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PODCAST

Energy Changemakers Podcast

Energy Changemakers

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. Join us at The

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All Episodes

00:46:30

Why Energy Companies Struggle To Tell Their Story

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/10/29

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 spec sheets are notHow to frame renewables amid misinformation and political headwindsWhen to avoid

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00:29:01

What It Takes to Curb Data Center Energy Use

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/10/15

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 big savings, the growing role of solar and microgrids, and how the shift to DC power could change the game

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00:22:55

Is Utility Corruption Impeding Energy Innovation?

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/10/01

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 the transition to cleaner, distributed power.How billion-dollar bailouts in Illinois and Ohio exposed

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00:33:14

How to Speed Microgrid Development for Data Centers

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/09/17

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 together they are trying to overcome interconnection delays and provide “speed to power” for microgrids.While

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00:24:07

What It Really Takes to Make a Customer-Centric...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/09/03

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 strayed from its original purpose: serving customers.Bruce argues that today’s electricity system is

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00:28:52

Less Waste, More Productivity: An Economist’s Take on...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/08/20

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 more productively.Using vivid, household-level examples, Skip reveals how the sheer mass of human-made

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00:31:58

Is Small Town America Ready for Climate Migration?

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/08/06

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. Cultivating clean distributed energy resources is a key step.In this episode, Hillary dives into the

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00:30:49

Maximizing the Value of Your Molecule: An Interview...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/07/23

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 resources (DERs), grid constraints, and new power generation models may reshape our energy

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00:33:06

Grids Are the Center of Everything

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/07/09

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 shares his insider perspective on why grid modernization is the key to managing the explosive growth of

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00:30:43

How Can Microgrids Achieve the Holy Grail of...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/06/25

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 reshape the energy landscape. Alok unpacks Gridscape’s innovative approach to making microgrids modular,

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00:43:07

DERs and the Abundance Agenda: What Comes After...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/06/11

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 explore why community organizing is becoming just as crucial as engineering, how local governments are

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00:46:46

Microgrids Aren’t What They Used To Be

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/05/28

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 extensive experience in the field, discussing how microgrids have evolved from basic solar-plus-storage

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00:51:34

The Battle for the Grid: How the Public Can Regain...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/05/14

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 failing the public—and what we can do about it.Together, they explore the roots of energy democracy, the

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00:29:04

US Political Parties Agree on One Thing: Utility Bills

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/04/23

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 smarter, more consumer-centered utility regulation.Together, they unpack the eye-opening findings of

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00:28:57

How to Make Distributed Solar Projects Pencil without...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/04/16

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: solar and storage projects can still achieve a viable return without the ITC—but only if we radically

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00:51:04

Solar on Wheels - How a Family-Run Startup is...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/04/02

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 mechanical engineer, and her parents and business partners, electrical engineer Achim Ginsberg-Klemmt and

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00:16:02

Distributed Energy Is Misunderstood and...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/03/19

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 Changemakers and how this platform fosters meaningful conversations with industry leaders about the

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00:35:57

What it Took to Build one of the US’ Largest...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/03/05

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 stakeholders and launching during the turbulence of COVID, Cody shares the behind-the-scenes story of what it

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00:43:20

How Should the Power Industry Think about the...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/02/06

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 language model. This model purports to perform as well as US models but uses far less computing power

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00:30:06

What Utilities and DER Companies Don't Get about Each...

Energy Changemakers Podcast ·

2025/01/29

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 companies are innovative, often disruptive, scrappy and highly competitive. And they have to work

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