LinkedIn is fun for getting to know other people and energy industry leaders. Ralph Rodriquez is a perfect example. He had never been on a podcast, and we had an absolute blast.
And anytime you can develop several T-shirt slogans, you know it will be a fun podcast. If we can’t make fun of ourselves and the Energy Transition, we can’t enjoy trying to solve global energy poverty. Like one T-Shirt: “Does this Carbon Footprint make my As# Look Big?”.
Please follow Ralph on his LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/energyninja/
*Please note his LinkedIn URL: energyninja. I should have realized I was being set up for a fun interview.
00:00 – Intro
02:53 – Legend Energy Advisors Ralph Rodriguez, discusses transparency in wholesale energy markets and shares a success story of a Texas mining operation’s profits during market volatility.
05:49 – Importance of data in managing labor and energy costs, achieving a 30% energy cost reduction in a NYC building, and providing real-time carbon footprint data.
11:15 – Addressing energy efficiency amidst upcoming carbon taxes, advocating for businesses to engage in discussions and implement strategies to reduce carbon footprints.
15:44 – Humor, authenticity, and proactive engagement in addressing regulatory challenges, emphasizing the need for businesses to track and reduce carbon footprints.
20:40 – Navigating LinkedIn challenges, discussing AI’s evolving role in software platforms, and highlighting real-time energy analytics in diverse industries.
25:35 – Challenges of energy management amid increasing power demands, rising costs, and potential blackouts, stressing the importance of real-time energy analytics.
32:48 – Increasing focus on data centers and commercial real estate in Q4, emphasizing integrated solutions for minimizing environmental footprints and teasing the idea of T-shirt entrepreneurship.
35:09 – Outro
Give us your thoughts on the T-shirt design – We had others that the staff put together but HR canned them.
Stuart Turley [00:00:03] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley, president CEO of the Sandstone Group. We got some serious energy problems in the United States. There’s a couple of other ways that we can save it. We can either lower the price of energy or we can have a little bit of better management and actually reduce what we use. And better yet, how do you know if you’re even using what how do you reduce what you don’t know? I’ve got a special guest here. I’ve got Ralph Rodrigues, and he is over at Legend Energy Advisors. And we’ve been chit chat and a little bit of inside baseball about Ralph. Ralph and I have been beating each other up on LinkedIn and that’s how we met. I want to give a shout out to LinkedIn and Ralph for putting up with me on LinkedIn because we’ve had fun poking at each other and we’ve also been talking about his black belt in Jiu Jitsu jujitsu, and that’s my Texas Oklahoma accent coming out. And we have had an absolute blast talking about my black belt in Taekwondo and how badly I got beat up. Well, Ralph, thank you for stopping by the podcast.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:01:24] And Stu, thanks so much for having me. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity and and look forward to having this discussion. And hopefully you all beat me up with your taekwondo over the, the, the airways here.
Stuart Turley [00:01:39] Oh, I got so beat up. You know, we never had any discipline problems in my house because my son and my daughter both just went ballistic on it. And my son, when he hit 16, just would be the snot and I would crack. When I got out of bed the next morning and my wife would lean over and she goes, He beat you up again. Did Ning and I. Yeah, he did. So I my son, if you’re listening. Oh, you know how to hurt me.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:02:13] Well, it’s kind of. It’s kind of disgusting that that the older you get you sometimes the stories of how you hurt or how you got hurt don’t really. They’re not as exciting. You know, it’s kind of like, hey, I rolled out of bed this morning, you know what I mean? And somehow I ended up with a crack in my neck, you know?
