Feb. 28, 2023
The Next Generation of Energy Professionals with Michael Wood, Duke University Student and Cleantech Podcaster EP131
Welcome to the Clean Power Hour! On today’s show, we are joined by fellow energy podcaster Michael Wood III, a Duke University Student and host of the Energy-Terminal podcast. The Energy-Terminal podcast is a media platform with a mission to build the next generation of energy leaders and to catalyze youth involvement in energy.
Michael Wood III launched his podcast in January of 2022 and in December 2022 he won Duke’s Clean Energy Prize for his efforts to build the next generation of leaders to advance the energy transition. The Energy Terminal podcast, which has published over 20 episodes to date, features Duke students’ conversations with energy experts who reflect on their career pathways and share advice. The students also publish a weekly newsletter, weekly reading lists, regular social media posts on hot energy topics, and blog posts with students’ insights on the energy transition.
Michael Wood III is a senior engineering student at Duke University studying Mechanical Engineering with certificates in Energy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He has previously worked for two energy startups in Texas and interned with bp’s Innovation & Engineering group in the Summer of 2022.
Today Michael joins Tim Montague to talk about why and how he got interested in energy, and how to convince people to make the energy transition faster. We discuss how young people think about climate change and the energy transition, the Energy Terminal podcast performance, guests' and audience reactions to the content, and much more.
Key Takeaways
- Why and how Michael got interested in Energy?
- Ways people can be convinced to make the energy transition faster.
- What are the thoughts of young people about Climate Change and the energy transition?
- The Energy Terminal podcast, guests, audience reaction to the content, and what the future holds for the show
- How Michael convinces people about the energy transition?
- What the Emerging Leaders Program is and who is eligible to apply
- The challenges young people face when trying to join the clean energy industry
Energy Terminal
The Energy Terminal Podcast
Connect with Tim
Clean Power Hour
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts
The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/
The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com
The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Please subscribe on your favorite audio platform and on Youtube: bit.ly/cph-sub | www.CleanPowerHour.com | contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com | Speeding the energy transition!
WEBVTT
00:00:00.299 --> 00:00:15.539
Energy has for years decades, I mean, way longer than so closely tied to progress and energy consumption with GDP is so closely tied.
00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:22.350
There's still even as we talk about the energy transition, there are still 40% of people on this planet who don't have access to reliable electricity.
00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:57.179
And so there is a massive opportunity to as we focus on decarbonisation, also work with developing countries to increase energy access to lower rates of energy poverty. So if you're interested in equity, injustice, the energy transition has that if you're interested in the financial impact, and the economics, I mean, I'm all about the mission, of course, but people are going to make a lot of money from the energy transition, it is one of the biggest wealth creation opportunities, probably that I will see in my lifetime.
00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:36.540
Today, on the Clean Power Hour, the next generation of energy professionals, I'm Tim Montague, your host, welcome to the Clean Power Hour, please check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com, give us a rating and a review on Apple and Spotify, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We need more energy professionals to find this content. So please do give us a rating and a review. Today, my guest is Michael Wood. He is a student at Duke University, about to launch his energy career. And Michael and I have been chatting for the last year and a half or so. And it's just great to follow his career and his trajectory. So I look forward to bringing his story to the show. Welcome, Michael.
00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:45.750
Yeah, Tim, thank you so much for having me. I think you were one of the first people I talked to, when I started kind of getting interested in the podcast world.
00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:52.379
And you know, flash forward a year and a half, we've done almost 25 episodes, and fun to get on the other side of the mic.
00:01:52.799 --> 00:02:07.679
Yeah, it's great to see you launch your podcast, and it seems like it's really taking off. It's called the Energy terminal. So check that out on Apple and Spotify. And but tell us, Michael, how did you get interested in energy?
00:02:07.679 --> 00:02:10.109
Why energy of all the things you could be doing?
00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:47.250
Yeah, sure. So guess for a little bit more background. Energy terminal is a media platform with the mission to build the next generation of energy leaders. And as you said, and also Duke students studying mechanical engineering. But going a little bit farther back, my interest in energy really came as kind of a confluence of three different things. First, and foremost of which was my family background. So I'm from San Antonio, Texas, and family's from kind of down south along the border with Mexico, from a small town right smack dab in the middle of the eagle furred.
