Ep 68: How Energy Independence Supports Our Economy, Your Organization, & National Security Interests

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Hey guys, this is Dakota. Welcome back to another episode of Sustainability Strategies by Community Solar Authority. Today I want to talk about the economic case for energy independence.

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From corporate risk management to national security, it’s really all about connecting enterprise energy choices to broader economic and security benefits. It is worthwhile to move toward energy independence even if you never make it there. Solving your organizational constraints to enhance enterprise sustainability only increases your odds of being resilient enough to stay in business long term.

My name is Dakota Malone. I co-founded Community Solar Authority, and this has been the basis of our thesis for the last seven years that helped us reach $35 million in future energy savings unlocked for our clients. The intersection between enterprise energy choices and broader economic security is worth reviewing for those undergoing their version of an energy transformation.

This podcast aims to inspect this intersection further. First, let’s get into energy as a corporate risk mitigation strategy. I have on this podcast before discussed the reality of the energy transition paradox.

It’s the realization that we don’t have enough energy to power our future, yet also the looming bureaucracy of politics, infrastructure issues, and other big problems to solve that stand in the way of getting there. The smartest organizations aren’t waiting for someone else to solve these constraints for them. They’re tackling it themselves and getting ahead of the curve.

In the smallest ways, it could look like smart energy procurement to hedge rising utility costs as an example. Protecting against the volatility of a changing energy market is a flat-out wise decision in 2025. I always like to highlight the community solar strategy here as well because for large energy users, they must make real progress on their sustainability roadmaps.

They’re using enough energy that it makes them amongst the most vulnerable when it comes to rising energy costs. And conversely, it’s also why community solar becomes such a powerful tool. We’ve helped our clients access over $35 million in future energy savings, as I mentioned.

And if you want to see more on this, feel free to jump over to our YouTube at Community Solar Authority. Next, let’s talk about using energy independence to offset risk. I’m going to throw a list of constraints here that all can be solved for with enhanced levels of resiliency, supply chain vulnerabilities, operational resilience during grid disruption, regulatory compliance, and future proofing against energy policy changes, cost predictability, and long-term budget planning.

And one more, ESG experience and the stakeholder expectations around them. Some of these may be harder to solve for than others. Some may be the obvious task for a certain organization to focus on and others may not apply at all.

In entrepreneurship, when I look at a big problem in front of me personally that seems impossibly hard to solve, I try to remember to smile because on the other side of that problem is usually a massive unlock in revenue or some other advantage that makes the problem worth solving. The idea here is that as organizations continue to inch towards energy independence, they become less bothered by any of these constraints. As an example, if you’re in the grocery store business losing millions of dollars in waste per year because of grid disruptions on your refrigeration units, but now you have a microgrid that powers that refrigeration during rolling blackouts, you sleep a little better at night knowing that you’ve successfully hedged against that problem and constraint.

Getting ahead of the curve is solving for your highest energy constraints without waiting for the government, the utility, or anyone else to come and save you will give you a massive first mover advantage. Turning your energy footprint from a liability into an asset to be managed will separate the future of successful businesses that require large amounts of energy to operate. Now I want to talk about the economic benefits at scale.

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I write this and podcast on this during the middle of a tariff war that has the U.S. feeling uncertain and I am not educated enough to have an opinion on these issues specifically, but I would like to highlight what’s on the other side of solving these issues. First, the renewable energy market has created a surplus of jobs associated with deploying access to clean energy at scale. Creating jobs that come with a downstream positive impact raises all ships.

It supports the missions of organizations building these businesses. The employees and people working in the industry get their cup filled feeling like they’re making a positive impact. And last, it supports our planet and fights climate change.

On the other side of these hard conversations is also tangible movement on domestic investment and infrastructure development. This is an exciting time to force conversations between utilities and private companies who have been at a stalemate over which org will pony up to upgrade lines, substations, and the infrastructure that will build the foundation of the future to our energy security. These same, these strategic investments breathe life back into our grids and continue to build the momentum through job creation, giving Americans a powerful mission to focus on, and providing hope for a better future.

Moving the country toward independence at a macro level brings a decrease in energy imports, allowing us to reduce trade deficits while boosting resiliency during hard times globally. The same features and benefits that from a corporate manufacturer reaching energy independence map over into our entire country, inching closer to that outcome too. In short, it supports our economy, revitalizes our energy security, and provides us the power we need to continue innovating at scale here in the United States.

Lastly, I’ll mention security at a national level and the implications around it. Having a self-sustainable energy footprint is furthermore becoming less about economics and more about a national security strategy. With continued disruptions increasing, geopolitical tensions rising, and climate change well underway, the security dimension of energy policy will become a larger focus for the U.S. moving forward, in my opinion.

It allows us to attempt to solve nationwide constraints, dependence on politically unstable regions with government interests contrary to the United States, the centralized nature of traditional energy infrastructure, and how it creates high-value targets for physical or cyber attacks. There’s inflexibility around diplomacy due to reliance on outside interests to literally power our country. There are little domestic energy resources used as strategic assets to control infrastructure, improve workforce development, secure our supply chain, and enhance technology leadership.

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And lastly, climate security constraints like resource scarcity, threats to military installations, and other new security challenges. If you look closer at the intersection highlighted in this intro to this article, you’ll see that the economic dimensions of energy independence directly translate to national security benefits too. They feed one another and improve our position on a global stage.

Let’s discuss stepping into sustainability. Your organization’s energy transformation is unique to your needs and therefore more of a hand-tailored approach versus a one-size-fits-all. However, there are practical steps for large energy users to begin their journey on the road to energy independence.

Our team has created a framework dubbed the Smart Power Framework that we use to help any size organization consider how they move forward into turning their energy footprint into an asset. It includes finding the right way to capture data and operationalize efficiency, leveraging the right financing vehicle along with incentives to execute, flexibility with rapidly changing technology to avoid getting stuck, an energy operating center to monitor and improve your footprint, and so much more. We walk our clients through this framework to help them understand exactly how they can approach their energy transformation in a simple way.

I want to tie community solar back into this conversation because our team sees it as one of the most shovel-ready U.S. clean energy programs to date. For a large energy user in the right market, it supports the enhanced growth of the program nationwide, which is necessary for economic and national security interests. Distributed energy resources allow us to decentralize our power, enhance grid resilience, and one day will allow for faster restoration of critical services.

Lastly, it provides our clients a simple place to start, capture available savings, invest that into their future sustainability roadmap, and build serious internal momentum towards their energy transition. In conclusion, although both are important, making the case for energy independence extends well beyond energy savings and environmental considerations. The pursuit towards energy independence represents the coming together of corporate risk management, economic resilience, and national security interests.

For our clients, large energy users, the opportunity is an equal balance with the risk. If you fail to reduce operational vulnerabilities, capture predictable energy costs, and enhance sustainability, you toed the line of going out of business. On the other side of these large constraints is the freedom and flexibility to operate in a way that enhances your long-term resiliency.

Whether you’re a public or private entity, moving towards energy independence bolsters yourself and the U.S. through broader economic and security benefits. The path to a more resilient future requires partnerships between organizations and the synergy from combining resources. As your organization considers its energy strategy, keep in mind that these decisions go far beyond your balance sheet.

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For those organizations who are ready to start taking action now, I encourage you to visit communitysolarauthority.com and book a complementary strategy call with our team to see if we’re a good fit to support you. Thanks for tuning into this episode, and I will catch you on the next one.