Stuart Turley [00:02:31] Oh, yeah. And I, you know, you and I were talking about being married, and I’ve been married 37 years, and I believing she has got a 37 years. One of those was a good year. But you also had a few things about being married. Men understand this, but we also don’t understand turning the lights out. Ralph And we’re sitting here and you tell us a little bit about what you do because you got a weird company that is really involved in all types of energy. Tell us what you got going on over there.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:03:05] Yeah, so so interestingly enough, Legend Energy Advisors founder and CEO Dan Crosby used to work for, you know, he used to manage national accounts actually for one of the largest brokerage houses in the country. And he had challenges. You know, he would need to talk to people, you know, his clients, and they’d reach out to him and they’d say, man, my bill, you know, it’s like twice as much as it was, you know, the month before what happened. And he’d look at him and say, Well, you use twice as much energy. And, you know, obviously they were like, not satisfied with that answer. Neither was Dan. He really struggled with that and later decided that, you know, that space was really challenging because those people are not really there to help them understand how they’re using or metabolizing energy. Right. And so it it was an, you know, an interesting transition for him because he he wanted to to really kind of help them understand how they were using that energy. And the only way to do that is by having complete transparency in the wholesale energy markets, you know, and understanding how they’re using that energy.
Stuart Turley [00:04:19] Right. And so when you get your bill and you don’t realize that $2 was your hot water heater and then, you know, or $1.95, and then all of a sudden in Texas, was it two years ago, the thousand dollars a kilowatt hour or whatever it was.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:04:37] As you say, it’s insane, right? I mean, the the mark I mean, whenever those challenges come, there’s people that still got to keep cranking their businesses. And so some people are taking advantage of that. And it’s the ones that are actively participating in the energy markets. And they can really only do that by, you know, by operating in real time, you know, And so so we’ve had some clients actually, which was into. Fittingly enough that you mention that we have we had a mining client in in Texas that was one of the was the only operational mine during that time and literally just made millions of dollars just in a couple of days.
Stuart Turley [00:05:20] Yeah. How do you put that one by your wife? Hello, honey. Our bill went to, you know, $20,000. Oops.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:05:28] You don’t. You don’t. You don’t.
Stuart Turley [00:05:33] But both you and I, we get our head shoveled in the back of a head so hard our eyeballs would fall out. Absolutely. Absolutely. And but now when we sit back and take a look at your software that you have the balance out and track the information. We were talking about data and as a CEO, if you’re trying to run a company and you got to look out for labor and energy, are some of your biggest costs that you have to try to manage as a, you know, type of a business owner. So what can you guys do as far as what are your thoughts on how to you don’t know what you’re going to save if you don’t know what how to do it. I mean. Right.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:06:16] Exactly. It’s like you don’t know. It’s like that old question. You don’t know what you don’t know. So it’s like, you know, but but then you have to convince somebody to take the step to try to understand what you don’t know. And sometimes bridging that gap is really challenging. Right? But but the key is really an understanding that there’s three components that when they work together, really makes the ability for decision makers to understand how they’re using energy and how to how to improve efficiency. Because really, at the end of the day. Whether you’re trying to save the environment or whether your goal is to save money. Efficiency is really the driver for both of those items, right? So so the key is in those three components is, is having a, you know, an advisor that does market intelligence, that understands and has the highest level market intelligence, but can apply that with the type of analytics platform like like our legend analytics platform, which aggregates and, you know, and extrapolates the data seamlessly. And and it’s actually auditable data, but then also understanding the infrastructure component. Because when you work all those three things together, you can optimize the efficiency and it just really improves how you’re operating as a business. And, and you know, we’re doing some really, really interesting things where we’re helping people in some ways that are really, really significant.
Stuart Turley [00:07:47] Give us a few examples.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:07:49] Yeah. So, so one of our clients in New York City is a 60 story building. And, you know, we we started implementing our platform and and our technology and the expertise within our organization because those three silos actually have different people that had. Oh, yes. And so their ability to dynamically work together to, to to kind of integrate those solutions to understand is really improved efficiency in ways that are like incredible. I mean, that building is, is some 30%. You know, they spend some 30% less on their energy bills than they did previously. And one of the cool things is that because because we do real time analytics is, is they’re able to actually have a real time are their clients or are able to have a real time carbon footprint.
Stuart Turley [00:08:47] Wow.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:08:48] Their product, which is something that’s really different. I mean, we do that in hotels too, where we’re a client, you know, when they’re on their way out, you know, they can get their statement and it gives them the carbon footprint right there, which is something that’s really different.
