TED Speaker and Serial Tech CEO with a New Book — Bill Nussey, Founder of the Freeing Energy Project
Bill Nussey is the founder of the Freeing Energy Project, whose mission is to accelerate the shift to cleaner, cheaper energy. His new book is: Freeing Energy: How innovators are using local-scale solar and batteries to disrupt the global energy industry from the outside in. Prior to Freeing Energy, Bill spent most of his career as a tech CEO. His first company, which he co-founded in high school, provided graphics software for early, text-based personal computers.
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BUSINESS
What does your organization do? What makes you unique versus the competition?
Freeing Energy is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to educate innovators on how small-scale local energy systems are a faster path to our clean energy future. It started with a TED talk in 2017, then added a website with 100+ articles, expanded to include a podcast and, in December 2021, it also included a book called Freeing Energy: How Innovators Are Using Local-scale Solar and Batteries to Disrupt the Global Energy Industry from the Outside In.
Some books on this topic feel too "pie in the sky." But that's not the case with your book. Can you talk about your thinking behind that, and why it's so important?
Most of the material written about clean energy takes a top-down, prescriptive approach. This is an important point of view because policymakers and governments need clear views on which big paths will best accomplish their goals.
But Freeing Energy takes a different perspective. It starts with what individuals and communities can do, especially those that are eager to embrace technology and innovation. The final sentence of the book sums up the unique perspective that Freeing Energy takes: As Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”
Building on Kara Swisher's prediction that the world’s first trillionaire will be a green-tech entrepreneur, you noted that this person's wealth will likely come from smaller, “consumer-scale” electricity solutions. Can you explain why you think that's the case?
Giant projects and huge government investments necessarily seek to spread the wealth widely, and with great oversight. As such, envisioning and executing these large projects tends to be slow. In contrast, companies and organizations built around smaller projects, offering consumer and small business scale products, can be funded and grow independent of government funding and policies. Tesla is a good example of a company that grew privately and attained a size and value that no other company in the market has achieved.
Part of your thesis suggests a trend towards defection from monopolistic utilities, so what will the role be for utilities in the future? How will they be different than today?
In my book, I cite Peter Fox-Penner’s book Power After Carbon to explain a very sensible and realistic role for utilities long-term…what he calls Smart Integrators. In a phrase, it’s about “choreographing electrons” rather than selling them.
The clean energy you talked about is not just for the wealthy in OECD countries who can afford Teslas. Can you talk about its importance to the world's more vulnerable communities?
One of the most exciting and eye-opening parts of researching this book from several trips through Africa. Using the same components that power US homes, buildings, and grid, solar and batteries, companies in African countries are creating very small-scale versions of these, like solar lanterns or larger solar home systems (charger, lights, TV) to help low-income families take the first steps up the energy ladder and into opportunities for economic development.
PERSONAL
If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact?
First thing: take time away from my day-to-day business and personal life to clear my head and refill my batteries. It’s hard to overstate what profound level of clarity comes from this now that I’ve gotten the hang of it.
This is one of the most important life lessons I put down in a book I wrote for my kids and later published called Your Mountain is Waiting.
What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks?
Also in my book is the discipline of always having my top three priorities clear and explicitly listed. This “top three list” was a part of every meeting at all of my last few companies.
I also use a tool called DevonThink that is the closest thing to a neural implant to expand my brain that I could imagine.
What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools?
I still love (or listening) to books. In the oldies column, I would recommend: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, and my all-time favorite, The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business. For our industry, I really like The Energy Switch: How Companies and Customers are Transforming the Electrical Grid and the Future of Power, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, and, while not really books per se, the recent material from Tony Seba’s ReThinkX.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family?
Five years ago, I walked into this industry. I had no contacts. Nothing particularly powerful to offer. Yet, nearly everyone from Amory Lovins to startup CEOs gave me the gift of their time and insight.
CLOSING
Do you have any requests, announcements, or final advice for our listeners?
For any of your listeners interested in how innovation can accelerate the transition to clean energy, I hope they’ll take a look at my book.
To learn more about the book: http://FreeingEnergyBook.com
For sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732544646/
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Note:
THE TORCH is an interview series from Entrepreneurs for Impact. We profile CEOs and investors mitigating climate change. Our goal is to highlight their work and inspire others. As we deal with multiple crisis, from Covid and racial injustice to climate change and economic recession, we need some of this positive light in what seem like dark times. Onward and upward.