Geoff Stapleton is considered "a force" in the solar industry, particularly in Australia and the Pacific Islands. So far, he has worked in 39 countries supporting solar... introducing standards and training to validate and shore up the solar industry. His work has been widely recognized, culminating recently in his recognition and award of the "Order of Australia" title.

Geoff Stapleton began his career in off-grid solar in Australia, originally working for BP Solar Australia. He then formed his own company, Southern Solar Australia, that he managed for over 20 years, designing and installing solar systems primarily in New South Wales where he lives. Geoff's company promoted solar, wind, micro-hydro, and even diesel gen-sets. He explains that the Australian government had been subsidizing grid-connected power consumers for years, and when this cross subsidy was recognized, government subsidies for off-grid systems were introduced that boosted the installation of off-grid systems there.

For two decades Geoff worked for, and continues to work for, Global Sustainable Energy Solutions (GSES). After serving as its managing director, he stepped down from that management role three years ago to direct GSES's international solar training program, and to carve out time to be Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy Industries Association of the Pacific Islands. His life-long passion for promoting solar, and extending the great value of solar for Pacific Island nations, and his dedication to training and standards is clear. He recounts different experiences in Australia, the Pacific Islands, as well as in Africa and other countries.

The discussion shifts to his views on the drivers for successful solar programs and policies in different countries. What makes a country a leader in solar deployment? Geoff explains that while cultures, traditions, policies, and programs are important parameters... it is the people on the ground that really make the difference. In some countries, there are passionate and dedicated and effective professionals are key to mobilizing the solar industry. Those are the champions that deliver success.

The interview ends with a discussion of the online solar museum that Geoff and others have created, a great tribute to the rise of solar power, its remarkable evolution to being one of the world's most important sources of power, and certainly a major key to uplifting communities around the world.

In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted interviews Julia Kintsch, the Principal and Senior Ecologist at Eco-Resolutions. Julia grew up in Boulder, Colorado where she was ingrained with a deep love of nature. She went to University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a degree in Environmental Conservation. Then, after serving in the Peace Corps in Africa, she enrolled at Duke University and earned a masters degree in Landscape Ecology. After working for The Nature Conservancy and other non-profits, she formed Eco-Resolutions with the goal of minimizing and mitigating the impacts to nature of human activity.

For the past 16 years, Julia has supported a number of transportation agencies and other groups... finding ways to protect both wildlife and motorists from accidents. She explains that her work with transportation ecology is at the intersection of the human and natural environment. She is a collaborator no doubt, bringing together diverse interests to build underpasses and overpasses and other roadway mitigation measures such as motorist warnings activated by cameras that detect the presence of wildlife. Every project and community is unique, different terrain and different species --deer, elk, moose, bears, coyotes, and smaller animals -- require different forms of crossings. Ted chimes in with his experience dodging deer in Vermont and monkees on roadways in Malaysia.

Julia then presents the results of a number of her projects in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Virginia. The Colorado State Highway 9 wildlife protection project, she explains, is really a "system" made up of seven crossings, 10.8 miles of fencing, as well as 62 motion-sensor activated cameras at 49 locations to track the results of the protection systems. What years of careful evaluation has proven is a 90% decrease in accidents... a success rate that has earned significant recognition of the efficacy of careful and early planning, including both mitigation and crossing feasibility studies. Most recently, Julia has been consulting for Roaring Fork Safe Passages, working for its Director, Cecily DeAngelo, to prioritize wildlife crossings on Colorado State Highway 82, the busy transportation corridor that connects Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

John Belizaire heads up a company called Soluna. It's business model is to tap curtailed renewable capacity -- wind and solar -- and to use this previously wasted energy to power data centers. John explains that 30 - 40% of all wind and solar farms is curtailed... essentially "stranded " capacity. By utilizing this renewable energy is it monetized... boosting the economics of the renewables while powering data centers with green energy.

John, a self-decribed nerd in his youth growing up in Brooklyn, New York, was always at the cutting-edge of computers, even as a young man selling floppy discs in school while others were selling magazines and running newspaper routes. He then went on to Cornell University where he earned two degrees in Computer Science. He then followed that up with an MBA fron the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. That was followed up by a career that began in finance... prior to tapping into the convergence of the megatrends of renewable power generation and artificial intelligence.

The notion of co-locating data centers with renewable facilities first occurred to John when he was visiting a project in Morroco, Africa. How could excess wind there be used? At the time, block chaining and bitcoin mining was on the rise, and there were -- and still are major concerns with the electricity required for these functions. Now most of John's 800 MW of data centers is used for regenerative AI. Instead of building and repowering massive power plants - even nuclear installations -- for data centers, John envisions a future in which data centers are distributed. Soluna has found a logical niche... one which is green in both ways... both in power generation and in data center applications.