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The Clean Energy Advantage (and How Policies Affect It)

The Clean Energy Advantage (and How Policies Affect It)

Podcast Host: Dunja Jovanovic

A man is standing in front of a sign that says the clean energy advantage and how policies affect it.

The energy landscape is shifting rapidly—how do we see it?


As the founder of NxtGen Clean Energy Solutions (NXTGEN), I’ve had a front-row seat to the changing tides of energy. Our company is leading the way in helping businesses transition to renewable energy, and it’s been an exciting journey.



Today, we have a podcast episode hosted by Dunja Jovanovic, where we dive into these changes and discuss how companies can navigate the shift to clean energy solutions.

  • Full Episode Transcript

    Dunya Jovanovic (00:01.432)

    Hello Russ and welcome to the Green New Perspective Spotlight!


    Russ Bates (00:05.303)

    Hey, happy to be here. Thank you.


    Dunya Jovanovic (00:08.482)

    So let's start with an introduction. So Kellyn, tell us a bit about yourself, your background and what next-gen energy, clean energy is all about.


    Russ Bates (00:18.639)

    Sure. So, my background, I think it's pretty boring, but some people find it's interesting for, whatever reason. So that's flattering, but, my background is in fossil fuel power gen. I grew up in Southern Indiana, a lot of coal mines, lot of coal fired power plants. And, I was fortunate enough to become an IBW electrician. Went through a five year apprenticeship and spent a lot of time in that apprenticeship in, in.


    power generation, fossil fuel plants, coal fired plants, lots of them in that area. So, I learned quite a bit as time went on and I kind of advanced in my career. I started looking at other things and solar, wind, batteries for a long time, they didn't make sense. And then all of sudden they did. And I found it very, very fascinating.


    Decided I wanted to move in that direction. That's where I saw the future. and that was, that was a while back. so I made that transition and, whenever I did, one thing I noticed was, you've got these big utility scale projects, right? The big solar farms, the big wind farms, things like that. And then you've got residential. So a lot of people doing solar on their homes. but in between that commercial, and industrial sector.


    and even, even smaller utility scale projects, nobody was really looking to, those folks at the time. And I thought, wow, that's, that's a great opportunity. I really think we can do something to help, that section of, of the economy. And I decided the best way to do it was to, start a company called next gen clean energy solutions. So what we do is, we consult, we develop projects and we'll implement those projects for those clients. So.


    It all starts with consultation, having a discussion. What's the goals? Are there goals? What's the company or that business looking to accomplish? And then tailoring a solution around that. A lot of times it's solar. Solar is the big ticket I don't hear about, right? For a really good reason. It's advanced quite a bit. Over the last decade, it's incredible, the efficiency improvements and the economic improvements that have come with that.


    Russ Bates (02:46.125)

    So again, that's where it makes a lot of sense to do this, but sometimes it's wind and I'm talking micro wind turbines, battery energy storage is a, is a solution and those prices are going down. So that's becoming a much more viable option to, EV charging. That's something else we help with, solar street, parking lot lighting, solar smart poles where you can have wifi, projection. can do cameras.


    Dunya Jovanovic (03:04.596)

    Thank


    Russ Bates (03:14.649)

    facial recognition, environmental sensors, license plate recognition, gunshot detection, if that's a need, they can do that. So a lot of different things you can do there. But we'll really customize what makes sense for that client. We provide that additional bandwidth and expertise because sustainability, clean energy, it's fairly new and it can be a scary space to be in if you don't know what you're doing.


    That's where we come in and kind of take a bit of a hand holding approach, walk them through step by step and guide them to achieve their goals. The big one for us is saving money. Of course you have the sustainability environmental aspects of that too. So whatever it may be, that's what we're looking to do.


    Dunya Jovanovic (04:06.712)

    Can you share a success story so that we can further explain how you're helping accelerate the clean energy transition?


    Russ Bates (04:14.827)

    Sure. I'll give an example of a municipality in Northeast Ohio. We put together their clean energy sustainability plan to achieve 2030 goals. This was in 2022. So we put this plan together. It's a very detailed plan. We have specific projects we put together with preliminary designs and budgetary financials and ROIs and all those great things.


