Green Giants – Episode 68

Brad Stutzman (01:26)

Well, whenever I started off with solar, it was 2009 when the Great Recession hit Texas, or kind of made its way to Texas. At that time, I had a company with my business partner focused on financing, development, and construction projects. And that came to a screeching halt whenever the recession hit.

So, Obama came out with the American Recovery Act, which had a lot of incentives for solar. Me and my business partner at the time learned how to structure the financing for solar projects, because the developers we were working with on real estate started looking at ways they could diversify with the land that they had. And so, we made that transition. I didn’t necessarily know that it was something that I would stick with for the long term. I thought maybe whenever it bounced back, we would come back to real estate. But here I am, 15 years later, and just pushing through things. So that was the turning point that got me into it. But the technology and the love for the industry and the fact that it’s kind of the wild, wild west, everything’s changing all the time. It has really made me love it and stick with it.

Wes Ashworth (02:44)

Yeah, cool. And you mentioned some of this in that, I’ll ask in case there’s anything to add. So having success across finance, real estate, construction, those different industries. And I would say renewables, you’re able to pull all those in, which is really cool. But why stake just your long-term career on renewables? And really, just, you’ve made this a career now and a long-term choice.

Brad Stutzman (03:07)

Yeah, renewables, it kind of represents, it’s kind of a convergence of purpose and opportunity. You know, there’s a push whether or not you believe in, you know, manmade global warming or not, you know, we definitely need to focus on reducing our emissions just because of air quality, and the other impacts that we have on the earth. And so, it’s a purpose-driven industry. And there is a lot of opportunity and growth that we can experience throughout the industry. So, it’s been a ride over the past 15 years, seeing the ups and the downs, the solar coaster, as they say, that’s kind of where it’s been.

Wes Ashworth (03:45)

Yeah, no, going back to launching O3 Energy, and in 2011, what did you see at that point that maybe others didn’t? Take us kind of like back to that moment and what was going through your head, and how that all came to be. what did you see in the market that maybe others didn’t see?

Brad Stutzman (04:01)

So, in 2011, what we saw was that there was a huge need for financing in the C&I solar space. There were some groups that were starting on the residential side of things at that time. I think Mosaic was one of the earlier groups that was focused on residential. There weren’t a whole lot of groups that were focused on C&I at that time. Now you see a lot more.

And so that was our focus, putting together the projects from a development aspect. We saw a lot of installers that were out there that are like, this customer wants to go solar. They want to convert their property to solar. I can do the installation. I’m an electrician. But I don’t know how to get the project from point A to point B, whether that be through designing the entire project, because you need more than just the electrical, or didn’t know how to put together the financing for it, or just the simple documentation of a project like that.

And so, that’s kind of where we started focusing. O3 Energy was to come in and we partner initially, and we still do partner with smaller installers and electricians to get those projects off the ground. Now we see more and more projects that we’re dealing with on the front end, from just directly B2B with the customer versus through installers and electricians. yeah, so that was how we got our start, and that was a need that we saw in the industry. Now it’s changed a little bit, and it’ll continue to change.

Wes Ashworth (05:29)

Always evolving. It’s cool to hear starts, though, and kind of thinking about that too. So early days. I always love to get a kind of get in the heads of these founders and what they went through. one of the hardest early decisions you made as a founder that shaped who the company is today?

Brad Stutzman (05:33)

I would say to focus on that C&I side thing. There were a lot of groups that were going into residential. From a standpoint, there was a gap, so you’ve got residential, which is very easy to finance from a consumer credit standpoint. And then you had the large utility-scale projects, which you have an investment-grade off-taker with, a utility or wherever else, that middle market credit was always difficult. So, at the time, we were raising private capital to come in and really selling our investors on the opportunity and the tax benefits of these projects. And so, I would say that would probably be one of the most difficult decisions.

Wes Ashworth (06:20)

Yeah. Another question, I’m just curious, so if I walked into your office back then, year one of the company starting, what would have surprised me the most?

Brad Stutzman (06:44)

Ooh, year one of the company’s starting. we were in an executive suite. We were actually, so we were working out of, had a few executive suites, like in a Regis, whenever we first started the company. So that would probably be one of the biggest things that surprised you.

