00;00;04;28 - 00;00;22;20
Joe
Welcome to off the record talking real estate with John with. If you're interested in the Portland Oregon real estate market and want the unvarnished inside scoop. You've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen. All right. Hello, everyone. I'm Makayla.
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Makayla
Hi. Good morning.
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Joe
Good morning. How are you? We're doing a special morning show to accommodate our guest who will introduce in the second. But it's good to see you. Happy holidays.
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Makayla
Happy holidays. Thank you. Sorry that I just dumped my coffee all over your kitchen table.
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Joe
We're sticky, but we're rolling. And quite frankly, everyone is shocked that it was you and not me. Something. Anyways, we move forward. I'll let you do the introductions.
00;00;52;05 - 00;01;22;20
Makayla
Yeah, I want to jump right in because we have a lot to talk about today and I'm super excited about our guests. We're thrilled to welcome the leaders from Green Energy Allies, also known as GEA. They are a pioneering renewable energy company. Joining us today is co founder and CEO Alex Mitea and a long time friend of mine, co-founder and chief technology officer Caden Reed, there at the forefront of creating affordable, sustainable energy solutions, changing how we think about renewable energy.
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Makayla
Welcome, guys. Thank you for joining us.
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Caden
Yeah, thanks for having us and thanks for the warm introduction. Yeah, probably as warm as your coffee table is right now.
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Joe
Thank you, Alex. Especially because you are coming to us live from Romania right now, which is probably, what, five or 6 p.m. in the evening?
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Alex
It's actually 7:20 in the evening, so.
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Joe
Well, thank you for letting us get into your evening and we really appreciate both of you guys being here.
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Makayla
So we should just start with an overview of your company. But first, I want to hear a little bit more about what inspired you guys to start GEA.
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Caden
Yeah, so it really started, you know, Alex Myself, we're introduced through our third co-founder, Evelin Negrea, and we went to college together. But really how this kind of company came about and this idea is a couple of things. It was kind of a COVID baby. This, this company was and it was really two things, you know, one being there was a lot of direct pressure for combating climate change and doing it urgently.
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Caden
Right. We're all kind of aware of like you know, we have to cut emissions in half by 2030. That's kind of a looming date and it's it's a lot of pressure, right? Like it's coming soon. Things are, are happening soon. We got to make a direct impact. So that was kind of the first thing. And then the second thing is, you know, at that time people had a little more disposable income and we had a stock market booming.
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Caden
We had kind of crypto having a moment. And so everyone was kind of looking to invest in certain things, right? And there was an uptick in people being individual investors and not people that are, you know, just putting their money into a mutual fund. Right. They were actually doing research, right, on a stock or a crypto or whatever it may be.
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Caden
And, you know, getting excited about projects and investing directly into them. And so those kind of things kind of had us brainstorming, right? How can we bridge those two things and give people an opportunity to invest directly in renewables because there is an urgent need for it and then also make it something that's accessible and exciting like it is investing on Robinhood.
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Joe
So I'm sorry, did you say when the company was founded?
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Caden
Yes, November 2021. And that was kind of our incorporation date, but we had been talking about it since 2020 and just that was kind of the first time
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Joe
Became that amazes me. Just looking at your website and the projects that you guys have put together and everything you've accomplished, I think that is just absolutely incredible what you guys have done in that short period of time. Do you ever look back and think about how far your company has come in such a short amount of time?
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Caden
Yeah, I mean, from my side, it's it's crazy to see, like I said, it was it was an idea. And we talked about it for a long time. And, you know, we'd kind of meet, right? Me, Alex and, and Eve and, and some other advisors and people and it was always just kind of this idea, Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it.
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Caden
And it is pretty amazing to see that we actually, you know, have our first project now more exciting stuff down the pipeline. So for me, that's kind of the most shocking is just it was an idea and a conversation and now it's something real.
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Alex
And I mean, yeah, it's it's to be honest, it seems like a short time for us. Maybe it doesn't. it feels like we're we've been developing this since quite some time. But I mean, hearing it from your side that it's done in a short time. I think it's yeah it's true and couple of years to develop this many projects or to have a pipeline of so many project is something which we should be proud of in a way.
