Green Giants: Titans of Clean Energy Podcast

In Episode 95 of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Salim Rahemtulla, President and CEO of PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp., for a grounded, real-world conversation on hydrogen, infrastructure, and what it actually takes to build in a volatile market.

With a background as a U.S. Naval Officer and over $1 billion in infrastructure projects delivered, Salim brings operational discipline and strategic clarity to one of the most misunderstood sectors in energy.

This episode moves beyond the hype cycle and into execution.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Salim’s military background shaped his approach to risk, systems thinking, and decision-making in hydrogen
• Why infrastructure success depends on stakeholder alignment, permitting strategy, and long-term operational planning
• What most cleantech founders underestimate when navigating bureaucracy and building physical assets
• The reality of raising capital during market downturns and how to maintain conviction through uncertainty
• Lessons from navigating failed partnerships, shifting investor sentiment, and multi-year capital challenges
• Why resilience and team alignment are critical when building in emerging energy markets
•  The strategic pivot into data center backup power and why it unlocked new investor interest
• The difference between hydrogen hype and real market demand across heavy industry and energy systems
• Common misconceptions around hydrogen safety, cost, and scalability
• Why on-site hydrogen production can eliminate logistics costs and improve economic viability
• The role hydrogen already plays in industries like ammonia, refining, aerospace, and chemicals
• Where hydrogen has the greatest decarbonization potential, including steel, cement, and maritime
• Why hydrogen is not just a bridge technology but a long-term pillar of the energy system
• The importance of narrative, communication, and education in scaling clean energy solutions

This episode is ultimately about resilience, discipline, and clarity of mission. It is a candid look at what survives when markets shift, capital tightens, and only the most grounded operators continue building.

If you are working in clean energy, infrastructure, or climate tech, this conversation offers practical insight into how real progress gets made, especially when the path forward is not obvious.

Links: 

Salim Rahemtulla on LinkedIn

PowerTap's Website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

Battery energy storage is rapidly becoming one of the most critical pieces of modern energy infrastructure. But behind the clean white containers sitting quietly on grid sites lies one of the most complex operational challenges in the energy industry.

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Lennart Hinrichs, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Americas at TWAICE, a leading battery analytics platform helping operators improve the safety, performance, and profitability of battery energy storage systems.

Lennart has been part of TWAICE’s journey since the company’s early days, helping build the platform as the battery storage industry evolved from small pilot projects to gigawatt-scale portfolios. His work focuses on helping energy companies turn massive volumes of battery data into actionable insights that improve operations and prevent costly problems.

As battery storage scales across global energy markets, Lennart explains why many systems underperform once deployed. The challenge is rarely a single component failure. Instead, it is the complex interaction between thousands of battery cells, control systems, software, and operational processes.

In the conversation, Lennart breaks down why the industry often misunderstands battery storage. From the outside, a battery container looks simple. In reality, a single storage system can generate billions of data points every day and requires sophisticated analytics to identify problems early and maintain performance.

The discussion explores how small issues inside a battery system can quietly escalate. A handful of faulty cells or imbalances within a system can significantly reduce usable capacity, impact market participation, and lead to lost revenue if operators cannot quickly identify root causes.

Lennart also shares real-world examples of how analytics can transform battery operations. In one case, identifying a small number of defective cells restored millions of dollars in annual revenue for a storage project. In another, predictive insights helped operators move from reactive firefighting to proactive maintenance.

The episode also dives into broader industry challenges, including scaling battery portfolios, managing complex vendor relationships, navigating long-term service agreements, and dealing with the growing shortage of talent across the energy storage sector.

Looking ahead, Lennart discusses how rising electricity demand, the growth of AI-driven data centers, and the expansion of renewable generation will dramatically increase the need for energy storage.

For operators, investors, and developers, the message is clear: running batteries successfully requires more than installing hardware. It requires treating storage as long-term infrastructure and building the operational intelligence needed to manage it at scale.

If you want a deeper understanding of how battery storage actually works once projects move beyond pilot scale, this conversation offers a grounded look inside the systems powering the energy transition.

Links:

Lennart Hinrichs on LinkedIn

TWAICE's Website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

The renewable energy industry is entering a new phase. Solar alone is no longer the story.

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Chris Williamson, Director of Business Development at Polaron Solar Energy, to explore how the energy transition is evolving from simple generation to intelligent, integrated systems.

Chris has spent decades working across the renewable energy landscape, from early off-grid solar installations to shaping national solar training standards and leading global energy projects. His career spans technical design, workforce education, international development, and commercial energy strategy. 

Today, he helps guide Polaron’s expansion as a vertically integrated energy company focused on solar, energy storage systems, EV charging, and advanced grid technologies.

