Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy Podcast

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/

Climate change is no longer a distant or abstract issue. It is rapidly becoming a financial reality embedded in home values, insurance premiums, mortgage risk, and long-term affordability.
In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Winston Morton, CEO of Climative, to explore how physical climate risk is reshaping the economics of buildings across North America and why resilience is emerging as one of the most important value drivers in real estate.
With more than two decades of experience spanning engineering, enterprise IT, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and clean energy, Winston brings a systems-level perspective to one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition: how to turn awareness into action at scale.
Climative sits at the intersection of climate risk, building performance, and financial decision-making. Its platform helps homeowners, banks, insurers, utilities, contractors, and governments understand how climate impacts a specific building, which upgrades improve resilience and efficiency, and how those investments translate into lower risk and higher long-term value.
In this conversation, Wes and Winston unpack why traditional energy programs often fail to drive action, how emotional and life-stage moments influence homeowner decisions, and why comparing energy use to neighbors is rarely enough. Winston explains the three pillars required for real activation: clear guidance, affordable capital, and trusted execution.
They also explore a powerful analogy shaping Climative’s vision: the idea that buildings need a climate “credit score.” Just as financial systems rely on standardized data to price risk, today’s housing market lacks a unified, scalable way to assess physical climate risk across millions of buildings. That gap is now being priced into insurance, lending, and asset valuation, often without homeowners realizing it.
The discussion goes deeper into why the climate conversation is shifting from prevention to adaptation, how catastrophic losses are accelerating changes in insurance and finance, and why economics, not policy, will define the next phase of climate progress. Winston outlines the massive retrofit opportunity sitting idle across North America and what it will take to unlock over a trillion dollars in resilience, efficiency, and clean energy investments.
This episode is essential listening for anyone working in climate, energy, real estate, finance, insurance, or infrastructure, and for homeowners trying to understand how climate risk is quietly reshaping the future of housing.
Key themes include:
Why climate risk is becoming financial risk
How resilience upgrades impact insurance, mortgages, and home value
The missing data layer holding back large-scale retrofits
Why economics will drive climate action faster than policy
How Climative is building a scalable platform for millions of buildings
Listen to learn how the future of home value will be defined by resilience, data, and action.
Links: 
Winston Morton on LinkedIn
Climative's Website
Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/
Email: [email protected]
https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
https://leegroupsearch.com/