00:02:43.169 --> 00:03:28.139
So 1012 years ago, when the shale boom was really hitting that area, I saw the small town that my grandparents lived in, almost overnight, grow from 5000 to almost 12,000 people. And you know, just seen from an early age, how the energy industry can transform communities was a really powerful Realisation to me. And then as I kind of continued to grow and grow into my interest, started studying engineering, and I had always had an interest in sustainability, especially with growing up on the ranch, and learning a lot about the wildlife and the environment around us. That was something that was really important to me.
00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:37.110
I didn't quite figure out how to put those three together until an internship that I was doing.
00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:43.469
After my freshman year, I was actually supposed to go to Silicon Valley for an entrepreneurship programme, thing COVID hit, plans changed.
00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:50.849
And I ended up interning with streamline innovations, which is a natural gas processing company based out of San Antonio, Texas.
00:03:51.270 --> 00:04:06.810
And it was there that I first realised you know, the energy industry. This is where I can combine my engineering skills, my interest in sustainability, and also my family background and how important that is to me.
00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:19.589
And from there, I came back to campus got really involved in the energy community, since then, worked for a few energy startups founded energy terminal somewhere along the way, and just trying to pull as many other people into this exciting space as I can.
00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:58.649
That's awesome that you're so intimately connected to the world of oil and gas. And I have as I say many times I have nothing against oil and gas it got us the good life that we have. It's it's an amazing resource, right those fossil fuels. Now we have alternatives. We have all the technology needed to make the energy transition to when solar batteries and other forms of clean storage and electrifying everything before our eyes. The grid is changing and the way we get around is changing. The way we heat our buildings. The way we fuel heavy industry is changing and is electrifying.
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:15.839
We're going to triple the grid In the next 30 years, and we're gonna go from, you know, a terawatt, we just passed a terawatt of solar on Earth last year, we're gonna go to three terawatts in the next couple of decades, we might go to two terawatts in just three years.
00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:38.759
That's how fast things are growing in the solar industry, buddy. It's a both and it's there's many technologies that are relevant to the, to the transition. And, and we, you know, we want all of them so to speak, but we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground if we want to avoid the worst of climate chaos. And that's not easy. So I don't know what what are your thoughts about that?
00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:45.480
Like, how do we convince this industry to make the transition faster?
00:05:45.750 --> 00:05:58.379
That's a good question. And, you know, I kind of want to address that from two different lenses. Because, you know, I see a lot on the industry side, a lot of these changes that need to be made.
00:05:54.720 --> 00:07:04.350
But like you said, we need all these different solutions. And that is one of the biggest obstacles that I have to overcome with the people on this campus, the people that I work with, and with youth in general, and one of the reasons why I founded energy terminal. So tell us story real quick. My energy terminals podcast is sponsored by energy dialogues, which is a company based out of California, that does networking events, mainly for senior level energy executives. In October, I was invited to speak at one of their conferences, the North American Gas forum, and it was primarily oil and gas professionals. And we were having these amazing conversations on decarbonisation on the energy transition. And I was blown away. It was incredible. And I came back to campus super energised about, Hey, guys, let's talk about this. Let's talk about these collaborative solutions, and how we can really make progress. And there was quite a lot of pushback. And this lack of open mindedness to explore all solutions is something that I really tried to deal with a lot.
00:07:04.709 --> 00:07:49.170
And I'm not telling people, you know, we should go work for an oil and gas company. But there is a lot of ways in which these companies can make a positive impact was actually just doing an episode about this. And looking into the areas where these companies have expertise in can transition their oil and gas personnel, infrastructure and assets more toward the clean energy economy. We're thinking about areas like carbon capture, geothermal, offshore wind, I mean, we need 1,000,001 solutions for the energy transition. So it's important to remain open minded. And also think about the areas in which each player can individually contribute.
00:07:50.430 --> 00:07:57.389
Yeah, you know, the, the energy companies, energy is their business, right?
00:07:53.639 --> 00:08:04.829
Like shell was in the news last week for buying an Eevee charging company. And, of course, you know, they're operating gas stations today.
