Takeaways from the Global Clean Energy Action Forum

Last week, I spoke at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh.

The topic of my panel was the intersection of private and public funding for decarbonizing heavy-emitting industries like energy, steel production, cement, and other manufacturing processes.

While failures like Solyndra receive the lion’s share of the narrative, public funding has also helped accelerate winners like Tesla ($465M loan in 2010) and Energize portfolio company Aurora Solar which received a $500,000 DoE Sunshot Grant to explore the use of computer vision in solar design.

A lot of projects, specifically those in hardware often need some form of governmental funding as private capital has investment targets they must meet for shareholders.

I once heard from an expert on regulation and policy that the public sector’s role is “to step in where the market doesn’t work”, and for nascent hard tech energy technologies that’s often the case.

Other Key Takeaways from GCEAF

1. Hydrogen is coming….fast. The DoE announced $8B to create hubs across the US, 8000% growth in demand has created electrolyzer shortages, and it felt like well over 50% of the companies with booths were focused on hydrogen in some way.
2. We’re still early in battery technology and utility-scale storage. New business models and technologies are being developed, and while a lot of people have moved on to hydrogen as the new kid on the block, there’s a lot of juice left in the proverbial storage squeeze.
3. Carbon-intensive emitting companies want to reduce their footprint. Their customers want it, their investors want it, and their employees want it. Even in industries like steel and cement where the technology doesn’t yet exist, major corporations are looking for ways to do their part as sustainability is now a requirement for remaining competitive in the market.
4. Creative, smart public-private partnerships will be key. Where can governments step in to help make short-term economics work until long-term ones are more feasible? How can they remove the red tape so that critical infrastructure can be built more quickly? These were all topics of discussion.
   For example, the UK is providing guarantees for Nation Grid’s new hydrogen interconnection network so that the early days of the project are economically viable until scale is reached and worked to remove any regulatory bottlenecks.

Unsurprisingly, the excitement around the energy transition and new technologies is incredibly encouraging. For the first time, it feels like the US is leading from a position of strength and often in a practical manner which only adds fuel to the fire.

The winners aren’t yet clear, but one thing is certain: the next few decades will be big and create ample opportunity for everyone across several industries and technologies.

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