Introduction to Perspectives

By Rich Deming

I’ve been asked to kick off the Perspectives section of our site—a place where we and invited guests can muse about energy generation and AI. Which may sound like any other sector, except that it may be the fulcrum on which the next chapter of human history turns: How are we going to safely use this startling new tool, and how are we going to responsibly power it?

I guess a good place to start is: Who the hell are we, and where did we come from? You could say CEART started with an effort to generate some clean energy back in 2004, when it wasn’t really a thing. A band of adventurers and I started a biodiesel cooperative in Charlotte, NC. I also teamed up with a local store to put together a residential solar crew.

Both were a lot of fun, and that first public biodiesel pump and 10 kW solar system felt great. Both were jokes as business models, but they were instructive. I was too old for that nonsense, having already had careers as a journalist and—long story—a construction manager. I made my actual living consulting for public clients—small municipalities and counties—and private clients trying to figure out clean and distributed energy: tentatively at first, then supercharged by the DOE funding that flowed from the Great Recession’s recovery act.

Some days I strapped on a tool belt to install solar panels or biofuel pumps; other days I put on a suit to assure government officials or private developers that it would be fine to tilt toward clean energy. Along the way, I got a rounded midlife education in an embryonic industry. I also picked up some amazing partners: lawyers, financial wizards, engineers, and eventually an extraordinary team of power plant operators from across the industry.

Many deals died heroic deaths; some made it through. Much steel has been put in the ground. It’s been a wild ride. Then, in 2023, a group of high-level folks from financial markets and the DC regulatory apparatus met after a board meeting to talk about why, despite all the urgency, technological maturity, and capital, we were sliding into a very bad place. My answer then—and every day since—has been the same: transactional friction.

Thus, CEART. A lot has happened since: shocking advances in technology; what may be a historic surplus of computer engineering talent around us in NYC; and a meeting—almost a collision—of problem and solution.

This is the Insights page for CEART Corp. It will house a library of documents, starting with a few we’ve generated for fun over the years. It will include company updates. And it will share some of the perspectives that we—our team and our community—find ourselves discussing regularly in this space.