00:08:05.129 --> 00:09:00.389
Tomorrow, those gas stations are also going to be Evie charging stations. And they have a goal I see now on their website of, of operating 500,000. Chargers by 2025. So they're really getting serious about electrification of transportation, it's in their mind both and they're gonna continue to sell gasoline, as long as they possibly can, you know, they, they feel a fiduciary responsibility to their investors, right, to make as much money as they can. And, and so it's not all it's not all good or evil, so to speak. It's it's a both and, and, and I think that there are a lot of interesting energy companies that, you know, Ecuador is another one, right? The Norwegian oil major, they're getting into offshore wind, they're getting into utility scale solar. I love that.
00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:04.620
That's, that's a great future.
00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:08.460
Oil, you know, we have a lot of oil, we have 100 years of oil, probably something like that.
00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:31.620
But, you know, they need to figure out another business model for the future of Norway citizens and, and wind and solar are clearly the future. But tell me a little more about what, you know, what's going on on Duke's campus and and what is your experience rubbing shoulders with, with other young people?
00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:37.830
How do young people think about what's going on with the climate and the energy transition?
00:09:38.399 --> 00:10:14.969
Yeah, so first and foremost, there is a lot of excitement. Just in the few years that I've been in college I've seen not just our energy club itself, but the broader climate and energy community on campus and on the campuses around us grow tremendously. I think when I started there were somewhere on the order of, you know, 7080 members of energy club. Now I think we're pushing 200. And there is so much excitement in the space all across climate, energy, clean tech, energy transition, whatever you want to call it.
00:10:16.649 --> 00:11:17.278
Definitely what we need to see as a lot more overlap between these groups. And what I want to encourage people to do is to explore energy as a way in which they can make that climate impact that they're really passionate about. And like you said, when we started this episode, it's a huge economic opportunity. But not just an economic opportunity, the energy transition is probably the biggest opportunity for impact in equity, social impact, progress, environmental impact, and there's ways for everybody to get involved. I really want to showcase all these different opportunities to actually catalyse this excitement, into people taking action. And I think we see a lot of that there's a lot of people that are interested, but don't really know where to start. So that is why we found it energy terminal to actually show people, here's where to start, here's what you can do. And here's how you get involved. So lots of excitement, but I want to see more people taking action.
00:11:18.240 --> 00:13:19.919
Yeah, I mean, I like to say when I am talking to facility owners, only about 10% of them really care about the environment. So I never lead with the sustainability aspects of say a solar project, even though those are front and centre, and, you know, certainly very important aspects of the solar industry. I want to save them money by installing a rooftop solar facility on their roof. And, and everybody wants to save money. Everybody wants a career. And everyone wants a career that is interesting, challenging, dynamic, but one that's not necessarily going to run into significant challenges or roadblocks. And, you know, the future is uncertain in many ways, especially with things like artificial general intelligence, we see, narrow AI is really in the news a lot now, right with chat, GPT three, and robotics, you know, be coming very influential in manufacturing. And, yeah, some people's jobs will be taken by the AI. But for the most part, it's going to be a both and right we need we need humans to work together with an AI, I would love to have a chat GPT three on my shoulder, you know, cueing me and giving me ideas about how to be more productive and effective in the world and how to get traction. You know, my one of my missions is to help others go further faster. That's what I tell my students who are taking my online courses in commercial solar. But But largely, I'm operating in a vacuum. I'm just figuring it out on my own. So that let's talk a little bit about the show, like what, what types of guests have you had on the show? And what kind of a reaction do you get from your audience?
00:13:20.548 --> 00:14:45.328
Yeah, I guess going back a little farther, I would love to kind of give some background on how we kind of settled on a podcast as the medium that we were starting with. It really came as a recognition of two key challenges related to youth getting involved in energy. The first one was this idea of I'm not an engineer, what can I do an energy. And the second one was, you know, the energy industry is just too complex. I don't even know where to get started. Reflecting on my own journey, it was the conversations, more than anything, the conversations with people who had already done it, who had already been there, done that, that really helped me. And I always think back to this one time, when I was working at Greentown, or I was working for a startup that was a member of Greentown Labs, which is a clean tech accelerator. And I was working out at the Houston office. I was doing a lot of sales stuff. I had never done sales before. And I was cold calling. I think I had just gotten off the back of it. Least 10 or 20, failed sales calls the the last one I'm pretty sure I got some pretty colourful language, told to me, and I was like, Oh man, like, you know, what do I do from here? And I just walked around tapping on shoulders, around the little co working space. And it's like, hey, like, this just happened?
