The ZENERGY Podcast: Energy Leadership, Finance, and Technology

Gina McCarthy | Former White House National Climate Advisor and EPA Administrator

What if there were a battery that would reduce the charging time of an electric car to 15 minutes and outlast existing batteries by a factor of ten?

The Zenergy Podcast interviews global climate leaders with prior guests including the founders of some of the world's largest renewable energy and electric vehicle companies including founders of SoftBank Energy, Azure Power, Ola Electric, and SunEdison. These conversations share industry developments, highlight clean tech investment opportunities, and shed light on how young professionals can increase their chances of employment in this fastly growing sector. We also discuss the energy transition across key emerging markets like India, and explore partnership opportunities for US companies.

The Zenergy Podcast interviews global climate leaders with prior guests including the founders of some of the world's largest renewable energy and electric vehicle companies including founders of SoftBank Energy, Azure Power, Ola Electric, and SunEdison. These conversations share industry developments, highlight clean tech investment opportunities, and shed light on how young professionals can increase their chances of employment in this fastly growing sector. We also discuss the energy transition across key emerging markets like India, and explore partnership opportunities for US companies.

Douglas J. Arent is the Executive Director of Strategic Public-Private Partnerships at the National Renewable Energy Labratory. Doug Arent focuses on strategic public and private partnerships with NREL to transform energy economies at speed and scale across the globe. Dr. Arent has worked in research on energy and sustainability for more than 30 years, publishing extensively on topics including clean energy, renewable energy, power systems, natural gas, and the intersection of science and public policy.

The Zenergy Podcast interviews global climate leaders with prior guests including the founders of some of the world's largest renewable energy and electric vehicle companies including founders of SoftBank Energy, Azure Power, Ola Electric, and SunEdison. These conversations share industry developments, highlight clean tech investment opportunities, and shed light on how young professionals can increase their chances of employment in this fastly growing sector. We also discuss the energy transition across key emerging markets like India, and explore partnership opportunities for US companies.

The Zenergy Podcast interviews global climate leaders with prior guests including the founders of some of the world's largest renewable energy and electric vehicle companies including founders of SoftBank Energy, Azure Power, Ola Electric, and SunEdison. These conversations share industry developments, highlight clean tech investment opportunities, and shed light on how young professionals can increase their chances of employment in this fastly growing sector. We also discuss the energy transition across key emerging markets like India, and explore partnership opportunities for US companies.

Panelists:

Ann-Mari Kemell, State Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for Finland

Doug Arent, Executive Director of Strategic Public/Private Partnerships for NREL

Regardless of the investments we make in clean technology, we cannot meet our energy and climate goals without our most important investment – human capital. We are already experiencing workforce shortages today, and will certainly do so tomorrow as we rapidly expand clean energy deployment if we don’t immediately begin building the energy workforce of the future. In addition, there are young people all over the world that are ambitious, passionate and have a vision and diverse views that can only strengthen the clean energy transition. For all these reasons, our priority is to create opportunities for future clean energy leaders to actively engage in the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF). In September, we will launch the first ever Creating the Energy Future Forum (CEFF) – to bring young professionals together with decision-makers in industry, government and civil society to share solutions and explore how young professionals can be part of the clean energy revolution.

In this episode we will be speaking with Emily Felt, who is the director of state and federal energy policy at Duke Energy. We discuss Ms. Felt’s career pathway in the Energy sector, her implementation efforts of Duke Energy’s RPO standards, Duke’s 50% carbon reduction goals by 2030, and the role of Nuclear Energy in facilitating a low-carbon future. Hope you enjoy!

Dr. Nicola De Blasio is a Senior Fellow leading Belfer Center research on energy technology innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy. With more than 25 years of global experience in the energy sector, Dr. De Blasio is an expert in navigating the challenges of strategic development and technology innovation toward sustainable commercial success, at scale.

In this episode we will be speaking with Alex Laplaza, who is a Partner at Lower Carbon Capital and Forbes 30 under 30 recipient, which is a leading Climate Tech venture capital firm that was founded by Chris Sacca. Alex brings wide-ranging expertise on scalable climate solutions across energy, agriculture, transportation, and industry. In this conversation, we talk about how the start-up investment process works and what technologies Alex is particularly excited for in the Climate space. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Alex Laplaza!