This conversation dives deep into how renewables are maturing and why the next chapter of the energy transition will be defined by intelligence, flexibility, and system design rather than just generation capacity.

Chris explains why energy storage is becoming essential infrastructure, how artificial intelligence is transforming energy management, and why solar is evolving into what he calls modular power. 

The discussion also explores the real-world challenges of building renewable energy systems globally. Having worked across Canada, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, Chris shares how energy access means very different things depending on the market, from reducing electricity costs in developed countries to enabling education, water access, and economic growth in developing regions. 

The episode also challenges conventional thinking around incentives and policy. Chris argues that the renewable industry has matured to the point where technology and economics can increasingly stand on their own, and that the next focus should be smarter grid design, decentralized energy systems, and resilient infrastructure.

Looking ahead, Chris sees enormous opportunity in the convergence of solar, batteries, artificial intelligence, EV charging, and decentralized power networks. Together, these technologies are transforming energy from a centralized commodity into a flexible, intelligent service delivered closer to where it is consumed.

For anyone working in clean energy, grid innovation, or energy infrastructure, this episode offers a clear look at how the industry is evolving and what it will take to design systems that actually work in the real world.

In This Episode We Discuss:

• How Chris transitioned from electrician to global clean energy leader
• The creation of Canada’s first national solar training standards
• Why solar companies are evolving into full energy companies
• The growing role of battery storage in modern energy systems
• How AI and machine learning are optimizing energy production and consumption
• The future of decentralized grids and modular power systems
• Why renewable incentives may become less necessary as the industry matures
• Emerging technologies that could reshape global electricity infrastructure

If you want to understand where renewable energy is headed next, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Links: 

Chris Williamson on LinkedIn

Polaron's Website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

The clean energy transition is creating one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time. But unlocking its full potential requires expanding access to the financial tools that make participation possible.

In this powerful episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Doug Coward, Founder and Director of National Expansion and Partnerships at the Solar and Energy Loan Fund, known as SELF. As one of the first nonprofit green banks and Community Development Financial Institutions in the United States, SELF is helping ensure that energy efficiency, resilience, and solar power are accessible to working families and underserved communities.

Doug’s journey began in Florida public service, where he served 12 years as a county commissioner. A proposed coal plant in the Sunshine State became the catalyst for a bigger vision. Rather than waiting for top-down change, Doug focused on building a new financing model from the ground up.

Today, nearly half of Americans who apply for loans are denied. That financing gap affects everything from hurricane recovery to home efficiency upgrades. SELF addresses this challenge with a different underwriting approach based on ability to pay, not credit scores.

The impact is measurable and meaningful:

• $63 million deployed in clean energy and resilience loans
• Nearly 4,500 homes retrofitted
• 13,000+ people positively impacted
• 70 percent of borrowers from low and moderate income households
• Default rate under 2 percent

Doug shares powerful stories of homeowners rebuilding after hurricanes, seniors accessing affordable roof repairs, and global crowdfunding efforts that mobilized support in hours rather than weeks.

We also explore:

• How green banks function as implementation tools for local governments
• Why financial inclusion is essential to scaling clean energy adoption
• The role of contractor vetting and consumer protection in building trust
• The economic opportunity of domestic solar manufacturing
• SELF’s plug and play national expansion model now active in 17 states

This conversation highlights how thoughtful financing structures can strengthen communities, create local jobs, reduce energy burdens, and build long-term resilience.

If you care about practical climate solutions that work at the household level, this episode offers both inspiration and a proven model.

Learn more about SELF
Explore Kiva’s impact investing platform

Doug Coward on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Green Giants for more conversations with the leaders building the renewable energy economy from the ground up.

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

Canada has the resources. It has the talent. It has global demand knocking at the door.

So why does so much potential stall before projects reach final investment decision (FID)?

In Episode 91 of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Jay Khosla and Yiota Kokkinos of the Public Policy Forum to unpack what it actually takes to build large-scale energy, infrastructure, and critical mineral projects in Canada.

Drawing from decades of leadership inside Natural Resources Canada, the Privy Council Office, and global energy forums, Jay and Yiota bring rare, insider clarity to one pressing question:

How does Canada move from ambition to execution?

Their report, Build Big Things, outlines a practical, four-pillar framework to get major projects across the finish line:

• Coordinated financing that aligns public capital and private investment
•  Regulatory certainty with clear timelines and disciplined execution
•  Indigenous economic partnership built on ownership and trust
•  Enabling infrastructure planned as integrated systems, not afterthoughts

They explore why final investment decision is the real battleground for global capital, how fragmented financing slows progress, and why certainty is Canada’s greatest competitive advantage.