00:14:41.129 --> 00:15:44.759
Can you give me some advice? And over that summer, I had conversations with some of the most incredible people who I've ever met who are doing the most incredible things and energy and climate and realising that, you know, how do we bring these conversations to people? podcast was is natural way to go called up my co founder. And then we got started. Since then we just recorded our 23rd episode, we're releasing our 22nd on Monday, which is super exciting. And we've had people all over the spectrum. We've had founders, we've had CEOs, we've had investors, we've had researchers. And one of the things that we really want to do and how we kind of differentiate ourselves from other podcasts is distilling that information down to a student level, making it super low on technical complexity, and really bringing in a diversity of guests. So our audience can see all of these different career paths, all these different types of people, and use that as a model for how they can get involved.
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.320
Yeah, I, there's, there's a lot to unpack here.
00:15:50.549 --> 00:15:55.470
It's, it's, it's very telling, I think that you chose podcasting.
00:15:55.500 --> 00:16:31.590
Like, you know, it's the new radio, basically, right. And there's so much there's so much you can do while you're sleeping, so to speak with the podcast. And Greentown, I knew that they had an office in Massachusetts, but it also I also see that they have an office in Houston, Texas. They claim to be the largest climate tech startup incubator in North America. So that's very cool.
00:16:26.399 --> 00:17:48.990
That you got to participate in that. A huge fan. I'm a huge fan of incubators. So yeah, I guess, if you could tell us, you know, what you say to others, other young people, whether they're students at Duke, or people you meet, in your travels, at places like Greentown Labs, it's, you know, it's sometimes can be overwhelming, right? The, the, the enormity of the problem, per se. And, and sometimes it's it's very frustrating that humans aren't taking more action, right? Some of us are going kicking and screaming. But the beauty of the energy transition is that it's actually really good for our consumer economics for one thing, right, it's going to save consumers money, once we electrify everything. And and of course, that's going to reduce our carbon footprint, which will reduce the likelihood of climate chaos. And so there is a virtuous cycle there. But what do you say to others in a little more extended conversation, perhaps about the energy transition?
00:17:49.440 --> 00:19:06.059
Well, there are a million in one directions that we could go with that. But really just starting off, I mean, I think there's kind of two different groups of students that we talked to. One is people who don't necessarily have any interest at all, they're not kind of interested in climate yet. And so that's a very different conversation, than people who are already interested in environment and climate issues, and trying to talk to them about the energy transition, and why the energy transition is such a valuable way to get involved. I mean, the climate crisis, it's an existential threat, the likes of which I mean, we've never faced before, we need people of all different backgrounds, all different skill sets, all different interests, to get involved and to come together to create like a cohesive array of solutions, not just focusing on one. So I guess, looking first at the climate focus people, and why they should look at the energy transition. Energy has for years, decades, I mean, way longer been so closely tied to progress and energy consumption with GDP is so closely tied.
00:19:00.990 --> 00:19:12.900
There's still even as we talk about the energy transition, there's still 40% of people on this planet who don't have access to reliable electricity.
00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:51.539
And so there is a massive opportunity to as we focus on decarbonisation, also work with developing countries to increase energy access to lower rates of energy poverty. So if you're interested in equity and justice, the energy transition has that if you're interested in the financial impact and the economics, I mean, I'm all about the mission, of course, but people are going to make a lot of money from the energy transition. It is one of the biggest wealth creation opportunities, probably that I will see in my lifetime. And there's huge potential there.
00:19:48.359 --> 00:20:28.680
And then obviously, with the environmental impact, I think the conversations that we're having are less of an if and more of a when and how. And there's a tonne of different ways that we can talk about going through the energy transition, who's involved how we do it. But long story short, we're just trying to get people involved. We just need people to start somewhere, anywhere, and there is a place for you, if you have an interest, there's a place, there's a place for you to get involved for you to make an impact. And for you to really level up your career.