Wes Ashworth (06:55)

When was the moment, or do you remember a moment when you’re like, all right, I think we got it? I think because I knew early on as much as belief can be there, and you’re in the right market, and you feel like you’re solving the right problem. There’s always that uncertainty. Do you remember that moment where you’re like, all right, I think this thing is going to work?

Brad Stutzman (07:18)

Man, well, I think it depends on which day of the week I wake up on, right? It’s like, okay, yeah, everything’s going great. And then, the next day, it’s like, man, is this really working? But I would say probably about probably about two years, maybe three years into it was when we really got some momentum, and we were able to really add some ancillary products onto our offering and really have some company growth there, move out of the Regis to move into a bigger office.

Wes Ashworth (07:47)

Yeah, there you go. I always love that. It’s the entrepreneurial life, right? Like some days, you’re right. It’s kind of like what day of the week it is and how things are going, but you stay optimistic, stay pushing through. And now that kind of understanding, a little bit of that foundation, and taking us back to those early days, I want to talk a little bit about staying power. So, you know, you’ve weathered wild storms in policy, pricing, and sentiment over the years and these changes. And I think this is where experience really becomes a differentiator.

And so you’ve talked about, there’s some of the industry now, obviously, with the changes in ITC and everything that’s coming, there’s a bit of some that haven’t maybe seen it. There’s a little bit of caution, panic in some respects, but from your perspective, like what’s the real story they’re missing, and share some wisdom just from having gone through this a little bit longer.

Brad Stutzman (08:40)

I would say at the end of the day, we’re gonna be fine. I mean, we’ve been through this before. The ITC has gone away, it’s come back, give it a little bit of time, and the industry will adjust. That’s the way it’s always been. There’s so much momentum going with the industry; the way it is now, it’s not just going to end overnight. And now that costs have come down so much. The fact that renewables are really needed on the grid, and we’ve, we’ve added so much as far as renewables to the grid, the industry is not going anywhere. There may be some pivots and some changes. But again, that’s kind of what makes this industry fun.

Wes Ashworth (09:20)

Yeah, no doubt. I feel like you do get to be hardwired a little bit like that, where it’s a little fun. You’re like, yeah, some days it’s not fun, but overall, it’s fun, exciting, and challenging. Anything else that you use to just personally stay steady and to stay positive when policy winds shift so quickly or when other changes happen.

Brad Stutzman (09:24)

Well, I mean, I would say just looking back, what is the old saying, this too shall pass, right? Whenever you have good times, this too shall pass; whenever you have bad times, this too shall pass. So, I just think about that, it’s not the end of the world, nothing is the end of the world, right? Just keep on moving and never give up.

Wes Ashworth (09:44)

Yeah, I love that. What about what’s the most painful period of volatility for your business? So, over that time since 2011, is there a particular moment that was probably like the toughest, and then tell us a little bit about it, how you led through it?

Brad Stutzman (10:08)

I would say one of the toughest times was probably about two years ago. It was whenever we closed our residential side of the company. We did decide to add a residential side to the company. Residential was going so strong, and it actually came around, just kind of by luck or by accident. We were already based in Dallas. We were doing solar. Residential solar really started picking up here. So, we were getting a lot of calls already about residential solar. And so, started looking in that direction of why don’t we add a residential solar side to the company? And so, we had that we grew it. We did that side of the company for probably about six years.

And then about two years ago was when we were really seeing interest rates climb and we were all seeing it across the nation, right? Interest rates climb, inflation, and going crazy. We were just looking at the numbers and seeing that this just is not working. For us as a business, some of the smaller mom and pops, I think, were still able to adjust, but we just had, from a company standpoint, we have so many projects that we had to churn on that side because due to overhead, due to employees, so much that you have to churn to really make it pay for itself. And we were just starting to get to a point where we weren’t hitting that, and we were continuing to see sales fall, but it wasn’t through that we were doing. It was market trends, and the numbers were tougher to make sense of for a residential customer here in Texas. It still makes a lot of sense in certain areas, but just in general, it didn’t make sense.

So, to make the decision to close that side of the business and obviously have to lay off all of those employees that were attached to that side of the business, that was probably one of the toughest decisions right there.

Wes Ashworth (12:11)

Yeah, without a doubt. It’s again, as you said, put it perfectly, it is one of the toughest decisions I think you can make as a business leader, business owner. But ultimately, you have to decide if it’s right for the business. I heard somebody say, it’s sort of like investments that basically you take away all the time, effort, and energy you put in, and that’s what most people are just married to the fact that, God, we did all this, we built all this. It’s so hard to let go.

