Making Money with Cleantech. Impossible? - Interview with Cleantech Geek Ypatios Moysiadis
Is it possible to make money with clean technologies? Ypatios Moysiadis says "yes" and explains how. His projects had a combined value of over a billion dollars. He talks also about his success secret.
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E-Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Set-Special-Entrepreneurs-Professionals-ebook/dp/B078WZXJDW/
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Set-Go-Nick-Nanton/dp/0999171402/
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
Hi guys from the City University of London. Today with me Ypatios Moysiadis.
Ypatios is a very successful entrepreneur. Ypatios, you have been in projects with a value of over 1 billion dollars already.
Can you tell a little bit more about that?
Yes. First of all, thank you for having me. It's excellent to meet the billionaire magnet.
So, I've been in the Cleantech renewable energy business since 2007 and throughout my career I worked on projects along different countries
Eastern Germany, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, UK and overall if you put all the projects together they actually do amount over 1 billion in project value
And if you can somehow quantify that, you can say that these projects are aqually capable of powering up a city like Manchester
Just to put it into perspective.
Wow.
So, We've been very privileged to work with large companies in the sector, we also work with small developers, see the innovation
And just make something which leads to, let's say, the 21st century change when it comes to the electrification for society.
As far as I know you build 33 brands, right?
Yes
And one of them is the Cleantech Geek, right?
Yes.
So, tell me about Cleantech Geek. What it is about?
So, throughout my career I've been working in different projects and we've built 33 different brands.
Either product brands or service brands or corporate brands, and so on and so forth.
Lately, what I've decided to do is start investing on a personal brands as well as you would like
So, merging my two interests - the entrepreneurship and sustainability, that's what my intersectoin is, if you would like
I've decided to create the Cleantech Geek blog or ... if you like avatar where I talk about things both in entrepreneurial way
As well as on the sustainability Cleantech way.
And trying to merge both with a simple questions, really. You can make money while saving the world.
Yes. The topic of this Youtube channel is about doing the impossible and when you talked to me and said
This is what I do and I do the green tech and I make money with that or I make people make money with that. This seemed impossible for me.
So, can you explain to me, how is it possible to do business and be green at the same time? Or to make money and be green at the same time?
Yes. I think that when you talk about clean tech or green tech people actually appreciate that with the generation of energy
But clean tech is something wider. So, clean tech is anything like a process, product or service that essentialy minimizes the negative environmental impact
Of whatever we do. If you look at how the whole thing is set up, you've got the energy generation which actually consists of 25% of what Cleantech is
So, Cleantech is touching transportation, electric vehicles, shipping, airlines that they go electric; it touches heat
It touches agriculture which is a massive issue. So, how do we eat and how do we create this kind of tripple bottom line approach
Where you have anethical impact, you have a commercial impact and you've got also monetized their impact as well
So, it's a combination of that. How do you do that? I think we see more and more pressure from different peer groups and different people
And voters in different countries that sustainability agenda should become a core agenda within our life.
When we've seen so many different innovation in our sector, people that are tackling waste issues, people that are tackling plastic issues in the oceans
People that are tackling the electrification of our society both the transportation and heat or people that are tackling the electricity generation
It's not a matter of a choice "Do we have to do it?". We have to do the impossible, we have to make the change because the clock is ticking
And we're running out of time. All these kind of situations we seen couple of weeks ago, 20 degrees in London or tropical storms in southern Europe
In Italy and in Greece - this is not normal. So, we need to act now. So, why don't we make something which has an impact?
And also try to make money from it? So, this is the best of both worlds.
You were talking about the triple bottom line and this is really interesting because because the first time I've heard about
Was actually from a billionaire - from Peter Stordalen He is called the hotel king. He owns around 200 hotels in Scandinavia - The Choice Hotels
And this is what he implements actually in his hotels - this triple bottom line strategy.
But you have created several multi-million dollar companies and I would like to hear about your success secret.
What is the most important thing you have learned in your businesses and that made you come up with these profitable ideas?
I would say I helped create multi-million dollar companies throughout my carrer. Of course, I am investor and I invest my money in to clean tech companies
So, I currently hold equity, I am co-founder of about 3 different businesses based in the UK - all in the clean tech sector.
What are these businesses?
The latest is EnergyBit which essentially is a tech company that gathers all the data from the generation farms, from wind farms and from solar farms
And then through advance analytics and artificial intelligence helps the asset owners make more informed decisions about how to manage a generation plant
Electricity generation plant. So, it's capitalizing on the data and then the use of data throughout the value chain or project
And then what else can we do with that, how can we help National Grid or [...] and the different organizations to make more informed decisions
About the trading exchange of energy and so on and so forth. The other 2 are more traditional businesses.
