Energy Changemakers Podcast
As the energy grid faces unprecedented changes, local energy solutions are increasingly needed. Hosted by Elisa Wood, an experienced energy journalist, The Energy Changemakers Podcast brings you into the heart of these transformations. Each episode features in-depth discussions with industry leaders pioneering the move toward a decentralized grid. From technological innovations to policy changes — discover actionable insights to help your company leverage emerging opportunities.
Episodes
John Berger Is Back — and Betting on Solar’s Biggest Blind Spot.
John Berger has won big and lost big. He founded Sunnova out of his Houston apartment in 2012 and grew it into one of the largest residential solar companies in the country, before it ended in bankruptcy. Now he’s back as CEO of Otovo, betting that the next big solar business isn’t installing panels but keeping them running.In this far-ranging conversation with host Elisa Wood, Berger explains why
The DER-Utility Standoff—and a Way Out
Utilities and distributed energy companies often talk past each other, and each side blames the other for the stalemate. Navneet Trivedi, co-founder and COO of Vrinda Inc., has spent more than three decades working with over 100 utilities in eight countries, and he calls himself an "energy transition realist." In this episode, host Elisa Wood talks with Navneet about why utilities behave
The Grid Isn’t Ready for Robots on Wheels
Autonomous vehicles are more than cars without drivers. They’re “robots on wheels” — and they will need enormous amounts of electricity at the grid edge.In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, host Elisa Wood talks with Mike Calise, CEO of EV charging company Tellus Power, about why the rise of autonomous fleets could make microgrids and distributed energy a strategic necessity.Calise
The Case for Electric Cooperatives in the Microgrid Era
What if the model to solve many of our biggest electricity problems already exists—we've just never used it to its full capacity? In this episode, Keith Taylor, a UC Davis institutional economist, makes the case that America's 800-plus co-ops are a form of "latent community capacity" hiding in plain sight. Keith proposes federating cooperatives so that they compete in the microg
The Wild, Weird & Wonderful History of Solar
Most people in solar assume the industry started with the trade-show boom of 2006–2007. It didn't. It started decades earlier, in the logged-over hills of Humboldt County, California, where back-to-the-land hippies were hacking a self-sufficient life out of the wilderness — powering their homes off car batteries, micro-hydro, and windmills just so they could keep the lights on and play a littl
How Customers Are Reshaping the Grid
From homeowners to businesses to AI data centers, customers are investing in distributed energy for their own reasons — and collectively rewiring how the entire electric system evolves. Recorded live to open The Great Transformation conference in Bend, Oregon, host Elisa Wood sits down with three people who aren’t just watching this shift — they’re shaping it: Cameron Brooks of Think Microgrid, Gr
Resilience as a Team Sport
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 wildf
Plug-In Solar Explained: Answers to your top questions
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 unpac
Coming Together for Energy's Great Transformation
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 m
How Utilities Can Do Less and Make More Money
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 incentiv
Why the Microgrid Community Needs to Come Together Now
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 opportunit
The Big Wide Door Opening for Biofuels
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), a
Why the Microgrid Community Needs to Come Together Now
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 opp
Energy Abundance From the Bottom Up
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 de
Chaos, Meet the DER Playbook
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
Microgrids Are a Goldmine for Grid Operators — They Just Don't Know It Yet
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
Inside America’s Most Forward-Thinking Energy County
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
Utilities Are Warming to DERs. Thank Data Centers.
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 thr
Distributed Wind’s Second Act?
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
What Makes A Community Microgrid Actually Work For The Community?
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 p
How Your Home May Save the Grid
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, pers
Jigar Shah’s Surprising Stand on This Utility Program
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 e
How Microgrid Finance Suffers from Stranded Abundance
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 l
Gigawatt-Scale Data Centers Push the Grid to Its Limits. What's the Fix?
