Energy Changemakers Podcast

Episoder

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  Resilience as a Team Sport 22.07.2026 33min

  Wildfires, record heat, and a grid under more strain than ever have turned “resilience” from a buzzword into one of the fastest-growing categories in energy technology. Host Elisa Wood talks with Julia Hamm — who spent nearly 20 years growing the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) before becoming a partner at The Ad Hoc Group — about how resilience became its own market, the AI cameras and wildfire-spread software utilities are deploying today, why microgrids are still an emerging (not mainstream) resilience play, and why the length of the utility sales cycle remains startups' biggest obstacle. They also discuss why Julia launched the Power Resilience Forum to keep this conversation from being crowded out by the AI and data-center load-growth story dominating the industry right now.
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  Plug-In Solar Explained: Answers to your top questions 08.07.2026 46min

  Plug-in solar — widely known as “balcony solar” — is one of the fastest-growing entry points into clean energy, and it is finally gaining a legal foothold in the United States. In this episode, host Elisa Wood talks with Stephan Scherer, co-founder and CEO of CraftStrom, who spent roughly a decade in the European plug-in solar market before bringing the technology to the U.S.The conversation unpacks what plug-in solar actually is, how small systems can offset a meaningful chunk of a household's electricity bill for a fraction of rooftop-solar costs, and why the technology sidesteps the interconnection agreements and “soft costs” that make traditional residential solar expensive. Scherer addresses the two big safety debates head-on — line-worker protection and grid export — and explains the certifications, anti-islanding shutoffs, and “zero-export” approaches that underpin safe deployment.They also explore the technical breakthroughs that made plug-in solar practical (lightweight bendable panels, integrated Wi-Fi monitoring, simplified installation), the economics and payback math, the addition of plug-in batteries and virtual power plants, and the wave of state laws — now five enacted — reshaping access for homeowners and renters alike.
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  Coming Together for Energy's Great Transformation 17.06.2026 33min

  The grid is straining under AI-driven demand, aging infrastructure, and climate-fueled weather events — and Robert W. Cross believes the answers already exist. The harder question is whether the industry can come together to deploy them. In this episode, host Elisa Wood talks with Cross, founder of Cross Consulting and principal at the cleantech design studio Outfit, about why distributed energy may be the relief valve utilities need, why storytelling is the industry's most underrated tool, and what he's building at The Great Transformation 2026, a curated, single-track summit in Bend, Oregon (July 8–10).They dig into the collision between an "irresistible force" — distributed energy resources — and the "immovable object" of the legacy utility model, the gap between feasibility and bankability, and why Cross is intentionally designing his event to create constructive professional conflict. It's a candid conversation about scale, finance, policy whiplash, and the case for getting builders, bankers, regulators, and dreamers into the same room.Learn more and subscribe to the free newsletter at energychangemakers.com.
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  How Utilities Can Do Less and Make More Money 10.06.2026 40min

  Electricity prices are rising, data centers are struggling to connect, and consumers are feeling the pinch — yet utilities keep reporting record earnings. What's going wrong, and how do we fix it? In this episode, Elisa Wood speaks with Michael Lee, former CEO of Octopus Energy US and founder of Distributed Grid, about the structural flaw at the heart of the American utility model: an incentive system that rewards building infrastructure regardless of whether it is needed.Lee argues that this cost-of-service model — largely unchanged for a century — is driving an inflationary spiral in electricity rates and blocking the distributed energy resources that could make the grid more affordable and resilient. But his argument is not simply that utilities are bad actors. It is that utilities are rational actors operating under the wrong rules. Change the rules — and the business model — and utilities could earn more revenue by coordinating a decentralized grid than by building poles and wires.Lee lays out a detailed roadmap: from reframing utilities as "network coordinators" to paying them for outcomes (reliability, affordability, speed to power) rather than capital deployed. He also confronts the political and social complexities — utility shareholders who depend on dividends, governors who fear blackouts, and a public that has never had to think about how electricity works. The conversation is both an indictment of the status quo and a genuine blueprint for a better grid.
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  Why the Microgrid Community Needs to Come Together Now 29.05.2026 26min

