2.06 On Architecting the Clean Energy Future through Collaboration with Amy Simpkins featuring Laura Novak

For this 20th Power Flow episode, we flip the script - Power Flow Creative Director, Laura Novak, interviews our erstwhile host, Amy Simpkins, putting her on the hot seat and giving her a dose of her own tough questions.

As co-founder and CEO at muGrid Analytics, Amy Simpkins solves wicked problems at the intersection of energy technology and economics using math and modeling. muGrid provides bankable techno-economic analysis, optimized control, and project development of renewable energy, energy storage, and microgrids to maximize economic return, increase energy resilience, and promote energy equity in the US and around the world.

Amy is also an internationally recognized speaker on innovation and iterative development for entrepreneurs. She is the author of Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion and host of the Power Flow Podcast, which amplifies diverse voices in the energy revolution.

Prior to muGrid, Amy designed and operated spacecraft as a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin. Her technical expertise includes system and software architecture, system-level performance modeling, and design tradespace analysis.

Amy holds an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California and an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a messy chef, a world traveler, a taekwondo green belt, a vocal music minor, a mom to three curious innovators, and a tough cookie in the Colorado backcountry.

Quotables
All quotes by Amy Simpkins

“The drive for simplicity results in inefficiency.” 

“We said ‘yes, simplicity and stability at any cost.’ And when I say any cost, I mean any economic cost and at the cost of the planet in carbon emissions. And the trouble is, we can no longer say that.”

“I think we need to have more spaces that are devoted to free exchange of ideas without fear of competition.”

“The economic market is what’s going to drive the widespread change.” 

“Stability and efficiency at the cost of the planet is not acceptable.”

“We need to be able to take baby steps back from oversimplification, stovepiping, and this unwavering commitment to stability at any cost.”

“We are all interacting with the system. Whether you work in the industry or not, you live in it.”

Resources:

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

Check out muGrid’s website.

Connect with muGrid Analytics on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

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Thank you for listening. See you at the whiteboard!