DER Task Force
Episodes
DERVOS 2025 Keynote: Solar Pill the World with Jesse Peltan
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This presentation has been distributed in video and audio-only versions. We reccomend watching the video version on our website or Youtube to se...
DER Startup School with Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO and Co-Founder of EnergyHub
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back (minus Colleen who was on vacation), this time with Seth Frader-Thompson, the CEO and co-founder of EnergyHub. Many don’t realize that ...
Rad Future with Isabelle Boemeke
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Strap in for an episode where DERs go almost entirely unmentioned. Instead, we talked about nuclear, degrowth, climate change, communication over the ...
Going Permissionless with Cole Ashman,CEO and Founder of Pila Energy
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Cole Ashman, Founder and CEO of Pila Energy. Permissionless DERs are one of most exciting new categories for us. With all...
DERs are mainstream with Jigar Shah and Tim Hade
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re still laughing that we actually did this pod. Why it seemed like a good idea to book two of our favorite (outspoken) people, Jigar Shah (most ...
Solar maxxing with Lisan Al Gaib, Jesse Peltan
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back with our longest pod ever! And deservedly so. When you get Lisan al Gaib on the couch, you use all the time you have to pick his brain. J...
The Myth of Sisyphus with Astrid Atkinson
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a brief haitus to focus on 2025 planning, we’re back! Last week we sat down with Astrid Atkinson, CEO and co-founder of Camus Energy. We talke...
DER Baby DER with Dana Guernsey, Co-Founder and CEO of Voltus
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we sat down with Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO of Voltus. There was A LOT to talk about in this one. As you’d expect we went deep on D...
The Dawn of the Holy War
21 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time, we’re starting a holy war. Duncan launched an amazing paper on solar (wow, total sleight of hand! Don’t you mean GAS ...
DERVOS '24: Load Growth Panel
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYCDemand growth has returned to the US electricity sector for the first time in two decades and the cracks are showing in the syste...
DERVOS '24: Policy Panel
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYCNew energy technologies can thrive or die due to regulatory policy. This unbelievable policy panel will feature regulators who ha...
DERVOS '24: Demo Day
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Where else can you witness a pot of water boil in just a few seconds, learn about a micro nuclear reactor that skips boiling water altogether, insane ...
DERVOS '24: Mary Powell & David Roberts
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYCDavid Roberts (Volts podcast) and Mary Powell (CEO of Sunrun and DER legend) will sit down in a “fireside chat” style session...
DERVOS '24: Power Markets Panel
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYCRenewables have been breaking many of the mechanisms in our power markets, irrespective of structure. Across energy only, IRP, an...
DERVOS '24: Tim Hade's Kickoff
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
DERVOS, 10/25/24, NYCTim Hade is the co-founder of Scale Microgrids and the godfather of DER Task Force. He’s been an inspiration to so many in our ...
Pakistan's distributed solar boom with Jenny Chase
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A truly wild story is unfolding in Pakistan. Over the past few years the country has become the globe’s third largest importer of Chinese solar pane...
WTF is ELCC with the man who predicted the PJM capacity price spikes, Nic Freschi
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Nic Freschi, Senior Associate at Gable Associates and all around PJM wizard. Nic is a friend and OG member of the DERTF. ...
The real story of Texas VPP policy with Arushi Frank, Founder of Luminary Strategies
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we were lucky enough to sit down with Arushi Sharma Frank, the policy wizard who while at Tesla Energy helped turn Texas into one of the DER...
Transforming century old grid tech with Charlotta Holmquist, President and Co-Founder of Blixt
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Charlotta Holmquist, President and Co-Founder of Blixt. Blixt is based in Sweden and just closed a fundraise led by Union...
Less hype, more DERs
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back for our first solo pod in months! We talk about what everyone is talking about these days… VPPs and load growth from AI. Is all this hy...
Accelerating DER Policy with Allison Bates Wannop
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back, this time with Allison Bates Wannop, DERTF’s policy lead! We cover an absolute ton of stuff in this one:* Allison's background and in...
Scaling commercial solar with Dave Riess, CEO and Co-Founder of Wunder
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we sat down with Dave Riess, the CEO and co-founder of Wunder. They’re working hard to scale mid-sized commercial solar projects, where th...
Paving the world with solar with Casey Handmer, Founder of Terraform Industries
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Casey Handmer, founder and CEO of Terraform Industries. Terraform is building a system to turn cheap solar electricity in...
#52 Edging the grid with Quincy Lee, CEO of Electric Era
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time we sat down with Quincy Lee, CEO and co-founder of Electric Era, an electric vehicle refueling company. Quincy has a super coo...
#51 We're moving to Gundo!
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comWe’re back! This time with a VIDEO POD. We recorded this live at D...
#50 Jesse "IRA" Jenkins is on the pod
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back, this time joined by Jesse Jenkins - professor at Princeton and lead of the Zero Lab. We cover a ton of ground in this one, including:* J...