  Produced in partnership with Xendee, this podcast explores the market dynamics that led the company to create a free, non-commercial gathering for the microgrid industry. In their conversation, Elisa Wood and Xendee CTO Michael Stadler discuss what's been holding microgrids back from achieving their full market potential, how utilities treat them, and why data centers are opening up opportunities that are reconfiguring what microgrids look like.Called University Week, the virtual event will be held June 8-10, 2026. Sessions will focus on:—Misperceptions and limited knowledge about microgrids and DERs—Macro market challenges—Older centralized technologies and grid limitations—Fragmented market with no common voice for the industryRegistration is free: https://xendee.com/xendee-university-week?.
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  The Big Wide Door Opening for Biofuels 27.05.2026 32min

  What does it take to build a billion-dollar biofuels company from inside one of energy’s most durable entrepreneurial firms?Michael Bakas has spent 25 years at Ameresco — and now he’s leading Neogenyx Fuels, a new $1.8 billion joint venture with HASI. Elisa Wood of Energy Changemakers gets the full story: the cocktail-napkin founding of Ameresco, the dual energy crisis (geopolitics + AI demand), and why RNG’s global moment has arrived.Whether you work in energy development, finance, policy, or utilities — or you’re simply watching the clean energy transition unfold — this conversation is a rare look at how one company has been building the infrastructure for what now appears to be America’s biofuel moment.
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  Why the Microgrid Community Needs to Come Together Now 26.05.2026 26min

  Produced in partnership with Xendee, this podcast explores the market dynamics that led the company to create a free, non-commercial educational gathering for the microgrid industry.In their conversation, Elisa Wood and Xendee CTO Michael Stadler discuss what’s been holding microgrids back from achieving their full market potential, how utilities treat them, and why data centers are opening up opportunities that are reconfiguring what microgrids look like.For more information, join Xendee and Energy Changemakers at University Week, a virtual event that will be held June 8-10, 2026.Sessions will focus on:Misperceptions and limited knowledge about microgrids and DERsMacro market challengesOlder centralized technologies and grid limitationsFragmented market with no common voice for the industryRegistration is free. https://xendee.com/xendee-university-week?utm_source=ecm
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  Energy Abundance From the Bottom Up 17.05.2026 1t 1min

  This episode revisits one of the most-listened-to conversations in Energy Changemakers history—a three-way dialogue between Kay Aikin (CEO of Dynamic Grid, Maine), Lorenzo Kristov (independent grid market architect and formerly of California ISO), and Mark Paterson (Principal and Lead Systems Architect, Energy Catalyst, Australia). The original episode aired in 2024; this return engagement goes deeper, reexamining the concept of energy abundance through a more refined and urgent lens.The conversation takes direct aim at the dominant political narrative of “generate, generate, generate”—the idea that energy problems are simply solved by producing more power. The guests argue that this approach confuses quantity with quality, and supply with access. They introduce the concept of “smart abundance” versus “dumb abundance,” and make the case that a truly abundant energy future must be planned from the bottom up, starting closest to the user, not at the distant bulk power system.Ranging across economics, physics, regulatory law, and systems theory—and drawing analogies from photosynthesis to mycelial forest networks to Windows 97—the three guests explain why the current grid architecture is structurally incapable of delivering on the promise of energy abundance, and what reforms in planning, regulation, and market design would make the transformation possible. Australia’s experience with surplus renewables and minimum system demand serves as a real-world case study of what happens when abundance arrives without the right operating system to manage it.
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  Chaos, Meet the DER Playbook 28.04.2026 33min

  The Pew Charitable Trusts has released a long-awaited policy playbook for scaling distributed energy resources (DERs) across the United States. In this episode, host Elisa Wood sits down with the two co-chairs of the Pew DER Advisory Council — Audrey Zibelman and Pat Wood III — to unpack what the playbook says, why DER deployment has stalled despite a clear business case, and what policymakers can do right now to change the trajectory.The conversation moves from high-level regulatory philosophy to the practical mechanics of utility incentive design, FERC jurisdiction, virtual power plants, and the pros and cons of America's 50-state laboratory approach to energy regulation. Both guests bring decades of first-hand experience reshaping the grid — Zibelman from New York's REV framework and Australia's national DER strategy, Wood from opening the Texas and wholesale power markets.
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  Microgrids Are a Goldmine for Grid Operators — They Just Don't Know It Yet 20.04.2026 24min