    Put that together as a short term, mid term and long term type of sections so they could do, all right, let's look at these low hanging fruit opportunities short term to kind of get the ball rolling and getting some momentum and then carry that into the mid and longer term to achieve that 2030 objective. So put that together, the sustainability committee unanimously adopted it.


    the overall city council, I think two weeks later, unanimously adopted it. So it's those types of things that, know, just an example, but that's, that's one that kind of jumps out of the top of my head.


    Dunya Jovanovic (05:23.502)

    Well, that's exciting to hear, I have to say. My next question here is about scaling, since it's a big challenge in this space. So can we talk about that? Can you share a reason, let's say, obstacle your team faced while growing the company and how you work through it?


    Russ Bates (05:39.823)

    for next gen in general as far as scaling? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I'll say at this point in time, and this probably goes for every clean energy company in the US, the challenge is what's gonna happen with this new administration, right? So whenever we started the company, we have Joe Biden and the IRA is passed a year later from when we started the company. So big.


    Dunya Jovanovic (05:42.167)

    Yeah, yeah, yeah.


    Russ Bates (06:08.345)

    Big changes there, I guess it's two years after we started the company, but, now you're hearing a drill, baby drill. You're hearing, rolling back these tax incentives, roll back the IRA, all those kinds of things. what does that mean? I don't know who can say what, what this next commander in chief is going to do. Cause it changes almost daily. Right. But if I had to guess, I would.


    I would say the smart thing to do is if you want to roll something back, all right, maybe look at the grants that are out there, but don't touch the tax incentives because that's not only helping, you know, with clean energy and this brand new section of the economy. That's helping a lot of these red states, mainly red States, conservative States that overwhelmingly voted for Trump to get back into office. You know, the Texas, the Florida.


    Michigan, all these states are doing tremendous things with clean energy. You not only have the projects, but you also have the manufacturing base that's coming back directly as a result of the IRA. So we're trying to onshore more of that manufacturing of solar panels, for example, that come from Southeast Asia, right? They're pretty cheap coming from over there. So, you know, if they roll back tax incentives,


    If they start smacking these tariffs on like what they're talking, the US is going to fall further and further and further behind the rest of the world. I mean, we're already pretty far behind in my opinion.


    Dunya Jovanovic (07:49.398)

    and how do you feel the recent election results will impact your company?


    Russ Bates (07:57.617)

    It's hard to say. I'll, I'll point it at this. the, incoming administration recently started talking about tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Canada just last week started saying, all right, if you want to do tariffs on us, we're going to cut the, the energy that we send from Canada to the U S so.


    Dunya Jovanovic (07:59.064)

    You're welcome.


    Russ Bates (08:23.945)

    They specifically said, you know, they supply energy to New York, to Michigan and to Wisconsin. So if they're not going to supply that energy, well, it's got to come from somewhere. And we're already seeing a definite deficiency in, in new production. And that has to do with grid operators and getting these projects interconnected and things like that. All through that permitting process. But if something like that happens, you're going to see energy prices go up even more than what they're going up.


    you know, in the next several years, that could open the space for companies like ours to, to come in and help get some energy independence. So they're not so dependent on that grid electricity, for example. So if I had to say there is something good, I guess I would say that, but it's not great. I'd rather we advance this the right way as opposed to kind of a


    Dunya Jovanovic (09:21.24)

    Seizing opportunities, right?


    Russ Bates (09:23.245)

    Yeah, yeah. I hate for that to happen, but if it is for our company, that's one thing I've looked at is all right, Michigan and New York and Wisconsin and anybody else, they're definitely going to need some more help and we're nationwide so we can help all of those folks.


    Dunya Jovanovic (09:41.506)

    I would like to end this conversation on a positive note. Since this podcast series is dedicated to, let's say, all of us being cautiously optimistic when we talk about the clean energy space. So do you have some upcoming projects or what's on the horizon for your company and the exciting initiatives we should keep an eye on?


    Russ Bates (10:09.229)

    Yeah, no, I'm with all that negativity. I just spit out there. I do want to say that in general, it's a, it's a revolution. It's a clean energy revolution that's happening, you know, whenever I think of the, the industrial revolution and read about that in the history books and how amazing that was. don't know if people who were around then understood what was going on, right? It's just, okay, we're making steel or electricity. We're doing all these things.


    I think it's very similar to what we're going through now, except maybe there's a little more realization, know, given that history, hey, this is a, this is a big change, right? in the, in the electricity generation space. So with that said, you know, the U S is very far behind, but there's a lot of opportunity to, catch up and still, think lead, lead the world in this. it's, it doesn't really depend in my mind in the big scheme of things.


