The Future of Energy Innovation: Applications for Off-grid Energy in Developing Countries (Webinar)

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with United Nations Foundation’s Energy Access Practitioner Network, hosted this webinar on financing innovation, showcasing several leading innovations in the renewable energy industry and potential applications for off-grid energy in developing country settings.
Richenda Van Leeuwen, Executive Director, Energy Access, UN Foundation leads the work on energy access at the United Nations Foundation. She founded and leads the work of the Energy Access Practitioner Network, and also works on the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative.
Nancy Pfund, Founder & Managing Partner, DBL Partners, will present key aspects of financing innovation, providing a venture capital perspective on renewable energy solutions, and how commercial viability specifically concerning the off-grid sector can be determined from a financier’s vantage point.
Mateo Jaramillo, Vice President of Products & Programs, Tesla Energy who heads Tesla’s stationery storage business will talk about Tesla’s new home battery Powerwall, its potential application in developing country contexts, and other innovations Tesla is working on that could have relevance for off-grid.
Susan Kennedy, CEO, Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), who has been at the center of many of California’s groundbreaking environmental policies including the carbon reduction mandate and cap-and-trade program, will present AMS’s suite of energy storage solutions including their Hybrid-Electric Building fleets.
Presentations were followed by an interactive Q & A session with the audience to provide an opportunity to discuss the innovations presented and their on-the-ground applications. The webinar was live Tweeted via #PNwebinar.
Panelists
RICHENDA VAN LEEUWEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENERGY ACCESS, UN FOUNDATION
Richenda Van Leeuwen leads the work on energy access at the United Nations Foundation. She founded and leads the work of the Energy Access Practitioner Network, and also works on the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. She has more than 20 years of executive experience in emerging markets development across a range of international organizations and in the private sector as well as with a range of non-profits. Immediately prior to joining the Foundation, she spent a number of years in global private equity focusing on commercial renewable energy investment in emerging markets with the investment firm Good Energies. She also supported a range of energy access and climate change mitigation and adaptation projects around the world as a founding trustee of the Good Energies Foundation. From 2001 to 2005, Richenda was the executive director of the Trickle Up Program in New York, which focused on micro-enterprise development in developing countries among the extreme poor. She is a frequent international speaker on energy access as well as gender development and poverty alleviation. She holds both a B.S. in Geography and an MBA from the University of Durham, UK.
NANCY E. PFUND, FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, DBL PARTNERS
Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners (formerly Investors), a venture capital firm whose goal is to combine top-tier financial returns with meaningful social, economic and environmental returns in the regions and sectors in which it invests. Ms. Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including; SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), where she is Chair of the governance committee and sits on both the audit and compensation committees, Primus Power, Powergenix, Farmers Business Network, The Muse, Advanced Microgrid Solutions and Off-Grid Electric, and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla Motors and Pandora Media. Prior to founding DBL, Ms. Pfund was a Managing Director in Venture Capital at JPMorgan, having started her investment career at Hambrecht & Quist in 1984.
MATEO JARAMILLO, VP OF PRODUCTS AND PROGRAMS, TESLA ENERGY AT TESLA MOTORS
As VP of Products and Programs for Tesla Energy at Tesla Motors, Mateo Jaramillo is responsible for market development, and product definition and development for the company’s grid connected energy storage products. Mateo started the stationary storage effort at Tesla in 2009 and in the meantime was additionally the commercial lead on powertrain development and supply programs with Daimler and Toyota, and also started and led through the supercharger program through the first year of deployment. Prior to Tesla, Mateo was Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding team at Gaia Power Technologies, a pioneering distributed energy storage firm. Mateo began his career in the software industry as a product manager with Predictive Networks, an interactive TV software provider. He has an AB in Economics from Harvard and a Masters in Theology from Yale.
SUSAN KENNEDY, CEO, ADVANCED MICROGRID SOLUTIONS
Susan served for two decades at the highest levels of state and federal government, most recently as chief of staff to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, cabinet secretary and deputy chief of staff to Governor Gray Davis and communications director for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. She served from 2003-2006 on California’s Public Utilities Commission, regulating the state’s investor-owned electric utilities, telecommunications providers and private water companies. Susan was at the center of many of California’s groundbreaking environmental policies, including the carbon reduction mandate and cap-and-trade program under AB 32, the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, auto emission standards and Renewable Portfolio Standard. She coordinated the State’s emergency demand response efforts during the energy crisis of 2000-2001 and as a member of the PUC she authored what was then the largest energy efficiency program in utility history. She holds a B.A. in Management from Saint Mary’s College of California.