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 technol
The Many Ways Data Centers Try to Achieve Speed to Power
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 indust
An Energy Economist on the Abundance Agenda
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 th
How to Make It Easier for American Families to Go Solar
Rooftop solar is far more affordable in other countries than it is in the United States, and the gap has little to do with technology. In this conversation, Elisa talks with Nick Josefowitz, Chief Executive of Permit Power, about why American families pay so much more for rooftop solar and how outdated permitting, utility requirements and fragmented local rules create unnecessary barriers.Nick exp
Data Centers: Bring Your Own Capacity Instead of Building Power Plants
In this episode, host Elisa Wood sits down with Adam Scarsella, Vice President of Digital Infrastructure Sales at Voltus, to explore a new approach to accelerating data center interconnection: Bring Your Own Capacity (BYOC).This innovative model allows hyperscalers to meet their peak energy needs not by waiting years for new power plants, but by funding a virtual power plant (VPP) built from distr
The Coolest Stuff Happening on the Electric Grid
In this special crossover episode, Energy Changemakers host Elisa Wood joins Jennifer Zajac on Clean Energy Shorts to talk about the most exciting innovations reshaping the electric grid. From mega-microgrids to driveway solar, Elisa reveals what’s really happening behind the headlines—and why the clean-energy story is about more than politics.They unpack the myths driving public perception, explo
Why Energy Companies Struggle To Tell Their Story
Why do many energy companies struggle to connect with stakeholders despite strong technical credentials? Why is it so hard for them to tell their story, and what could make it easier?Elisa Wood brings together two communications experts who have helped a range of organizations find their stories: energy writer-editor Jay Hodgkins and podcast strategist Scott Smith. Why stories are remembered and s
What It Takes to Curb Data Center Energy Use
Are data center forecasts overblown? Will energy efficiency trim megawatts and even gigawatts off predictions? And if so, what must data centers do to significantly curb their energy use? In this episode, host Elisa Wood talks with Mike Slevin of Fluke about what it really takes to make data centers more efficient. They discuss how small, everyday improvements in equipment performance add up to bi
Is Utility Corruption Impeding Energy Innovation?
Utility monopolies were meant to keep the lights on, but have they also opened the door to corruption that slows energy innovation?Elisa talks with Dick Munson, veteran clean-energy advocate and author of Power Corrupts, about the scandals that rocked utilities like Commonwealth Edison and FirstEnergy, why the century-old monopoly structure invites abuse, and how bribery and dark money can stall t
How to Speed Microgrid Development for Data Centers
Two energy giants come together with a new strategyThe global data center boom is colliding head-on with one of the most pressing bottlenecks in the energy sector: access to reliable, timely power. In this episode, host Elisa Wood sits down with Jim Mozell, senior director of strategic partnerships at Siemens Energy, and Juan Colina, data center and IT segment leader at Eaton, to discuss how toget
What It Really Takes to Make a Customer-Centric Electricity System
Guest: Bruce Nordman, Retired Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryAfter nearly 40 years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bruce Nordman has stepped into retirement — leaving with some big ideas about the future of our electricity system. In this episode, host Elisa Wood speaks with Bruce about the insights he’s gathered over his career and why he believes the grid has
Less Waste, More Productivity: An Economist’s Take on Our Energy Dilemma
In this episode of Energy Changemakers, host Elisa Wood sits down with renowned energy economist Skip Laitner to explore the surprising ways our “stuff” — from food waste to excess parking lots — is shaping our energy use, economy, and environment. Drawing from his decades of work at the EPA, ACEEE, and beyond, Skip reframes the energy conversation from simply producing more to using resources mor
Is Small Town America Ready for Climate Migration?
As rising sea levels, floods, and wildfires continue to impact large swaths of the U.S., many people will be displaced from the coasts to the middle states. Hillary Brown, former director of the Urban Sustainability Program at City College of New York, sees this as an opportunity for faltering, inland communities to capture new economic opportunities — if they prepare for population growth now. Cu
Maximizing the Value of Your Molecule: An Interview with Mark Feasel
Elisa Wood interviews Mark Feasel — a former leader at Schneider Electric and FuelCell Energy, and now an independent energy consultant — about the growing tension between energy demand and access in the age of AI. As data centers proliferate and energy demand rises, utilities and innovators face a new challenge: Where will the power come from?Mark shares his perspective on how distributed energy
Grids Are the Center of Everything
What exactly is a “digital grid”—and why is it the cornerstone of our energy future?In this episode, Elisa Wood sits down with Ruben Llanes, CEO of the Digital Grid business at Schneider Electric, to explore the digital transformation of energy infrastructure. With over 15 years at Schneider and a lifetime surrounded by energy systems (his father owned an electrical contracting business), Ruben sh
How Can Microgrids Achieve the Holy Grail of Scalability?