Stuart Turley [00:09:03] Oh, man, that is extremely different. And when you sit back and kind of think as a CEO, you’re responsible to your investors and your stakeholders and you’re sitting here and you’ve got new things coming around the corner. If you don’t have auditable information, you could be in trouble. And that’s one of the things that bothers me about the tax, the excuse me, the carbon tax. Regulatory regulatory issues coming around the corner is you you almost have to look at your data as a defense shield because if you don’t have the data, it’s kind of like the IRS showing up at your doorstep. You almost have to prove that you’re innocent.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:09:49] Yeah. So take it one step further and I can tell you that that we’ve had experience because we engage with really, you know, a lot of energy, intense businesses across almost every sector, including oil and gas, by the way. I mean, some of our clients are some of the largest oil and gas companies in North America. And and we can tell you specifically that there’s a significant amount of of overreporting and underreporting. And so that’s really, you know, by virtue of of using like Excel Excel spreadsheets to, you know, to input your data. And it just requires manpower. It’s prone to error. And in the age of AI, it’s like, man, you really got to advance, you know, to the next level. And so, you know, I feel fortunate that I’m a part of Legend Energy Advisors because, you know, our founder and CEO is is really and truly a visionary. I mean, he’s so far ahead of every, you know, in his thought process and and the solutions. And, you know, it makes it easy for me, you know, as a business development sales type person, when you have a product and services that are solving real world problems. Man Yeah, there’s no better feeling than that. It’s it’s an easy sale. The hardest part for me is just getting the meetings, you know.
Stuart Turley [00:11:15] I’m yeah, I can understand that. It’s all about thought leadership and people want to buy from somebody that they won’t they know and that you’re not trying to sell them a bit bill of goods, but when you’re trying to save them money and protect them from the government, as far as the carbon taxes that are coming on and everything else that’s really not selling, that’s saving your clients, that’s kind of cool.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:11:38] Yeah, it really is. And a lot of people don’t really understand. I mean, there’s there’s some are they haven’t really resonated with the idea yet. But like local law 97 in New York, you know that law is actually I mean it’s you know it’s common. And so there’s significant penalties for your carbon footprint, you know, like, you know, for your reporting initiatives and whatnot. If you’re not reducing those carbon footprint, you’re going to pay. And so the question is, is do you go ahead and suck it up and try to pay earlier and start developing some strategies to improve your efficiency or do you wait until the penalties come down the pike and then everybody’s already jammed up and doesn’t really have enough time to, you know, to contend with with you because they’re busy, you know, So, you know, kind of like the, you know, it’s it’s some challenging times coming ahead. But New York’s in for a rude awakening Vancouver is to.
Stuart Turley [00:12:40] What’s going on there?
Ralph Rodriguez [00:12:41] Same, same type of initiative for Vancouver. And and I promise you, it’s coming to to a city near you. So, you know us in Dallas, you know, it’s it’s it’s coming to Dallas, too. I mean maybe later than than, you know, the others. But but it’s definitely coming. We need to be prepared for it.
Stuart Turley [00:13:00] Oh, my goodness.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:13:01] I think I think at the end of the day, it’s really, really important to engage in the discussions, even if you’re not making a decision. I find that the I like the people in those industries and engage with them and start having those difficult discussions so that you can figure out what your pathway is forward.
Stuart Turley [00:13:20] Right. You know, Ralph and I appreciate exactly what you just said, because the discussion on my end is talking to people around the world and we’re talking about the energy crisis. And that’s why when you and I were just chatting about this, very rarely does anybody talk about how do you save energy, how do you actually do that? And it’s kind of refreshing. And but, you know, I’m going to I’m going to put this as a T-shirt. I think you and I need to, like, get this T-shirt out.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:13:53] Because we need to collaborate together.
Stuart Turley [00:13:56] Yeah, we got to get a T-shirt out there that says, Does my carbon footprint make my ass look big? Because I think we ought to do that.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:14:05] Well, I don’t tell you.