But it’s knowing what you know today, would you make that investment again today without all of that other stuff? And that’s a really tough exercise to go through, but sometimes it is, it’s the necessary one. The other thing I was gonna ask you related to this, so we see things shift in the market, changes, policy changes, what have you. I think as business leaders, there’s this wrestle sometimes between how much we should pivot. How much should we try to like change and evolve, and try to figure out how we succeed with the market changing versus this steady, consistent, stay with what we know, stay by the rim, ride it out, and the weather’s going to get better. For you, going through that as a business owner, what goes through your head, and how do you figure out ultimately which way to go?

Brad Stutzman (13:19)

Yeah, so we had gone down the path of trying different, I guess, making changes to our residential side. We had spent probably a year trying different sales techniques, trying different additional services to go along with our solar offering on the residential side, generators, ancillary services that made sense from a home improvement side of things. Some of it would work. Some of it didn’t. But at the end of the day, it just really came down to the numbers, because you are adding some of these other products to try to drive more sales, but then you’re bringing in some more costs there.

So, it really just came down to the numbers and getting to that point where it’s like we can’t just keep throwing money at this at this side here. It was actually starting to bring down other sides of the company as well, because in some cases, we were kind of subsidizing that side of the business to try to keep it afloat from other sides of the business, mainly our commercial side. And so, it could have taken down the entire company, if that makes sense.

Wes Ashworth (14:30)

Yeah, absolutely. Again, these are the tough decisions business owners have to make and what you have to go through. But it’s a lot of times it’s different, and just the willingness to kind of do this exercise is really to look at the numbers honestly and figure it out. But I love that. I also just love the optimism of like; it’s going to be OK. We’re going to be all right. The industry will move forward. The industry will survive. It will always find a way. I think it’s inevitable. And we’ll get into that a little bit more as we go.

Shifting a bit from navigating that uncertainty to what you’re building in response to it, I want to get into some of the models you’re developing at O3, because I feel like direct answers to the gaps the industry might be ignoring or missing a little bit. What fundamental flaw in the commercial solar market led you to create the solar split model? And feel free to explain that a bit too, as well.

Brad Stutzman (15:09)

Yeah, so for the longest time, what we kept finding is a lot of the commercial property owners that we worked with, we’d reach out to them or sit down with them, explain solar, explain how it could increase the value of their property, so on and so forth. But then at the end of the day, they’re not the tenant that pays the electricity. So, if it’s a multifamily property, I have a lot of friends who run multifamily investment funds and spoke with them about it. Let’s look at solar for your properties. And you start sitting down and talking with them. And at the end of the day, there’s not enough meat on the bone for them to really make that decision to move forward with it.

So, the solar split allows them to recoup those costs through, in essence, selling the electricity to their tenant. In the past, what we had talked with these building owners about doing was changing their lease or increasing their lease amount to cover the electricity. But at the end of the day, you’re just taking a calculated guess of how much electricity these tenants are going to use. How much extra do I have to charge in lease payment?

It’s not a true calculation. It’s just kind of an educated guess on it. So, that’s a tough sale. And so, through the solar split, what we’re able to do is we’re able to allow the property owner to install solar, increase the value of their building, and also take the tax credits if they can use the tax credits and then pass on the electricity to their tenants, provide the tenant savings and get in for them to recoup their investment as well, the building owner for them to recoup their investment as well. So, it’s kind of a win across the board. And it’s not something that has traditionally been done. And we’re leaving out an entire side of the real estate industry by not having a solution like that previously.

Wes Ashworth (17:13)

Yeah, it seems to make all the sense in the world. Obviously, something new. Sometimes people are just resistant because it’s different or they haven’t heard it before. So maybe that’s it. But anything else in terms of just what was the biggest hurdle in bringing the idea to market, really getting it going, explaining it to property owners, or in a way that really made sense to them. What were some of those hurdles initially, and maybe even now? And then and how did you overcome it?

Brad Stutzman (17:51)

Yes, I mean, mainly the only hurdles with it have been education, right? So, just educating them on what it is, because it is something a little bit different. A property owner just looks at it from the standpoint of operating their property. Sometimes they’re not sophisticated enough to get into the ins and outs of the true expenses on site or other ways for them to increase their revenue on site, which in this case is another way for them to increase their revenue. So, it’s really just educating those customers. That’s really been the biggest hurdle.

