By Amy Simpkins
5
1616 ratings
The podcast currently has 40 episodes available.
In this episode, Nadia, Elina, and Amy discuss the new landscape of offshore wind in America and how this holistic solution is providing revitalization to American manufacturing, in addition to the importance of engagement with the local community and meeting people where they are in renewable energy outreach.
Quotes
“It sounds like people are not opposed to renewable energy if it’s done correctly.”
– Nadia Adam
“This is our generation’s oil boom.” – Nadia Adam
“Artists do motion -based artwork all the time – why can’t this [wind turbines] be one of those?” – Amy Simpkins
“These same people that are living on the coast and are worried about their view are likely also worried about what climate change is going to do to that view when their house sinks into the ocean.” – Elina Khutoryansky
About
Introducing Nadia Adam, a visionary leader celebrated for her multifaceted contributions across industries. Recognized as one of Womenelle's Top 10 Female Leaders of 2024 and honored with the esteemed SIEDC 20 under 40 leadership award, Nadia's remarkable journey reflects her unwavering commitment to driving positive change.
At the heart of Nadia's mission is a vision to transform how professionals and the public engage with and understand offshore wind energy. Through high-quality documentaries, feature articles, online courses, and interactive webinars, EcoWind Solutions delivers both deep industry insights and engaging human interest stories. Moreover, Nadia is dedicated to fostering a vibrant community within the offshore wind industry, providing robust forums, career resources, and networking opportunities for industry players.
Elina Khutoryansky is the co-founder of EcoWind Solutions. She is an attorney that specialized in compliance for some of the most highly regulated industries in the US, but joined Nadia in EcoWind Solutions in order to make a greater and more positive impact on the world.
Resources
Ecowind Solutions
Staten Island Industrial Alliance
Instagram: EcoWindSolutions
TikTok: EcoWindSolutions
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
Join Amy Simpkins for a “state of the [renewable energy] union” in 2023-2024, her predictions for 2025, reflections on innovation theory and the importance of creative rest for the entrepreneurial (and life!) journey, and a summary of Power Flow’s stunning Season 3 guests.
To consider this summer: How do we give ourselves mental and creative rest as professional adults in an extremely fast-paced industry?
Quotes (all by Amy Simpkins)
“Innovation is not just a cyclical process, but an iterative one.”
“The federal funding and the visibility that it has given to #CleanTech and the visibility it has given to projects for underserved communities has been huge and was possibly the biggest news of the year.”
“Collaborative innovation only happens when we get out of our hidey holes and we join together in community.”
“In the technology world, we’re definitely seeing energy storage coming into its own, maybe for the first time.”
About Amy
As co-founder and CEO at muGrid Analytics, Amy Simpkins solves wicked problems at the intersection of energy technology and economics using math and modeling. muGrid provides bankable techno-economic analysis, optimized control, and project development of renewable energy, energy storage, and microgrids to maximize economic return, increase energy resilience, and promote energy equity in the US and around the world.
Amy is also an internationally recognized speaker on innovation and iterative development for entrepreneurs. She is the author of Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion and host of the Power Flow Podcast, which amplifies diverse voices in the energy revolution.
Prior to muGrid, Amy designed and operated spacecraft as a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin. Her technical expertise includes system and software architecture, system-level performance modeling, and design tradespace analysis. Amy holds an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California and an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She is a messy chef, a world traveler, a taekwondo green belt, a vocal music minor, a mom to three curious innovators, and a tough cookie in the Colorado backcountry.
Resources:
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.
Check out muGrid’s website.
Connect with muGrid Analytics on LinkedIn or Facebook.
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, we’re new, so you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Deepa and Amy discuss ways to support underrepresented entrepreneurs in climate tech and “making the umbrella bigger for who gets to be a climate entrepreneur,” along with the reality and challenges in the entrepreneurial space.
Quotes
“Underrepresented people are underrepresented often because they are undersupported.” – Deepa Lounsbury
“Bringing that productization piece is almost as important - or just as important - as the technical solution in and of itself.” – Amy Simpkins
Deepa is the CEO of LabStart, which unlocks underrepresented entrepreneurial talent from diverse communities and breakthrough climate innovations out of our national labs and institutions. She has spent the last 18 years bringing innovative clean energy products, programs, and initiatives to life. This includes bringing a new residential battery product to market at Enphase Energy, building out the $24M California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) program to fund early stage entrepreneurs, setting up GE’s first distributed energy platform, commercializing a demand side flexibility software product at a startup, and investing at one of the earliest clean energy venture capital firms, Angeleno Group.
Deepa holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Southern California as well as a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group.Resources:
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
In this episode, Esther and Amy discuss innovation, continuous learning, and the courage to bring your ideas out into reality.