Stuart Turley [00:14:06] Though. Don’t tell my wife, because you and I were chatting. You know, the worst words as a husband that you could ever say is you here. Does this dress make me look fat? And you go, you know, you’re you know, you’re getting me.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:14:23] So I can tell you that I, you know, that during those times, as well as when my wife figures out that I’m really hard of hearing, you know, And so I’m starting. Yeah, I’m here. And at that point in time and my attention span is shorter, so you get my drift.
Stuart Turley [00:14:42] All right, Mr. Producer, I’d love for you to mark down time on this for our art department to come up with a t shirt that says, Does this carbon footprint make my ass look that big? That is a t shirt. I just made that up.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:15:00] That’s great. That’s a great concept that I’d wear. I’d wear it all the time, I promise.
Stuart Turley [00:15:09] You know, there’s so much. I’m sitting here thinking about this. We could sit there and you could have somebody and have the shade off of their backside, you know? And yeah, I mean.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:15:20] I’m thinking you’ve already had these ideas.
Stuart Turley [00:15:24] Brainstorming. Oh, I swear I haven’t. I swear. That’s why this is so funny is I can barely even keep myself. And speaking of the devil here, my wife. My wife is texting me on the phone, so I’m over here going.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:15:38] Yes, this. That’s so funny.
Stuart Turley [00:15:42] That. Oh, no. But, you know, as we sit here and we talk about this, it’s getting the word out there and and really doing what you’re doing. I want to give you a shout out on what you’re doing on LinkedIn. And I like your posts. I like your inter activeness on there. And that’s what got us chit chatting. And you even poked fun at me a few times and I absolutely love it. I love anybody poking fun at me. I can’t remember which one it was, but it was like, you’re a dope or something. I can’t remember what it was absolutely a wonderful I was like, All right.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:16:20] You know, you got to be real, right? If you’re not authentic, then then what’s the purpose?
Stuart Turley [00:16:25] Oh, yeah, but it helps. And I think that that’s part of society that we’re not doing right now. And that is humor is amazing. And I appreciate what you’re doing, trying to educate people out there because your posts are very, very good. So everybody needs to follow. Ralph Rodriguez l e d a p o m Now, what is that mean? Because I’m over here going, That’s a lot of initials behind your name there.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:16:57] Yeah, that’s the lead operations and management certification.
Stuart Turley [00:17:02] Okay.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:17:03] From the from the Green Building Institute.
Stuart Turley [00:17:06] Oh, nice.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:17:07] Yeah. So, so it’s just a certification for Leed, for Leed buildings. And, you know, there’s a lot of people that follow different frameworks. Okay. Would they try to use to, to, to improve operationally? And there’s, you know, sustainability initiatives and that’s one of them.
Stuart Turley [00:17:25] I was I was hoping that that was some way to make a husband sounds, you know, listen to his wife a little more. But I’m glad it’s that it’s something.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:17:33] Like Yeah, but it’s not but but I’ll tell you what, it sure does make me feel important.
Stuart Turley [00:17:41] I am so glad my wife is not standing over my shoulder and she has come up behind me and I’m like, All I can see is this hand come in from behind my head. Whack. Yeah.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:17:55] So I’m like, I can.
Stuart Turley [00:17:57] Relax out of the city because this is a huge problem. Getting back to the the regulatory issues coming around the corner. I I’ve seen some horrific regulations coming around the corner and I applaud your comment. For our podcast listeners, when Ralph said that I my eyebrow my unibrow went up because I was absolutely like, wait a minute, if you don’t start tracking it now, what happens when the fines come in? Holy smokes, that’s frightening.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:18:33] Yeah. And you know, the truth is, is there then they’re no joke. I mean, these are significant fines. And I’ll tell you, I mean, right now, with this whole push on the green economy and the world’s, you know, up in arms, you know, they’re looking for capacity at these data center AI exploding.