The conversation also tackles:

• Canada’s declining productivity and GDP per capita growth
•  The geopolitical urgency created by shifting U.S. trade dynamics
•  Why perception matters in global investment markets
•  How culture change inside public institutions can unlock outcomes
•  Why small modular reactors may be Canada’s defining test case

Canada exports over 90 percent of its energy. The world wants what Canada has. But capital is mobile, and investors move where projects move.

If Canada can streamline governance, align federal and provincial leadership, modernize regulatory execution, and build meaningful Indigenous economic participation, the upside is enormous. Modeling suggests the country could add trillions in economic value over the next decade.

This episode is not about theory. It is about implementation.

If Canada gets this right, it does not just build projects. It reshapes its economic future.

Links: 

Public Policy Forum's website

Build Big Things Playbook

Yiota Kokkinos - LinkedIn

Jay Khosla - LinkedIn

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

Clean energy doesn’t scale on ambition alone. It scales on trust, data, and systems most people never see.

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Ben Gerber, President and CEO of CleanCounts, the nonprofit organization operating one of the most critical yet least visible pieces of clean energy infrastructure in North America.

CleanCounts serves as the system of record behind clean energy markets, ensuring renewable electricity and clean fuels are tracked accurately, transparently, and without double counting. While few people ever interact with a clean energy registry directly, nearly every clean energy transaction depends on one.

Ben shares how CleanCounts grew from a small, compliance-focused nonprofit into North America’s largest clean energy registry by volume, supporting both regulated markets and the rapidly expanding voluntary market. Over the past decade, the organization scaled by solving hard, unglamorous problems that others overlooked, building credibility through audited financials, customer-first service, and a relentless focus on data integrity.

The conversation explores why registries function as invisible infrastructure, underpinning corporate climate commitments, state policies, and emerging 24/7 carbon-free energy goals. Ben explains why clean energy attributes exist in the first place, what critics often misunderstand about them, and why abandoning accounting systems in favor of simplistic grid averages would have serious consequences for renewable development, jobs, and investment.

A pivotal moment in CleanCounts’ evolution came when the organization brought software development in-house. That decision allowed CleanCounts to innovate faster, lower costs, and prepare for market changes years before they became mainstream, including hourly energy tracking, hydrogen and nuclear certificates, pollinator-friendly solar credits, and future clean ammonia registries.

Ben also unpacks the growing complexity of climate accounting as corporate buyers move beyond procurement toward measurable emissions impact. From hourly matching to emissionality models, he explains why no single framework is a silver bullet and why flexibility, optionality, and validated data matter more than ideology.

The episode closes with a forward-looking view of the clean energy transition, where electrons and molecules increasingly intersect, data transparency becomes embedded in everyday decision-making, and trust remains the foundation that makes scale possible.

If you want to understand how clean energy markets actually function and why counting correctly matters as much as building fast, this conversation provides rare clarity.

Links:

Ben Gerber on LinkedIn

CleanCounts Website

CleanCounts expands clean energy tracking 

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

Nuclear energy is having a long-overdue moment. Electricity demand is rising rapidly, advanced reactors are moving closer to deployment, and the United States is sitting on a massive stockpile of spent nuclear fuel with no scalable solution in place.

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Ed McGinnis, President and CEO of Curio, to challenge one of the most entrenched assumptions in clean energy: that nuclear waste is an unsolvable problem.

With more than three decades of experience across the U.S. Department of Energy, the White House, and national security institutions, McGinnis brings a rare, systems-level perspective to the conversation. Today, he leads Curio, a company working to recycle spent nuclear fuel, dramatically reduce long-term waste volumes, and fuel the next generation of advanced reactors.

The discussion reframes spent nuclear fuel as a largely untapped national asset. McGinnis explains how U.S. policy decisions dating back decades sidelined recycling, why only a small fraction of nuclear fuel’s energy is ever used, and how modern recycling approaches could strengthen energy security, decarbonization, and supply chain independence at the same time.

Key themes include:

• Why spent nuclear fuel still contains enormous energy and economic value
• How Curio’s NuCycle® process differs from legacy recycling methods
• The role nuclear recycling can play in advanced reactors and AI-driven electricity demand
• How recycling can reduce long-term storage requirements from hundreds of thousands of years to centuries
• Why vertical integration across recycling, fuel supply, and reactors matters for nuclear’s future

McGinnis also discusses Curio’s recent milestones, including national laboratory validation of its technology, strategic partnerships, and progress toward commercial-scale deployment.

This episode offers a grounded, pragmatic look at how nuclear energy can move beyond stalled policy and legacy assumptions to become a cornerstone of a resilient, clean, and secure energy system.