Quotes
“Energy education is a fundamental building block of participation.” – Esther Morales
“Part of what energy education and access to energy education does is it creates a synergy between people’s values and how they can actually show up in the world with work.” – Esther Morales
“There’s a difference between knowing some things and then knowing how that translates into workforce, into implementation, into what you can do with it.” – Amy Simpkins
“Everybody in this industry is dealing with the stovepipes.” – Amy Simpkins
“There are so many people who are teachers who know things that need to be translated and need to be taught.” – Esther Morales
“We’ve entered a new world where we all have to continue to learn because this ecosystem – energy, climate – it changes so quickly." – Esther Morales
About:
Esther Morales brings over 25 years of cross sector, business-facing and public service leadership to her work. Since January, 2021, she has served as the executive director of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI). Just prior, she was the Deputy Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz).
Esther spent the preceding years, 2009 - 2017, working on policy implementation at the national level on a range of issues in Washington, DC including at the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, the National Women’s Business Council, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and at the White House in the Office of First Lady Mrs. Obama. Before moving to Washington, DC, she spent ten years managing issue and candidate campaigns, and working with nonprofits organizing around racial justice issues. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
Resources:
Check out CELI's website.
Connect with Esther on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And hey, you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Amy and Diane discuss the past and present landscape of opportunities in solar, along with the viability of commercial energy storage and the art of architecture in renewable energy projects.
“It is hard to do this, but the hard work needs to get done.” – Diane Dandeneau
Diane Dandeneau is a serial entrepreneur and lifelong artist. She has had a passion for renewable energy since living in a passive solar home while going to art school in NM. Her purpose in life is now focused on creating functional and beautiful integrated renewable energy, EV charging and energy management solutions that allow her customers to focus on their business while achieving the highest return on investment possible.
Resources:
Check out iPower Alliance.
Connect with Diane on LinkedIn
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! You can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Vanessa Benkert shares her passion for working in the renewable energy field, the power of storytelling and innovation, and an overlooked, yet important piece of the solar puzzle: transporting solar panels with reusable packaging.
Learn more: https://www.pvpallet.com/
With ~20 years of experience, Vanessa has a proven track record of developing and executing marketing initiatives for a range of companies, from small startups to large international organizations. Her skillset includes big picture thinking as well as hands-on tasks like website development, graphic design, and writing. Successfully starting and managing her own marketing agency for over 10 years highlights her entrepreneurial spirit and leadership. Vanessa sets herself apart in her ability to masterfully blend creativity and storytelling with strategy.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pvpallet
Instagram: @pvpallet
Twitter: @pvpallet
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pvpallet
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pvpallet
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, we’re new, so you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Sierra Fan describes co-founding illu to better support technicians in the renewable energy field. She says, “It really came from personal experience… we tried to look for the software. We thought someone must have built something that makes this easier. We kept looking for it. We couldn’t find it… and that’s how we got started with this.”
She and Amy also discuss international renewable energy projects vs those in the US from her experience as a developer of solar and storage microgrids in Myanmar.
Quotes
“These are such cool, motivated entrepreneurial people that are doing this work. How do we make it easier for them to get the information they need?” – Sierra Fan
“I’m really excited about innovations that have their roots internationally, that are being brought back into the ‘developed world.’” – Sierra Fan
“Distributed energy is no longer out of sight, out of mind. You start to see all these stove pipes start to come down; that energy really does touch everything.” – Amy Simpkins
“There’s urgency that we need all these solutions to get on the ground and we need people to work together … to speed up the deployment of all these things where the technology is already there.” – Sierra Fan
Sierra Fan is the Co-Founder and COO of illu, providing software solutions for solar, storage, and EV charging companies to more easily onboard and manage their installers and technicians.
She also founded Mee Panyar, a developer of solar and storage microgrids in Myanmar. Previously, she financed more than $10Bn in energy and infrastructure projects while at Morgan Stanley, including 1.7GW of utility-scale renewable energy in the US.
Resources:
Check out illu’s website: https://www.illu.works/.
Connect with Sierra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sierrafan/ .
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! You can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt shares her family’s journey to creating Gismo Power, her joy in driving EVs and traveling the seven seas, as well as her drive to make solar solutions more accessible to everyone.
Quotes
“It’s fun to run on sun.” – Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt
“Ease of interconnection, especially for small systems, would really explode growth.” – Amy Simpkins
“There are things that have to be addressed at a regulatory level that can help more than just this technology.” – Amy Simpkins
“I feel like I’m much more of a public servant, much more of an activist than an entrepreneur.” – Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt
In 1990, realizing that she wanted to see more of the world before she sold it, Erika abandoned an upwardly mobile position at a travel agency for a one-way ticket to the South of France. She lived and worked in Cannes, Paris and Hamburg before embracing the liveaboard life with her husband on their sailboat Pangaea for the last seven years. The spirit of Pangaea's Wandering Website took form decades ago as an informal newsletter while she studied at UC Berkeley.