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Joe
Yeah, I think it deserves a lot more attention, you know, what you're doing and what your industry is doing than it probably gets. And I think there's a lot of people that and you know, Makayla, you maybe can speak to this your generation compared to mine, you know, it feels like there's nothing being done and there's nothing in the works to help prevent, you know, the catastrophe that we have in front of us.
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Joe
So to hear and see your company doing what it's doing is incredible.
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Makayla
Yeah, I agree. I think that's always a conversation that happens among, you know, friends or family. Oh, the what's coming, the dooming, you know, all the things we hear on the news. But it's really cool to hear somebody actually do something about it. I know like Caden and our friend group, we would talk about these things and these big ideas all the time.
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Makayla
But one day you sat down and you said, Oh, I'm actually going to do I'm founding a company, I'm making a big change. And that's a that's a huge deal. So that is refreshing.
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Joe
You know, for those people out there that, you know, are really intensely focused on renewable energy and have a lot of curiosity about it. Can you tell us a little bit about your company's model and how you guys are shaping what you're doing right now?
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Caden
Yeah, So, you know, we're really I like to call it kind of crowdfunding for these large companies. People can buy solar panels and put them on their house. Right. But we wanted to people to also make money on these projects. Right. There's people in the private sector that are building these large scale projects and making a lot of money off of it.
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Caden
We're trying to do is bring that to people, you know, say like we were a couple of years ago, right where I got 100 bucks to throw around and I want to invest and still make money. You know, why can't you make a difference in climate change and still make money? So really what we do is we can identify land, make sure that we can get our permits for it.
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Caden
We secure the land, whether that's through a lease agreement or we actually purchase the land. And then we kind of open it up to crowdfunding and allow people to put in stakes or ownership percentages of the land. And from there, you know, once all the funding is complete, we build it and then those owners get the actual profit that we generate from producing energy and selling it to the grid.
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Joe
Alex Can you speak to what the minimum level for an investor is?
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Alex
I mean, to be honest, initially it started our idea was we shouldn't have a minimum. We should be open to all, let's say whoever is willing to invest any amount of money. And throughout developing the project, we understood somehow that it's legally it's quite complicated and complex. what we're trying to achieve. And it involves a lot of cash from our side to achieve that.
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Alex
So in a way we moved slowly to bigger and private investors and let's say currently I think we we reached the what we wanted. So I would say the minimum would be starting from thousand dollars up to I would say the limit would be the project size.
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Joe
Yeah, that's I mean, as.
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Alex
A really reachable.
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Joe
Amount for most people right now. That's, that's impressive that, that you guys have a structure that will allow people to invest at that at that low a threshold.
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Alex
Yeah I mean of course logistically it's quite complex. The entire process for our first project, we have two big investors which funded the project, so it's quite straightforward and easy to deal with the two investors. But of course logistically it becomes more challenging and also in a way exciting for us. I mean, we're we're young, we're looking for challenges.
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Makayla
Yeah. With that, I'm just curious to hear what projects you've completed so far and which ones you're working on right now.
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Alex
So currently we completed a one megawatt project in Romania. We're currently operating in Romania due to reduce costs for the land, for labor work and so on. That's our let's say, one project which is fully funded through us. And along the way we help bring in a ready to build phase, as they call it, in the industry, ready to build, meaning that you secured the land, you get all the permits, you get all the green certificates and then some probably big investor could purchase the project and implement it.
00;09;49;20 - 00;10;08;08
Alex
So that's let's see our what we've been dealing with and what we achieved throughout the time. And now in the pipeline we have another one megawatt project which will be, I think open for crowdfunding. We're probably 3 to 4 weeks.
00;10;08;10 - 00;10;29;02
Joe
That's a great, Caden. So what I'm curious, you know, it feels like your industry moves quickly and there's changes all the time. Like most, you know, aggressive technologies and that type of thing. What are the biggest challenges for you right now as far as looking at the future with what you guys are doing?
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Caden
Yeah, so I'd say now I can speak to this actually a little more clearly, but just legislation, right? All of the different hoops to jump through the permits to grab. There's changing laws and regulations all the time. And so that's kind of been our biggest challenge is just keeping up with what we have to do in order to be able to build these projects and secure investment and that kind of thing.