Stuart Turley [00:18:52] Right.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:18:53] The need for energy density is so critical. And and, you know, carbon and capital pretty much become inextricably linked. I mean, so so there’s really nothing that you can do to get away from that. So knowing that there’s a future day of reckoning, for lack of a better term, you know, it makes sense that you investigate the options available to you right before they literally cripple your business. You know, and and, you know, it’s it’s going to happen and there’s going to be winners and losers just like everything else. And I think the the the companies that are being proactive, that are focusing on on their sustainability initiatives and their carbon footprint is is critical. But but there’s one other issue, and that is, you know, that that the reporting frameworks out there, I mean, it’s like the Wild West out there, you know? Right. I mean, there’s a gazillion, you know, reporting frameworks. And so it it’s it’s like what, you know, what framework do I do You Well, you know what? That’s the beauty of our platform and how our platform works is we don’t really care. We’re word framework agnostic, you know, I like that, you know, so it just makes sense. And, and you just want to, you know, you want to start somewhere so many people are so hung up on what’s the upfront investment and they get bogged down with the fear that the numbers are astronomical without even jumping in and doing any of the research, you know, or investigating, you know, the opportunities with the top level advisors out there, you know? So that’s my take on that.
Stuart Turley [00:20:38] Well, you know, I’m always looking at a return on investment. I get hit up so many times on even LinkedIn or anything else for people trying to sell things to my company. And and it’s just brutal. In fact, I had Joan Rivers, I think she came up from the dead the other day and it just adds. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I saw.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:21:04] That. And I thought to myself, man, what is this world coming to?
Stuart Turley [00:21:09] And I was like, And Steve Reese, I love Steve Reese. He’s a true industry leader out there. And he’s like, I believe it was him. And Marilyn Monroe had been chasing him for years. LinkedIn has got to get some better controls on these fake accounts coming in and somebody using I think.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:21:33] Right. There may be bots, you know, that are like I mean, it’s insane really. I mean, I can’t tell you how many that I get. I mean, it’s just crazy. But I’ve never gotten Joan Rivers, so I, I think that you’re winning. You’re taking the cake on this one.
Stuart Turley [00:21:48] Oh, it was. It was funny. I had to bring my wife over and go, Hey, Joel, tomorrow, you know? And I really got tickled at that. Now back to a I. And when we sit here and think about A.I., it drives me nuts. Ralph, when I sit here and I know that I’ve used software packages, they they are going to remain nameless. But then all of a sudden, in the last six months to a year, they’ve gone. We’re a I know you’re not you’re a glorified spreadsheet, you know, And I’m over here going when it’s ready. You saying to your clients when they ask that kind of a thing. Right.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:22:30] Well, the thing is, is that, you know, the the the A.I. is really advancing the ability for these companies to really advance their techniques in a right substantive. And so I can see where those platforms are making progress and they’re using A.I. and but I think we’re just barely scratching the surface on it. You know, I mean, I think that the real learning and the real momentum of the A.I. programs is yet to come. The beauty is, is like, you know, with our labs and analytics platform, just, you know, the shameless plug again, is, is that we developed that platform over the last 6 or 7 years and some of the most tough environments that are out there.
Stuart Turley [00:23:16] Right.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:23:17] And so, you know, we’ve been, you know, dealing with developing that technology and and now with, you know, with the push on AI, we’re on some iterations that are down the road already. So we you know, and it’s based on experience, right? I mean, the fact that we’re in you know, we’re in automobile manufacturing plants, we’re in poultry processing plants, we’re in, you know, mine the mining industry, as.
Stuart Turley [00:23:47] You say, Holstein processing plants.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:23:50] No poultry.
Stuart Turley [00:23:51] Whole poultry. Oh, I thought you were like, man.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:23:54] Like chicken processing plants. And and I mean, there’s we’ve got that’s cool interesting stories you know with with our platform and what that data does because when you can provide data to the people that are on the ground floor of those companies that are right, those are the people that understand their business better than anybody. Right? Isn’t that.
Stuart Turley [00:24:14] Great?
