Hi.

I'm Jeff Rey, your host for Economic Outlook.

We hope you'll join us each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

There's a lot of interest in solar projects in the region.

We're diving deeper into why and sitting down with experts working to promote solar and its benefits.

Coming up on economic outlook.

Private companies have been looking to develop solar fields across the region.

The city of South Bend is work to promote solar across the community, and the University of Notre Dame has some aggressive goals to reduce their carbon footprint, which includes solar.

We're talking about solar and clean energy today.

Joining me first to kick off that conversation is Scott Remer, the senior director of development at Hexagon Energy.

Scott, welcome.

Thanks a lot.

Glad to be here, Jeff.

Hey, glad to have you.

Thank you for being part of this important discussion.

So we're hearing a lot about solar everywhere.

And so I wanted somebody who's in the business.

So thank you for joining us.

So first before we get into too much talk to us about Hexagon Energy and what you do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Happy to so glad to be here.

I'm Hexagon senior director of development, so I said over all of our development efforts across the US, hexagon is a very small, privately owned company based out of Charlottesville, Virginia.

We've been in, you could call it the solar game or the solar coaster, as we like to call it, for about ten years.

Although our founder and CEO, Matt Hansman, has been doing this for a whole lot longer and kind of started in gas and wind and now has been working in solar ever since.

So functionally, what my team and I do is we look around the country for, various sites and locations that, you know, we look for, four things when we try to develop a solar project, we look for an area where people want to buy the power.

We look for an area where there's land that is feasible for hosting solar panels.

We look for a spot on the grid where we can interconnect that project, and then we look for a place where communities would be willing and interested through their permitting process, to allow a project to happen.

So I lead my team and we do this across the country.

We're actively involved in Indiana as well as Illinois, Arkansas and Mississippi, Virginia and the northeast as well.

So talk for a second, Scott.

It seems like projects are happening everywhere.

Communities all across the country.

Tell us a little about, you know, what are the conditions that are making this such a hot, hot industry right now?

Yeah.

You have a few different, currents that are making this happen, right?

We see continually more and more desire to electrify.

We have electric cars out on the grid.

We have phones in our pocket.

You know, you don't think about this very often, but your phone uses the same amount of energy when you take its data center into account as a, as a refrigerator.

So all of us are walking around with the equivalent of a refrigerator in our pocket.

We need power.

We're also seeing spikes in prices of global, energy with gas and, various conflicts happening around the world.

There's a lot of uncertainty.

So we're that is one current.

The other would then be that, you know, solar is not a new technology.

In fact, you could argue that all power that we've ever used is solar.

Just start up because leaves take the solar energy, turn it into a carbon based life form.

It decays.

And that's where we get our fossil fuels from.

Solar is nothing new, even solar photovoltaic.

We've been doing it for since the 1970s.

What I'd say is different is now we can do it at scale and cost effectively in a way that we just have not been able to do in the past.

So you have this growing, increasing demand for renewable and or any kind of energy, really, not just renewable, all kinds of energy.

Coupled with the fact that renewables now are not only green and, you know, everything has a trade off, but they are generally better for the environment than the fossil fuels that we've been burning.

So you have that.

They're green and good for the environment.

And you also have that.

They're a lot cheaper and a lot less expensive than they've ever been.

And so all of those created together creates a perfect, you could say, a perfect storm, what I call a perfect opportunity for a chance to start working on these and bringing renewables onto the grid.

Yeah.

So, Scott, when I think about our area, everybody used to say, we have this big perma cloud that comes in over the winter and we don't see any sun from about November till March, but is an area like are still viable for something like solar?

Absolutely.

Yep.

The grass is growing out there.

That means it's getting the sunlight.

The solar panels can do the same thing.

They'll be able to take that light.

You know, you'll get more or less depending on the different day.

That's part of the big game that we're going through to balance the grid, to make sure that every project that connects to the grid supports the grid as it's needed.

And so here you have the lake effect, the permit cloud that you're referencing.

Still, you get plenty of sunlight to be able to, to really put meaningful power onto the grid locally.

Right.

So that's kind of as we get into our last two minutes here a little bit to just talk about generally the development of it because, because as I've been with with you and others who are talking about this, you know, obviously you need large tracts of land.

You're trying to be sensitive to neighbors.