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Caden
And we've been lucky enough to have a lawyer who's working for us that helps kind of combat some of those things. But working in a small startup, you end up doing a lot of things yourself, right? You end up learning kind of the ins and outs. So I would say just keeping up with the laws and all the regulations that are around solar and energy and producing for a grid, right, For a city.
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Joe
Interesting. Yeah.
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Alex
Like here, I would say also technology is a big factor, right? I mean, technology is evolving quite rapidly in the industry. And let's say on a specific project, probably two years from now you can install more solar panels, producing more energy and combating those goals in a better way or a faster way. So also technology is something that it's influencing quite a lot.
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Alex
The industry and what we do in our business.
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Joe
Is there a part of the globe that you would really like to move and do some work in next, or are you guys focused on the locations that you're at right now?
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Alex
I think for the moment we are we are set with our location where we're developing the projects in Romania and in the future we're looking at different locations outside Europe where they're not so developed. They don't have access to renewable energy or little access to it.
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Caden
You know, our intent was to be global, right? We want this to be everywhere. We want to keep growing and expanding to different countries. And selfishly, I'd like to see it in America. But, you know, our goal is to be anywhere where it's feasible to put a solar panel farm and make money and help out, you know, whatever infrastructure we can by giving them clean energy.
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Makayla
I can imagine legally it's a whole different ballgame in each country. So it might feel like you're maybe starting over or taking a couple of steps back before you can go forward. So you can imagine that's not easy.
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Joe
Where do you guys see renewable energy being in ten years? What would what is your vision or what do you see as the future? Right now?
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Alex
I think it's going to grow quite yeah, I think it's going to grow quite rapidly. I mean, we do see it growing quite rapidly, more likely becoming more mainstream and dominant in, let's say, the entire global energy landscape as well. The advances in technology coupled with increase investments that we also see with also policy supporting. And for example, in Romania, a lot of European funds are injected into developing renewable energy projects.
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Alex
This could also help reduce the costs, which would make quite a big difference in the future, making them more accessible and widespread.
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Joe
Interesting.
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Makayla
Yeah, I think one of my biggest questions right now is how you attract and retain your partners to fund each project. And is it the same partners with each project or what does that look like right now?
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Alex
Not really. I mean, what we're trying to do right, is and we're saying we're trying to reach a global level. So of course we are quite a young company. Let's see, we call ourself as a startup, building the trust in the market, gaining the trust of all those investors in private individuals we’re trying to help or we’re looking for a profit in the renewable energy market.
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Alex
I mean, what's what we are doing and how we attract them is, let's see our innovative way of allowing someone to invest in renewable energy by being reliable, supporting the goals of the European Union and of the world of or decreasing the CO2 emissions to zero or reducing them by half by through 2030. We're also quite open and transparent with our investors and how we do that.
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Alex
We do that by sharing documents, permits and all the stages of the project that we were developing, sometimes also difficulties that we were facing in implementing or in the permitting stage of the project. So we're trying somehow to form a community, right, with our investors like this big renewable energy family.
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Makayla
I love that.
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Joe
Yeah. So how can our listeners, how do they get involved or how do they get in touch with you to find out about these type of opportunities to invest?
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Caden
Yeah. So we're very active on social media, LinkedIn especially, so you can follow us at Green Energy Allies on Instagram, LinkedIn, all that good stuff. And then we also check out our website GEA.Energy. That's kind of where we're posting updates. We have our contact information and things on there. So, you know, all major platforms, all that stuff where we're active and providing updates for what we're doing.
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Joe
So what do you think would be the biggest step the United States could take to be more open to having opportunities with companies like yours?
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Caden
One is how cheap we can make it right. It is relatively cheap, but on a global scale, it's kind of surprising, actually. I was looking at this the other day. You know, it's cheapest in China, in India, which is pretty obvious. And then the third one is actually Germany. And the reason for that is, you know, they have a very high labor cost.
