Reagan Farr, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Ranch, shares his background from Louisiana to Nashville, early lessons working at a Baton Rouge drugstore, and how his tenure in Tennessee state government led to founding Silicon Ranch in 2011.

He explains what shaped the company’s strategy as they started during the 2008–2010 downturn. Farr addresses community concerns and pushback around the Stockton, Alabama project, citing a similar experience in Bacon County, Georgia and emphasizing safety, wetlands avoidance, tax benefits, local jobs, and agrivoltaics with sheep and cattle.

** Show note: Apologies about the sound. We had an issue that meant the audio was not as good towards the end but we felt strongly enough about putting the episode out that we are releasing it.

Transcript:

Reagan: All right hi, Reagan Farr, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Ranch, and excited to have our conversation

Marcus: today. Yeah, I'm really excited to have this opportunity to talk to you and maybe. Shed a different light on, what's going on with your project. So welcome to the podcast. I appreciate you being here soon.

To get started, we like to, I'm not from the south, but I've learned a lot. We like to know who we're talking to when we talk to 'em. So why don't we go back and why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, where'd you go to high school? If you can remember where'd you go to college?

Tell us a little bit about, about yourself

Reagan: oh, sure. Thanks for the question. I, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and then quickly moved. My dad was a college professor. He was actually a professor of poultry science. Wow. He taught at Cornell for a bit. So as a very young child, I lived in Ithaca and my mother, who was from Louisiana, did not like the Cornell winters.

[00:01:00] With two young children, they quickly.

Marcus: That's a far cry from the south, from the Gulf Coast. Yeah.

Reagan: Yeah. Moved from Ithaca to Athens, Georgia. My dad taught at University of Georgia for a little while, and then he had an opportunity to go back and teach at LSU. Where my grandparents were.

And I was very fortunate that he took that position at LSU 'cause I got to grow up next to my mom's parents who I was very close to. And it a college campus environment is a really enjoyable place to grow up around. Yeah. Student of Louisiana Public Schools went to Baton Rouge High School.

I guess the. Claim to fame a Batre Chi. I went there with Bobby Jindle, who ended up being the governor of Louisiana.

Marcus: Very cool,

Reagan: For a while. And went to undergrad and grad school at LSU and then decided to take a. Pivot. I'd always thought I was gonna be a professor like my father. But decided to try out law school.

I went to chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Marcus: Very good.

Reagan: And then really moved to Nashville sight unseen for my very first [00:02:00] job and founded a very welcoming community. Vibrant. It's growing community. It's been grown for two decades plus yeah. And so never left. Fortunate that my wife, who I met when I was at Chapel Hill, moved and found a job in Nashville and we've been there and it's where we're raising our family.

Marcus: Yeah. So you, you said LSU, so we just lost, like 85% of the audience.

Reagan: I always feel like everyone in Alabama should think LSU, but we we gave you Nick Saban.

Marcus: There you go. That is true. And man, what a powerhouse he is for sure. Now go back. To your first job. Workforce development is very big in this area, and so I always like to ask about a person's first job and maybe some of the lessons that they learned from that because it is such a formative time in your personal history, if you will.

Do you have a job that you can look back to where you were flipping burgers or,

Reagan: oh, yeah. Amazing experience and I'm I'm always so grateful that I had it when I was growing up, they're not too common now, but there used to be independent ol drug stores [00:03:00] that had also soda fountains.

Marcus: Yep. I

Reagan: remember. I started at 15 working at Dear Men's Drugstore in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And stayed there for. Over a decade. And the owner was also the pharmacist, became a dear friend and mentor of mine. And it was a wonderful relationship. By the end, I was helping do the books and Wow.

Helping in supporting him in the pharmacy. But I started out as a cashier at a dear men's drugstore.

Marcus: No, that's cool. And I any lessons that you remember from that time period?

Reagan: Definitely. So we be because we ran a soda fountain. And a whole lot of employees coming in and out.

And I think really an appreciation of how hard it is to run a small business.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And Mr. Dearman was, it was a very successful store. We had in-store charge accounts delivery all these things you don't see anymore before

Marcus: the times

Reagan: before the time. But I realized how hard it is to run a business that.

People, you see them at work, but they [00:04:00] all have personal lives and there's always something going on in there. So we were always dealing with some employee who had something very meaningful going on in, in their life. And and then you learn about customer service. I was there so long, people would come up and just put their stuff on the counter and they wouldn't want to tell me their name.

