00.000
you know, of all the industries on earth, this 
is an industry that knows how to engineer large

0:07:00.000,0:07:06.720
scale projects, and those skill sets are valuable 
to to other aspects of the energy transition. So

0:07:06.720,0:07:12.787
compressed air certainly draws heavily on oil 
and gas skill sets with the subsurface geology.

0:07:12.787,0:07:19.000
And then think my third or 
inspiration guess is that size really does

0:07:19.000,0:07:24.120
matter. And so you need to look for solutions 
if you want to make a big impact on the energy

0:07:24.120,0:07:28.000
transition, which is an enormous challenge 
that's probably going to take the better

0:07:28.000,0:07:34.560
part of two centuries to to accomplish, you need 
solutions that work at scale and compressed air

0:07:34.560,0:07:39.360
is one of the solutions that works at very 
large scales. So taking all those together,

0:07:39.360,0:07:45.240
when I found out what compressed air energy 
storage was about three years ago, I said,

0:07:45.240,0:07:48.880
Boy, that's that's really interesting. 
It draws a lot from oil and gas and it

0:07:48.880,0:07:54.800
works at scale. And and that's kind of what 
inspired me. I looked around the industry.

0:07:54.800,0:08:00.600
There really was very little to no activity 
and compressed air. And my partners and I saw

0:08:00.600,0:08:05.787
an opportunity to take what we knew from other 
industries and go out and start this company.

0:08:05.787,0:08:09.960
And are there any 
specific use cases or success

0:08:09.960,0:08:14.347
stories that you can share that highlight 
the impact of their stories technology?

0:08:14.347,0:08:18.467
Sure. As I alluded to 
before, this really isn't something new.

0:08:18.467,0:08:23.200
We didn't invent compressed air 
at different scales. It's it's a you know,

0:08:23.200,0:08:28.040
using compressed air as a battery has been 
used in industrial applications for over a

0:08:28.040,0:08:34.760
century. But it grid scale there's two 
cases we can point to. Back in the 70s,

0:08:34.760,0:08:40.040
the world had a lot of nuclear power 
plants and coal power plants on its grids,

0:08:40.040,0:08:44.000
and they needed it. Those those power plants 
are not very flexible. You can't turn them up

0:08:44.000,0:08:49.560
and down very quickly. They're not designed for 
that. And so the the world needed a technology

0:08:49.560,0:08:54.480
that could shift power that was made by a coal 
plants in the middle of the night to middle of

0:08:54.480,0:08:59.640
the day without too much efficiency loss. And 
so compressed air was looked to at that time

0:08:59.640,0:09:04.440
as a technology that could could do that. 
So there was a plant built in Germany and

0:09:04.440,0:09:11.280
there was another plant built in Alabama, in the 
United States, um, you know, power plant scale,

0:09:11.280,0:09:18.280
compressed air projects using subsurface geology 
as a storage tank for compressed air. And those

0:09:18.280,0:09:23.387
two plants still operate today, which, you 
know, after 30 and 40 years respectively.

0:09:23.387,0:09:30.520
So those give a lot of comfort. 
Think to lenders to to stakeholders and projects

0:09:30.520,0:09:35.320
that compressed air can have a future. The 
designs of compressed air plants today are

0:09:35.320,0:09:39.120
a little bit different at the surface 
than than those plants. But nonetheless,

0:09:39.120,0:09:43.480
I think the fact that those plants have 
worked well with their geology for 30 and

0:09:43.480,0:09:48.840
40 years goes a long way to de-risking this 
and are huge success cases. As it turns out,

0:09:48.840,0:09:56.200
the the the availability of cheap natural gas and 
the designs of combined cycle power plants kind

0:09:56.200,0:10:02.000
of conspired to eliminate the need for compressed 
air after those plants were built. And so for 20

0:10:02.000,0:10:08.280
or 30 years, there's been no new compressed air 
plants built in the world. But that's changing

0:10:08.280,0:10:13.560
again. Now the world is looking for emission less 
technologies that can that can deliver that time

0:10:13.560,0:10:18.107
shifting energy storage and so compressed 
air think has a bright future ahead of it.