Wes Ashworth (18:25)

Which, not a bad one to overcome. One you can kind of get behind and explain it and have those conversations. And as long as it makes sense, which it does, they’re on board. Switching over a little bit, just thinking about asset management, is another obvious topic in your business and where you’re looking at right now. But why does asset management remain just an afterthought in solar? What’s the cost of that?

Brad Stutzman (18:34)

Yeah, so there are a lot of studies right now about the lost costs of poor asset management and maintenance, deferred maintenance on these solar systems. You’ve got a lot of groups, and I think we saw this because of the success of the industry, right? There were a lot of companies that flooded the industry. Let’s install solar. Let’s make money off of doing that, but we didn’t really think of the long-term life cycle of solar projects, mainly on the C&I side of things is what we’re talking about, C&I and residential. Utility, they’re always thinking about that, because it’s a much larger investment. But mainly on the C&I side of things, it doesn’t seem like there’s been a real focus on the asset management or the long-term maintenance of a facility.

So, now with what we’re seeing in the industry, we’re seeing a lot of shifts with groups that were doing construction, you know, installing solar systems, getting out of the industry because of the ITC going away. We were seeing this before, but now I think it’s going to be multiplied is the amount of stranded assets out there. We had a hotel owner the other day who came to us. We’re installing solar on one of their hotels, but this was a hotel in a different state that they had previously installed solar on a few years back. They were talking about their system going out for two months. They’re a mid-range hotel. They aren’t checking the monitoring system every day; they have turnover. So, the person who may have had access to the monitoring system originally, there’s somebody else there. They don’t know how to access it. The system was off for two months. They didn’t realize it until they started getting their electric bill from the utility and saying, holy crap, you know, this thing has doubled, quadrupled. And, they lost $40,000 due to the system being down for two months.

So, if you have an asset manager or some sort of maintenance package where somebody can be alerted as quickly as something like that happens, if somebody is actually monitoring that, then it basically pays for itself. So that’s really where we’re focused on with our O3 Asset Care is the program that we have.

Wes Ashworth (21:08)

Yeah. And tell me a bit more about that. O3 Asset Care, just overall, what people should know. And then, what’s it solving? Maybe others are missing. You mentioned some of that, but anything else, just in terms of what’s different and why it’s working and how it’s working, all those good things.

Brad Stutzman (21:37)

Yeah, so it’s mainly the fact that we’re monitoring the system for them, and their kind of a white glove service. They don’t have to be hands-on. We can send a roll truck if needed, alert the facility manager of the hotel or of the commercial property, if it’s something basic, like just to do a visual inspection. A lot of times, you run into things that may just be a visual inspection like, hey, system is not producing because a piece of trash flew up on the module and is covering part of it or a squirrel got in there and chewed a wire, and hey, we need to roll a truck really quick just to get that done or fixed.

So, it’s really that sense of urgency with the system and having someone who’s proactively watching out for these issues.

Wes Ashworth (22:09)

Yeah, which, as you said, pays for itself many times over when you get a system that goes offline for two months and no one realizes it, and then you see that happen. So, to me, it’s a real no-brainer. And I would imagine most, if you’re a commercial building owner, the last thing you want to worry about is what’s happening with the solar on my roof? And is it performing the way it should? And all that kind of stuff. Trust an expert to be able to do that. And absolutely, you’ve got enough on your plate probably to delegate that to an expert who does that and can monitor it and catch that as quickly as possible. So, it makes a ton of sense.

Brad Stutzman (23:03)

Yeah, it’s not their core business, right? So, their core business is to operate the hotel, make sure their customers are happy and focus on that. Our core business is solar. So, let us focus on that for them. unfortunately, there were a lot of groups out there that were running around, you know, selling solar as a set-it-and-forget-it sort of mentality.

You install it, you never have to worry about it again. It sits there for 20 years, 30 years, produces, you never have to clean it, never have to do anything. Well, that’s not the case. All electronics have to have some sort of maintenance or some sort of management. Even if it’s just to go out and visually check the system, once every few months or once a year, I would say, 80 to 90 % of the issues that we’ve run into over the years that we’ve been doing solar from a maintenance standpoint have been from animals, just nesting or whatever else in the system and chewing a wire or something like that. That’s not a normal electrical malfunction, right? We’ve seen some vandalism, kids throw rocks up on things, stuff like that.