They like really expected me to be able to remember them and know how to charge their account. It was an incredible experience. I'm always so grateful Mr. Dearman Hass passed away, but I'm still friends with, some of his grandchildren and I always tell them what an amazing experience to have.

Marcus: Yeah. It's cool to look back and see, how people that mentored us have, framed things for, like in our lives, now you co-founded Silicone Ranch?

Reagan: Yes, I'm one of the three co-founders.

Marcus: Okay. Now, can you tell us, obviously you guys have been around since 2011.

Did I read that correctly? That's correct. Okay. And you've been around a while and I know that a business this big doesn't just happen overnight. So what was that founding like? Because there's a lot of people here in mobile. This is a, this, [00:05:00] a number of years ago the Chamber of Commerce did a study or they had a study conducted that found that there were like 27,000 micro businesses in mobile.

This is a town of a small, small business, environment. And so what can you tell us about the actual starting, of the business and maybe some of the things that you guys had to deal with and getting formed and stuff like that?

Reagan: Yeah so great question. Maybe a little bit of background.

I was fortunate I was a appointed to be the Deputy Commissioner of Revenue when Governor Breen was elected and I was a nonpolitical technical appointment. I had not been involved in the campaign or anything like that, had really, I worked all the time, so I didn't pay a ton of attention to politics.

But took the job as I was a. I was at a big four accounting firm, and they had asked me if I would move to Miami to help stand up a practice in Miami.

And I didn't think my, she wasn't my. Wife then, but I, she was, I was definitely gonna ask her to marry me and I didn't think she would [00:06:00] move.

It's interesting, I took a pretty meaningful pay cut to join government thinking I'm gonna do this for 18, 24 months and then figure out what's next. And I was very fortunate to join the administration of Governor Bredesen. And because I had a background in tax consulting, merger and acquisitions, always operating with large businesses. They pulled me into a lot of discussions about recruiting business and industry to the state of Tennessee.

And governor Bresson, who had been a very successful businessman before his elected governor, his experience had been communities recruit you with incentives and all types of promises.

And he said, once you. Invested and created the jobs that you had committed to. Oftentimes the Department of Revenue or some other agency would come in and say that's what you understood, but that's actually not how things work.

Marcus: The old rug pool.

Reagan: So [00:07:00] he under his leadership, he said, I want the Department of Revenue to be involved in all of these recruiting discussions on the front end so that we're making sure any commitment that we make.

We follow up on and can live up to.

It was through working on economic development, we had a whole lot of success under his leadership that I got to know my fellow co-founder, Matt Kiper, who led the Department of Economic Development for the state of Tennessee.

And I was deputy commissioner for the governor's first term, and then a commissioner of revenue for his second term.

And we we did a lot of very meaningful things. We were trying to move Tennessee. Our economic development strategy had really been, we don't have unions. Our citizens will work for less

Than they will and. In the New England area. So we saw all of these jobs move from the Midwest, new England to Tennessee, but then with NAFTA, they moved straight from Tennessee to foreign countries,

Marcus: right?

Reagan: So [00:08:00] we wanted a more sustainable type of economic development, and we really focused on different approaches, headquarters for our cities and. Long story, but I'm coming to, how come we started Silicon Ranch? Yeah. The biggest challenge for us during our eight years of industry recruit, it was very easy to get people to come invest and move to Nashville.

It's booming town. Yeah. We recruited Volkswagens North American manufacturing headquarters to Chattanooga. And we, it was very difficult to get industry to invest. In rural Tennessee, and Tennessee's a rural state. It has a few big cities, but it's predominantly rural. Yep. What we were seeing toward the tail end you can only run for governor twice.

So at the end of the eight years, we were starting to hear from. Certain companies that wanted access to renewable energy. They were mainly European TVA, who is the utility in Tennessee.

They were a huge partner in economic development and they really, they had a very [00:09:00] ample hydro resources.

They had some nuclear, but they didn't really have any renewables to speak of. And, one of our economic development trips we were trying to recruit different businesses from China to look at investing in Tennessee. And on one of those visits we went and met with applied materials. It was opening a huge multi hundred thousand square foot r and d facility in Shian China.

Marcus: Right.

Reagan: So we, we go to Xon, it's a Friday evening and they're about to have their grand opening on the following Monday. And myself, Matt Berg, governor Bresson, and our handlers. 'cause when you're in China Yeah. Government. Yeah. You always have and they thought we were gonna have check the box couple hour visit, our visit.