0:10:18.107,0:10:20.600
Can you share some 
key metrics or proof points that

0:10:20.600,0:10:25.307
demonstrate the effectiveness of. This solution?

0:10:25.307,0:10:29.040
Yeah, I think, you know, 
there's lots of types of batteries.

0:10:29.040,0:10:32.560
There's lithium ion is 
obviously one we think about or see

0:10:32.560,0:10:37.360
a lot about in the press. And to date, most 
of the energy storage on our grids has been

0:10:37.360,0:10:42.720
in the form of large lithium ion battery 
installation. Um, however, the challenge

0:10:42.720,0:10:49.200
with lithium ion is that it's it's it's really 
good in the 2 to 4 hour duration. You know,

0:10:49.200,0:10:55.800
storage is a function not only of power capacity. 
So how many megawatts can a system put out,

0:10:55.800,0:11:01.400
but also it's a function of how many hours or 
how much time it can put that power out for. And

0:11:01.400,0:11:09.560
lithium ion is very economic. In the 1 to 4 hour 
time frame, as you start moving beyond four hours,

0:11:09.560,0:11:15.840
it becomes very expensive to site lithium ion 
installations and that's where compressed air

0:11:15.840,0:11:19.360
comes in. We're really not a technology 
that's looking to compete with lithium

0:11:19.360,0:11:24.840
ion in those shorter durations. It's not a 
it's not. Well suited for that economically,

0:11:24.840,0:11:30.080
but it is well suited for longer durations. You 
know, eight hours up to multi-day storage is

0:11:30.080,0:11:35.520
really where compressed air shines both 
on a cost basis and performance basis.

0:11:35.520,0:11:40.560
And so I think that's where I 
would point to look or have you look is it

0:11:40.560,0:11:44.560
longer duration storage? And as it happens, 
as you have more renewables talked about

0:11:44.560,0:11:48.800
needing storage on the grid, when you have 
renewables, the more renewables you have

0:11:48.800,0:11:54.080
and the less fossil fuel power plants you want 
to have on your grid, the more you really need

0:11:54.080,0:11:58.960
these longer duration assets that can deploy 
power for eight hours, 12 hours, 24 hours.

0:11:58.960,0:12:03.120
And you mentioned that there's 
a bright future for this technology,

0:12:03.120,0:12:07.387
but what are the obstacles and 
roadblocks that you encountered?

0:12:07.387,0:12:11.480
Yeah, the the the 
primary fundamental roadblock

0:12:11.480,0:12:16.640
was compressed areas that you can't 
do it everywhere you need. You know,

0:12:16.640,0:12:21.680
you're taking atmospheric air with a compressed 
air system and you're pressuring your consuming

0:12:21.680,0:12:25.840
electricity to pressure up large amounts 
of air to very high pressure. And then you

0:12:25.840,0:12:31.440
send that down into the ground to be stored. 
The best way to do that or the best geology

0:12:31.440,0:12:37.440
to do that in is a is a subsurface salt 
formation. And I'm talking about table salt.

0:12:37.440,0:12:42.640
Salt that you can, you know, 
consume. These salt formations exist here

0:12:42.640,0:12:47.080
and there throughout the world. And they're 
really, in most cases, remnants of ancient oceans

0:12:47.080,0:12:50.920
that are long since gone and evaporated. 
But they leave behind these really nice,

0:12:50.920,0:12:55.560
thick layers of salt. And you can drill into 
that salt. You can drill a well similar to

0:12:55.560,0:13:01.200
an oil and gas well and start circulating 
fresh water and leach out a void space deep

0:13:01.200,0:13:07.240
down below the earth's surface. Something, 
you know, 1000ft deep, 3000ft deep. And you

0:13:07.240,0:13:12.120
can make a void that's maybe the size of a 
skyscraper building. So a few hundred feet

0:13:12.120,0:13:17.360
tall, a couple of hundred feet wide. And what's 
wonderful about putting that so deep in the

0:13:17.360,0:13:23.680
ground in salt is that you can hold very high 
pressure air, you know, upwards of, you know,

0:13:23.680,0:13:29.840
100 bar or more in pressure without any risk of 
leak off. And you can't really make a manmade

0:13:29.840,0:13:37.347
structure that can hold such vast quantities of 
air and do it at high pressure. So that's great.