  The US grid is under pressure — surging demand from data centers, EVs, and industrial expansion is forcing expensive infrastructure upgrades. But what if a significant share of that relief could come for free? In this bonus episode, Elisa Wood sits down with Vincent Petit, SVP of Climate and Energy Transition Research at the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), to explore a provocative finding from the institute's latest research: when building owners invest in microgrids to optimize their own financial returns, the grid benefits as a byproduct — at zero marginal cost to grid operators.The research, spanning five commercial building types and 13 geographies worldwide, finds that microgrids can deliver 20–40% power headroom recovery on average, with some configurations reaching 60%. And in 80% of modeled scenarios, the building owner achieves payback in under ten years — meaning the grid gets relief without spending a dollar.This conversation reframes microgrids not as niche resilience tools, but as a scalable, privately financed mechanism for managing the coming demand surge — if the price signals are right.
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  Inside America’s Most Forward-Thinking Energy County 15.04.2026 40min

  Montgomery County, Maryland — located just outside Washington, D.C. — has emerged as one of the most ambitious local governments in the United States when it comes to distributed energy, microgrids, and clean power resilience. Since its first microgrid went online in 2018, the county has built out a portfolio of advanced installations at public safety facilities, a correctional facility, electric bus depots, and smaller community sites. Now, with 23 “resilient hub” microgrids under development and plans to produce on-site green hydrogen for its transit fleet, Montgomery County is redefining what local energy leadership looks like.In this conversation, host Elisa Wood sits down with two key architects of this vision: Michael Yambrach, Chief of Montgomery County’s Office of Energy and Sustainability, who has overseen the county’s energy evolution since 2014; and Khaled Fakhuri, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric’s Microgrid Business, the county’s long-term development partner. Together, they unpack how the county got here, how the public-private partnership model works, and what the future of microgrids looks like at local, national, and even data-center scale
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  Utilities Are Warming to DERs. Thank Data Centers. 01.04.2026 32min

  For years, utilities and the distributed energy industry fought bitter battles over net metering, revenue erosion, and who controls the grid. Now, something has shifted. In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, host Elisa Wood sits down with Marco Krapels, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Enphase Energy, to explore a striking reversal: utilities that once viewed rooftop solar as a threat are now actively seeking out DER companies as partners.The catalyst? Data centers. The explosive growth of AI and digital infrastructure is driving electricity demand at a scale that centralized generation simply cannot meet fast enough — and utilities are starting to realize that 80 million untapped American rooftops may be part of the answer.Krapels brings both battle scars and optimism to this conversation. A former investment banker turned clean energy executive, he helped build SolarCity into the country's largest solar company and fought landmark net-metering wars in Nevada. Now, from Enphase — which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year — he describes a world where bundled, flexible distributed energy resources (solar + battery + bidirectional EV charger + smart home management) form dispatchable virtual power plants that utilities can actually rely on. And he argues it's not a future scenario. It's already happening.
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  Distributed Wind’s Second Act? 18.03.2026 32min

  Distributed wind has long played third wheel to solar and storage — but new market conditions may be opening the door to a comeback.In this bonus episode, Elisa Wood speaks with analyst Peter Asmus about whether distributed wind can find new life in microgrids, virtual power plants (VPPs), and rural energy systems. They explore wind’s surprising early dominance in microgrids, why it lost ground to solar, and how rural co-ops, farm policy, and complementary generation profiles could bring it back into the mix.While unlikely to compete head-to-head with solar, distributed wind may play a valuable supporting role in hybrid, distributed energy systems.
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  What Makes A Community Microgrid Actually Work For The Community? 18.03.2026 41min

  According to Markus Virta, Co-Founder of Cascadia Renewables, the answer has almost nothing to do with solar panels and batteries—and everything to do with listening.In this episode, Markus—who has spent 16 years at the intersection of clean energy and Pacific Northwest policy—explains why microgrids fail when engineers lead and communities follow, and how inverting that paradigm leads to faster projects, fewer change orders, and infrastructure that communities actually use.Markus offers a template for community microgrid development and provides examples of how it has worked in real-world projects. He tells the story of the Orcas Center Microgrid (Solar Builder Magazine’s Microgrid Project of the Year): a solar-plus-storage system built for a performing arts center on Orcas Island that turned out to be the community’s real resilience hub—not the fire station, not the school, but the place where people actually gather when things go wrong.You’ll also hear about: a tribal nation moving to higher ground ahead of a looming earthquake, a rural fire district running almost entirely on diesel for 30 years, and a national museum doubling as an emergency medical equipment hub. Each project started with a community conversation, not a technical spec.Markus also breaks down Washington State’s unique policy and funding ecosystem, including its cap-and-invest program, Commerce technical assistance grants, and the emerging day-ahead market that could finally make community microgrids economically self-sustaining. And he makes the case for FERC Order 2222 as the regulatory lever that could unlock real revenue for community-owned energy assets.Subscribe to the free Energy Changemakers Newsletter and join the community at EnergyChangemakers.com
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  How Your Home May Save the Grid 04.03.2026 30min