And Governor Bradon is a Harvard educated physicist and is very into all the details of this stuff. We ended up spending hours engaging with the head of this r and d facility. [00:10:00] And it was in that meeting that they shared what for me was just revolutionary, the Moore's Law of Solar. Okay. Which was basically for every doubling of deployed capacity.

Solar costs were gonna come down 15 to 20%.

Marcus: Okay.

Reagan: And at the time, solar was a very expensive niche industry, so some environmentalist had put it on their roof. Yeah. Some people who wanted to, like

Marcus: you had to be hardcore.

Reagan: You had to really, you had to really want it.

Marcus: Right.

Reagan: So as we were leaving this facility I was like, it's the one opportunity is we're about to get on the bus that all of our handlers weren't with us. So I asked the head of the lab, I'm like, why are you doing this in China? And what would it take for you to do something like this in Tennessee? And it was, I'll never forget it. He is Reagan look around.

'cause the air and Chian is so polluted, you can barely see a hundred feet. He's do you think I want to be

Marcus: here? Yeah.

Reagan: He's we're here because. China [00:11:00] has said that they're gonna be a leader in the energy transition, and when China says they're gonna do something, they do it at scale.

And if you're not on the ground, you can't participate in that growth. Yeah. And he's the challenge with America is we have no national energy policy and there's no, he's yeah, I've almost. Five, 6,000 different utilities. Very hard to do anything at scale in the us And then he is you live in Tennessee and you have TVA.

He's if you could get TVA to commit to procuring 50 megawatts of solar each year for three years

I would think about putting a smaller. Version of this facility in Tennessee.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: So to give you a sense, 50 megawatts per year. So each year for three years. Yeah. The project that we're building in Stockton today is 260 megawatts.

Marcus: Right.

Reagan: The industry was so nascent then, but I came back and I was so excited. I'm like, what type of tax incentive. Would [00:12:00] the state need to enact to encourage TVA a to buy 50 megawatts of solar a year? Yeah. And started using that and using this brand new Moore's Law of Solar that I had looked at.

And I was like, you know what? You don't need a state incentive. The economics of this are gonna start making sense over time. And if you run this out, solar's gonna be one of the lowest cost forms of generation

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: Out there. Very long answer, but as we were great, as we were winding down Matt and I had decided we wanted to be, do something entrepreneurial together.

And we had a lot of different ideas everything from retail, which was Matt's background to consulting. And I actually put together the business plan. Conceptually for Silicon Ranch, and the concept was it's a great opportunity. We have all this experience in economic development.

It's a great opportunity to promote rural economic [00:13:00] development. We know customers are asking TVA. For this power. Why TBA don't wanna do it. Why don't we provide that service to TBA and while we're doing it, we can leverage all of our economic development school skills. It could be a win.

And we shared the idea with Governor Bradon along with a lot of other ideas that we had, and he's I like that. Solar concept. He said there's something there. He's if y'all want to do this together, I would be happy to be your third partner. And we instantly said, that's the idea that we're gonna pursue.

And I left state government a little bit early, probably four months before my term Governor Breen's term ended and went to. Start writing the full business plan and doing all the stuff. As a small business owner in state government, I always joke my executive assistant had an administrative assistant.

I walked out of that [00:14:00] environment too. I had to find an office, set up a payroll system, get a phone really just start from scratch. It was an amazing experience. I always say for small business owners and entrepreneurs, you need a decent idea. Don't have to be the perfect idea. You need a decent idea, a game plan for execution and good timing.

Marcus: Yeah,

Reagan: and we were very fortunate to get the timing. 'Cause we really caught the wave of solar gist becoming not that premium product. It started becoming first competitive with other types of generation and then less, more valuable to utilities who are our partners than other forms.

So we've we've grown tremendously from a business that was just gonna work in TVA to now we're in 18 states and Canada. Excited to be banking investments here in Alabama.

Marcus: Yeah, absolutely. Going back, was this around 2009, 2010 timeframe?

Reagan: Yeah, we were doing a lot of [00:15:00] outreach. So one last, but it that is the timeframe. 2008. Really through 21.

Marcus: I was gonna say, you guys decided in the middle of an economic like catastrophe Hey, I guess this is a good idea. Let's go start solar.

Reagan: It is funny, I always tell people it's a very capital intensive business.

And if anyone had sat me down and said let me think of all the reasons not to do this.

One of 'em would be you're starting a capital intensive business with very little capital.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: In a down economy.

Marcus: In a down economy. Yeah.

