Energy Terminal

Throughout her career in the oil & gas industry, Katie Mehnert became used to sometimes being the only woman in the room in a male-dominated industry. Unaccepting of the status quo, Katie Mehnert sought to create change in the energy industry that she loved by creating opportunities for women and diverse groups through founding ALLY Energy (formerly Pink Petro).   Joining us on the show today is K...

Today, we got to speak with the Co-Founder of Energy Terminal, Hope Pratt! Hope is a senior at Duke University studying Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, but her passions lie within sustainability and energy. Hope tells us about how she first got her start in energy working for Aspire Power Solutions, a Nigerian energy company, and how this led her to realizing the amount o...

Over the last several years, climate tech has emerged into the spotlight as more than $120B in venture capital funding has poured into the sector and interest for decarbonization solutions have surged. Through it all, CTVC has tracked, analyzed, dissected, and reported on the biggest news and deals in the climate tech ecosystem.   CTVC (now Sightline Climate) founder and CEO Kim Zou joined us on t...

Charles Hua is a recent Harvard graduate now working as a Senior Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO). At a young age, the importance of addressing climate change and taking initiative were instilled in him, and these values have guided Charles ever since. In this episode, he tells us about some of the work experiences he has had at organizations like Rewirin...

Dive into the importance of energy education with  Benjamin Abram , an energy innovator and venture capitalist. Benjamin Abram , CEO of  Modern Energy , started his career as a venture capital investor with the Westly Group during the gold rush of Cleantech 1.0. From there, he founded energy efficiency company American Efficient in 2013, then Modern Energy in 2016. As CEO, Ben leads Modern Energy'...

What do Miss America 2023 and a nuclear engineer have in common? Well…they're both Grace Stanke! A recent nuclear engineering graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grace's journey has been all but ordinary. At the age of 14, she began competing in pageants to improve her performance skills and found a passion in the Miss America Organization. She won Miss Wisconsin in 2022 then Miss Ame...

On this episode we feature David Villagra, CTO of EverBright, a clean energy software and financing platform. David's been active in the energy space since 2013, when he co-founded Sighten, EverBright's predecessor. He's a big believer in the power of distributed energy, and walks us through the value of this form of energy in our energy mix.  In the wake of COP 28, we know how important energy an...

Rostam Reifschneider is a 776 Fellow and the Co-Founder of Hydrova, a startup turning waste byproducts of aluminum recycling into valuable products and clean energy. He started Hydrova while studying Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and since graduating, has taken on the company full-time as CTO. Rostam knew upon arrival at MIT that he wanted to make an impact in the climate space, and his chosen ve...

Today, we are joined by the founder of the field of climate security, Sherri Goodman. In this episode, she explains what climate security is, why it's necessary, and how the establishment of climate security has changed U.S. and international military operations.  Climate security has changed a lot in recent years, and will now be a large focus of COP 28. Sherri dives into how she thinks climate s...

On today's episode, we spoke to Edward Chiang, Co-Founder & CEO at Moment Energy. Moment is a Vancouver-based company that repurposes end of life electric vehicle batteries to provide clean, affordable, and reliable battery energy storage systems. Eddy walks us through the process of starting Moment, from the realization he had after experiencing a power outage in rural Canada to starting the comp...

How do we ensure the energy transition we have is equitable? Why is this a piece of the transition that is so frequently left out of the conversation? In this episode, join Lauren Shum as she talks about the many different ways equity needs to be addressed. Lauren --- who's recently published white paper on sustainable aviation has influenced the Biden Administration, the Federal Aviation Administ...

Lisa Wang recently graduated from Harvard with a degree in Environmental Science & Engineering. During her undergrad, she started the Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy group, conducted a lot of research on decarbonization and other related topics, and had numerous internships, such as with CTVC, Prime Impact Fund, and other venture backed startups. In addition to this, she Co-Founded a startup ca...