All this to talk about, you know, some of the best practices in in developing solar fields around there.

Yeah.

You know, it's interesting because as I mentioned, a lot of this is happening in real time.

We're learning lessons on the ground, some of the best practices.

And I think Saint Joe has done overall a good job of incorporating.

Some of these are setbacks from community members that don't want panels to near to their house.

One of the key would be, decommissioning bonds that get posted with the county before any project gets built, that the county has cash on hand, that if something were to happen and the company goes belly up, there's cash on hand to remove those panels and make sure the ground goes back to what it, was originally.

The engagement with community conversation and conversations with folks around the community is key and important, and I think we're learning lessons all the time about how to do a better job of communicating and really helping to to make the case for how how to say this, there are a lot of rumors about harms and damages that come from renewable energy.

They're generally just not true.

There are specific questions that can come up in ways to address that are out around stormwater and runoff, and that kind of issue.

We have answers for how to deal with that.

If I was as worried about some of what I'll call, the myths and rumors, you could call it misinformation, but you see where some things came from.

If I truly believe these things posed as much of a risk as it said that they do, I would be very worried about them too.

And I'm happy to say they're very safe.

Right.

These Scott Remer, from Hexagon Energy.

Scott, thank you for joining us today.

Pleasure to be here.

We'll be right back.

Joining me next to take a closer look at what's happening on campus in this space is Paul Kempf, the assistant vice president of utilities and maintenance at the University of Notre Dame.

Paul, welcome.

Good to be here.

Jeff.

Hey, thank you for being here with Paul.

We're continuing our solar conversation.

We've paid attention a little bit to what the university is doing in this space, and thought you'd be a great one to come on and talk for a minute or two about that.

But let's first though, talk about Notre Dame.

So it is.

I remember a few years ago, Father John had made it, there was some talk about carbon neutrality and trying to use, clean energy.

You talk a little bit about the university's goals.

Sure.

So we actually started back in 2010 and set our first, aspirational goal for sustainable, that had a midterm market, 2030 to have a 50% reduction on a square foot basis, and then 83% by 2050.

As it turns out, between 2010 and 2020, we actually accomplished our first phase goal that was due for 2030, and no good deed goes unpunished.

They asked us to look at it again.

So we just recently, about two years ago, changed our goal to a 65% reduction by 2030 and net neutral by 2050.

And this is really focusing on what we would call scope one and scope two emissions scope one mean from the energy we consume at our power plant and, burning of fuels on campus.

And scope two, which is purchase electricity.

We're not dealing with scope three, which is commuters and, air travel and things like that.

Yeah.

No, I can remember the coal cars coming into campus two years ago.

And it's been interesting to see that movement.

So, so specifically, we're talking a little bit more about solar today.

You've been involved in a couple of projects and have a little solar project coming up on campus.

Can you give us a little bit of insight into those?

Yeah, we started with some small pilot projects.

We had a couple small projects on campus, one on our, nanotechnology research facility, Stenson, Remick, a very small ten KW1 on our engineering building.

And a few years ago, we did about 120 kW array at a warehouse by the airport.

But as we scale up our ideas, we're about to start, nominally a one megawatt array that is going to be installed along Indiana, 933, just north of the Wndu studios.

And some property the university owns.

And we we picked that site because we thought it had great visibility, for the university, great visibility for South Bend.

You know, obviously, a lot of people come to town off the interstate and you'll drive by and see this.

It's unique for us in the sense that it's behind the meters connected to our grid, which is something we like that gives us the opportunity to to learn from that and see how our micro grid system, because we generate a lot of our power on campus.

Obviously, we have the hydro project that's, completed two years ago as well.

So it was a neat project.

It also had a really good opportunity for us to work with the local firm, Crossword Solar to produce the solar panels.

And they have a really great story of hiring, ex-convicts, for labor and getting them back into the workforce.

And we felt, a lot of commonality with that, that mission of theirs, with a lot of the efforts that the university does know, it's exciting.

We're going to take our viewers out and hear a little bit more about crossroads here near the end.

Let's talk a little bit to you have teamed up with your power supplier to so AEP and the University has teamed up also on the solar space.

Correct?

A few years ago, probably in 2020, Indiana Michigan power came to us They were interested in building, solar in our area.

They had spoken to us about our plans for sustainability and came back and had an idea of building an array along the Indiana Toll Road.

