Musician AY Young has produced more than 950 renewable-energy powered concerts.

The artist, who was recognized as one of 17 U.N. Youth Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals, was inspired by his parents, who were community leaders and activists. His father transformed his neighborhood--which had four drug houses--block-by-block and created a neighborhood development plan. His mother became a state representative.

Young's aim is to produce 1,000 renewable-energy powered concerts and create an album, along with other artists. Each of 17 tracks will focus on a U.N. sustainable development goal. He also donates proceeds from his concerts to pay for clean energy in the communities he visits.

His work is important to the music industry, which generally powers off-grid events with diesel and fossil-fuel generators. For example, producing the Coachella Music and Arts Festival requires about 26 MW of power for site lighting, sound systems, video walls, production offices and catering infrastructure for a site that's 1 mile wide and 1.5 miles long.

Background reading:

Visit Young at AYmusik.com

To learn about the budget bill's effect on clean energy, check out Bob Keefe's posts on LinkedIn.

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Flexible Interconnection Programs from Utilities on the Rise Microgrid Knowledge

DER develoeprs, frustrated by interconnection delays, see the potential for cost and time savings through flexible interconnection programs.

Pilot projects from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and other utilities are demonstrating the value of flexible interconnection programs in which utilities allow customers to interconnect to the grid much more quickly than they would under traditional interconnection programs. In exchange, the customers agree to scale back or eliminate consumption when the utility needs power. Jessie Bauer, ComEd's manager of DER engineering and capacity planning, and Alex Collins, PG&E's manager of DERMS execution and operations, describe their pilot programs. Two hardware and software providers explain what's needed on the customer side, and a customer deploying fast chargers points to the benefits of such programs.

Background reading:

The Latest Version of the Big Beautiful Bill in One Chart : Energy Changemakers

With New Microgrid Funding, Texas Seeks to Avoid the Devastation of Storms Like Winter Storm Uri : Microgrid Knowledge

Recent Climate Setbacks Will Not Derail the Green Transition: World Resources Institute

Visit CleanEnergyWriters.com to learn about host Lisa Cohn. Email her at Lisa@CleanEnergyWriters.com with clean energy news and trends.

This Clean Energy Today preview describes some of the topics that will be covered in this podcast, including distributed energy, microgrids, bidirectional charging, equity, research and consumer choices.

Background reading:

Do You and I Mean the Same Thing When We Say Local Energy?

Microgrids Aren't What They Used to Be

Deploying Bidirectional Vehicles to Support the Grid Takes a Leap Forward

Low-Income Communities are the First to Lose Power. How RMI is Helping Deploy Solar & Storage Resilience Hubs

Research Project Uses 2020 Nashville Tornado Simulation to Study (Solar and Storage) Microgrid Support for Essential Services

How Renewables Can Start a Consumer Energy Revolution

Email Lisa@CleanEnergyWriters.com with feedback and episode ideas.