Reagan: We were fortunate that in those very early years governor Bredesen had a balance sheet that could support some of the things that otherwise we would not have been able to do.

And then we bridge to non friends and family capital partners.

And now, it is amazing to me to think we've invested over $8 billion in

Marcus: wow.

Reagan: In solar assets. The majority of that in rural parts of the us.

Marcus: Yeah. You and also you mentioned Moore's Law, and is that a similar concept to [00:16:00] computer chips?

That Yes. The doubling, same thing, right?

Reagan: Same thing. It's same. I always, I borrow Moore's Law, semiconductors

Marcus: for solar. Okay. I thought so, because, the idea, used to be that the doubling of the chip, was, it was an exponential thing. But we're realizing now with the advances in that we've made that is not a.

Straight line that is a hockey stick, thing. Is it changed since then? Is it speeding up as far as the affordability, of solar?

Reagan: So solar is be, it's every year modules get more efficient.

And it is, it has been interesting. You get more power out of the same size module today than you did a decade ago.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: It's a very steady state, but it really is a semiconductor material. Yeah, so it, it just like our electronics get faster, better, cheaper over time.

Solar modules have gotten faster, better, less expensive over time,

Marcus: I wanna transition and start talking about your project.

And you mentioned a minute ago that you've done a number of different solar farms in [00:17:00] different states and Canada and all this stuff. And I guess one of the questions that I have is, what's a good example of a community that, 'cause you're getting pushback, and I'll just go on record, like I don't understand it.

For property rights, you bought the land, it's not, zoned for, anything other than whatever you want to use it for, right? There's no regulations around the zoning of that land or anything.

Reagan: It was marketed

Marcus: industrial property and you're, of all the people that we could have come in and wanna do this project, you all seem like the best, the most amazing fit.

From what I understand, you use your solar farms for sheep and cattle and stuff like that. I just don't understand. So I guess what I was gonna ask you is what's the best example of a community where you initially got pushback but that they. Ultimately came around and now understand the benefits of what it is that you're doing.

Do you have anything that you can say to that?

Reagan: Very real time. Almost [00:18:00] a carbon copy of this project. We have invested a lot in Georgia. Partnered with the co-ops and with Georgia Power, who's a sister company to alabama Power. We had a project, same scale in Bacon County, Georgia, and had worked very closely with the development authority as we did in this instance, and had worked with the county commissioners.

And when we first looked at buying the land, everything was un zoned. And over the course of our engagement, they actually drafted a solar ordinance which we're generally supportive. Of an ordinance. 'cause it protect, it sets the rules, right? So you're like, if I comply with this, then we can build the project and there's no questions.

We were pleased with the ordinance. We started construction on our first project, and very similar to what happened here in, in Baldwin County, Stockton. Some, [00:19:00] citizens started seeing what was happening and they're like, whoa, no one told us about this big solar thing. Yeah, they're buying a whole lot of land.

What's going on? They started a Stop Solar Bacon Facebook group. It instantly had thousands of members and Bacon's not a very big community like that. I don't know if they were all boss, but there were obviously a lot of people joining and saying What's going on? And the county commission at a meeting, they had several hundred people show up when no one ever shows up for these meetings.

Marcus: Right.

Reagan: And there were a lot of questions, a lot of concerns. Is this gonna poison our groundwater? Are we being taken over by industrial solar? So very same questions were being asked.

Marcus: Right.

Reagan: And it they actually the commission formed a solar. Committee study group. And we, it was the first time that I had, 'cause I have a team that usually engages to the communities.

But it was the first time I came down and I said, I wanna see what's going [00:20:00] on. Is this is I watched the video. Hundreds of people lining up and sharing very heartfelt concerns about our investment. So we started engaging hosting meetings like we're doing tonight. Meeting with business leaders sharing more about how we do business, why we do business this way.

Brought in First Solar our module manufacturer to address a lot of the safety concerns that were being asked about. And then what I think was most meaningful, we took certain members of the. Legislative body there, the commission and the solar study committee, we just took them to a couple of our different operating facilities and let them meet with neighbors who had been skeptics at first.

Let them meet with political leaders in these communities to talk about the benefits of our investment. And to their credit, they invested. Whole day on a bus visiting different sites and meeting with neighbors and political leaders. And at the end of the experience, it took about four months of pretty meaningful weekly [00:21:00] engagement.

You went from a hundreds of people showing up, concerned about the project to at the very end one of the founders of the stop solar Facebook group. Had decided she's running for office. So she was still like against the project, but really no one else. Everyone else was supportive. So it was a wonderful opportunity to address misinformation, to share the benefits.