00:20:28.829 --> 00:22:54.869
Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to the Clean Power Hour or viewing it on YouTube, we do have a great YouTube channel, if you're not subscribed, please go to clean power dot group, and hit that YouTube icon and subscribe to our channel. Of course, you can find all of our content on your favourite audio platform as well. So please give us a rating and review back to the show. And honestly, I think it is vital for people of all ages, but especially young people to figure out a mission for their lives. It adds so much more meaning to your life and helps you navigate and answer questions about whether you should pursue or not pursue certain career moves or moves period. I'm on a mission for the energy transition. But I strayed from my mission. I've always been interested in, you know, helping humanity and creating a safer, healthier future. But I I strayed from energy. And I regret that. You know, hindsight is 2020. So you can't go back in time. But, but, and it's funny, Michael, because it's not something that we hear in our everyday classrooms at at really any age. This thing about finding a mission. And I don't know who I don't know who, who drilled this into my head, but I think it's vital. And it it's a key for me to leading a satisfactory life, one that is validating, and potentially full of joy. It's full of trials and tribulations for sure, right. I sell and develop commercial solar projects. And it's not easy. You know, you have you have to kiss a lot of frogs to make things happen and get projects done. But at the end of the day, you know, I will be able to look back and talk to my grandchildren and say, you know, this is what I did. I did this and this and this. My projects are part of the built environment now and Greening the Grid. So I guess I want to talk a little more about the podcast in how you decide what topics and what guests to identify for the show.
00:22:55.289 --> 00:23:15.930
Yeah, it really comes down to the audience. I mean, we are a mission oriented organisation. And the audience that we're talking to is first and foremost, we target primarily students and young professionals who want to get involved in energy and energy transition, but don't necessarily know where to start.
00:23:12.869 --> 00:23:27.599
So we focus on a broad range of topics, we want to appeal to the broad diversity of interests that we see amongst students, and especially students who are interested in climate environment, energy transition.
00:23:28.049 --> 00:24:26.700
And a lot of them have been people I've just connected with over the years, a lot of personal contacts, people who reach out to us now, which is a lot of fun people from that Greentown community who I started tapping on their shoulders. And now we're bringing them behind the mic to share a little bit of those pieces of advice that they shared with me when I was at Greentown. But, you know, it's really just focusing on what the audience wants. And what we hear from students the feedback that we get from different episodes, we want to showcase the diversity of technologies that we need. A phrase that I love to say is that there's no silver bullet. For the energy transition. We need silver buckshot. So we're trying to showcase that buckshot, and you know, like, here are all the different potential opportunities for you to get involved here with all the different technologies, just so people are informed. And it's really important to get that diversity for sure.
00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:34.079
I love that silver buckshot. That's a great expression. It's so true.
00:24:29.730 --> 00:25:10.710
There's there's not one, there's not one solution. People you know, people get so excited about things like fusion. And, yeah, fusion is a tremendous technology. The sun is an amazing resource. It gives us 10,000 times more energy than all of humanity uses. And so if we can reinvent that here on Earth in a safe way That would be really cool. The key is safe and affordable. And right now, it's got a long, long way to go before it's going to be affordable. I don't doubt that we can do it technologically.
00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:48.779
And I want some people working on that for sure. But we also really need to lean in to just deploy, deploy, deploy is ticker Shaw likes to say, right, we need to green the grid today. We need a million electricians, Michael. And that's a lot of people. This is what keeps me up at night is, is do we have enough people who are a aware and be interested in supporting the clean energy transition?
00:25:44.339 --> 00:26:43.859
It's great that we have the IRA now, which puts it in the public eye, it puts real dollars to incentivize the energy transition for consumers and for business owners. Just very, very good industrial policy. And, but it's it's non trivial to get more people interested and engaged. So I'm curious if you've had any, any wins, I kind of break it down this way. There are ones twos and threes, the ones get it, the twos will get it with some education, and the threes will never get it. And so I focus on the ones and twos and I just move on if I run into a three, and I love it, that you're casting a broad net with the energy terminal. This is this is good, right? We want to expose people to a lot of different ideas. I don't know.
00:26:39.180 --> 00:27:11.609
And I and I'm self critical this way. If I, if I'm using my resources to the best advantage, right. That's a that's an uncertainty and unknown. And not that there's a single best path forward. There's multiple best paths forward. But yeah, when you think about making an influence making a difference on other people, what is your experience there?
