Scott Sklar - Clean & renewable energy expert, Founder and President of The Stella Group, co-author of Consumer Guide to Solar Energy and The Forbidden Fuel. Until this episode, I must admit, I never thought much about what happens when I plug something into the wall. Even if you don't turn the thing on, it still accounts for nearly 10% of our total energy usage - it's called vampire power!  I didn't think about all of the blinking lights in my room at night, or the TV that drones on in the background.  But as I learned, the energy used to power all of these devices is extremely costly, both in terms of my energy bill as well as the safety and stability of our environment.  For example, did you know that 90% of the water used in the world goes towards growing food and making energy, with the majority going towards energy production?  I never knew that we used so much water just making energy.  With water being our most important and soon-to-be scarce resource, we have to find energy that is more sustainable. And there is more to it than that.  When we drill for oil we disrupt the environment, when we frack we flush harmful chemicals into the earth, and when we try to use nuclear energy....well...can you say Chernobyl? We must find a way to utilize more efficient, renewable, clean energy.  Luckily for us, we have brilliant people such as Scott Sklar, working on exactly that. Scott Sklar is an expert in the field of clean and renewable energy. He is the Founder and President of The Stella Group, a strategic technology optimization and policy firm advancing the utilization of clean, distributed energy applications.  Scott is the co-author of Consumer Guide to Solar Energy and The Forbidden Fuel. He Chairs the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and sits on the Boards of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and The Solar Foundation.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University.  Scott lives in a solar home and has a zero-energy office building in Arlington, Virginia. -- This episode is brought to you by Squarespace – the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to create your own website. For a free trial and 10% off, go to Squarespace.com and use offer code smart11. Easy – Everything is drag and drop. You can use drag and drop to add content from your desktop, and even rearrange elements of content within a page. 24/7 support – Squarespace has an amazing 24/7 support team in New York City. They do live chat during the week, and have extremely fast email support throughout the day and night. Design Focused – Squarespace really cares about design. All their templates are extremely clean, and allow your content to be the focus of your website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices