Esha Chhabra on Harnessing the Power of Regenerative Business to Heal the World

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Dr. Fereidoon P. Sioshansi, President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm based in San Francisco, California. 

With over 35 years of experience in the electric power sector, he advises clients on strategies to respond to the rapid transformation of the energy sector, including utilities, energy intensive industry, innovators, start-ups and companies engaged in the electricity delivery supply chain, and regulators and policy makers.

He is also a prolific author in the energy space, and the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with international circulation, now in its 29th year of continuous publication.

He and Ted discuss his decades of experience, working in more than 3 dozen countries, covering all aspects of the electricity power sector. They reminisce on their Demand Side Management (DSM) works at EPRI, and discuss the transformation, new framework, and structuring within the utility industry, specifically integrating distributed energy resources into the grid.

They also highlight his newsletter and 15 books, including his 16th, forthcoming book on electrification, stating that the way to climate salvation is to electrify everything and anything that we possibly can.

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, father-daughter duo, Ted and Sierra Flanigan conclude the clean energy crash course mini series focusing on Ted's international travels. Part 3 focuses on Ted's work and tours in the Philippines, Sweden, Germany, Spain, and concluding with Iceland. They dive into the context for each trip, and discuss lessons learned.

Ted begins with his work in the Philippines as part of the Efficient Lighting Initiative to accelerate transitions to more efficient lighting in developing countries. There was a big focus on rural electrification and advancing more efficient technologies. He then hops over to Sweden for four consecutive summers with The Energy Coalition. The purpose of these trips were exchanges with utility and city officials from California, notably from Irvine and Santa Monica, and vice versa, as well as with students through the PEAK program. Ted highlights the district heating systems and comfort utility rates.

Sierra then asks Ted about his solar tours in Germany and Spain. He starts with Germany, unpacking the reason why Germany is seen as a global leader in solar, and sharing the story of the most lucrative feed-in tariff (FIT) ever implemented. He then moves on to Spain, highlighting the difference with their FIT program, which was not quite as rich, but really moving the market at the time.

They conclude with the tour of Iceland's geothermal facility, and Ted shares how impressed he was by the sheer amount of geothermal energy and electricity as a result, that the country started converting cars to hydrogen fuel with the excess to decarbonize their transportation sector.

Ted and Sierra wrap the three-part series, highlighting how rich the world is with renewables, and how much can be learned when travelling with a mission and broadening horizons.

In EcoNet News, Volume 26, Issue #2, Ted highlights the surge in utility-scale solar across the US. He also shares California's progress towards its 100% clean energy target, with the State’s utilities on track with the 2025 goal. Ted goes on to highlight BMW's hydrogen pilot fleet, Taos's electric snow cat, the Super Bowl's environmental milestone - powered entirely by renewable energy, floating offshore wind updates and the Jones Act, and all-electric seagliders.

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, father-daughter duo, Ted and Sierra Flanigan host the clean energy crash course mini series focusing on Ted's international travels.

They build on the first episode of the three-part series, which focused on Ted's travels in the 80s. In part 2, they focus on the 90s. Ted begins with his work with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and his involvement in the Urban Carbon Reduction Project. The idea was for local environmental movements to take form, which was then taken internationally. Ted shares stories from Ankara, Turkey, Helsinki, Finland, and Omiya, Japan.

They then move on to The Results Center, discussing the genesis and players involved, the importance of the era, and the legacy of it. The idea was to write case studies of the most successful programs and approaches, starting with North America, and then looking broadly and out of the country. Ted and his team wrote 128 case studies, including a series of case studies on Europe. 

Sierra and Ted conclude with the linking of ideas around climate action to a universal way of connecting and growing relationships and strengthening bonds, underscoring the value of meeting people where they are, creating greater visibility around the numbers, opening channels of communication, and cross-cultural collaborations that Ted facilitated and shed light on. 

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, father-daughter duo, Ted and Sierra Flanigan host the clean energy crash course mini series focusing on Ted's international travels.

They introduce the mini series, which will highlight 40 years of international trips, which gave him global perspective on energy issues. This led to 40 years of reporting on these issues and opening people's eyes to energy innovations and technologies all over the world. They will highlight  his experiences from travels to countries including Canada, The Soviet Union, France, Singapore, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Philippines, Thailand, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Iceland, and South Korea.

In part 1, Ted begins with the lessons learned from his fulfilling experiences abroad that have enriched his work life. Throughout all his years of international travel, his biggest takeaway is that 98% of the people in the world are good people, and he's constantly been reassured through human connection and learning from different cultures. 

The first trip that Ted and Sierra reminisce on is his works in Canada in the James Bay area around 1985 and the huge hydro Quebec Electric projects there. He also discusses his works in Ontario and working for the City of Toronto as it sought soft path solutions.

The second trip they covered was Moscow at the Global Forum on Sustainable Development in 1988. Ted was asked to attend as a sustainability expert to help guide the forum on behalf of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).

Ted concludes with a favorite trip, an experience which was also afforded to him via RMI, in Singapore, and thanks to Lee Eng Lock, that culminated with a side trip into the jungles of Malaysia and the South China Sea. Sierra thanks him for taking a trip down memory lane, and reiterates the idea of being open and receptive to what other cultures have to teach us - which is a lot. 

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Ahmad Faruqui, an energy economist whose distinguished career working with electric utilities encompasses expert rate design, demand response program structures, the integration of distributed energy resources into the grid, demand forecasting, decarbonization, electrification and energy efficiency, and load flexibility.