Links:
Ed McGinnis on LinkedIn
Curio's Website

To book this guest on your podcast or news program, please contact Brian Hyland at Cricket Public Relations:
www.cricketpr.com
[email protected] 
(201) 410-4563

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

Steel is everywhere. It’s in our cities, vehicles, infrastructure, and daily lives. But few people realize it’s also responsible for roughly 10 percent of global CO₂ emissions. In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Kevin Galloway, Vice President of Product at Electra, to explore how one climate tech startup is taking on one of the world’s hardest decarbonization challenges.

Kevin shares his journey from engineering physics and materials science into clean energy startups, including batteries, microgrids, and electrochemical systems, and how those experiences prepared him to help build Electra from a literal garage startup into a company focused on reinventing iron and steelmaking. The conversation dives deep into what it really takes to scale physical climate technology, where progress is measured in years rather than software release cycles.

This episode goes beyond the technology. Kevin explains why steel is a systems problem, not just a technical one, and how Electra approaches decarbonization without simply shifting environmental harm elsewhere. From reducing waste across the mining and steel value chain to designing processes compatible with renewable energy, Electra’s mission is about solving one problem without creating another.

Wes and Kevin also unpack what startup life actually demands, why early-stage companies can be powerful accelerators for professional growth, and how leadership evolves as teams scale. Kevin offers thoughtful insight on building trust, enabling teams, making hard pivots when new breakthroughs emerge, and choosing the right investors for long-term, capital-intensive climate solutions.

The conversation closes with an optimistic look at the future of clean energy and heavy industry, advice for young engineers considering climate tech careers, and a vision for what the world could look like if low-carbon steel becomes the norm.

Key themes covered in this episode include:

• Why steel is one of the biggest and least understood climate challenges
• How Electra is rethinking iron production using clean energy and systems-level design
• Lessons from scaling hard tech startups and leading engineering teams
• The importance of aligned investors in physical climate technology
• Career advice for engineers and operators entering clean energy

If you’re interested in climate tech, clean energy innovation, industrial decarbonization, or what it really takes to build companies that change how the world works, this is a must-listen episode.

Links: 

Kevin Galloway on LinkedIn

Electra's Website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

What does it take to scale utility-scale solar construction fast, safely, and at gigawatt scale?

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Jeremy Teresinski, Vice President of Construction at Qcells USA, to explore how one of the most ambitious EPC platforms in the country is redefining how large-scale solar gets built.

Jeremy’s leadership story is anything but traditional. He started his career as a day laborer installing solar modules, worked his way through the trades and electrical apprenticeship, and ultimately rose into executive leadership. Today, he oversees construction execution for Qcells’ self-perform utility-scale projects, including some of the largest solar and energy storage developments currently underway in the United States.

This conversation is about execution, people, and preparation at scale.

Wes and Jeremy unpack how Qcells rapidly built a construction organization from the ground up, moving from minimal self-perform capability to delivering projects measured in hundreds of megawatts and gigawatts. Jeremy shares the systems, standards, and leadership principles required to scale without sacrificing safety, quality, or culture.

Key topics include:

• How Qcells built a scalable construction platform focused on standardization and execution
• Why preparation and planning matter more than speed alone
• How empowering field leaders drives accountability and performance
• What most executives misunderstand about craft labor
• How Qcells supports workforce development, training, and well-being
• The role of automation, physical AI, and new skill sets in the future of solar construction
• Why solar remains the fastest and most affordable solution to meet explosive power demand from AI and data centers

This episode offers a rare look at what the energy transition looks like when leadership comes from the field and execution is treated as a strategic advantage.

If you care about how clean energy is actually built, this is a must-listen.

Links: 

Jeremy Teresinski on LinkedIn

Qcells USA EPC Website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/

What if the biggest reason renewable energy projects fail has nothing to do with technology or capital... and everything to do with trust?

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Tristan Walker, President at Massif Energy, a company rethinking how renewable projects get built by putting communities at the center from day one.

Tristan grew up in a boom-and-bust resource town in British Columbia. He trained as an aerospace engineer, worked in municipal government, and even ran a clothing brand that funded community solar projects. Today, he's leading a new kind of clean energy company; one that starts every project with the question: "What does this community actually want?"

What You'll Learn:

• Why community resistance often starts before the first permit is filed
• How oil and gas earned loyalty in rural regions and what renewables can learn from that
• The disconnect between local communities and institutional project owners
• How to build pride and trust by co-designing projects from the ground up
• Why BC’s hydro storage makes it a hidden asset in a renewables-first future
• A mindset shift every developer and investor should adopt if they want to scale faster

This episode is for you if:

• You build, invest in, or develop clean energy projects
• You partner with Indigenous or rural communities
• You care about scaling renewables with real public support
• You believe trust is as important as technology in the energy transition

Links: 

Tristan Walker on LinkedIn

Massif Energy's website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/

• Email: [email protected]
• https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
• https://leegroupsearch.com/