Ralph Rodriguez [00:24:15] So when they see the data, they can make adjustments that you wouldn’t I mean, we couldn’t have even anticipated some of the things that they came up with. And it was all based on the data that came through. And really, that’s all all because, you know, it’s teaching you how to think through these different scenarios and right now understand real time analytics and and apply, you know, make make those decisions that you make, you know, actionable and accountable.
Stuart Turley [00:24:44] I like that. Actionable, accountable and auditable.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:24:49] It’s like a lot of like, it’s a lot of eyes.
Stuart Turley [00:24:52] It is.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:24:53] That’s what my wife got me. That’s the front of the T-shirt. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:24:57] Yeah. There you go. I’m sorry. That T-shirt is. I’ve just. You know, you should have mentioned t T-shirt again, because just like a squirrel Squirrel. I got another couple about four more T-shirts on this. We’re going to open up a merch shop. So because it came on this podcast, we’re going to have to cut you in on some of the merch sales that come out of this teacher or.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:25:19] You be an evangelist for I’ll be an evangelist for it, I promise you we’ll sell a bunch of them.
Stuart Turley [00:25:26] That is a funny T-shirt line. I’m serious. That’s going to be part of the headline of this podcast. I love it. I think it should be. So what advice do you have for folks that are actually sitting here looking at a crisis? And let me let me back this up for just one other question here. Governor Holcomb just put out a notice two months ago saying that the New York is going to increase their power by 20% this year and then the bills are going to be increased 20% next year. And within 3 to 4 years, it’s going to go to 100% more than that. So not only is the car, the carbon footprint, does this carbon footprint make my butt look big? I’m sorry. I just got to get back there again. We’re going to have so much fun. And then when you take a look at the fact that that carbon footprint is going to make your butt look big, it’s also going to have a lot of your cost for the energy is coming up. We’re also having blackouts starting to roll through. So I’m asking this from a technical standpoint on as a grid operator, the grid operators have to keep up a balanced load and they have to have the balancing authorities throw it between, you know, the renewables, especially up in New York or those other areas. And they have to say, hey, I got a base load here. I got to have these things spinning up. At what level do the car plants or the other big plants that you have start communicating with the power grid, you know, going both ways and saying this is the load that I have now going this way to help those poor balancing authorities sit there and try to balance that out. Does that make sense? Because now we’re talking with a guy coming back and forth, preplanning. The load would make a big difference to that grid operator because now we’re sitting here and there are announcements all around the world. The UK this morning put out the get ready for gigantic amounts of power outages. Our grid facility in the U.S., the f e r c has already put out and said, oh, by the way, retro, we’re going to have blackouts because of the grid management and in hooking things to the grid that shouldn’t have. But would that be a great play for your software to in invest or a forward path? Because if you think about a plant and am I thinking about that right?
Ralph Rodriguez [00:28:19] Yeah, you are. Because because here’s here’s the thing. Everything is advancing so fast in the industry. And particularly, you know, I know that we had a discussion previously about we’re involved in the datacenter space a lot, right? Granted, we did do podcast recently, give a shout out to the data center frontier and also at a center along with both of those too, where they had asked us to do a podcast and our CEO and founder Excuse you.
Stuart Turley [00:28:48] Thank you.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:28:51] Now so, so, so you know, our our you know, those companies actually asked us to do the podcast, asked our CEO and founder to get on there and kind of right some of the difficulties from the constraint side and power, you know, stranded power, right cetera, etc.. And we’re getting I mean, we’re literally getting phone calls every day on I’m trying to improve and and collaborate. Yeah, well, stay ahead of the curve. And I think ultimately what you’re talking about is leveraging the technology in a way where where you can manage, you know, the energy dynamically. Right. What do you need to do to kind of control, you know, the different aspects, the infrastructure, you know, where are the you know, and then even even across grid, from grid to grid, you know, And so all those things are coming. And I think you now you’re starting to get the smartest people, you know, on the planet that understand energy way, way better than I do. They’re focused on trying to solve those pieces of the puzzle. But one element, it’s critical and it’s always going to be critical is real time energy analytics. And so if you’re not really understanding in granularity how you’re using that energy, you you’re not going to end in real time. You’re not going to be able to effectively, you know, provide the correct information that you need to become an active participate an active participant in the energy market.