  In Episode 40, host Elisa Wood sits down with Ben Brown, CEO of Renew Home, to explore how millions of ordinary homes are being quietly transformed into virtual power plants (VPPs) — aggregated, AI-coordinated, and capable of delivering what a gas-fired peaker plant once did, at a fraction of the cost and with zero emissions.From Jimmy Carter's thermostat appeals to today's invisible, personalized energy shifting, Ben and Elisa talk about why the future of grid stability runs directly through your living room.What you'll learn:What a virtual power plant actually is, and why it's different from old-school demand responseHow Renew Home manages nearly 6 gigawatts of flexible load across 7.5 million householdsWhy being distributed makes a VPP more valuable than a centralized power plantThe policy gap holding back the next wave of VPP growth (and which markets are leading)How Ben's team achieves an 80% opt-in rate — without customers feeling a thingWhat role EVs, heat pumps, and home batteries will play in the grid of 2035Ben Brown built the Nest Learning Thermostat and Google Home devices before spinning out Renew Home — now North America's largest residential VPP platform — from Google in 2023. In November 2024, Renew Home announced a partnership with NRG Energy to build a 1-gigawatt AI-powered VPP in Texas.This episode is for anyone who pays an electric bill, cares about the clean energy transition, or wants to understand how the grid is actually going to keep up with exploding demand from data centers, EVs, and electrification.Subscribe to the Energy Changemakers newsletter and join the community at energychangemakers.com.
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  Jigar Shah’s Surprising Stand on This Utility Program 18.02.2026 28min

  Jigar Shah is one of clean energy's most influential — and outspoken — figures. In this episode, he takes a surprising stand on a utility battery program that has the distributed energy world divided, makes the case that the solar industry is now the battery industry, and lays out a policy blueprint for new governors that starts with one bold number: cut electricity bills 20% by 2030.In this episode:Why Shah is defending Xcel Energy's controversial utility-owned battery program in Minnesota — and why he thinks the critics are fighting the wrong battleThe $50 billion math: how strategically placed batteries could meet all U.S. load growth through 2030 at a fraction of the cost of new utility infrastructureHis blunt advice for half the clean energy industry: adapt your cost structure or shut your doorsThe "controlled experiment" between Xcel Minnesota and Xcel Colorado that could settle the utility ownership debateA three-point energy platform for governors, anchored in grid-enhancing technologies and massive battery deploymentShah's personal journey from a village in India with barely any electricity to overseeing the largest clean energy lending program in U.S. historyKey quote: "This solution is 90% cheaper than upgrading all the wires in Minnesota. Now we're arguing about whether this could have been 10% cheaper than the private sector solution."People and organizations discussed: Sparkfund, Xcel Energy, Generate Capital, SunEdison, Common Charge, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Tesla, Atmos Financial, DOE Loan Programs OfficeResources: DOE VPP Liftoff Report (January 2025) · DOE Grid-Enhancing Technologies Liftoff Report · IEA World Energy Outlook · commoncharge.org · energychangemakers.com
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  How Microgrid Finance Suffers from Stranded Abundance 04.02.2026 25min

  Eliot Assimakopoulos, CEO of Realizse and former GE microgrid pioneer, discusses a critical barrier to clean energy deployment: "stranded abundance." Despite available capital and valuable incentives, friction in finance prevents these resources from connecting, limiting microgrid and DER project development.Eliot AssimakopoulosCEO, RealizseFormer Marine Corps Captain20 years at General Electric leading microgrid solution developmentEarly pioneer in the microgrid spaceThe Stranded Abundance ProblemValuable incentive programs (ITC, 179D, state incentives) exist but remain underutilizedCapital exists but doesn't trust complex value streamsExample: Heat pump programs can access 50% ITC but developers avoid it due to complexity and riskHistorical ParallelsPrinting press and the democratization of knowledgeGold rush: connecting stranded gold with stranded capital through infrastructure (Wells Fargo)The Solution: Web3 and Decentralized FinanceUsing blockchain, smart contracts, and automation to create trusted data frameworksIntegrating compliance data with insurance (similar to telematics in fleet vehicles)Removing ITC recapture risk through data-driven insurance productsCreating investible assets from energy dataTwo Sides of AbundanceRemoving friction to build (permits, interconnection, supply chain)Removing friction to finance (trust, complexity, risk management)Energy abundance requires both reducing building barriers AND financing barriersTrusted data infrastructure can unlock stranded capital poolsTokenization and alternative investments are creating new opportunitiesThe shift toward private markets and granular asset transparency enables liquidityDemocratization of both energy AND finance is the ultimate goalEzra Klein's work on abundance agendaLarry Fink's 2025 investor letter on tokenizationInflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives179D building energy efficiency tax incentiveFor more information, visit energychangemakers.com
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  Gigawatt-Scale Data Centers Push the Grid to Its Limits. What's the Fix? 21.01.2026 34min