0:13:37.347,0:13:40.640
But the problem is those salt 
formations do not exist everywhere. You

0:13:40.640,0:13:46.720
tend to find them in areas where you find oil and 
gas. It's the same sedimentary geologic processes

0:13:46.720,0:13:50.880
create them. But that's to say they're really 
not everywhere. So the biggest obstacle with

0:13:50.880,0:13:58.520
compressed air is finding the right geology to 
site these facilities and finding that geology

0:13:58.520,0:14:04.640
in a way that or in a suitable location vis 
a vis the the local grid. So do you have

0:14:04.640,0:14:09.880
electricity infrastructure nearby? Do you have 
an electricity market that needs long duration

0:14:09.880,0:14:14.920
storage at this time? And lining those up 
is really a process of it's a process of

0:14:14.920,0:14:20.227
elimination and it's serendipity when you find 
locations that kind of check all those boxes.

0:14:20.227,0:14:23.267
And those little 
blocks do you see for the future?

0:14:23.267,0:14:25.800
 Well, that's 
that's one I think, you know,

0:14:25.800,0:14:29.320
we will find locations. We have found 
locations. I think that there's dozens

0:14:29.320,0:14:35.480
of locations in the US that are going to be 
development ready. Another another roadblock

0:14:35.480,0:14:40.387
is really getting when you have a technology 
like this, again, it's not rocket science.

0:14:40.387,0:14:44.840
We didn't invent anything, 
but these are very large scale projects,

0:14:44.840,0:14:50.360
so they don't really lend themselves to small 
pilot projects. You're going to find a facility

0:14:50.360,0:14:55.120
and you're going to build it. But to get that 
built, you really have a lot of challenges on

0:14:55.120,0:15:01.560
the financing side, getting equity investors and 
lenders comfortable that you're going to build a,

0:15:01.560,0:15:06.480
you know, inexpensive, large scale project 
that's going to operate effectively for 25

0:15:06.480,0:15:13.240
or 30 years and get them comfortable enough 
that they're willing to write you checks to

0:15:13.240,0:15:17.920
be able to do that. So financing is 
a big challenge. It it shouldn't be,

0:15:17.920,0:15:21.000
but of course it is. It always is for 
any big project, but particularly when

0:15:21.000,0:15:26.840
you have a technology that can't point to 
25 examples of this can point to 2 or 3.

0:15:26.840,0:15:29.600
 If you pass those roadblocks,

0:15:29.600,0:15:37.227
how would you how do you see your long 
term vision for growth and expansion?

0:15:37.227,0:15:41.240
 Yeah. Terrorist store. Think 
you should. The best business model that

0:15:41.240,0:15:44.680
we should point to or think about for 
terrorist or is really an independent

0:15:44.680,0:15:51.520
power producer which is a is a acronym 
for a type of company that was common,

0:15:51.520,0:15:55.107
maybe started to be common 30 
years ago in the United States.

0:15:55.107,0:16:00.360
These are really developers of 
power projects. And by developer, I mean it's

0:16:00.360,0:16:07.520
a company that goes out, finds a location 
to site, a facility puts capital at risks,

0:16:07.520,0:16:13.000
you know, several million dollars of capital 
at risk and lots of time and resources to get

0:16:13.000,0:16:19.800
a site permitted, get a site engineered, get 
the facility engineered line up investors,

0:16:19.800,0:16:23.600
and then, you know, and that process can 
take several years on a single project.