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Caden
But the reason it's so cheap still is the government actually has so many policies and things to actually decrease the cost to buy solar panels. So I think there needs to be some kind of government intervention in order to make the cost, you know, increasingly cheap so that these large scale projects are feasible. And then another kind of bar to the US growing into kind of a world leader, especially for us and how we kind of do business is the cost of land.
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Caden
You know, as you guys know very well, land is expensive, right? Real estate is, is expensive. And you know, that's not the case in other countries and Romania especially. So that is something that's not really baked in to the to the ROI way you'll see online right. They say like, you know, ROI on a solar panel project is 10 to 20%.
00;17;21;19 - 00;17;45;25
Caden
Well, that assumes that you have the land already. Right. And assumes that that cost is already, you know, irrelevant to the equation. So, yeah, maybe some kind of policies or financial assistance in paying for land, large amounts of land if it's for solar. So short answer. I think government intervention.
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Joe
We're starting to see more and more projects in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington where the land is, you know, like you said, somewhat affordable, I think, compared to the prices that you guys see in Romania. It's probably still exorbitantly high. But I do have hope, you know, for this type of renewable energy, just seeing what's happening, you know, outside of Hood River.
00;18;12;23 - 00;18;20;01
Joe
I know there's a big project that's coming up, but it's certainly nowhere near what it needs to be to reach the goals for 2030.
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Caden
Yeah, I think, you know, I'm pretty confident that costs will continue to go down. You know, solar panels are kind of like how TVs were if you remember, like ten years ago, TVs are expensive, right? You want a big flatscreen, It's expensive. Now. You can get them for a couple of hundred bucks. Yeah. And solar panels are kind of following that same route where cost is getting cheaper and cheaper as they become more readily available.
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Caden
You know, more competition in the market. So that'll help, you know, especially for building things in places where maybe the land costs are a little bit higher.
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Joe
So yeah, I feel like that's also an education knowledge thing because there's so many different options in the marketplace right now and so many different cost structures for individual families. I know we've looked into it from what Elon Musk Company does, what, you know, all the different other providers that are out there, it's just all over the board.
00;19;18;12 - 00;19;40;29
Joe
And, you know, as much as we want to get it, you know, it takes time to figure out, okay, well, what's best, what's a good investment for us? And bringing that learning curve down, I think would certainly help people to be able to make good financial decisions to help with getting this type of energy on board with each and every household that has that opportunity.
00;19;40;29 - 00;19;44;14
Joe
So I would love to see that. Personally.
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Makayla
I think that's what's so cool about it is, you know, anyone from anywhere can invest and feel like they're making a difference. And also getting a little return on their money. I mean, that's everything. You know, you don't necessarily have to have solar panel fields in the U.S. for someone in the U.S. to invest and make a difference.
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Makayla
So, I mean, it's brilliant.
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Joe
Yeah.
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Caden
I mean, exactly.
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Alex
That That was our, let's say, our model to make renewable energy affordable for everyone. Right? Because you could be living, let's say, in a block of flats. You don't have the space to install the solar panels. So you want to contribute, you want to help the cause. So what do you do? There are no options in the market or there are little options into the market.
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Alex
You cannot build your own solar fields. So that's where where GEA comes into play and then we offer offer individuals or companies the access to those projects and to supporting the cause.
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Caden
Just want to kind of tail off or what I like to say in there. You can invest in renewable energy in the stock market for sure. There are companies that are doing really cool things and building solar panel projects and farms in the United States. But by investing in the stock market. Right. Kind of one of our differentiators is the stock price has a lot more to it than just what is the company doing and what is it producing.
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Caden
Right. Right. Like there are, you know, at risk of whatever the market sentiment is, Right. Whatever news is floating around. Right. That's going to affect how you make money as an investor versus our kind of idea is that you're making money if the sun shines on our solar. Right. You know, like there's no there's no rain.
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Joe
It's not dependent on shareholders. And that's what the shareholders are saying and different things like that. It's directly on the performance of your product and your company.
00;21;49;02 - 00;22;05;12
Caden
Exactly. And not even our company. The performance of solar farms that we built. You know what we do? It doesn't matter. The solar panel farm is going to be there. We just helped build it and acquire it and, you know, get all the permits for it so that everyone can make it. Yeah. So.
