About Microgrids

Today is the Day: Nominations Deadline for the MGK Greater Good Awards

Jan. 22, 2024

The awards recognize operational projects which serve a clear societal need and improve the human condition. Applications should demonstrate how these goals are being achieved through that project.

Rod Walton, Managing Editor

Microgrids are part of the mission-critical pathway to net zero unity in the future. They often are something of even deeper immediacy—energy lifelines for those who need it most…now.

At Microgrid Knowledge, we obviously believe that microgrids serve a variety of purposes, from on-site resiliency and backup power to helping meet sustainability goals for end-user customers such as commercial and industrial businesses, health care facilities, military bases and educational institutions.

Microgrids also can serve to the benefit of society in other ways—power for those who don’t have it or meeting the energy security needs of nonprofits and disadvantaged regions or neighborhoods.

To that end, we’opened --and soon must close-- submissions for the MGK Greater Good Awards which will be announced during our conference, Microgrid 2024: Join the Revolution in Energy, happening April 22-24 in Baltimore at the Marriott Waterfront. Our deadline for submissions is today, Monday, Feb. 12.

The MGK Greater Good Awards recognize operational projects which serve a clear societal need and improve the human condition. Applications should demonstrate how these goals are being achieved through that project. And, just to repeat, they should be operational by the time of the awards.

Click here to nominate a project for the MGK Greater Good Awards

Microgrid 2024 is April 22-24 at the Baltimore Waterfront: Register now

Now in its sixth year, the awards are seeking applications in four honored categories:

Highest Recognition for a Microgrid Serving the Greater Good
Greater Good Award for a Grid-Connected Microgrid
Greater Good Award for a Remote Microgrid
Local Greater Good Award (for a project in the host state, which is Maryland this year).

“As this energy transition advances, problem-solving souls out there are find ways to provide others with mission critical and often humanitarian energy projects,” said Rod Walton, managing editor of Microgrid Knowledge. “These projects achieve those worthy goals in an amazing multitude of ways, and we are duty-bound to honor these efforts for the greater good.”

If you have additional questions, please email at [email protected]. The entries will be judged by a combination of EBM staff and contributors.

To read more about past MGK Greater Good Award winners, read these stories below.

Microgrid Knowledge Announces Finalists for 2023 Greater Good Awards

Winners of 2022 Greater Good Awards Offer Insights into Their Projects

About the Author

Rod Walton, Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.