0:16:23.600,0:16:29.160
It doesn't always work out. You know, there's 
lots of permitting roadblocks that could stop

0:16:29.160,0:16:33.720
up a project before it ever gets off the ground. 
But really getting a project to the point where

0:16:33.720,0:16:38.760
it's financed and ready to be constructed. 
That's what a development company does. Now,

0:16:38.760,0:16:42.800
some development companies then stay in through 
the construction phase and through the operational

0:16:42.800,0:16:48.520
life of the asset and as terrorists, or we 
would love to do all of that. But fundamentally,

0:16:48.520,0:16:55.720
we're a developer and our hope is that over the 
next, you know, ten years, we get ten projects

0:16:55.720,0:17:00.960
or more compressed air projects through the 
development phase and into the construction phase

0:17:00.960,0:17:07.827
and have ownership and operational roles in those 
projects as they move into their operational life.

0:17:07.827,0:17:12.920
Now, how do government policies and 
regulations affects your operation and growth,

0:17:12.920,0:17:18.800
and what role do they have in the 
renewable energy storage industry?

0:17:18.800,0:17:23.400
They have a big role now. The 
government really wants to see renewables

0:17:23.400,0:17:29.240
rolled out, and to do that they need to see a 
lot of energy storage go with that. And so the

0:17:29.240,0:17:34.760
the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year 
in the United States provides a very healthy

0:17:34.760,0:17:42.080
subsidy to energy storage. You're able I think 
most projects could count on probably a 30% tax

0:17:42.080,0:17:49.360
credit of their total capital cost being refunded 
to the project through various mechanisms, um,

0:17:49.360,0:17:57.160
which is huge. And most importantly, the, the 
IRA was, it was technology agnostic, meaning

0:17:57.160,0:18:02.280
whether it's a lithium ion system, a compressed 
air system or some other battery technology,

0:18:02.280,0:18:07.760
as long as you didn't have fossil fuel emissions 
in your system, you're able to qualify for that

0:18:07.760,0:18:14.360
credit. So it puts all of the technologies on the 
same playing field, which is really healthy and

0:18:14.360,0:18:20.267
beneficial to us. Um, but of course it also means 
all of our competitors also get that 30% credit.

0:18:20.267,0:18:25.600
 So, you know, from a from that point 
of view, it didn't, it didn't make compressed air

0:18:25.600,0:18:31.427
any more competitive particularly, but it does 
make energy storage in general more attractive.

0:18:31.427,0:18:33.720
 And are there any new features

0:18:33.720,0:18:38.627
or developments on the horizon that 
users can look forward to from you?

0:18:38.627,0:18:42.720
I think the news you should look 
for from terror stories, us announcing our,

0:18:42.720,0:18:49.800
um, our first project locations for the last year 
and a half since we've been set up as a company,

0:18:49.800,0:18:55.360
we have been, uh, you know, looking at 
the hundreds of sites in the US where you,

0:18:55.360,0:19:02.120
where geology allows you to site a project. And 
then through our own efforts and through a study,

0:19:02.120,0:19:07.720
we've or a partnership we've commissioned 
with consulting a consulting firm. Uh,

0:19:07.720,0:19:12.200
it was an engagement, not a partnership. Let me 
just clarify that. But we have been working with

0:19:12.200,0:19:17.320
PR on the consulting side to narrow these 
sites down and prioritize which sites are

0:19:17.320,0:19:24.080
really development ready, both from a physical 
infrastructure point of view. So which ones have

0:19:24.080,0:19:30.920
nearby transmission that has availability on it 
for a for a project to interconnect into? And then

0:19:30.920,0:19:36.800
from a market point of view, which markets can 
really support the financing of a multi hundred

0:19:36.800,0:19:43.267
million dollar facility and not all markets in the 
US can do that just based on the market structure.