And on that project, because I spent so much time in the community I just am so familiar with the benefits that we're going to bring and they love the ag impact. And it was, it's just so many parallels. It's, unproductive pine plantation that was already gonna be timbered.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: The exact same situation here.

It's planted pine, it's not any type of virgin woodland.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And it was so I think with the, I'm excited for tonight. I want to meet the skeptics. I want to answer their questions. 'cause we have an incredible [00:22:00] story to tell. We don't run from. Our company history.

Marcus: You have no reason to from what I see.

Everything that you're doing is above board.

Reagan: And when we built the, I always say we're purpose built for economic development. We were very early in hiring veterans. We were very early in Buy American before there was any incentive to do

we buy our land, don't lease it.

So we become embedded in the communities where we operate and we're leaders nationally in Voltaic. So figuring out how to combine agriculture with energy production.

And it's such a win, having these huge capital investments. Without really needing any services. Like we don't ask for water, we don't ask for sewer, or we don't put a burden on the schools.

So it's such a creative asset to have in your community. And I think when we get our message out and when people understand this is safe we're buying 4,500 acres.

Marcus: It's not a cheap amount of land. For sure.

Reagan: Not. And we're only developing 2000,

Marcus: right?

Reagan: I was like [00:23:00] something like one of the groups is we.

We care about wetlands. I'm like, I'm preserving 800 acres of wetlands and huge buffers.

Marcus: You have to, right? I wonder is that, maybe I'm mis mistaken, but if you buy land and there's wetlands that doesn't just because you own it doesn't mean that now you can bulldoze it. No, there's all kinds of regulations against that.

Reagan: Not at all. You can act. We as a company do not build in wetlands.

Marcus: Okay.

Reagan: You can. File a plan with the army court.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: Build in wetlands and pay into a mitigation bank. But that's not our strategy. Part of our strategy, why we do buy these large traps is to give us the ability to buffer our neighbors so we're right not next to them on the property line.

And to thoughtfully, create wildlife corridors. I always find it like I am all about economic development, conservation. We need more power. And I think sometimes the message or the argument ignores you can't, [00:24:00] I'm sure everyone would love to have no development near them, but we need power.

There's only so many places on the grid where you can put power. So when I hear you chose you chose Baldwin County visits there's no zoning. No, we chose Baldwin County. But there's power lines there that have capacity. And you can have a responsibly developed solar project like ours that's gonna preserve wetlands, incorporate agriculture, or you're gonna have a different type of gener, like there will be generation built.

Yeah. Everywhere there is capacity because we have to,

Marcus: like

Reagan: As a country.

Marcus: I was I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about. China's push for solar and that China did some 300 gigawatts of solar last year to our 40, I wanna say.

Reagan: Yeah. China is blowing past the US in terms of [00:25:00] building infrastructure and

Marcus: generation.

Yeah, energy production, and because they realize that the input of electricity into goods and services and manufacturing. Causes, it can either increase the price or lower the price of that good or service. So

Reagan: yeah, we have proven, like what I worry about and what I, one reason I'm passionate about developing these projects and building them and getting them over the goal line is we as a country have done a poor job, just like with our road system.

With our transmission grid, we're living off investments that were made 20 and 30 years ago.

Marcus: Or longer.

Reagan: Or longer.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And we've grown our economy. People are moving to the southeast.

Marcus: Yep.

Reagan: We are trying to onshore manufacturing. 'cause we realize how vulnerable we are that we let all of our manufacturing go offshore.

And just all of that requires power and we have never. Had to choose between economic development and affordable, reliable power. But we've used up all of the investment that our [00:26:00] parents made.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And now we as a country are having to invest. So power prices are going up. The best thing you can do is add affordable generation where there's already transmission.

That is the best thing you can do to keep rates. Going up more slowly, they're gonna go up even with this. Yeah. And I don't think the country, I just did a, an another interview where I said I'm happy to carry this message, but candidly, utilities need to be more forthright with their customers.

Yeah. And we all need to be more transparent about the fact we have underinvested in an incredibly important part of our infrastructure.

Marcus: Yep.

Reagan: And, and even with all of if we build every plant that we want to build, still not enough. They've gotta be building gas and all types of other generations

Marcus: sources.

It really is amazing the amount of electricity that we're gonna, that we're gonna need. It is the one thing that if you listen to Elon or any of the guys that are heading up the [00:27:00] AI robotics push that's happening right now, they're all looking to energy is being the one thing that they're worried about.