Scaling microgrids has long been a sticking point in the clean energy conversation—custom-built and complex, they’ve traditionally defied mass deployment. But what if microgrids could be treated as products rather than projects?In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, host Elisa Wood sits down with Alok Singhania, Senior Partner at Gridscape, to explore how standardizing microgrids can
DERs and the Abundance Agenda: What Comes After Federal Funding Falls Short
In this episode, Elisa Wood sits down with Tim Hade to discuss why now—despite, or perhaps because of—federal policy turbulence, the distributed energy industry is poised for massive transformation. Tim unpacks his move to Santa Barbara (which, by the way, he calls “home to the worst grid in the continental U.S.”) and how that community could become a national model for DER-powered resilience.They
Microgrids Aren’t What They Used To Be
In this insightful episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, Elisa Wood is joined by industry experts Lisa Cohn and Peter Asmus to explore the dynamic world of microgrids. They trace the evolution of microgrids from niche solutions for remote areas to vital tools for resilience in a world facing rising energy demands, data center expansion, and climate uncertainty.Lisa and Peter share their exte
The Battle for the Grid: How the Public Can Regain Control of Electricity
Is it time to rethink who controls the grid?Elisa Wood sits down with legal expert and author Sandeep Vaheesan to discuss the rarely told—but critically important—history of public power in the United States. From the rise and fall of rural electric cooperatives to today’s mounting frustration with investor-owned utilities, Sandeep offers a sweeping, insider’s look at why our energy systems are fa
US Political Parties Agree on One Thing: Utility Bills
Most Americans have never heard of their state’s public utility commission—yet these low-profile regulatory bodies control over $200 billion in annual utility spending and directly influence the price you pay for electricity and gas. In this episode of Energy Changemakers, host Elisa Wood sits down with Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a national nonprofit pushing for sma
How to Make Distributed Solar Projects Pencil without the Federal Tax Credit
As uncertainty looms over the future of the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), many in the distributed energy sector are concerned about how to keep solar and storage projects economically viable. In this episode, host Elisa Wood sits down with Gareth Evans, CEO of VECKTA, to unpack his recent analysis that offers surprising—and hopeful—insights.Gareth’s findings challenge conventional wisdom: s
Solar on Wheels - How a Family-Run Startup is Transforming Driveways into Clean Power Stations
Across America, sunny driveways are abundant yet surprisingly overlooked as potential power generators. Now, a Florida-based startup, Gismo Power, is pioneering a remarkable innovation: a portable, plug-in solar EV charger called the MEGA – or Mobile Electricity Generating Appliance.In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, host Elisa Wood talks with Antonia Ginsberg-Klemmt, CEO and mec
Distributed Energy Is Misunderstood and Underrepresented. What Do We Do About It?
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are often overlooked, misunderstood, or underrepresented in discussions about the future of the electric grid. In this episode, host Elisa Wood explores why DERs—like rooftop solar, batteries, small wind turbines, and community energy projects—are so critical to building a decentralized, resilient, and equitable energy system.Elisa shares why she founded Energy
What it Took to Build one of the US’ Largest Community Choice Aggregations
How do you make an ambitious clean energy goal a reality that benefits an entire community? In this episode, we sit down with Cody Hooven, principal and co-founder of Evolution Affairs, to explore how she led the charge in creating San Diego Community Power—now the second-largest Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) in the U.S.From navigating policy and financial hurdles to engaging local stakeholde
How Should the Power Industry Think about the DeepSeek Announcement?
AI is driving up power demand, but how much and how fast remains under debate. Bulls warn we’ll need far more electric power than we’re poised to produce. Bears say utilities inflate the numbers and don’t account for the efficiencies technology tends to achieve over time.
The debate heightened recently when DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, announced that it had developed a more efficient AI large l
What Utilities and DER Companies Don't Get about Each Other Part 2
Bill Prindle, principal of Better Energy Advisors, told us what distributed energy resource (DER) companies don’t get about utilities in episode 1 of this two-part series. Now he looks at the other angle — what utilities don’t get about distributed energy players.
It’s a clash of business cultures: Utilities have historically operated as monopolistic, cautious, heavily regulated entities. DER com
Equal Pay for Equal Work: Treating Energy Efficiency Fairly in Wholesale Capacity Markets
With an expensive push underway to build large power plants and transmission to meet growing electric demand, energy efficiency is gaining new importance. Creating more negawatts (energy reduction) reduces the need to build new energy infrastructure, saving everyone a lot of money.