#49 The Queen of Power Markets, Lynne Kiesling
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Lynne Kiesling, Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics (IRLE) at Northwestern University.Lynne is an Ec...
DERVOS: The Evolving Grid
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comBack in November we threw DERVOS, our annual distributed energy summ...
#48 Utility-led DERvolution w/ Pier Lafarge
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time we sat down with Pier LaFarge, co-founder and CEO of Sparkfund. Those who listened to the DERVOS recording released last week ...
DERVOS: Central Planning, Public Ownership, and DERs?
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comBack in November we threw DERVOS, our annual distributed energy summ...
#47 IT'S TIME TO DER
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tune in for a chat on why ‘24 is TIME TO DER. Duncan and James reflect on the past 5 years before looking ahead at 2024 and beyond—and why the fut...
#46: Capacity market funDERmentals with Ben Carron
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with a perfect warmup for DERvos in a few days with DERTF OG Ben Carron. Ben has not only worked for FERC, Nat Grid, SunRun, E...
#45 We're going environmentally ill
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time just Duncan and James to talk about weird twitter discourse again! Sorry… we promise we’ll go back to talking about wo...
#44 Apple's BAPtism
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! Well, 2/3 of us are. In the first ever duo episode, Duncan and James wade deep into CDR, degrowth meme analysis, more thoughts on nuclea...
#43 Cathèdrales Atomiques with Mark Nelson
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time we peeled away from climate week events to record a late night ep with self-proclaimed Nuclear Bro, Mark Nelson. Grab a dr...
#42 Eat your vegDERbles: how we learned to stop worrying and love climate change
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time with a solo ep, for free! Going forward, we’re un-paywalling all eps and going NPR style: PLEASE think about donating $5...
#41: "Trees are the GOATs of Lindy" with Nick Van Osdol
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with Nick Van Osdol of “Keep Cool”, who is… pretty damn cool himself. Nick has a refreshing perspective and lens on clim...
#40 A Pacemaker for the grid: Electro-cartography with Kyle and James from Paces
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time we hosted OG DERTF Heads James McWalter (the better James) and Kyle Baranko from Paces at the David Energy HQ. They are wo...
#39 Nationalizing the Green Tech Media archives with Julian Spector
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time with THEE GOD Julian Spector. It’s our longest episode ever because we just couldn’t help ourselves going in with a me...
#38: Making sense of the IRA with Alfred Johnson, CEO and Founder of Crux
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time with Alfred Johnson, Founder and CEO of Crux. Crux just raised a seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital and is building a m...
#37: Getting un-DERpilled with Matt Huber
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time with Matt Huber, an absolute legend and advocate for centralized public power. This was a different ep, but one of our fav...
Ep 36: On our grindset to elevate the clean energy abundance discourse
05 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comWe’re back with a solo ep! And yeah, this one is paid. The NYT wro...
Ep #35: Ecoravin' with the Solar Punks Club
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time on a FULLY SOLAR POWERED POD with absolute legends Corey and Xtina of the Solar Punks Club. We threw the first proper Eco Rave...
#34: John Berger, CEO and Founder of Sunnova
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time with John Berger, the CEO and Founder of Sunnova. Sunnova is not only one of the largest solar and storage installers in the c...
#33 "Don't be a Doomer" with Noahpinion
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Colleen, Jimbo, and Duncan are back, this time joined by Noah Smith of Noahpinion. While fellow energy nerds might know Noah for his posts Don’t be ...
#32: Navigating the climate culture war with Troy Cross
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! And this time we sit down with Troy Cross, a twitter chameleon of sorts. He’s an environmentalist, philosopher at Reed College, and av...
#31: We need to Gitt of twitter
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comWe’re still figuring out this whole substack thing. We released th...
#30 Arcady Sosinov, Founder and CEO of FreeWire
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The crew is back with another episode, this time sitting down with Arcady Sosinov, Founder and CEO of FreeWire. In this episode we talk about doing th...
#29 Sam D'Amico, CEO & Co-founder of Impulse Labs
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back! This time we sit down with Sam D’Amico, CEO and co-founder of Impulse Labs, an induction stove start-up based out of San Francisco. Li...
#28 The Clean Energy Abundance Platform
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back with a solo ep to talk about Doomers and why you shouldn’t be one! Tune in to ring in your new year with a heavy dose of optimism and w...
#27 Neha Palmer, CEO and co-founder of Terrawatt Infrastructure
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode of the pod! This week, we sat down with Neha Palmer, CEO and Co-founder of Terawatt Infrastructure. Check out the show...
#26 The DER Task Force, live from DERTFest 2022
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode of the pod! This episode is a special one — it features many of you! During the DERTFestivities, the crew busted out...