We're recording this, and there's a war going on right now, although nobody's calling it really a war. And energy prices have gone up. Everybody's feeling it. And of course living on the Gulf Coast I think we're a little bit more prone to complaining about our power bills because the heat down here is just unbelievably, especially with the humidity.

It's just unbelievably unforgivable. And I don't know. I just think it's really shortsighted. This project has been tied to meta, and I would like to just say, and you don't have to say anything about, you can if you want to, but I would like to say that regardless of whether this was for meta or not, this project is something that should be taking on because the energy prices in Alabama will be, better for it.

And I just, I look back at about a month ago or so in the midst of Mardi GRA week. As most [00:28:00] of us in this area do, we got the hell out of T town and we went to Disney and we were staying on property. And I'll never, I won't forget, like every exit off of the interstate had solar in the loop.

You know where you go, your your, what is the way you get on and off the interstate? They put solar there. But then the bigger thing was there was a McDonald's, half a mile away from where we were staying and that McDonald's was covered in solar panels on the roof and the lights, you could see all had solar panels.

And I read I read the little sign there that said I think they had a thousand or something like that, solar panels, but that McDonald's was off grid.

Reagan: Yeah.

Marcus: Everything that they were doing was solar powered, and I'm thinking, why in the world. Would we not Like it didn't look ugly. It was a beautiful McDonald's.

We would love to have it in any neighborhood in mobile. And why are we fighting this? So I immediately came back and started doing research and I know we talked about this a little bit and it doesn't really apply 'cause you're a commercial [00:29:00] utility. But, Alabama has not been known to be favorable to solar, and so it's exciting to see you guys come in as somebody who is a fan of it, because I think that maybe they just need to also get their feet wet.

Reagan: Yes.

Marcus: With solar and maybe they have a, and I, by they, the higher ups that, make all the political decisions about, or policy decisions about solar in our state, I think they just need to get a taste of it and what it can do. And then maybe it will be more feasible for everybody in Alabama to have solar.

There's not a, I don't know that there's a question in there, but if you want to comment you can. Otherwise,

Reagan: yeah, I would. I would love, 'cause it's such a insightful observation and when we started Silicon Ranch, the only solar company anyone had heard of, and so you obviously looked to them as an example, was Solar City.

Okay. So Elon Musk.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And when Solar City was started. It was to be a utility disruptor. Their goal was to come between the [00:30:00] customer and the utility. And one thing that I think differentiated Silicon Ranch, we had worked so closely with TBA. And they were such a good partner for economic development.

We said we wanna start a company. That collaborates with utility and I think that business model has really helped us in this part of the world.

Marcus: Yeah,

Reagan: and I think it will be helpful in the dialogue with Alabama power 'cause we're not there to do anything other than give Alabama additional tools and their toolkit to recruit business and industry and keep rates low.

So I do think the engagement like this will show Alabama power, that solar done well can be a win-win, win for their. Customers for their communities and for them. So I am excited Alabama is behind most of the states in the southeast.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: In terms of solar adoption,

Marcus: It's no secret that Alabama is, positioning itself as a manufacturing.

[00:31:00] Friendly hub in the United States, right? If we can't do it in China, guess what? Let's do it in Alabama. Like you mentioned, labor is relatively cheap when you look across the United States. And but. I just, like the power thing is gonna bite us in the butt if we don't, if we don't address it.

And so I just, I think, projects like yours are extremely important. Do you know do you know about how long it takes to create or construct a normal power plant? I don't know if

Reagan: so for to

Marcus: come

Reagan: back for a gas plant?

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: From planning, permitting, probably seven years. And for a nuclear plant.

Probably over a decade and a half,

Marcus: how long is it gonna take you to get up and running and developing power?

Reagan: So we've been working on this project for about three years.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And it'll be fully constructed and operating by the mid to end of 2028.

Marcus: Okay. So a little bit less than the gas plant that you were discussing.

Reagan: The build is so much quicker. Like the beauty of solar is modular, is [00:32:00] distributed and you can put it, everywhere just about that. There's ability to transmit power on the grid. Yeah. You don't have to like a gas plant. You've gotta figure out how you're getting the fuel to that plant. The challenge why solar has taken a while to develop, it's not that construction.

It really is all of the grid and interconnection studies that have already been done. But those take a while.