How do we balance clean energy with energy that is secure, available, and affordable? One idea is the "Radical Middle," a concept pioneered by Dr. Scott Tinker to encourage people to find the middle ground in addressing energy challenges of today and of the future.   Dr. Tinker, better known by many of his students as "Doc T," joins us on the show to discuss the hardest-hitting and most challengin...

Today we spoke with Corey Donovan, a recent graduate from Rice University now working as a Financial Analyst at Cemvita, a biotech startup creating nature-inspired solutions to empower the energy transition. Corey told us all about how he got to where he is now, from the process of picking his unique major to getting real world experience as an undergrad. We also discuss the value of experiential...

What is Energy Investment Banking? In this episode with Mark McDonald, Director at Marathon Capital, we learn why investment banking is different from other forms of finance, and how necessary it is in the energy transition. Mark walks us through a deal, describes how the current socio-economic climate is changing the market, and gives us insight on his own career in finance. A must listen if you...

Samir Chowdhury is a junior at Stanford University studying Management Science & Engineering. In 2020, he founded the Youth Climate Action Team, a global 501c4 climate justice advocacy nonprofit that focuses on community organizing and the power of young people. He initially dedicated himself to climate policy, but soon realized that this didn't align with his personality and working style, which...

Imagine a world where microgrids rule and businesses and communities generate their own energy onsite–that's the world that our guest on this episode envisions for the future of energy.   Joining us on the show is Bill Nussey: serial entrepreneur, fellow energy podcaster, author of Freeing Energy and founder of the Freeing Energy Project, and partner at Engage and Tech Square Ventures. Following a...

Arina Khotimsky recently finished her undergraduate degree at MIT, where she studied Material Science & Engineering with a focus on climate and energy. She served as the Co-President of the MIT Energy and Climate Club, the organization which runs MIT's EnergyHack, Energy Conference, and many other notable events. We spoke to Arina about her involvement in this club and the lessons she learned, suc...

For the last 70 years, Jones Power has been a leader primarily for midstream oil & gas projects, but now, they're diving headfirst into renewable development and emerging as a top company for renewable project construction.   John Clark, CEO of Jones Power, joins us on the show to talk about the concept of energy transition vs. emissions transition and how we consider the balance of clean energy w...

Today we spoke to Mudit Agrawal. Aside from being Energy Terminal's Director of Programs, Mudit's experience in startups and clean energy is extensive. His energy journey began in climate advocacy, but then when he got to Duke he began getting involved in energy startups like Joules Accelerator, Ribbit Network, and Nextera. Mudit explains how he got these jobs, what it's like to work at startups,...

"The energy transition is by far the largest mobilization of capital and the largest use of capital the world has ever seen."   Wil Vanloh, Founder and CEO of Quantum Energy Partners joins us on the show to tell us not just why the energy transition is revolutionizing energy finance, but how to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.    Having founded his own investment bank at age 24 and Qu...

Casey Goldstein is a student at Duke University with experience in climate tech and venture capital. He first got involved in entrepreneurship as a high school student, and he shares how skills can be transferred from any experience into the professional world. He then went on to work with various startups, and eventually, began his internship at MCJ Collective. In the conversation, Casey emphasiz...

When you think of energy poverty, you probably think of rural areas far off the grid or halfway across the world. However, the often unseen reality is that there are people right here in the U.S., in our own communities, who struggle to keep the lights on in the face of surging energy prices.   In this episode, we engage in a panel-style discussion with returning guest Scott Tomlinon, CEO and Foun...

What would you do if your power went out for 3 months? Or if you had to time your studying to when the electricity grid was most reliable?   These real-life experiences inspired Promise Nwogu to found African Youths in Energy Network, an organization with the mission to put young people at the heart of energy conversations and to end energy poverty for all. Promise graduated from university in 202...

Partnerships, and often unconventional ones, are at the heart of meaningful progress in the energy transition. And what better way to explore this topic than with Monika Simoes, Founder and CEO of Energy Dialogues, Energy Terminal's founding podcast sponsor and long-time partner.   Monika's work at Energy Dialogues involves bringing together executives, thought leaders, and stakeholders from acros...