    Who's in office, right? The clean energy transition was happening in Trump's first term. Biden came in, he accelerated a bit with the IRA and you know, that was a big deal. are we going to hit another speed bump with, with Trump? Maybe I kind of anticipate, some sort of speed bump. It's not going to be a wall though. Right. We're not going to come full stop. it's the technology is advancing too much. The economics make too much sense.


    You know, it's something where fossil fuels, fossil fuels are fossil fuels, right? I'm not saying we're running out of them, but somebody said the Stone Age didn't end because they ran out of stones, Fossil fuel's not gonna end because we're running out of fossil fuels. It's because better technology is here and becomes better and better every day.


    Dunya Jovanovic (11:56.886)

    Not just better, but cheaper.


    Russ Bates (11:59.002)

    Yes. Yes. 100%. And that's, that's key, right? Whenever we're working with clients, we want them to save money. We want it to make economic sense and improve their bottom line. and you factor in a lot of things. The money's obviously a big part, but energy independence and knowing what you're going to pay for electricity on day one, once you get a system installed all the way through, you know, the end of that, that PPA or the life span of that, that system.


    where right now you don't know what you're gonna be paying next year for electricity. We know it's gonna go up, it doesn't go down, right? So those are things to consider and we always want the best for our clients. So that's what we strive to do every day.


    Dunya Jovanovic (12:44.302)

    For us, thank you, since this is a short conversation, I have to ask you if some part of our audience wants to know more about you, your company, if they want to listen to you on the other podcasts, where can they do that?


    Russ Bates (12:59.365)

    I'm pretty easy to find on LinkedIn. Just Russ Bates. You can find a NextGen Clean Energy Solutions on LinkedIn. Find us a same website, nextgencleanenergy.com. It's N-X-T-G-E-N. There's no E in there because we're trying to be cool and hip, right? So we just spelled it N-X-T. But yeah, I'm pretty easy to find on LinkedIn. You're not going to find me on Facebook or TikTok or anything like that. I'm not that cool.


    Dunya Jovanovic (13:30.584)

    So let's stick to LinkedIn. Okay, don't worry. We'll add the links to your profiles in the description of the episode. So thank you, Wes, once again for being our podcast guest.


    Russ Bates (13:32.119)

    LinkedIn. That's it.


    Russ Bates (13:37.317)

    I'm also.


    Russ Bates (13:41.611)

    Absolutely glad to be here. Thank you.

Key Takeaways:


➜ NxtGen Clean Energy focuses on consulting and implementing energy projects.
➜ Solar energy has seen significant efficiency and economic improvements.
➜ Success stories include municipalities adopting clean energy plans.
➜ Scaling clean energy companies faces challenges from political changes.
➜ Tax incentives are crucial for the growth of clean energy.
➜ The U.S. has opportunities to lead in clean energy innovation.
➜ Energy independence is becoming increasingly important.
➜ The clean energy revolution is comparable to the industrial revolution.
➜ Technology advancements are making clean energy more economically viable.