00:27:12.329 --> 00:27:22.680
Yeah, so I mean, you're talking about language here, this is what we're all about. And you hit on really two really important issues. One is the awareness and the interest.
00:27:22.769 --> 00:27:57.390
And the second is actually building people up and helping them build their career. And those are the two parts of our mission, catalysing youth involvement. And energy is the first step, you got to get people involved, we got to get them through the door, and then building the next generation of leaders. And you know, since we've started with the podcast, we've really expanded and grown based on feedback from our audience, and based on what's been working. So now we're doing a newsletter, we do a lot of social media content. And we've got a lot more coming soon.
00:27:53.400 --> 00:28:57.869
There's really three different areas that we try to hit on. The first one is the content, people need to have the knowledge and the resources to just get themselves started. As of right now, and this will change eventually, our long term goal is for energy terminal, to be the one stop shop like this is where you go, your student interested in the energy transition, you go to energy terminal. But right now the way we typically want people to interact with our platform, go to energy terminal, find some resources, use that as inspiration and a baseline to go explore more. Now, however, which is really exciting. And what I love the most, is being able to focus on the community aspect, and also the career side. We actually just launched last week, our Emerging Leaders programme, to take these rising stars and energy, these people who are getting started through a 10 week programme, they're going to meet people from the top energy and non energy companies around the world.
00:28:58.230 --> 00:29:38.400
They're going to learn from us and the team, they're going to get one on one mentorship, and also access to the vast network and amount of resources that we've been able to generate through the show. So I'm really excited about that side of stuff to bring people not just into our content, but also to really work with them, and have that mentorship and that community to find those career opportunities and help them succeed. And on the winds. You know, the numbers are exciting, like I love going on and tracking our social media hits and our podcast listens.
00:29:38.730 --> 00:30:23.940
But the most impactful and the most motivating things to me, is when people individually reached out to me, I won't forget I mean, it was early on in the podcast, and maybe we weren't hitting the numbers or something that we were hoping for. And I had a student reach out to me he's like, hey, just want to let you know I've been listening to your podcast, it's really inspired me to get involved in energy industry. I want to start an energy club on my campus to get other people involved. How can I start? And it's those personal interactions, the stuff like that those wins, that are incredibly motivating, and definitely gives me a lot of hope for our future and for energy terminals ability to continue to make an impact.
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:31.619
Yeah, I love this emerging leaders programme, check out energy hyphen terminal.com/leaders programme.
00:30:32.460 --> 00:30:38.099
How many students are going to participate in this first first cohort?
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:51.029
Yeah, it's gonna be about 10 to 15. We want to keep it small, it's going to be a close network and really get some personal interaction, both with our team, and also with these really top notch energy experts that we're bringing in?
00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:55.680
And are there limits to who can apply
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:02.549
college students, but if you're a college student, and interested in energy, doors open,
00:31:03.089 --> 00:32:33.690
fantastic. Yeah, this is a great model that that others can replicate I, I have a similar parallel universe, I have a Facebook group now of people interested in commercial solar and, and I'm helping them go further faster. We need these micro incubators, basically right, to to do peer to peer and thought leader to student interactions, and the sooner the better. So so this is this is really, really wonderful. Look forward to seeing how this plays out. And, you know, maybe, maybe we can bring one or two of the participants on the show, I would love to do that. So just keep that in the back of your mind, I'm sure you'll be doing the same thing. But I love bringing young energy professionals to my audience, and in growing that segment of my audience. So I guess, what is the when you think about young people getting into clean energy? What are the what are the barriers that we as a society have created? I have some ideas about this. But when you look back at your education, you know, and the way we frame education in the United States, what are your thoughts about that?
00:32:34.559 --> 00:33:24.990
Yeah, that's a good question. And I think it really goes back to those kind of two key misconceptions that led to energy terminals founding. One is that technical barrier, the I'm not an engineer, where do I get started. And the second being the energy industry being complex as it is, but also very network heavy and connections heavy, I think that is increasingly changing with energy transition with the growth of the clean energy industry. But I feel like a lot of the misconceptions that we see are about the energy industry being this, you know, the small group of people in a room deciding where to build or deciding where to drill the next oil well, which obviously, that is not the case anymore.
