We were lucky to catch up with Windham Loopesko recently and have shared our conversation below.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am developing a utility scale solar project in Hutchinson County (northern Texas Panhandle) around land that has been in our family since 1901. I’ve convinced three of my neighbors to join me in this project. We currently have ~14,500 acres under lease. While our original intention was to develop the solar project (i.e., get the leases, file the interconnection applications, do the environmental and engineering studies, obtain surface use waivers from mineral rights owners, etc.) for sale, we are now focusing on convincing a data center to locate on our site. As one of our landowners has an additional ~30,000 acres he would be willing to make available, we could have a >70 square mile parcel if a data center operator wants a REALLY big data center (north of 5 gigawatts?). In an area that is declining economically, bringing a project of this size would create an enormous tax base and thousands of jobs — a complete economic turnaround for the area.. Meeting the cultural, technical, legal, political challenges of this project is the most fun of anything I’ve done in my life (now 76 years) — and it’s a vertical learning curve.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities or skills that I think have helped me on my journey are: ) I seem to be able to get people to want to work with me. There are several people on our solar project who are working for no compensation or who will be compensated only if we succeed because they like the project and believe in what we are doing. Getting that kind of participation requires complete honesty, lots of listening and creating a “team spirit”. If I could bottle and sell this ability, I wouldn’t have to work this hard on the solar project!
2) Learning what you don’t like to do and are not good at — and finding other people who can and will do it for you. Doing this requires modesty, honesty, and humility. Succesful projects require a variety of skills and temperments — defining your role and getting others to accept it is not obvious.
3) (And your audience won’t like this one) — Learning to write. Good writing is not an end in itself, but it requires enormous discipli1ne. Writing forces you to do the hard thinking for your project, I’ve done a lot of cross-cultural work, and organizing a presentation so that someone with little or no knowledge of the culture or context can understand and follow a complex argument is a skill acquired over decades. Only when you’ve written something carefully can you explain it to someone else.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
Although I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles in the 1950’s and 60’s, my parents exposed me to the wider world. They belonged to an international club which allowed foreigners passing through Los Angeles on business or diplomatic trips to come to our house — and I was fascinated by their stories. When I was a senior in high school, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany who spent a year with us — we are still in touch, and I consider him my “German brother”. In 1964 we took a 6-week, 9500 mile trip across the US. All that created a wanderlust and a thirst to meet and understand foreign cultures. I think it prepared me for the work I’m currently doing in Hutchinson County, Texas — which is light years away from my life in Denver.
Contact Info:
- Website: loopesko.com, pamhandle.solar
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/windham-loopesko-766269/