00;22;05;14 - 00;22;36;05
Joe
So I'm so impressed with you guys at how quickly you've got this up and running and you know how much you're doing in such a short amount of time. What advice would you give startups and entrepreneurs who are looking to do maybe something similar or other industries even? What are some of the things that you would tell other entrepreneurs who are trying to get up and running with something as incredibly complex as what you're doing right now?
00;22;36;07 - 00;23;14;15
Alex
I mean, what I would suggest knowing from our experience is understanding the legislation. Having a lawyer in your team, explain and be sure that what you're doing, it's, let's say, legally okay, that you're not going to get into troubles. And also what they would also recommend is have a technical guy by your side who understands what's happening in in the industry, how it works physically and the third one would be to have a vision which is clear from beginning on and don't give up.
00;23;14;22 - 00;23;33;01
Alex
I mean, there would always be ups and downs like it was in our case. Probably we were a lot of times in a scenario where we wanted to give up, but we motivated each other and we kept on going and I think slowly we are achieving that.
00;23;33;04 - 00;23;42;03
Joe
That's fantastic. So I have to ask, how often do you make it over to Europe? How often do you make it to Romania?
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Caden
Romania haven't actually been okay.
00;23;44;23 - 00;23;45;21
Joe
Okay.
00;23;45;23 - 00;24;01;16
Caden
But we have met up in France a couple of times, just as kind of a place for us to go and do business and and be physically. Yeah, but the plan is very soon to make it out of Romania once we can get some. Some fun. Yeah, for sure.
00;24;01;19 - 00;24;08;16
Joe
So, yeah, this type of international work is going to be challenging. Zoom can only do so much. Right?
00;24;08;18 - 00;24;20;03
Caden
Exactly. So early. Yeah. Yeah. Time zones are very real and very inconvenient when you're trying you know, mornings for him. Nights for me, vice versa. Yeah.
00;24;20;05 - 00;24;22;27
Makayla
Well, this is really information. Do youhave any other questions?
00;24;22;27 - 00;24;43;28
Joe
I don't think so. I just. I thank you guys so incredibly much. I really appreciate it. I'm so impressed and excited about what you guys you guys are doing, and I'm excited to see where it goes over the next 5 to 10 years because I think you guys have a really bright future and anything we can do to help, you know, get the word out, we want to do it.
00;24;43;28 - 00;24;50;20
Joe
So thank you so much for making the time. We really do appreciate it. GEA.Energy, Correct?
00;24;50;23 - 00;24;51;11
Caden
Correct.
00;24;51;11 - 00;25;20;23
Joe
Correct. Yeah. Great website, very informational. I spent a good chunk of time over the last couple of days reading through it and you guys have done a fantastic job with describing what you do, how you do it and the different projects that you have going on right now. So I highly recommend visiting that site if you're interested. And like we talked about, it's a affordable way to make a difference and do it in a very clean and simple way that can get you good returns too.
00;25;20;25 - 00;25;22;28
Joe
How unique is that in our world right now?
00;25;23;00 - 00;25;25;28
Makayla
It's everything.
00;25;26;00 - 00;25;26;13
Joe
All right.
00;25;26;13 - 00;25;27;29
Caden
Thank you, guys.
00;25;28;01 - 00;25;31;24
Joe
Thank you guys so much for joining and Makayla. Thank you.
00;25;31;25 - 00;25;37;12
Makayla
Yeah, thank you. We'll talk to you guys soon. I'd love to do an update in like six months to a year to hear all that. Wonderful.
00;25;37;12 - 00;25;39;11
Joe
We'd love to hear about the new projects. Yeah, for sure.
00;25;39;11 - 00;25;40;14
Alex
Sure. Yeah.
00;25;40;16 - 00;25;41;25
Joe
Thank you both.
00;25;41;27 - 00;25;43;01
Alex
Thank you so much, guys.
00;25;43;01 - 00;25;44;17
Caden
Thank you very much.
00;25;44;19 - 00;25;57;18
Makayla
Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the LivPortland team, you can go to LivPortland.com. Thanks for giving us a listen and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.