Marcus: Yeah. Interesting. I just, the more, the better. An important question. Any local contractors or labor being used during construction? Obvi? Obviously you have to, use some local folks 'cause nobody's gonna be traveling from Nashville coming down, so it is generating some jobs, correct?

Reagan: It definitely. So that community in Bacon County what was so rewarding to me is why our contractor hosted a job fair and in a pretty small community. We had over 150. People show up looking for jobs and we're gonna be able to find a spot for a whole, a very [00:33:00] large portion of those individuals.

I said we built this company to be a good economic development partner to the communities where we're investing. I said, we buy this land, we're gonna be a part of the community. We definitely wanna hire local and then our farming activities have all of the ancillary needs, like we'll buy hay from a local provider.

So it's such a win, and I really wanna work hard tonight to get that message out.

Marcus: Yeah, if guys, if you haven't seen any of their stuff, go to their website, I think you have an article on there about. The sheep, cons, having sheep grays amongst the solar panels and stuff like that.

And I, I just think it's a really phenomenal idea to like, merge those two. You have land that's not being really used as long as the sheep can get to, the grass or whatever it is that they're eating and they're happy,

Reagan: it is. So in one of the landowners who has sold us one of our sites in Georgia.

Said we've always done this in Georgia, we call it double cropping, generating electrons and

Marcus: yeah.

Reagan: Throwing a, [00:34:00] feeding a flock of she. So it works incredibly well and we, it was interesting. We just were recognized by Time Magazine is one of the top five green tech innovation companies and we're a very blocking and tackling infrastructure company.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: But I think the recognition and why they ranked us out of all these other software companies and other things was our leadership around combining energy production with agriculture. We actually have a patent, so we're we on our own flock of sheep? We are the largest member of the National Sheep Improvement Program, but we also patented some technology to be able to have cattle under our array.

And we just bought our first foundational genetics for a cattle herd.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And I think this is a incredible opportunity for rural America from both the power side and the act side.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: And we're excited to be at the forefront of

Marcus: it. You're squeezing all you can out of that land. I just think it's amazing.

Two last questions on this, and then I just have some [00:35:00] ending questions that we ask people when they normally come on the question. But, or on the podcast, what's your message to the residents who feel like this was done to them rather than with them?

Reagan: The first thing I'll say is, I'm sorry, that wasn't the intent.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: By any means. This is our first project with Alabama Power the Public Service Commission process and how that all. Came forward was not how I would've liked, I would've liked this community meeting to be our introduction

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: To the community. But I'll say we we're gonna be neighbors, we're gonna be meaningful investors in this community, and we are committed to making everywhere that we invest our capital and employ employer people better because we're there.

We want to engage if there's ways we can adjust. Our project that are feasible within that large footprint that can mitigate a concern. Someone's worried about a setback from their house or their property. Come to us with that. This is something that is ultimately gonna be a huge benefit.

We're paying [00:36:00] millions of dollars in tax revenue. We're not asking for a lot of services. We want to engage and be positive contributors to the greater community. And this is gonna happen in Alabama. Yeah. I think setting an example of how solar, I always say solar done right, is an incredible asset in any community.

Let's partner together and figure out how solar done right?

Can benefit Baldwin County.

Marcus: Very good. I appreciate you addressing some of those things. I know you, you've I don't know, maybe you weren't shocked. I was shocked at the response, but where there's not information.

Misinformation will oftentimes fill the void. And or fear, and I think really I don't know. I just think you're getting a bad rap. How do you like to unwind?

Reagan: Oh, goodness. So I have a, I have two boys and really just spending time with him. We're Prince fans. My oldest son is a big hockey fan.

Okay. He's also a golfer, so I don't golf, but I do watching him golf and then my youngest son is into all types of sports. So I like hanging out with my kids [00:37:00] and watching them play sports.

Marcus: I've got 12 rapid fire questions for you. These are really hard questions, right?

You ready?

Reagan: I'm ready.

Marcus: Favorite type of music?

Reagan: Oh, goodness. Probably from my generation nineties.

Marcus: Nineties, any pop or were you an alternative?

Reagan: A little bit alternative?

Marcus: Who were you listening to? Be honest. Come on.

Reagan: Violent films was

Marcus: nice.

I grew up I love violent films and Jane's Addiction was another one that I grew up too, man.

That was like, that's like beach music from the nineties.

Reagan: Yeah. It was, and it was everywhere. And you had to be in front of a radio and wait for your favorite song. Come on. Yeah. Sing. It's good times.

Marcus: Yeah, it's good stuff. Favorite type of food?

Reagan: Probably Thai.

