Power Flow

Here on Power Flow we do a lot of thinking about the future of energy. For Ahlmahz Negash, PhD, it's what she does every day for the City of Tacoma in her job as a long range resource planner. She's helping the city not only plan for clean sources of energy (which they already have in spades) but also plan for electrification - enabling vehicles, buildings, and industrial processes to mo...

After a 10 year term at the National Renewable Energy Lab, Dr. Julieta Giraldez is working at the edge of technology and regulatory issues, at the edge of the utility, the energy policy, and the energy consumer. She is a facilitator of conversations that move clean energy projects forward.  We talk about a lot of edges in this episode: between research and implementation, between the public and pr...

Lori Wright is helping to solve tomorrow's problems today. She is a lawyer working in technology - often energy technology - and helping developers, designers, and innovators build systems that will stand the test of time.  She focuses on issues of cybersecurity and interoperability, topics that are often hard for implementers to stop and think about. Lori brings a long-game perspective on ho...

After a historic flooding event in 2016, which left the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa without power and critical infrastructure, the tribe committed themselves to installing microgrids to ensure clean, resilient power on tribal lands. In May 2021, the tribe commissioned three building level microgrids, incorporating more than 520 kW of solar and over 1MWh of battery storage, the largest...

We all know the green benefits of installing renewable energy generation like solar PV, but what happens at the system's end of life? If the panels end up in a landfill, we aren't doing our planet any favors.  Janette Freeman at FabTech is on a mission to keep panels out of landfills by either reusing or recycling them. In this episode, we talk about what the different paths to reuse and...

Energy access affects health, safety, and education. Seventy-five percent of Africa’s population live without access to modern energy, and women are affected the most. Our guest this week is Katherine Lucey, who is bringing the light to communities in Africa – literally. Her non-profit organization, Solar Sister, recruits women in sub-Saharan Africa and trains them in business skills. This provide...

The path to a clean energy future is likely not a straightforward one, strewn with complexities. Luckily, engineers love unpacking complexity.  Our guest this week is Una Nowling, a study in paradox. Una is a fuels engineer who knows so much about coal, she has been nicknamed by colleagues and clients "The Coal Goddess." Even so, Una is relentlessly committed to decarbonization. She take...

Battery energy storage is getting a great deal of press because of the way it is revolutionizing transportation and vehicle electrification as well as how it enables higher penetration of non-dispatchable renewable energy generation, both in front of and behind the meter.  But questions about battery end of life plague the technology.  Are batteries recyclable? What happens to batteries whose perf...

As an energy industry professional, I know that energy policy is important, but policymaking itself remains something of a black box.  State representative Liana Cassar of Rhode Island is pulling back the curtain for us today.  Liana's professional background is systems thinking and design for the health care sector, but as a legislator, she balances myriad legislative priorities including en...

What can regular citizens possibly do about climate change? To move the clean energy transition forward?  Leslie Glustrom was a humble scientist who "belongs in a lab working on a problem only one or two other people understand." But as a mom she couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to do something, anything, to leave a cleaner planet for her kids.  She dedicated herself to ci...

One of the biggest concerns I have heard from laypeople about the electric vehicle transition is about the availability of charging stations. Kameale Terry is helping to address that need with ChargerHelp! which boasts a specialized workforce of charging station maintenance professionals, able to troubleshoot non-working EV charging stations and get them back online.  In doing so, Kameale is not o...

As we transition to an all-electric future, we are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to control individual device usage to be more efficient.  How do edge devices “decide” whether it’s efficient to operate?  Perhaps the answer lies in proper economic incentive. Transactive energy is a concept where the instantaneous price of energy allows the grid to communicate its challenges to users a...

In this episode, we get nerdy about batteries and how battery technology has the power to drive the energy transition. Energy storage is a crucial piece of the clean energy future. It mitigates the intermittency of nondispatchable renewable generation like solar or wind and allows us to shift energy to when it is truly needed while also providing grid stability.  Lithium-based batteries are curren...

In this episode, Power Flow host Amy Simpkins shares her vision for the podcast and the importance of collaboration in innovation.  Featuring conversations with energy experts, Power Flow showcases all things energy: the new energy economy, the all-electric future, sustainability, resilience, and equity. Learn how microgrid project development is similar to spacecraft acquisition. Also: sustainabi...

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, rene...