December 9, 2024
In this feature, Russ Bates, founder of NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions, shares his journey from his roots in the southern Indiana coal fields to becoming a leader in the clean energy industry. From solar to wind and EV charging, Russ discusses his path to business ownership, the challenges of navigating a rapidly evolving market, and his approach to building a sustainable future for both his company and the industry.
September 26, 2024
#Cleantechers - Russ Bates had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Casey from The Scaling Clean podcast, where his compelling background and hands-on approach to clean energy were discussed in detail. Russ Bates has an impressive and hands-on background in the energy sector. Growing up in the southern Indiana coal fields, Russ started his career as a union electrician before advancing to foreman and eventually VP. After 26 years in the industry, he founded NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions in the Cleveland area. NXTGEN offers a full range of services, including solar, wind, battery storage, and EV charging station solutions. Here are some key insights from Russ’s journey: 5:08 – Clean energy continues to attract people, with new advancements happening almost daily. 14:34 – As a business owner, it’s crucial to ask: "Will this decision be sustainable? Will it provide enough business to support your employees and their families?" With the sector rapidly evolving, especially with elections approaching, it’s important to remain mindful of potential shifts that could affect business plans. 25:35 – When it’s time to make the tough call to let someone go, ensure you are clear about the reasoning. If it’s not a good fit, parting ways might actually be the best decision for both parties. Make the decision swiftly and confidently. Thank you to Mike Casey and the Scaling Clean podcast for the opportunity to share Russ’s story and insights with a broader audience.
March 29, 2024
Join us for an enlightening conversation exploring the power of an open mind in today's business world. Click the link to dive into insightful discussions that could transform your approach to success: Watch Now
By NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions February 20, 2024
Russ Bates had the privilege of being interviewed by Sara Kremsar of OPTIMOD for the '2023 Improving Entrepreneurial Journey Initiative' annual brochure. Sara and her amazing team have compiled not only very useful information in this brochure, but great advice from incredible entrepreneurs which I also find inspiring. I highly recommend checking it out- https://lnkd.in/e59nhR7a
By NXTGEN Clean Energy #podcast February 20, 2024
Making the clean energy transition isn’t the simplest thing for small and medium businesses. That’s why NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions is here. To make that transition as simple as possible. They have your back. And give you the best solution possible that is custom fitted to your business and your goals. So don’t miss a single second of this incredible interview with the CEO of NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions, Russ Bates.
By NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions February 20, 2024
In the latest episode of All Things Green, Shelby sat down with Russ Bates who founded the clean energy company NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions . After starting in the coal industry, Russ learned that clean energy was more sustainable, long-term, and a stable industry to build his business. ♻️ Watch now to hear how Russ changed his mind on fossil fuels and created a successful #sustainable business. Listen to the full interview with Russ here >>
By NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions February 20, 2024
Clean energies used to be a novelty a mere 2 decades ago. Now they’re a highly essential part of the bottom-line, enabling industries and corporates to manage their demand economically. Join us, as we discuss this and more on localizing energy supply chains, manufacturing, jobs and economics in a candid chat with Russ Bates , Founder and CEO of NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions, a consulting one-stop-shop firm acting as a single touch point for small and large business owners who want to take advantage of renewable energies. Host: Chris Sass Check out the episode on our website: https://lnkd.in/ejUuzRNN Or find it on Buzzsprout: https://lnkd.in/ePTgY286
who'swho img
February 16, 2024
Celebrating Excellence: Russ Bates Inducted into Marquis Who's Who
By NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions February 15, 2024
Introducing the revolutionary NXTGEN EV Café, an innovative destination tailored for the modern electric vehicle driver seeking more than just a pit stop. Picture this: a vibrant hub where sustainability meets convenience, where every aspect is meticulously designed to cater to the needs and desires of our eco-conscious patrons. At NXTGEN EV Café, we redefine the concept of charging stations, transforming them into dynamic spaces where people can seamlessly blend work, socializing, and relaxation. Our prime location offers a welcoming oasis for both business meetings and casual meet-ups, all while your electric vehicle replenishes its energy. Powered by cutting-edge clean energy technologies, including solar canopies, roof-mounted solar panels, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), micro wind turbines, and advanced battery storage systems, our charging infrastructure ensures that every electron consumed is sustainably sourced. As you recharge your vehicle, bask in the knowledge that you're contributing to a greener future. The premise is a fantastic and convenient location for electric vehicle drivers to be able to charge while meeting people for business or pleasure, grab a meal, perform work with free WiFi, and have clean restrooms. There will be indoor/outdoor seating with free device charging to accommodate guests for business meetings or social gatherings. Food and beverage vendors will be providing great options.
By NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions February 15, 2024
Meet Russ Bates , the Founder of NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions, the One Stop Shop for Solar, Electric Vehicle Charging, and Battery Storage projects. NXTGEN was born of his passion for clean energy technologies and how they can help save money, improve the economy, and improve the environment. He loves working with small businesses and showing how clean energy can vastly reduce costs and that these technologies are not only for big corporations. Russ transitioned from a long career in the fossil fuel power generation industry to the clean energy sector. From growing up on property that was once a coal mine to working as a pre-apprentice in a coal fired power plant to being the Vice President of a company who build a 750MW combined cycle facility, he’s seen it all in the fossil fuel power gen sector. Clean energy and bringing this technology to businesses, municipalities, and the general public is his purpose. Russ is an experienced executive who is passionate about all aspects of business, strategy, and building long term relationships. He’s skilled in management of P&L centers, including project estimation, proposals, project management, project controls, subcontract management, and supply chain management. Russ is also a believer in one team where everyone contributes to achieve the common goal and strives to bring success to the organization.
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