Energy Changemakers

09/17/2024

This is a great organization!

⚠️Please consider donating to help us bring cleaner energy to communities impacted by Hurricane Francine.

What your donation supports:
⚡️ Portable solar generators, microgrids, and panels
💧 Atmospheric water generators for fresh, clean water
🏠 Repurposed billboard tarps to provide durable shelter

Share with your networks and donate today to help !

DONATE NOW: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/footprint-project/sustainable-energy-response-for-hurricane-francine

09/03/2024

Many see virtual power plants (VPPs) as the best way to organize distributed energy. But are they? In our latest Energy Changemakers Podcast, we explore a contrarian view.

Are virtual power plants the best way to organize distributed energy? The Energy Changemakers podcast explores a contrarian view.

08/07/2024

What led us to start Microgrid Knowledge well before microgrids were a thing? Here's a great article by They Got Acquired that sums it up. Thank you to the friends who saw what we saw in those early days and helped us get Microgrid Knowledge off the ground. So what's next in energy? That's what my new community, Energy Changemakers is all about.

Three founders took a risk, launching a B2B media brand about microgrids before there was a mature market for microgrids. Years later, they sold for 7 figures.

06/18/2024

New heat map will reveal bottlenecks in US.

A new "heat map" will reveal interconnection delays for distributed energy resources (DERs) on the distribution grid.

05/02/2024

Driven by new grassroots energy, microgrids continue to reimagine our electric power system.

After some time away, here's how I see the microgrid market now. AI, EVs, local pressure, and new relationships are changing everything.

03/09/2024

People tend to think it is the big, sinister acts that slow the energy transition — oil empires disseminating misinformation about electric vehicles or utilities lobbying the government to thwart customer-owned energy. But less dramatic, even banal acts can cause equal damage. Take for example what virtual power plant (VPP) developers face in trying to access customer data from electric utilities.

Why it's hard for virtual power plant providers to access electric utility customer usage data and how it slows VPP growth.

02/22/2024

“We’ve created — without legislation or all this kind of nonsense sometimes that goes in Washington — a green economy. We’ve created jobs, created opportunities, and we have power that works,” Reyes said.

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative offers a model for how to and build a local green economy with community energy.

02/11/2024

Three things our future selves will say about how we're handling the energy transition.

02/08/2024

Hydrogen blending offers a way for natural gas generators to lower carbon dioxide emissions, but there is a problem. It also increases nitrogen oxide.

Enchanted Rock talks about its research into lowering emissions in natural gas generators that use hydrogen blending.

02/07/2024

Friends have told me that after installing solar and batteries in their homes and businesses, they were eager to take the next step and join a virtual power plant (VPP), only to find none available to them.

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are growing in popularity but are not available in all states. CPower wants to change that.

02/03/2024

I never imagined I’d have a coffee table book about gas stations. But such a book now sits on my desk. Beautifully photographed, it strikes me as a kind of parting bow to a business model that will disappear as we transition to electric vehicles.

EVs inherent disadvantage – the time it takes to charge — opens opportunities for EV charging stations to become gathering places.