Marcus: Have you spent enough time one of the questions is favorite restaurant in Lower Alabama, but you may not have spent enough time,

Reagan: It is fine.

I, I miss. So when I grew up in Louisiana, love seafood. Mobile has amazing seafood.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: The seafood is not as good in Nashville

Marcus: nope.

Reagan: I would've said seafood if I was still living here or in Baton Rouge. But yeah, that's but I love [00:38:00] fresh seafood.

Marcus: Yes. And we do have a lot of that here.

Favorite restaurant, lo or no, sorry, favorite city outside of mobile. You're in Nashville. I'll say here, a city outside of Nashville.

Reagan: Probably Boston.

Marcus: Okay. It's interesting. I haven't been there in a while, so I couldn't speak, but I was there during the big dig back in the nineties, 9, 7 98 or something like that.

Yeah. City you went to travel to but have yet to visit.

Reagan: So I wanna go to Japan and go to Kyoto, and I love that culture.

Marcus: Very cool. Sit there. What comes to mind when I say guilty pleasure?

Reagan: Ooh glass of red wine after work.

Marcus: There you go. Dogs, cats, or none of the above?

Reagan: Oh, I have both.

Marcus: Cool. Summer or winter?

Reagan: I like summer.

Marcus: Favorite movie or TV show?

Reagan: Oh man, these are great questions. I'm not a huge tv or movie guy, but I did so part of my Japan thing, I like the miniseries show gun that was on Netflix. Very [00:39:00] well done.

Marcus: I haven't seen that. I'll have to check it out.

Favorite holiday?

Reagan: Oh, without a doubt. Thanksgiving

Marcus: favorite. Now I'm gonna ask you an add-on question. Favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

Reagan: I totally don't care. I love having all my family together without the. Pressure of gifts and everything that kind of is all Christmas.

Marcus: Yeah.

Reagan: So I, I just love the camaraderie.

Everyone was in a good mood. It's fall. Best time there's football on tv.

Marcus: Yeah. No, I get that. We actually just had a Easter party at our house and every chance we get, we open our house to bring all the family together. 'cause I just think that's missing in today's culture a lot. And I didn't grow up with a family.

It was my dad raised me. And so getting my. Extended family through my wife and, all of our kids and stuff like that is is nice. Favorite color?

Reagan: Blue?

Marcus: Favorite cereal?

Reagan: Oh goodness. Ask me all this stuff. I don't really eat cereal.

Marcus: That's it. Interview cereal. No cereal, huh? Last question, not a rapid fire.

What are [00:40:00] you most thankful for?

Reagan: Oh, without a doubt. I have been so fortunate to have a supportive wife through this whole process. Starting a company is difficult and very long days. There's still very long days. I travel a lot doing things like this. Community engagement could not do it without her.

And then, we have two boys who are thriving and I give her a lion share of the credit for for how good they are.

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Tell people where they can find out more about, either the project or just more about the Silicon Ranch or,

Reagan: sure. So there's a, I don't know when this is gonna air, but there's a community event tonight at six 30.

Okay. The Bayt Civic Center. And we encourage people to RSVP and come to the event. We can meet our team, meet. Meet the manufacturer representatives for Solar's. Gonna have reps there. I would encourage if they can't make it in person tonight we've put together a pretty fulsome webpage www dot silicon ranch, I think.com/stockton.

Marcus: Okay.

Reagan: And a lot of [00:41:00] information there. And there's a form if you have a question that's not answered. Put it on there. We won't just answer you, we'll answer you directly, but we'll put it on the website and the answers for everybody.

Marcus: Yeah. Answer the questions before they're asked for. Sure. I wanna thank you again.

I know my, you are running, running and gunning today, but I wanna thank you again for coming on the podcast. Any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share or,

Reagan: I just want to thank you. I love, I love listening to podcasts. It's probably why I didn't have great answers on music and stuff, because I'm always listening to podcasts.

There's such great ways to really learn, I think with another level of understanding because it's not as quick format as a lot of other. Form. So appreciate your interest in this topic and absolutely. Your comments and look forward to getting together again as we advance this project through to construction.

Marcus: I wish you success and this I can't imagine that you won't be successful in it 'cause you've done it so many times, but I just, I, I. I welcome you bring more projects. I think, Alabama [00:42:00] needs you and, I think our energy, infrastructure needs you as well.

So I appreciate what you're doing. But Reagan, I wanna appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with you.

Reagan: Yeah, thank you. Enjoyed it.