Energy Changemakers Podcast

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 Davi

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

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

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. H

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 S

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

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 wr

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.

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

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 microgr

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), Lorenz

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 Elis

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 sh

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 dis

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.

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 sp

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

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 pla

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 dis

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 ca