One is a typical installation developement business PowerSun Ltd. And then we've got Energian UK which esentially acts on 2 ways
One as the legal entity which takes the equity share in different businesses but also has a very dedicated [...] in certain development
So, we do a lot of work with organizations like Innovate UK, Horizon 2020 from the European Union driving forward innovation within clean tech sector
Wonderful. So, coming back to your success secret.
Okay! Success secret... I think that if I look back I think one of my main drivers... coming from Northwest area of Greece
Living in a very environmental poor area, where you have the open pit mines extracting lignite and coal and then burning it
I remember my mother every morning getting to scrape the dust, have people dying around because the cancer rate was about 40% higher than in another regions
And and very young age, I thought to myself "It must be something else that we can actually do to make things more sustainable"
This is not the only way that we should be producing energy. I think this was my very first motivation
You have this mission in your heart.
Yes, it's a mission. I think it's something where you can actually motivate others to join. It's a novel course
And I haven't found someone yet that says "What you do is trivial, just commercial".
So, what I do has to have a kind of impact into everybody's life. If I can put a little brick to make things more sustainable
Or deliver a better future to the next generations, then I did my part.
Okay. What about the most valuable lesson that you have learned in your careers so far?
Is it something in entrepreneurship you would like to share?
Absolutely. That would split it in 3 different points. Number 1 - embrace failure. Learn from your mistakes, don't afraid to make mistakes.
Try and try and try again. And that comes in to the 2nd point which is perseverance. If you believe in something, you need to attack it
From different angles. It doesn't matter if you pivot. It doesn't matter if you go back a bit, rethink and then go ahead. That's normal in business.
If you have a goal, just go for it and try your best.
And the 3rd thing is to create an environment around you which is creative, where perhaps you've got people that can assist you to your goal.
So, build up the advocates, build up the team that can help you grow as a person and also put forward your agenda.
Okay. One last question about green tech, about clean tech. You invest also in clean tech. You invested, as you said, in 3 different companies.
Why is it wise to invest in clean tech? Why does it make sense from the entrepreneurial and investment point of view?
So, that's a very interestin question. I think that we're in the point that generation from renewable energy sources is becoming mainstream
According to Bloomberg by 2050 we're going to have 65% of the world's energy being generated by onshore wind, offshore wind and solar.
Electric energy?
Electric generation. And if you combine that with everything else that's happening, the electric vehicles that have been introduced electrification of heat
The smart networks and grids around the world that has been built at the moment, the increase in storage capacity, where you have sotrage supplement
When wind doesn't blow or sun doesn't shine, you've got saved energy that we can pump into the grid.
So, this kind of combination that we've made over last 10 years ia allowing for a new way of investment becoming life up until now
The sector was heavily subsidized. So, it made sense for someone to invest because essentially you had governments offering you
25 year or 20 year government bond in that sense. A revenue stream which was extremely secure and forecasted
Now we have reached some point that the levelized cost of energy, of solar actually is the lowest we can have. It's lower than coal or nuclear
And now we are going in to a more mature normalized market where you have to start trading energy and you can start trading energy on a wider scale
Ok. So, it won't be that regulated anymore and so on..?
No! You leave the governments and the policy makers and you have more mature market and you can start investing more
But also if you combine that with all the other opportunities, like artificial intelligence, data analytics, electric vehicles
It's coming in to our lives more and more and looking at what is coming ahead... just in Europe we are looking at 320 gigawatts of installation in next decade
That's the equivalent of about hundred and sixty billion in investment only in generation in Europe.
If you start adding China and US, it becomes a global must-be sector for any serious investor.
Just for understanding - what's the percentage of green energy right now globally?
Right now? I don't have the figures in my head but I think it's no more than single-digit.
We have to go from a single digit to 65% in next 40 years. So, if you're not in that game, I think you're missing out.
Yes, because it means also that the other energy sources will be probably shrinking, right? I mean relatively for sure, but maybe also absolutely
Ok. So, people very often ask me about what to invest in to. Green tech / clean tech would be a good opportunity
If somebody wants to inquire about investment opportunity, how can he find you? How can he contact you? Or about this topic generally? Where to find you?
So, someone can actually reach me through my blog and contact me or on my social media.
So, if you visit www.cleantechgeek.com you will have the opportunity to come in contact with me or I'm visible in all the major social media platforms.
Linkedin, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter...
Ok, wonderful. Thank you so much, Ypatios. It was a pleasure meeting you. See you from London. Have a nice day. Let's do something extraordinary today!
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