In his career, Dr. Faruqui has advised some 150 clients in 12 countries on 5 continents and appeared before regulatory bodies, governments, and legislative councils. He has authored or coauthored more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed and trade journals and co-edited 5 books on industrial structural change, customer choice, and electricity pricing. He has taught economics at San Jose State University, the University of California, Davis, and the University of Karachi and delivered guest lectures at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Idaho, MIT, New York University, Northwestern, Rutgers, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.

He and Ted discuss his background, born and raised in Pakistan post partition, studied Economics and went into Civil Service before moving to the US and attending UC Davis for his PHD, which led to work in forecasting for the California Energy Commission. While working in energy, Dr. Faruqui still remained very engaged with defense policy in his home country, becoming the leading voice in mainstream conversations about Pakistan in the US post 9/11. He has carried out in-depth analyses of Pakistan's defense policies, evaluating the multiple dimensions of national security, the combat effectiveness of armies, and the consequences of spending more on the military dimension and less on the social, cultural and economic dimensions of national security.

He shares his journey in the energy world, highlighting the Demand and Conservation Program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), as well as his consulting works at The Brattle Group. He also shares the more contentious parts of the journey, seeing the utility industry go from basic rate structures to more sophisticated rates, leading to the question of what rates do in the ideal that help society, and diving into the net energy metering / net billing issue. 

He concludes by sharing the energy efficiency improvements he's made in his home over the years, including changing HVAC equipment, installing rooftop solar, adding battery for backup during outages, and buying an EV, all leading to bill savings and happiness as a result.

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Chris Calwell, Adjunct Professor of a graduate course on International Renewable Energy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA. He is also a Principal at Ecos Research, focusing on clean energy technologies and their transformation in our society. His other passion, outside of Ecos Research, is proactively investing in cleantech and tracking down the companies that are doing the best job of preventing climate change, as opposed to running down a checklist of bad things companies aren't doing if you want to buy their stock.

Chris is an internationally recognized expert operating at the intersection of the technologies and policies needed to address climate change, particularly in the fields of energy storage, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. 

He and Ted discuss his background, born in Independence, Missouri, grew up in Topeka, Kansas, and attended Trinity University in San Antonio, earning a degree in Environmental Studies. He then went on to Berkeley and joined the Energy Resources Group (ERG), which led him to his first summer job at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Chris served seven years in the NRDC Energy Program, helping to launch NRDC’s work on climate change, electric vehicles, and voluntary partnerships with electric utilities to improve residential energy efficiency. Chris then co-founded Ecos Consulting in 1997, working with a team of researchers on behalf of the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR® program, the California Energy Commission, PG&E, NRDC, NEEA, NYSERDA and Natural Resources Canada to improve the energy efficiency of residential lighting, appliances, power supplies and consumer electronics through voluntary labeling and incentive programs and mandatory efficiency standards.  

He and Ted dig into his works in consumer electronics and the external power supply story. They discuss Eco's startling revelations about the standard test for television efficiency at the time, as well as cleantech investment. He shares that he continues to do consulting work in the Energy Star world, and is currently in discussions with them on some additional work related to batteries and EVs.

In EcoNet News, Volume 26, Issue #1, Ted shares his love for Repair Cafes, free, community-run meeting places where locals can bring broken items for volunteers to fix. He also shares 2023's EV highlights, from global EV sales to the release of the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery, as well as 2023's growth in renewable energy and shrink in GHG emissions. Ted goes on to highlight win-win findings for VGI, Brooklyn's Clean Energy Hub, mandatory biowaste separation and composting in France, Octopus Energy's utility innovation, recycling solar panels, and batteries burying coal in Hawaii. 

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Bill Browning, Founding Partner of Terrapin Bright Green, a sustainability consulting firm that helps governments, corporations, and complex real estate projects meet sustainability goals that lead to the improved health and wellbeing of employees and ecosystems, as well as the enhanced performance of their products and systems.

Bill is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of business, government, and civil society. His expertise has been sought out by organizations as diverse as Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, non-profit organizations, the U.S. military, and foreign governments.

He and Ted worked together at Rocky Mountain Institute, where he founded Green Development Services, an entrepreneurial, non-profit “Think and Do Tank." He later went on to co-found Terrapin Bright Green, created out of the Partners’ shared sense of urgency to transition to a sustainable development model that could only be achieved by working with developers, communities, and companies around the world. Their mission has become an imperative to not only create a sustainable world but one that is aligned with natural processes and supports human health and wellbeing at all levels.

He defines biophilic design and shares case studies that demonstrate the effects that  harmonizing the built environment and natural world have on cognitive growth, health and wellbeing, and profitability and productivity within the business sector. Terrapin's work is reflective of both the culture of the community and the environmental features of a given ecosystem.

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Bryan Jackson, Vice President of Sales for EnergyAid, a leading provider of high-quality service, maintenance, tune-ups, and system evaluations for residential solar customers. EnergyAid bridges the gap and offers dependable assistance, ensuring residential solar investment operates at its peak.

The management of EnergyAid has collectively over 100 years of experience in the solar power industry and is passionate about making sure system owners realize their expectations when it comes to system performance, utility bill reductions, and a positive effect on greenhouse gasses.

Born and raised in California, Bryan has seen the industry grow firsthand. He started his career in solar on the sales end, dealing with consumer frustrations that arose when original installers went out of business, or failed to provide the necessary service and maintenance required. That led him to providing the much needed residential solar service and repair solutions at EnergyAid.

He and Ted discuss the future of the solar industry, as Bryan points out is still in its infancy, and EnergyAid, which he predicts will be part of the service-first business model as it continues to mature. The company is expanding across the Western states, and has recently opened a location in Arizona. They are also working with new technologies, such as EV charging, which is a large component of the future.