A lot of what we've been trying to do, and especially the solar projects have projects, have some visibility.

A lot of the things we do, the hydro projects in a unique spot downtown, people can see it.

But a lot of the things we do on campus kind of get buried.

So they thought, this is an attractive site right on the toll road.

10 million cars a year go by, and they were looking for someone to come in and take a significant stake, leaving a fair portion for the community, whether it's in Indiana or Michigan, to do economic development for one or like minded parties to take, an opportunity to have green power as well.

So we took a 40% share of a 20 megawatt array, and we get the carbon offsets from that.

Right.

So speaking our last couple minutes here.

So geothermal and you also mentioned hydro both also playing in that space too.

Yes.

So the the hydro project was a 2.5MW very unique project on, using the South Bend Dam that's been existing since the 1840s, a great partnership with the city and the ability to, partner with them as well, because as we built a transmission line from downtown back to campus, we actually take that electricity back to our grid.

We partnered with I&M and shared a pathway that kind of put two things together that helped the city combine some infrastructure into a common spot.

And geothermal is something we've done.

We're on our fourth geothermal project, up to about 4650 tons of geothermal capacity, over 2300 wells that we've drilled on campus, mainly in parking lot areas or areas that we don't see that will be developed.

And that's just another part of a diverse, diverse portfolio of renewable and recoverable energy, all helping to reduce our carbon footprint.

In your last 30s, any advice to businesses as they're thinking about this, you've navigated some of the space of businesses or thinking about what would you tell them?

Yeah, I think the big thing that I think people miss is they chase sort of the shiny object.

But, you know, one of the things we did very early on and going back to now is conservation.

That's an easy thing for everybody, whether it's at home or in a business.

Look around and see where you can invest in lights, Hvac systems.

And then if you have the opportunity to look at solar or wind or things of that nature that fit your particular spot, that's a great approach.

Great.

He's Paul Kempf, he's the, assistant vice president, utilities and maintenance at the University of Paul.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you.

I'm going to toss the show now to George Lepiniotis I noticed George is out in the field at Crossroads Solar.

Paul mentioned that during our interview.

George, let me toss it to you.

I'm your co-host, George Lepeniotis.

Notice.

And I'm on the west side of South Bend at Crossroads Solar.

I'm joined today by an old friend of the show, Patrick Regan, the president and CEO of crossroads.

Patrick, thank you for being with us.

My pleasure.

Or should I say, professor, maybe I should know I gave that up.

That's well, and it was that's what we're here about, right?

We're here about this drastic, this step that you took, this, this unique business that you've built here at Crossroads Solar.

Our audience has heard of it before, but for those of us, or for those of our listeners and viewers today that haven't heard about Crossroads Solar and your unique story, briefly tell us what is what was the reason you started crossroads?

Before I started crossroads, largely to demonstrate that you could take a bunch of men and women who society largely discards because of past crimes and show that they'd be great employees.

And if you could do that around something like solar, you'd have a product that would have a long life span.

Solar will outlive me.

And maybe you.

Marty Weil and I started this to actually show that you could do that, you know?

And before you went on air, you were telling me a little bit about the business plan that you built, and you used some grad students, and from your prior, from your prior life and, when you looked at it, you had to kind of convince them that, a net zero would be a successful thing because you're measuring profits somewhat differently.

Let's talk about how you're measuring those profits.

You say that you measure profits in the people.

What does that mean?

Well, if you take a segment, of society, part of the workforce that cannot get jobs, cannot be productive, we don't like them to go back to prison.

And if we could create an environment where they work for an income spend in our community, then they probably won't go back to prison.

So they become positive members of our society.

And if you could show that that worked at Crossroads Solar, then it would work at every other company.

There's nothing unique about us other than our tolerance and respect for these people.

we could create, like a little different world where we're past crimes don't necessarily define future life.

Okay.

And so when we say these, these people that have been discarded, they're all convicted of some form of crime and many or all have been incarcerated.

Oh, okay.

And so I'm assuming that had something to do with the name crossroads.

That part of it is that these people have reached a crossroads, and you are giving them an option that they maybe didn't have, that isn't the genesis of the name.

It came from a friend in New York who called me up when he was listening to Eric Clapton's Crossroads.

