36 episodes
Power Flow Amy Simpkins
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- Technology
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5.0 • 16 Ratings
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The energy revolution is coming, and it's all hands on deck. Amplifying the expertise of the leaders in the new energy economy and inviting diverse voices to the table, we'll talk solar power, battery storage and battery alternatives, microgrids, renewable energy, distributed energy architectures, energy policy, energy equity, and all things energy. I'm your host, Amy Simpkins, renewable energy CEO (and Rocket Scientist) and I am passionate about creating sustainable change. I believe that access to electricity is no longer a luxury -- it's a human right. I'm driven by the desire to leave this world better than I found it. I believe in the power of collaboration -- that innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum. And innovation is the only way our planet will survive. Recent natural disaster events impacting access to power, like the Texas Power Crisis during the winter storms of 2021 or the raging California wildfires of 2018-2020, combined with concern over anticipated future events, like a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake in Oregon, have elevated conversations about resilience, independence, and sustainability to new, more urgent heights. If we are truly going to meet the challenges to the energy revolution and to achieve these ideals, we need to bring all minds to the whiteboard. That’s why Power Flow Podcast was born. I've always worked in male-dominated environments. Yet, the more I engage with women, the more I witness very different approaches to innovation, problem solving, and solution implementation. We possess a treasure trove in untapped riches of expertise from female, non-binary, and BIPOC professionals, all relentlessly working to make this new energy future a reality, yet too often unseen and unheard. What does that future look like? Solving the challenges we face in the energy industry can solve intersectional problems for Earth and its residents. A shift from fossil fuels to renewables not only increases sustainability -- an important component of slowing and reversing climate change -- it will also reduce pollution near low-income or racially diverse neighborhoods. A shift to distributed energy improves community resilience through microgrids and minigrids. Community resilience and distributed energy lead to energy equity - ensuring access to clean, reliable energy for all. I began my career in aerospace - yes, as an actual rocket scientist - believing that technical and scientific advancement through the exploration of space would be the ultimate way to change the world. After 10 years of designing, modeling, integrating, and flying spacecraft, I began looking for ways to have a more direct and powerful impact. When I co-founded renewable energy startup muGrid Analytics with my partner, it used all of my gifts and skills from my entire career to do good in the world. The thing is, I see the world as a set of linkages. I can see how everything is connected in a complex web of synergy and interdependence. The further I explored the energy economy, the more I could see its far-reaching impacts for individuals, for the people, for the planet. Join me in a deep dive exploring the solutions clean energy can offer to our earth as we bring more voices to the microphone and more minds to the whiteboard, shining a spotlight on new ideas and perspectives, tapping into the vast expertise and intersectional thinking that's already here. As we thoughtfully consider the tremendous challenges of the energy revolution, we can collaborate to achieve sustainability, equity, and resilience. It’s time to amplify new ideas that can help us innovate more efficiently, with better outcomes, harmonizing the threads of collaboration so we can build the future together. Find us at http://powerflowpodcast.com
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3.08 On the Viability of Commercial Energy Storage and the Art of System Architecture with Diane Dandeneau
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! -
3.07 On Holistic Sustainability and Solar Packaging with Vanessa Benkert
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! -
3.06 On Streamlining Technology Deployment in the Field with Sierra Fan
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! -
3.05 On Unlocking the Barriers to Accessible Solar Solutions with Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt
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: erika@gismopower.com.
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. -
3.04 On the Push for Long Duration Energy Storage with Julia Souder
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! -
3.03 On Delivering Financial Returns for Energy Storage and Microgrids with Amy Simpkins featuring Laura Novak
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!
Customer Reviews
Great very personal and technical conversations
Amy is a wonderful podcast host. I enjoy listening to the guests in her show, learning about technology but also about people’s lives and vision for the future.
Great conversations
Great conversation with Ahlmahz Negash. Love the enthusiasm and insight.
Enlightening conversations
Great conversations about what is standing in the way of a clean energy future and the technologies and approaches that might get us there. I’m an electrical engineer who has been following “green” topics since college. Giving that background before I say that the conversations have kept me engaged and considering new aspects of this challenge.