Indigenous of Laguna Beach, California, Erika became a grassroots Technomad, faithfully maintaining her wireless Internet updates while sailing around the globe. Then the word "blog" arrived on the scene and she stopped writing for 20+ years, raising her 3 kids and establishing her first company, SRQUS LLC, with which she bootstraps GismoPower. Now she's a solar justice peace-seeker and kochluffel (look it up.)
Resources:
Check out Gizsmo Power’s website: https://gismopower.com/.
Connect with Erika via email: [email protected].
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, we’re new, so you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
In this episode, Julia Souder shares her passion for Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) and shares her ideas on how global organizations can work together to make it more widespread as an extremely resilient energy solution.
Quotes
“We are a huge part of the solution in the green energy transition.” – Julia Souder
“Despite what they tell you, it’s not a solved science.” [battery energy storage] – Amy Simpkins
“LDES really does de-risk the transition. It just needs more doors opened to play on the playground with everyone else.” – Julia Souder
“LDES is at the tipping point to provide the benefits.” – Julia Souder
About
Julia Souder is a strategic executive with over 20 years of expertise in the energy and environmental sectors as a coalition builder and advocate. She has been a longtime champion of clean energy technology, working extensively to support environmentally friendly technologies and equitable policies.
Julia leads the LDES Council’s strategy and vision to enable the advancement of long duration energy storage to the center stage of the energy transition worldwide.
Julia served as the Executive Director of the Long Duration Energy Storage Association of California (LDESAC). While there, she led the education and outreach of emerging and existing long duration energy storage developers, focusing on its importance to grid reliability and meeting climate goals.
Julia launched JAS Energies in 2019 to bring inclusive, diverse, and equitable transitions and policies into fruition. She provided a deep understanding of challenges facing the US electricity sector in reducing carbon emissions, building renewable energy projects, creating markets, and implementing a clean energy vision. Previously, Julia was a Director at the The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), focused on market and energy policy creation and implementation, creating coalitions and interpreted real-time grid operations and transmission planning.
Julia’s prior roles include senior positions at Clean Line Energy Partners, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Resources:
Check out the LDES council’s website: https://www.ldescouncil.com/.
Connect with Juila on LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, we’re new, so you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
In this episode, Laura and Amy discuss the energy storage and microgrid landscape, with a peek behind the curtain as Amy Simpkins finally answers her own questions as CEO of muGrid Analytics and microgrid architect.
Fresh from the RE+ 2023 conference, Amy and Laura explore the gap between the marketing around battery systems as solved science versus how much more research is truly necessary. Amy explains why 15 years of industry experience led to muGrid’s transition from strictly energy consultants to software vendors, tackling the current chasm between actual economic results delivered and how much more is possible, as well as why the financials are vital.
According to Amy, “The intelligent economic decisions are critical for any kind of battery technology and that is something that gets lost.”
Quotes - all by Amy Simpkins
“The entire value proposition of an energy storage system is in its control, in its decision making piece.”
"No matter which element on the periodic table you are using, you still have to intelligently command the battery to work and make intelligent decisions that will deliver financial results from your battery.”
"In order to actually deploy energy storage and associated hybrid systems, they have to generate revenue."
“We’ve made the transition from consultants who said what could be possible to a product vendor who says we can DO this. It’s not just probable, it’s possible, and we’re doing it.”
About
As co-founder and CEO at muGrid Analytics, Amy Simpkins solves wicked problems at the intersection of energy technology and economics using math and modeling. muGrid provides bankable techno-economic analysis, optimized control, and project development of renewable energy, energy storage, and microgrids to maximize economic return, increase energy resilience, and promote energy equity in the US and around the world.
Amy is also an internationally recognized speaker on innovation and iterative development for entrepreneurs. She is the author of Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion and host of the Power Flow Podcast, which amplifies diverse voices in the energy revolution.
Prior to muGrid, Amy designed and operated spacecraft as a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin. Her technical expertise includes system and software architecture, system-level performance modeling, and design tradespace analysis. Amy holds an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California and an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.
Check out muGrid’s website.
Connect with muGrid Analytics on LinkedIn or Facebook.
If you enjoyed the conversation, please share the episode with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe to Power Flow on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out our awesome merch! And hey, we’re new, so you can even apply to be a sponsor or a guest.
You can follow Power Flow Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!
The podcast currently has 40 episodes available.