Oh, I got and he said, that's the name Pat.

Yeah, yeah, but it does fit the story.

Sure.

That doesn't fit the story.

All right, so you have a social mission.

And that's part of why you were founded.

And I know that in our last episode that we did, at your previous facility, that was your first facility.

And, you have a good problem, right?

You outgrew that facility.

And so we are standing here in your new facility.

And we just did a tour.

It was approximately 50,000ft², about 50,000, which is pretty impressive.

You've also branched out not only in the quantity of panels that you build in, by the way, you want your panels behind us.

But in the types of products that you're building.

Tell us a little bit about the new markets that you're looking at.

So we, we have developed a market in the recreational vehicle space, and some of those are just homes on wheels, and they use a lot of energy.

And, most of them now are putting solar up on it, and they do it down the street from us functionally.

So we're a provider for a lot of those.

We are getting in to what is called the tracker panel business.

So the solar fields that are around here that you'd be familiar with, they move with the sun.

Yeah.

Something has to power that motor.

And in the weird world that you might be familiar with, you can't steal the panel.

The power from the panel owner to run the motor.

So you put what's called a pony panel on it, and it's a little panel that, drives a little motor.

And we're getting into that business, which is a niche form of it.

And then we make panels like this that would go on agricultural settings quite regularly.

The federal grants, they call them, funds.

A lot of the solar development.

And I think the farming community and local communities like the fact that we're home grown.

Yeah.

And so we do a lot of the agricultural stuff, along with residential commercial as well.

And we talked a little bit of before we went on air about the opposition to solar.

It is it is somewhat prevalent as solar development to become more prevalent.

Like any other development, it seems that the forefront of an industry can oftentimes meet with uncertainty.

And I think some of the things that have been talked about are, you know, the, the, the, the, the use of solar and how it fits into our broader economy.

And then also, you know, kind of some of the hazards of it, we, you know, you showed me the panel, this really is the collection device, right?

And that is a collection device.

It's just about paper thin.

And I've broken it a couple of times, which you told me not to, but I did.

But it is simply this device encased in, some protective glass and membranes that help keep it.

What?

The screen.

Tell me, is there anything about this panel as it sits here right now that we should be afraid of?

No.

Absolutely no.

There's nothing in your process that is no toxic, no nothing in the process.

And there are companies that, at the end of their useful life span, recycle the whole.

Right.

So and then we also talk a little bit about, the homegrown nature of these.

You've said that earlier.

I think you said was it 65 or 70% of your materials are here based in the United States, of the components of the components in the panel.

So if you took the cell as one component, the glass as a component.

Yeah.

Pretty close to 70%.

And that's awesome.

So I got to ask what's next?

Where you go tap recover question solar.

Well let's talk about crossroads okay.

Crossroads solar.

Crossroads solar is on the cusp.

And these are decisions that we have to make.

And they have to fit the mission.

But they also have to fit, the demand for all this.

We could grow ten times.

Tomorrow.

And and it requires generating space utilization that would use all of that what you saw out there.

And we have, a potential investor who would like to give us the equipment that's also grow by ten times.

Well, Pat, thank you very much.

We appreciate the tour.

We appreciate the time.

I know you're busy, as our viewers will see.

So thanks to you for for watching today and, for learning more about Crossroads Solar, its mission and how its using a modern technology to revolutionize people's lives.

George thank you.

Appreciate.

Great story out there.

Finally joining me next for some additional community perspective on the topic is Alex Bazan, the director of sustainability at the City of South Bend.

Alex, welcome.

Thank you for having me, Alex.

Great to have you.

City South Bend is doing a lot of great work in sustainability.

Just talk to us high level first what the Department of Sustainability does with the city.

Yeah.

So I'm part of the Office of Sustainability.

Our our mission is to mobilize the community to address the climate emergency.

We do that three different ways illuminate ways to reduce pollution and adapt to changing environment.

Collaborate with the community and design, develop and deliver climate solutions.

Great.

We appreciate the good work you're doing there.

Our focus really today is on solar energy and we have some perspective from the university, from a developer of solar.

We've been out to Crossroads Solar, but the city has been doing a lot of work in this space.

To talk to us a little bit about your office's work in the solar space.

Well, we do a lot of work in solar.

One of our, key programs within our office is the easy program.