00:33:25.559 --> 00:34:08.579
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about society as at large and our educational institutions and how we approach education in the US, for example, the trades, we play down the trades, this is a being an electrician, or a labourer, or a carpenter, or a steel worker. These are the people that largely are building the infrastructure, the power lines, the wind farms, the solar farms, installing the heat pumps, installing the Evie chargers, building the roads, etc, etc, right, our built environment.
00:34:04.950 --> 00:34:31.559
It's a massive, massive undertaking, and it's a great opportunity, but we largely deny it and ignore it in our educational institutions. And it shows right we we have a huge shortage of the trades. This is just the trades. There are other ways that we do this right. We shunt people into certain tracks, which is a double edge.
00:34:31.769 --> 00:34:36.179
A college is great. I'm I'm a college grad, I have no regrets.
00:34:37.230 --> 00:35:21.329
But colleges also have not kept up with the times in terms of teaching stuff that's relevant to the real world. book learning is important, but so is real world learning. And, you know, I think that there is a transformation underway. Will they will they change fast enough to keep up with the times I don't No. So that's what I'm thinking about, like, what people are going through. And we need to, we need to get more people involved. And you're doing that. But we also need to give ideas to our institutional leaders and the future leaders of those institutions. Because we can do better.
00:35:21.929 --> 00:37:33.929
Absolutely. And first on the trade aspect, I think I read recently that there for every seven electricians that retires, there's only one, the joints, which I mean, as you said, we're gonna need millions of people like that to work on these massive scale energy projects. So that is something that I think we really should highlight as an opportunity. And I think the oil and gas industry, historically has been pretty good at that, you know, making these really well paying, and really solid job opportunities available to people who don't necessarily have a college education. And I want to see more of that, and the clean energy industry, and how we can learn from that model and encourage people to go into the industry. And then kind of on the other side, education wise, I mean, the classroom is great, and I've absolutely loved my education at Duke, I have really enjoyed it, I've had the opportunity to take some incredible classes with some incredible professors. But there's no substitute for real world experience. And I have learned way more through internships and working and especially through starting energy terminal than I ever have in the classroom. And that is one of the biggest things that we want to encourage people to do. Classes are a great way to start to build that understanding. But if you really want to level up your career, and also your knowledge, real world experiences where it's at, which is as we kind of move forward, and especially with our Emerging Leaders programme, why finding those opportunities, and helping students get ready to excel in them is going to be an increasingly large part of what we do. The mission or the message that I would share to students, my biggest piece of advice is just to start something, anything. I mean, it could be a club, it could be a company, it could be a social media page that's focused on something that you're passionate about, you will learn more about yourself about whatever your passion is, and about other people through starting something than you ever could anywhere else.
00:37:34.980 --> 00:37:50.190
Love it wholeheartedly agree, start something, and and do it with others. Do it as a group we can we can go much further faster.
00:37:45.599 --> 00:38:01.590
If we do it as a group, that is the hallmark of humanity actually, is our ability to cooperate. And it's vital. So what does the future hold for for you? And the podcast?
00:37:59.639 --> 00:38:01.590
Michael?
00:38:02.070 --> 00:38:19.980
Yeah, great question. So I mean, we are pedal to the metal going a mile a minute with energy terminal. I think since we last talked, we've grown quite a bit. I mean, we now have a team of seven, and this semester, focusing one on the Emerging Leaders programme.
00:38:16.530 --> 00:38:27.570
And also, in addition to the podcast, a lot of our other content streams, we're gonna see a big focus on short form video.
00:38:23.639 --> 00:39:18.570
We just launched our tic toc a couple of days ago, which I've been having a lot of fun playing around with. And I can't share much about this yet. But we are also working on some partnerships with some really cool organisations that I am just over the moon excited to continue to work with. And then going forward, I mean, we just want to get more people involved. We want more feedback, we want more of our audience to tell us what you want. Tell us what's working, tell us what you need. Energy terminal wants to be here as a resource, not just for students, but for anyone who wants to get involved in any way that we can do that and continue to make an impact is what we'll do. I'm incredibly excited for the future of energy terminal, and to keep pushing to keep pushing on this mission of building the next generation of energy leaders and to really focus on impact.
