The Climate Champions

Brett Gantt, member of the Town Council in Apex, NC is a statistician for the EPA with a PhD in atmospheric science. The council recently endorsed the Paris Climate Agreement and passed a resolution for 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Jigar Shah, the new Executive Director, DOE Loan Programs, also co-founded and was President of Generate Capital. He founded and was CEO of Sun Edison from 2003-2008. He transformed the solar industry by popularizing no money down solar.

Brian DAgostino is Director of Fire Science and Climate Adaptation at San Diego Gas & Electric. He’s a meteorologist and has wanted to be weather person since he was a little kid in Boston, but never dreamed his forecasts would save communities and lives.

Ronny Sandoval is a Board Member of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and also The GridWise Alliance. Until recently, and when we recorded this conversation, he was Senior Director at the Environmental Defense Fund, all excellent organizations!

Howard Newman, Pine Brook CEO & Trustee of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies asked Dr. Joanne Chory about leveraging carbon sequestering capabilities of plants to help with climate change. Now, Joanne and her scientist team are making it happen!

Lincoln Bleveans, Assistant General Manager of Power Supply at Burbank Water & Power, has a very unique background for a utility executive, from successfully leading international independent power projects to energy start-ups to a public power company.

Dr. Rajit Gadh is Professor at the Samueli School of Engineering at UCLA and Founder and Director of the Smart Grid Energy Research Center (smartgrid.ucla.edu). He is the author of over 200 articles in journals and conference proceedings and 4 patents.

Chris is President and CEO of Rainforest Automation, providing solutions to optimize residential power usage for customers by transforming consumer IoT devices into operational resources for energy providers – connecting the Smart Home to the Smart Grid.

Scott Anders is the Director of the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) at the University of San Diego School of Law. EPIC studies energy and climate related policy issues and conducts research and analysis, informing/enabling Climate Action Planning.

Eric Clifton, Founder and CEO of Orison, is an energy storage company with a battery product that is great looking and plug and play behind the meter. Orison enables individuals to plug a unit into an outlet, creating a personal money-saving microgrid.