0:19:43.267,0:19:48.880
So it's for instance, in the 
desert southwest you'll have more success

0:19:48.880,0:19:54.360
probably getting a contract and offtake contract 
for your energy storage facility that will support

0:19:54.360,0:19:58.720
a project financing than you would in Texas. In 
the Ercot market, we've been sort of filtering

0:19:58.720,0:20:03.960
through and narrowing the list down to maybe 
ten projects that are development ready. And

0:20:03.960,0:20:10.640
our efforts now have been on, uh, trying to get 
right to develop projects on those locations

0:20:10.640,0:20:15.360
to get them into the development phase. So I 
think our next announcements you'll hear from

0:20:15.360,0:20:21.307
terrorists are we have a project here, we have a 
project there and we're ready to start developing.

0:20:21.307,0:20:25.840
Yeah. So we're coming to the 
end of the conversation. So if someone

0:20:25.840,0:20:30.467
wants to reach out to you, maybe wants to 
collaborate with you, how can they do that?

0:20:30.467,0:20:36.760
Always email me directly my 
name or my email. Is Matt at Terrorist or

0:20:36.760,0:20:41.080
we have a website, we're on LinkedIn, 
Twitter. So any of those features,

0:20:41.080,0:20:47.160
we'll we'll see any communications coming 
in and happy to talk to anyone. You know,

0:20:47.160,0:20:52.387
if you have a geology you want to talk about, 
we're always looking for new locations.

0:20:52.387,0:20:56.800
 Um, so of course, and then 
looking for partnerships various ways as

0:20:56.800,0:21:01.320
we get going here, we'll have need for lots of 
different consultants, both on the engineering

0:21:01.320,0:21:07.240
and permitting side and then always looking for 
investors. Of course, both current, you know, to

0:21:07.240,0:21:12.280
come in currently or investors down the road who 
would want to participate in a project financing.

0:21:12.280,0:21:17.320
 We are going to link all of 
your social media and your website in the

0:21:17.320,0:21:21.680
description of the video. So everyone 
who is watching or listening to us,

0:21:21.680,0:21:26.960
you can check out the description below and 
find out what their story is doing and map

0:21:26.960,0:21:31.400
for the end. I would like to ask you what 
advice would you give for people who want

0:21:31.400,0:21:37.907
to start working in cleantech? And of course, if 
you have anything more to add, now is the time.

0:21:37.907,0:21:42.880
I guess as far as advice, I would 
absolutely think that this the clean tech,

0:21:42.880,0:21:47.440
the energy transition space is huge. Think 
it's the probably the biggest challenge the

0:21:47.440,0:21:53.547
world has faced and it's going to take hundreds 
of years to to really make it happen, in my view.

0:21:53.547,0:21:58.240
-So getting into this space is, 
you know, from a career perspective is a wise

0:21:58.240,0:22:02.560
choice. Think there'll be no shortage of need 
for professionals, whether, you know, it's on the

0:22:02.560,0:22:07.920
engineering accounting or, you know, if you're 
an oil and gas, for instance, being a land man

0:22:07.920,0:22:13.840
has a lot of value to projects that are wind 
and solar projects. So, yeah, absolutely think

0:22:13.840,0:22:20.560
it's a wise choice. And I would encourage you to 
focus on technologies, as kind of said before,

0:22:20.560,0:22:27.187
that work at scale because scale is what's 
needed here. And yeah, I'll leave it at that.

0:22:27.187,0:22:32.507
 Thank you. Thank you once again 
for being a guest on New Perspective podcast.

0:22:32.507,0:22:41.107
Thank you very 
much. Appreciate your time. Bye.

0:22:41.107,0:22:45.040
 Well, we've come to an end of 
another episode of the Green New Perspective

0:22:45.040,0:22:50.360
podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you 
enjoyed diving into these innovative ideas

0:22:50.360,0:22:54.600
and solutions. If you want to stay up 
to date with all our future episodes

0:22:54.600,0:22:59.667
and continue exploring exciting topics with 
us, be sure to hit that subscribe button.

0:22:59.667,0:23:03.480
 Your support means the world 
to us and we can't wait to have you with

0:23:03.480,0:23:09.480
us on the next episode. Until then, 
stay curious and keep learning. Bye.