Easy stands for the Energy Assistance Solar Savings Initiative.

It supports nonprofits and businesses, to complete energy efficiency and solar projects.

Through the easy program, we've helped a number of nonprofits and businesses, do solar projects.

At least 12 projects, as of today, with a, capacity to produce as much as, 700kW of, electricity.

But we also help, provide assistance and guidance for, residents, who are interested in solar.

We have a go solar page on the city's website, that provides, assistance and guidance on what that looks like and the steps that are needed to take solar.

Our office is always there to provide, guidance and support.

Whether you're part of the easy program or not, whether you're business, nonprofit or resident, who's interested in solar?

We're there to help answer questions and help folks.

Through that process.

Communities sometimes don't have the reputation of being so friendly to solar, but sometimes we're tarred to be solar friendly.

Talk about some steps, maybe, that the city has taken to help be more split friendly.

Yeah.

So we are, a, solar friendly community.

We have a certification for that.

I believe it's, a gold certification.

So that makes it easier for, contractors that are, working on different, solar projects to go through the the, paperwork that, is, required by the city.

So it's a much more, easier process than, in other communities where, perhaps that that, permitting process isn't in place.

So that's one of the things, our office, of course, is, is, an advocate for solar, for, energy efficiency, for renewable energy.

So is, our department as a whole as well as, our leadership, which also, provides the environment for us to, offer programs such as easy, and other, assistance, to, to community members.

So the, the, the resources that we have in place, allow for profits, businesses, residents to, be able to install solar and, what we think is a much easier path, than, communities that don't have that structure in place.

Yeah.

Talk about residents.

For a second.

We touched on kind of the business non profit side.

Are residents embracing this.

Are we starting to see those happen and solar happen in residential neighborhoods as well?

Absolutely.

Yes.

So, we, we have a number of solar installs that happen within the neighborhoods.

I believe that since the past two years, we've seen, over two megawatts of, solar energy, production.

That's, through our permitting process.

So we know that there's a number of solar projects that have popped up in, across the city.

Those being, mainly from, the residential space.

So that's really great to see.

Of course, the commercial business space, plays a significant role in that as well.

But, yes, residents, are installing solar.

There are a number of incentives, that are available through the Inflation Reduction Act, that, also make it easier for folks that, that want to install solar.

And so that makes it, an even much more enticing, offer for folks to who are looking to reduce their energy consumption.

And, are looking for a quick return on investment.

The incentive through the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act makes that a much easier sell historically.

And I'm not sure the power companies were as as favorable for people doing solar.

Has that environment changed a little bit in recent years?

I think I think so, yeah.

So the utilities for sure have seen the value of solar.

So, you look at the energy mix of a lot of utilities across the country.

And you see that a lot of them are, utilizing solar as part of their energy mix because, it makes sense.

Economic.

And I think there is an openness from the utilities to, have their customers, incorporate solar into the grid.

That varies from utility, utility.

And there's processes in place to, for folks to be able to, install their solar and connect it to the grid.

But it really varies utility, utility.

But I think overall, the utility is that, for example, Indiana, Michigan power that we work with.

They've been open to, working with us through easy and other, initiatives on solar, to make the connection to solar and their grid, straightforward.

Yeah.

As we get close to the end, maybe an hour or less minutes.

So talk a little bit about, benefits.

Why why should homeowners, businesses, nonprofits in the community be thinking about, solar or other clean energy sources?

Well, solar is a really great way to reduce your energy consumption.

Solar is cheaper than it's ever been.

The panels are efficient than they've ever been.

The technology will continue to improve, but it's it's really, economically feasible for solar to be a possibility whether you're a homeowner or business or nonprofit.

And I think that's really the biggest selling point is that you can really reduce your energy consumption and your utility bills.

Utility bills have, been rising, every year.

Utility rates continue to rise.

Solar is free.

And, with solar panels, you can have a consistent, electricity production that can reduce your energy consumption, from a daily basis.

So this allows that opportunity to really have a, a consistent, secure source of energy that can, reduce, the, the bills that you see every month.

Alex.

Thank you.

Alex Bazan, he's the director of sustainability city, South bend.

Alex, thanks for being here with us today.

Thank you.

That's it for our show today on behalf of the entire team here at WNIT PBS Michiana, we want to thank you for watching on WNIT you're listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes.

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