Power Flow - Episode 1.01 On Bringing All Minds to the Whiteboard with Amy Simpkins

Episode 1.01 On Bringing All Minds to the Whiteboard with Amy Simpkins

09/14/21 • 47 min

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: sustainability, community resilience, the new energy economy, all-electric future, and moving from centralized to distributed architectures.

Amy’s objective is to start conversations that dream a new dream in the context of collaboration, understanding that no one person has all the answers to the energy crises that are facing our world right now. Using the power of collaboration to save the planet together, we can tap many people’s zones of genius and learn about the exciting solutions all around us.

Quotables

“The way that we innovate, the way we move forward is not just diversity for the sake of diversity, but it’s a diversity of conversation and experience, bringing the vast experience and knowledge and inspiration from all different kinds of people together. Those are the keys to changing the world.”

“I believe that the most potent form of innovation is collaborative, where you get multiple minds to the whiteboard to solve problems together. We need to have conversations with people who don’t think like us.”

This Week’s Guest

Amy Simpkins is Co-Founder, Host, and Chief Architect of the Power Flow Podcast. She is the author of Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion and is known as a speaker and thought leader in innovation.

Amy is CEO of the renewable energy startup muGrid Analytics, who solves problems at the edge of energy technology and economics using math and modeling. She is dedicated to creating a sustainable energy future for the planet, one project at a time.

Previously, Amy designed, integrated, and operated spacecraft at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. During her tenure as an aspiring Spacecraft Systems Architect, she contributed to programs such as Juno, Stardust-NExT, Orion, and Space Radar, and worked in dynamic idea incubation groups for advanced aerospace innovation.

Amy holds an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. She is a messy chef, a world traveler, a taekwondo green belt, a homeschooling mom of three, and a tough cookie in the Colorado backcountry.

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Follow Power Flow on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

Follow muGrid Analytics on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and check out their website.

If you enjoyed the conversation, please share with other innovators. Leave us a positive review and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. See you at the whiteboard!

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.

Quotables

This Week’s Guest

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Follow Power Flow on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

Follow muGrid Analytics on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and check out their website.

Previous Episode

Episode 1.00 Trailer

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 humanity 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.

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.

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.
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Next Episode

Episode 1.02 On Battery Technology Innovation with Eloisa de Castro

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 currently the front-running energy storage candidate due to their wide use in personal electronics over the past 25 years, their high energy density, and high cycle lifetimes. But lithium-based batteries are not without challenges - from accessibility of materials to fire hazards during operation to a lack of recyclability, there are plenty of opportunities to challenge lithium's dominance as a battery chemistry.
Eloisa de Castro and her company, Enerpoly, are looking to do just that with humble zinc-manganese -- the same type of chemistry as your standard alkaline battery. They are looking to make this workhorse both rechargeable and scalable so they can beat lithium in material availability, manufacturability, safety, recyclability, and yes, affordability.

Quotables:

“The innovation that needs to happen in the energy industry is around the integration of technology more than around the technology itself.”
-Eloisa de Castro and Amy Simpkins

“One of the challenges around trying to find solutions in the energy industry is that we, as humans, have this common desire to simplify problems or solutions into a single metric that we have to reference.

But, when you're solving an integrated engineering problem, there are a lot of different factors that you can play with. So you have to choose the ones that are the most important to you.”

-Eloisa de Castro

This Week’s Guest

Eloisa de Castro is CEO of Enerpoly, the Swedish zinc-ion battery technology company that is generating buzz in Europe's energy industry and has been selected as one of 2021's Top 5 Battery Tech Challengers by the Energy Tech Summit.

Eloisa comes with a wealth of experience in technology leadership, having spent over 10 years in engineering and operations in the energy and aerospace industries. Prior to Enerpoly, she served as Director of Market Operations and Program Management at Modern Energy. Eloisa earned her bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and her MBA from INSEAD in France.
Resources:

Connect with Eloisa de Castro on LinkedIn.

Follow Enerpoly on LinkedIn and check out their website.

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, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!