Despite its benefits, energy efficiency has always been a “little engine that could” technology trying to overcome ma
Incorporating Non-Energy Benefits in Energy Planning: A Path Forward
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers podcast, host Elisa Wood discusses the concept of non-energy benefits with Roger Lin, Senior Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. They explore the importance of valuing the social, environmental, and community impacts of energy decisions, which are often overlooked in traditional energy planning. California's efforts to incorporate non-energy
Why this Energy Changemaker is Trying to Bring Community Choice Energy to Arizona
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers podcast, host Elisa Wood interviews Russell Lowes from Arizonans for Community Choice. They explore the potential of Community Choice Energy (CCE) programs in transforming local energy. Russell shares his journey from high school activism to becoming an author who influenced the fate of a nuclear power plant in Arizona. The conversation delves into the me
Off Grid and Urban: An Apartment Building that Signals the Future
In an interview with Elisa Wood, veteran energy innovator Steve Pullins, CEO of ResSET, unveils his latest venture, a highly unusual sustainable apartment building in Ann Arbor, Michigan, set to be entirely off-grid. While foregoing a grid connection isn’t typical, especially for a city building, Pullins maintains it’s time to think of the electric grid as just one of several energy options, not
Making the crush of utility data usable: Awesense
At one point in Awesense’s history, CEO and Founder Mischa Steiner was in a serious accident when riding his bike. While he was still recovering, his company was named in a lawsuit, lost investors, and faced an audit.
It was a dark period, but the company made it through and navigated its way into a key energy transition market. Using its “digital twin on steroids,” Awesense helps make utility dat
What Utilities and DER Companies Don't Get about Each Other - Part 1
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers podcast, host Elisa Wood engages in a rich discussion with Bill Prindle, a senior energy and climate leader. Bill brings over 40 years of industry experience and provides a unique perspective on the evolving roles of utilities and distributed energy resource (DER) companies in the modern grid. They delve into the financial models that govern investor-owne
An Entrepreneur's Journey from Russia and Oil to the US and Clean Energy: Lumin
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers podcast, host Elisa Wood interviews Alex Bazhinov, founder and president of Lumin, a smart panel company. Alex shares his remarkable journey from working in the mining industry in Russia to pioneering smart home energy solutions in Charlottesville, Virginia. Like so many entrepreneurs, he began in his garage developing a prototype. Now, partnering with cl
A Campaign to Create a Distributed Energy Utility in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Voters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be asked to approve a ground-breaking new kind of utility on November 5, one run by the city that provides local, distributed energy to those who choose to participate. Missy Stults, Ann Arbor’s Sustainability and Innovations Director, joins host Elisa Wood to explain why the city decided to pursue the creation of the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU), how it wil
The Economics of Community Solar: How Profits are Made and Consumer Energy Costs Lowered
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers Podcast, financial expert Rob Hong of Sapling Financial Consultants explains how community solar can provide both profits for developers and cost savings for consumers. He presents the financials of a real project, explains the risks and rewards, compares various community solar approaches, and describes the pros and cons of community solar over other so
Are We Expecting Too Much from Virtual Power Plants?
In this episode of the Energy Changemakers podcast, host Elisa Wood talks to three big thinkers in the electric power industry: Lorenzo Kristov, Kay Aikin, and Mark Paterson, who explain what it will take to create a democratized electric grid. Our guests also take on common grid fictions, such as the belief that virtual power plants provide an “easy button” to manage distributed energy. They offe
What’s Next for Community Solar?
Elisa Wood interviews Nate Owen, CEO of Ampion, who provides an inside view of the US community solar market following a regulatory ruling in California that left many in the industry unhappy. Owen dives into the history that brought the industry to this point and explains why he’s bullish on its future. He delves into problems, like interconnection, that slow projects and market mechanisms and so
Energy Changemakers: Trailer
As the energy grid faces unprecedented changes, local energy solutions are increasingly needed. Hosted by Elisa Wood, an experienced energy journalist, The Energy Changemakers Podcast brings you into the heart of these transformations. Each episode features in-depth discussions with industry leaders pioneering the move toward a decentralized grid. From technological innovations to policy changes —
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