#25 Emily McAteer, Founder & CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hello there DER Task Force — we are back after a post-DERTFest break with another episode of the pod. This time, the gang interviewed Emily McAteer,...
#24: IntDERoperability with Henrik Langeland, CEO and co-founder of Enode
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hey there Task Force! This week, the crew sat down and with Henrik Langeland, CEO and co-founder of Enode and talked all things interoperability, wall...
#23 Double short gamma alpha in the electropolis with Michael Huerta, CEO and co-founder of PearlX
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Task Force! Back this week with episode 23 of the DER Task Force podcast. This time, the crew was joined by Michael Huerta, CEO and co-founder of ...
#22 Building DERs ain't easy with Tim Hade, COO of Scale Microgrid Solutions
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are back with another episode of the DER Task Force podcast! This week, the crew sit down with the COO of Scale Microgrid Solutions and patron of t...
#21 ESGeeeez, what is happening?!
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.dertaskforce.comWe are back with another episode of the DER Task Force podcast! This...
#20 Upgrading a Billion Machines with Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Task Force podcast is back with another episode, just in time for some weekend listening. This was a fun one with Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring Am...
#19 Andy Frank, Co-founder and President of Sealed
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode of the DER Task Force podcast. This time, we sat down with Andy Frank, co-founder and President of Sealed. In the epis...
#18 Mary Powell, CEO of SunRun: The Oracle at DERphi
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode of the DER Task Force podcast. This time, we were joined by the inimitable and brilliant Mary Powell, former CEO of Gr...
#17 Regulatory Capture: Smokey back rooms, bureaucratic morass, or an AI mutiny?
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode of the DER Task Force podcast. Following the highly unexpected John Oliver segment on utilities that made the rounds o...
#16 Kiran Bhatraju, CEO of Arcadia: DER-pills in the thunDERdome
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you couldn’t tell, we’re now hosting the podcast on Substack! That means all your DERs content will be in one place going forward, but you can ...
#15 Chekhov Mate for Domestic Energy
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are trying something new this week. As many of you know our DERTF hosts have an active twitter presence and they always have lots of thoughts and i...
#14 Nuclear is Isodope
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are back to tackle one of the more controversial topics in the energy space - nuclear. Big nuclear, small nuclear or SMRs, and everything in betwee...
#13 California NEM Three Point No
01 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are finally back after a long hiatus to tackle a newly released net metering update from the California PUC, NEM 3.0. The time is now for comments ...
Meetup - SunRun is Learning to Drive
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For July’s virtual meetup, we had Chris Rauscher of Sunrun join us. Chris is an expert in a number of key areas including grid services, markets, re...
Meetup - OhmConnect and Virtual Power Plants
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re really excited for this episode of the live meetup event with Cisco DeVries (CEO) and Matt Deusterberg (President and Co-Founder) of OhmConnec...
#12 Is Bitcoin a Backup Generator?
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we start with laying the foundation for the massive energy consumption requirements for Bitcoin - it then turns to the fundamentals...
#11 The Texas Resilience Gamble
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is all about the Texas energy crisis in early 2021. Here are the takes on the episode from our three hosts:James - This is not a market ...
#10 FERC 2222 and The Future Grid
11 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
FERC Order 2222 is being lauded as landmark for how it will change the role of DERs in electricity markets. But the Order itself is vague in how this ...
#9 The Age of the Electron
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Colleen, Duncan and James explore the nuances of beneficial electrification; can we electrify everything and what does it mean to gri...
#8 Resi DERs
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Task Force has covered plenty of topics in the commercial and industrial customer segments, but what’s up with residential DERs? Inspired by our...
#7 CA Emergency Episode
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
California doesn't have enough power, yet again is facing its largest wildfires on record, and the transmission and distribution grid continues t...
#6 Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER)
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Over the DER Task Force's short history we've had two meetup presentations focused on NY’s Value of Distributed Energy (VDER). First was R...
#5 DERs in Wholesale Markets
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For our first meetup of 2020, Ben Carron of E3 presented on how DER have integrated with wholesale markets over the years. In this episode we try to b...
#4 Climate Tech, VC, and Private Equity
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, Madison Freeman from Energy Impact Partners presented on trends and predictions for DER-focused venture capital. This episode builds on her p...
#3 Energy Blockchain
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In our July 2019 meetup, Colleen Metelitsa, presented on the potential for blockchain as a technology to allow for increased penetration of DERs. ...
#2 Public Safety Power Shutoffs
20 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Public safety power shutoffs were our first meetup topic in May of 2019, which means this group is almost a year old now!California’s power system f...
#1 Franchise Rights
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Franchise rights are an under-explored topic that are a core component of where utilities’ derive their power over the distribution grid. Figuring o...
#0 DER Task Force Introduction
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Who are we? Where did this come from? What are we trying to do? All the answers are here! See www.dertaskforce.com for more information on upcoming me...