00:39:20.130 --> 00:39:23.219
Very good. So how can people reach you Michael?
00:39:24.230 --> 00:39:52.940
Check me out on LinkedIn, Michael Wood, the third like I at the website for energy terminal, www.energy-terminal.com. You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And also check us out on our social media pages. We're on Instagram or on TikTok. We're on Twitter. So that's a great way especially for those young people to get that content and really small digestible bites. And yeah, find us anywhere.
00:39:53.539 --> 00:40:10.730
Excellent. You can find our content at cleanpowerhour.com Give us a rating and a review on Apple and Spotify to help others find this content, and please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Just click the YouTube icon at the top of the page on cleanpowerhour.com.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:19.579
I want to thank Michael Wood of energy terminal and Duke University for coming on the show today. It's great to see you, Michael and I look forward to charting your career over the coming years.
00:40:19.900 --> 00:40:22.510
Thanks Tim has a lot of fun. Thanks for having me on the show.
00:40:22.710 --> 00:40:24.989
I'm Tim Montague.
00:40:22.710 --> 00:40:24.989
Let's grow solar and storage.
00:40:25.019 --> 00:40:25.619
Take care
00:00:00.299 --> 00:00:15.539
00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:22.350
00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:57.179
00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:36.540
00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:45.750
00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:52.379
00:01:52.799 --> 00:02:07.679
00:02:07.679 --> 00:02:10.109
00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:47.250
00:02:43.169 --> 00:03:28.139
00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:37.110
00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:43.469
00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:50.849
00:03:51.270 --> 00:04:06.810
00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:19.589
00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:58.649
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:15.839
00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:38.759
00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:45.480
00:05:45.750 --> 00:05:58.379
00:05:54.720 --> 00:07:04.350
00:07:04.709 --> 00:07:49.170
00:07:50.430 --> 00:07:57.389
00:07:53.639 --> 00:08:04.829
00:08:05.129 --> 00:09:00.389
00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:04.620
00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:08.460
00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:31.620
00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:37.830
00:09:38.399 --> 00:10:14.969
00:10:16.649 --> 00:11:17.278
00:11:18.240 --> 00:13:19.919
00:13:20.548 --> 00:14:45.328
00:14:41.129 --> 00:15:44.759
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.320
00:15:50.549 --> 00:15:55.470
00:15:55.500 --> 00:16:31.590
00:16:26.399 --> 00:17:48.990
00:17:49.440 --> 00:19:06.059
00:19:00.990 --> 00:19:12.900
00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:51.539
00:19:48.359 --> 00:20:28.680
00:20:28.829 --> 00:22:54.869
00:22:55.289 --> 00:23:15.930
00:23:12.869 --> 00:23:27.599
00:23:28.049 --> 00:24:26.700
00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:34.079
00:24:29.730 --> 00:25:10.710
00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:48.779
00:25:44.339 --> 00:26:43.859
00:26:39.180 --> 00:27:11.609
00:27:12.329 --> 00:27:22.680
00:27:22.769 --> 00:27:57.390
00:27:53.400 --> 00:28:57.869
00:28:58.230 --> 00:29:38.400
00:29:38.730 --> 00:30:23.940
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:31.619
00:30:32.460 --> 00:30:38.099
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:51.029
00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:55.680
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:02.549
00:31:03.089 --> 00:32:33.690
00:32:34.559 --> 00:33:24.990
00:33:25.559 --> 00:34:08.579
00:34:04.950 --> 00:34:31.559
00:34:31.769 --> 00:34:36.179
00:34:37.230 --> 00:35:21.329
00:35:21.929 --> 00:37:33.929
00:37:34.980 --> 00:37:50.190
00:37:45.599 --> 00:38:01.590
00:37:59.639 --> 00:38:01.590
00:38:02.070 --> 00:38:19.980
00:38:16.530 --> 00:38:27.570
00:38:23.639 --> 00:39:18.570
00:39:20.130 --> 00:39:23.219
00:39:24.230 --> 00:39:52.940
00:39:53.539 --> 00:40:10.730
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:19.579
00:40:19.900 --> 00:40:22.510
00:40:22.710 --> 00:40:24.989
00:40:22.710 --> 00:40:24.989
00:40:25.019 --> 00:40:25.619