Wes Ashworth (24:23)

Yeah, absolutely. Anything, guess, sitting out in nature, you can expect some degree of something is going to happen. So, let’s zoom out a little bit for a second and talk about you’ve had a front row seat to what happens when just politics and power collide literally. And we talked a little bit about this in a previous conversation around Mexico and some of those examples there. And I want to hear how that experience just reshaped your thinking around risk and also opportunity. So, walk me through just that example in terms of what happened in Mexico, how it shaped your thinking on policy risk.

Brad Stutzman (24:58)

Yeah, so it’s interesting because looking at what happened in Mexico over the past six years, really, I feel like we’re seeing it here in the US, what they just went through. So, we started focusing on an expansion into Mexico was probably about seven years ago. We got 03 set up in Mexico to do business.

We had a lot of projects going moving forward. And then with the last president that was there, whenever he took office, he just came in and basically killed all the energy projects that were going on in Mexico. He basically canceled all the power purchase agreements that were happening on the utility scale side of things. And there was a little hostility towards some of the behind-the-meter solar that was going on there as well.

So, there was a real push that killed the momentum there as far as energy. What happens whenever you continue to develop real estate and continue to have population growth, and you’re not installing new electrical generation at all, what’s going to catch up to you? You’re going to have more load than you’re going to have generation. And that’s the issue that they’re having down there now. Luckily, the current president is a little bit more forward-thinking when it comes to renewables. And there’s been a big push now to catch up in a way. They’re having bad rolling blackouts throughout the country, and the energy prices have shot up as well.

And I think that’s kind of foreshadowing what’s probably going to happen here in the US with our current administration and some of the things that they’re doing. But now we’re back in Mexico operating with a lot of projects on our pipeline, and moving forward, it’s helping us to diversify with what’s going on here in the US. So, it’s kind of been, it started off being a negative, and now it’s kind of turning into a positive, right?

Wes Ashworth (26:59)

Yeah, and such is the solar coaster continues, right?

Brad Stutzman (27:03)

Yeah, just going back to what we were talking about earlier, let’s just wait and see, and it’s gonna change, right?

Wes Ashworth (27:08)

Yeah, absolutely. Kind of thinking about that too. So, just thinking about how you evaluate risk and reward when entering a volatile but high-potential market. I mean, you mentioned obviously you were there. Obviously, you’re doing a lot there now again as well. What’s the thought process, and how do you look at that? How do you evaluate that risk and reward?

Brad Stutzman (27:27)

So, us being based in Texas, Texas has always had a very, very good relationship with doing business in Mexico. All the oil and gas companies do it. I mean, we’re right here on the border with Mexico. It’s just, it’s always made sense from a Texas standpoint. So, for us moving into Mexico, it just made a lot of sense. they have some of the best solar resources that you can see as far as a country around the world. It’s only a matter of time before they really get to the point where the US is with solar.

So, with us moving into the market, obviously, we align ourselves with some of the local groups there, and we have local partners as well to help guide us through some of the nuances of a new market. And I think that’s important with any group in any new market, and something that has to be done.

Wes Ashworth (28:21)

Yeah, absolutely. One thing I want to get to, just thinking about the public conversation and stepping into the narrative side of this a bit. You’ve made some really compelling comparisons between the clean energy shift and the past transitions. And this is one of my favorite things to talk about now. So past transitions like electrification, like the rise of automobiles. I think it’s a smart frame. It cuts through a lot of the noise. But you’ve drawn comparisons between that and today’s transition to solar and renewable energy in past shifts like electrification and automobiles. Tell me where that came from, like what sparked that analogy for you?

Brad Stutzman (28:55)

I mean, it’s just honestly, really started with, I’m somewhat of a car enthusiast, right? And I love EVs. And for me, the specs on a Tesla are better than some of the specs on some of the internal combustion engine vehicles, right? The vehicles. And so, it’s always been a discussion between me and friends or other car enthusiasts, the things that they love in a car and why they need a combustion engine. And I’m like, do you really need that? The things like the sound, right? Like the exhaust sound and, yeah, so mainly the exhaust, the feeling of the vibration, all of that. And it’s like, so it got me thinking one day. Did people really have this much pushback whenever it came to switching from a horse and buggy to a combustion engine car? Did people get upset that there was no more smell of horse shit in the road? These are the pollutants that these cars are putting out, and that’s what’s exciting about the car. It just doesn’t make sense.