  The explosive growth of AI training centers is creating unprecedented challenges for the electric grid. In this eye-opening conversation, Kay Aikin reveals why gigawatt-scale data centers like Stargate aren't just about needing more power—they're creating stability threats that could collapse entire grid systems. Learn why virtual power plants can't solve this problem, what new technologies are needed, and how the regulatory landscape must adapt to handle loads that can spike by several gigawatts in seconds.Key TopicsIntroductionThree Types of Data CentersAI Training Centers: The Game ChangerThe Ramp Rate ProblemWhy Virtual Power Plants Can't HelpWhat Solutions Could WorkThe Battery ChallengeInterconnection RoadblocksMicrogrid AlternativesThe Regulatory ChallengeBroader Infrastructure CrisisThe Incentive ProblemSystems Thinking ApproachResources mentionedNERC Study: National Electricity Reliability Corporation report on large load impactsEnergy Hub VPP White Paper: Recent publication on virtual power plant capabilitiesPrevious Podcast: "Are We Expecting Too Much From Virtual Power Plants?" with Kay Aikin, Mark Patterson, and Lorenzo KristovGridWise Architecture Council: Organization focused on power systems architectureKay's Website: www.innovate8futures.com (Regenerative Futures - systems thinking resources)Kay Aikin is CEO of Dynamic Grid and a systems engineer specializing in electrical grid architecture. She serves on the GridWise Architecture Council and is known for her forward-thinking approach to grid transformation challenges. Kay focuses on distribution network challenges, DER integration, and holistic systems design.Elisa Wood is the host of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, which features conversations with industry leaders about building the decentralized grid. She can be reached at elisawood@energychangemakers.com.Have thoughts on this episode? Reach out to Elisa at elisawood@energychangemakers.com or use the thumbs up/down buttons to provide feedback.Listen to the Energy Changemakers Podcast on your favorite platform to stay informed about the latest developments in grid transformation and distributed energy.
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  The Many Ways Data Centers Try to Achieve Speed to Power 07.01.2026 40min

  This episode explores "speed to power" - the urgent need for data centers to access electricity quickly to support AI infrastructure growth. Anna Demeo explains why the fast-moving world of hyperscalers (Google, Meta, Microsoft) is colliding with the cautious, regulated utility industry, and what innovative solutions might bridge this gap.Guest Bio: Anna DemeoAnna Demeo, PhD is an industry executive at the intersection of energy and decarbonization with 30 years of experience integrating hardware and software to develop, commercialize, and scale sustainable energy solutions. She is the Managing Partner at Clean Tech Strategy Advisors, where she advises corporations, startups, and investors navigating the clean tech landscape.
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  An Energy Economist on the Abundance Agenda 24.12.2025 37min

  Right now, the term "energy abundance" seems to be everywhere. It springs from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book Abundance, which argues that we have too many rules and procedures bogging down the construction of clean energy, housing, and other needed infrastructure. While the book has created debate in both the power industry and political arenas, this episode moves away from the politics of abundance to focus on the economics of abundance.Host Elisa Wood sits down with energy economist Mariko Geronimo Aydin to explore how the abundance agenda fits into an industry where markets traditionally make money via scarcity, not abundance. Mariko offers unique insights into thinking about energy abundance from an economist's perspective and shares the innovative work happening at the Earthshot Foundation through their Gridiron Dialogues.Guest BioMariko Geronimo Aydin is an energy economist with 20 years of experience working as a consultant to regulators, utilities, and developers across the country. She specializes in resource planning (including generation and transmission portfolios), cost-benefit analysis, market design, and incorporating resilience measures into grid planning. Currently serving as Chief Economist and Senior Fellow at the Earthshot Foundation, Mariko focuses on advancing economic frameworks that support sustainable and abundant energy systems, with recent work concentrated on California's resource planning challenges.