Stuart Turley [00:30:27] That’s nuts. I mean.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:30:28] That’s a big deal because at the end of the day, energy density is is king.
Stuart Turley [00:30:34] Exactly.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:30:35] With all these energy intense businesses, you know, it’s just it’s critical. So people need to be focused on it.
Stuart Turley [00:30:42] Yeah. I mean, Alex Epstein, who I’ve interviewed twice, he said there is no advanced country that didn’t get here without fossil fuels and energy density. You just nailed it there. And Germany, who is how the Germany goes in their economy, goes the EU, and they’re in trouble because of their energy density. They went to the wind and that natural gas they got into war over, you know, in the Nord Stream pipeline with Russia is now gone. BMW or Volkswagen shut their plant down. The oldest steel mill in Europe closed down. BASF has moved to China. They closed their fertilizer plants down. Countries die because of not having the energy density. So if you don’t understand, if you don’t understand the energy density, you’re going to die. I guess we can’t put the fear. That could be a T-shirt for your company, man.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:31:48] Like, we got all kinds of t shirts, like ideas come, and we’re going to be. We’re going to be t shirt, t shirt tycoon or, like, forget this energy stuff.
Stuart Turley [00:31:58] Let’s Oh, yeah. You know, let’s get your CEO on here. And then that way we can you can get him on here for a fun podcast. We can’t let those data center guys get all the fun with your CEO. We got we’re going to be more fun than the CEO.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:32:15] Let’s do it. I mean, he’s he’s all over it. I mean, this you know, he’s he’s exceptional. I mean, really, he’s like next level of podcaster. I mean, if you ever watch any of the podcast that he’s done. His level of knowledge is is like exceptional. And he would have the foresight to be able to, like, know, hey, these are the things that are happening. These are the things that we got to do. He’s he’s all over it. So.
Stuart Turley [00:32:40] Well, this would be fabulous. You know, you and I, this was almost a personal but it was a great energy discussion. And so we got about one more minute here. Ralph, what is coming around the corner for you? What do you see for Q4?
Ralph Rodriguez [00:33:00] Oh, so right now, what’s what’s really ramping up is, is is, you know, the data center space, the commercial real estate space because of the local dollar 97. So, you know, smart metering is really important, but there’s a lot of out of the box, you know, solutions that that really are not going to solve people’s problem. So so it’s it’s tricky. You know, I mean, those shelf technologies, they really you know. They don’t operate as efficiently as they should. And so. So you really need somebody that’s like crossing over those silos that we were talking about, you know, so that they can integrate the strategy and help you really minimize your footprint. And that’s what we’re doing across the board. And that’s the beauty is, is we didn’t create a software for for four for one factory or or, you know, for a particular type of business, which a lot of these solutions, that’s what they do. Our solution literally works in every single category across every sector. And it’s really solving real world problems. And at the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Stuart Turley [00:34:07] How cool is that? And people can find you on Ralph Rodriguez on LinkedIn. And we will have your contact information and your company’s Web site out there all in the show notes. And I can’t wait to visit with you and your CEO. I think that would be an absolute.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:34:26] And maybe some.
Stuart Turley [00:34:28] Unless he watches this and he realizes he’s going to fire you and me for having such a great conversation.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:34:35] I’m not sure that it really matters because we’re going to be T-shirt tycoons who really matter. Man.
Stuart Turley [00:34:42] Let’s go to rock n roll. So for that, we’ve been the energy news beat t shirt. And at least, Ralph, it’s not a wet T-shirt contest.
Ralph Rodriguez [00:34:54] No, I wouldn’t want to see mine. You do have the skinny filter on me right now.
Stuart Turley [00:34:58] Oh, yeah, But you got the hair for all our podcast listeners. He has a great looking set of hair. I got flesh colored. I’m a little bit thin on the skin out there. So with that, thank you for stopping by The Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s do Turley and I will see you real soon. Thank you.
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