So, that kind of got me on that path of going down the looking at the transitions from non-electricity to electricity and going from horse and buggy to a car. And now we’re going through another transition along the same lines. And what kind of issues did they have that now, looking back at we’re like, that’s just ridiculous. Because I think that 100 years from now, people are going to look back at some of the pushbacks of the transition that we’re having now and say, well, that was just ridiculous.

I think one of the biggest ones when researching it was the fact that the lighting lamp industry was pushing back, their lobbyists were pushing back on streetlights because it took away from jobs of people going around and lighting lamps on the street.  Now you’re looking at that, you’re like that’s just ridiculous but that was important to them at the time. So, I said I think that we’re going to look back at all this, years from now, our grandkids and be like, that’s just ridiculous that you guys had to deal with that, that somebody didn’t want to switch to an EV because they enjoyed the pollution that was coming out of the back of the vehicle.

Wes Ashworth (31:25)

Yeah, when you frame it up that way, it really does. You’re like, God, that’s silly. But it’s true, I think oftentimes we’re in our own little bubble in our own little world and we can’t see it. Can’t see the forest through the trees, as they say. But you fast-forward down the road. And I do really think we’re going to look back and be like, God, why were people so resistant to that? That makes no sense whatsoever. But it is. It’s very similar to that. I love these comparisons because I think people can get their head around it and understand it, and we start framing it up this way. But you’re right. There’s been resistance to every major technological revolution there’s ever been in the history of the world. But we look at the other side of it. And I think what gives me hope for the industry is, have you been able to stop one yet? Have you been able to halt that permanently? And the answer is no. Probably you can resist. You can slow it. can make it a little bit more painful.

At the end of the day, progress is going to happen. And to your point, it’s in a lot of ways a superior product. My electric stuff. I promise you it works better. That continues to improve as well, too. So, I think it’s cool. I think it’s cool to make those comparisons. I love that we got into this and talking about it and, you know, the same like the horse and buggy thing. People were like, the automobiles scare the horses, and all of those kinds of stuff, like all these arguments where you’re like, that’s silly. But I agree. I think we’re right in the midst of another one like that. And, the same as with like dawn of the internet, what people fought against it. Dawn of AI. Like we’re seeing that too, in real time. People that are just resistant to it and all these sorts of things are like, you’re not gonna stop it.

It reminds me that I’ve watched a video we may have talked about this too is like the one when credit cards were first coming online, and it was this video of them in a fast-food place, and just hearing the arguments was hysterical. People like this are never going to work. This is garbage. What is this? It’s so stupid. And now we literally can’t imagine life like we’re annoyed when somebody pulls out cash. What are you doing? You’re to sit here and wait for change and all this. Yeah, so anyways, I think we’re moving forward.

Anything else in terms of, in your view, what’s the most misunderstood resistance to renewable energy right now? Is there anything else that we haven’t hit on there?

Brad Stutzman (33:43)

I would say the biggest push against renewable energy that you see is that it’s just very uneducated, is that renewable energy costs more than conventional or traditional energy. And you see the costs come down over time. And it’s just going to continue to come down because you don’t have a feedstock. So, it’s really just the cost of the technology itself. It’s not varied by that feedstock, like some traditional energy is. And renewable energy used to be the alternative energy, right? And now I think that it’s become the most mainstream energy. And really, fossil fuels have become an alternative energy. You’re seeing more and more renewables being put onto the grid and less and less fossil fuels. And there’s a reason for that, and I think it’s only gonna continue to move down that path, or we’re going to see continued growth within the renewable energy industry.

Wes Ashworth (34:40)

Yeah. When it comes up, what do you say to people who frame energy progress as a political issue rather than a technological or economic one?

Brad Stutzman (34:50)

It doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s at the end of the day, its technology, right? I don’t know how technology became so politicized over the years, and it seems like it’s mainly here in the US. You don’t see it as much in other countries. It’s become wherever renewables are the mainstream there. And you don’t get that pushback like you do here in the US. It doesn’t make sense.

Wes Ashworth (34:54)

No, agreed. It does seem to be a US problem. How we figured out how to make an electron a political argument, I don’t know, but here we are. If you could make one change to how solar or renewable energy is communicated to the public, what would it be?

Brad Stutzman (35:18)

Well, I think you’re seeing the change now, right? For the longest time, I think the biggest push was renewable energy, the global warming aspect of it, we’re reducing carbon, and the effects of greenhouse gases. And we totally forgot to market all of the other great attributes of renewable energy.

And now I think with what’s going on in the industry, you’re seeing that shift to those other aspects of solar can be done on a distributed scale where a lot of other energy generation technologies cannot. Even if you remove the greenhouse gases from it, just air quality in general, you don’t have those issues.

There are tons of other aspects of renewable energy that we should really be marketing, and we didn’t do so for so long. And I think it’s really gonna be a catch-up game of educating the general masses on these other great aspects of renewable energy that are outside of the wheelhouse of global warming.

Wes Ashworth (36:32)

Yeah, no question. Hands down, it would be mine as well too. So, I don’t think you could pick a better one. And it is cool to see it happening. You are starting to see that narrative and that story change, and people are just really talking about the economic side of it and just how it’s a better product and a superior product and time and all the different things. You can make 20 different arguments for why it’s beneficial and why it’s good, and why it makes sense regardless of how you feel about the environment one way or another, which, again, I think to get mass adoption and buy-in, that’s what’s needed. You are seeing some, I am seeing it, some really talented marketing and comms people coming into the industry that have been in the industry and really doing a great job. And I think that’s one of the most important functions in the industry period for that reason.

Brad Stutzman (37:17)

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Wes Ashworth (37:18)

Yeah, kind of transitioning to getting closer to wrapping up and getting into our final piece here. So, I want to pull back a little bit to the long view and what you’re building is bigger than just projects. It’s about shaping culture, leadership, and the way the industry evolves. So, for you, what legacy do you hope O3 leaves behind? Not just in energy, but in how business is done?

Brad Stutzman (37:39)

From the growth and the trajectory of O3 Energy over time. We’ve had some transitions, we’ve had some changes in the way that we do business, our offering, and we’ve continued to pivot with the industry. At the end of the day, we’ve always had this mindset in the back of our head that it’s powering with purpose, right?

At the end of the day, I hope that the legacy we leave behind is that it wasn’t just about selling electrons, that there was a purpose to what we were doing here. And, you know, we were going above and beyond to really change the industry, change not just the renewable industry, but change the energy industry in general. And that would be the legacy that I would like to leave behind.

Wes Ashworth (38:27)

Yeah, it’s good stuff. And what’s the belief that keeps you in this fight after 15 years? We’ve talked about it throughout, but I hope to be able to put a bow on it, and really, what still excites you about what’s ahead?

Brad Stutzman (38:39)

The belief that drives me is, is making a difference in the world. The energy transition is the most critical challenge of our time. And, we’re positioned at the heart of it. So, it just, it really excites me and, every day getting up and being able to be a part of it.

Wes Ashworth (38:56)

Yeah. And just kind of final thoughts. What does success look like for you in the next phase of 03’s life cycle? We fast forward out, 10, 15, 20 years. What do you, what do hope that success will look like?

Brad Stutzman (39:08)

I would say success for us would be to be part of whatever the next innovation is continue to bring that innovation to everyone. There’s going to be some other technology down the road that is the next transition for energy, the even bigger and better thing for everyone else. So, it’s technology. It’s always going to be innovating. It’s always going to get better.

Wes Ashworth (39:30)

Yeah, I love it. And final, final question. Just any other parting words of wisdom, advice, things you didn’t get to share or talk about, what do you want to leave the audience with?

Brad Stutzman (39:40)

Yeah, no, it’ll be OK. The industry will always find a way and just stick with it, and never give up.

Wes Ashworth (39:45)

There you go. Never give up. Love the hope message and agree completely. So, with that, we will wrap up today’s episode with Brad Stutzman. Brad, thank you not just for your insights, but for the way you bring patience, clarity, and forward motion to the industry. These are the kinds of conversations that help really cut through the noise, remind us what leadership in renewables really looks like.

And to our listeners, as always, thank you for tuning in. If this episode gave you something to think about, something to share, something to build on, send it to someone who’s on this journey too, and don’t forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review, and check the show notes for some links. And with that, we’ll see you soon.