The School of International and Political Affairs (SIPA) hosted its final Women in Energy Initiative panel in partnership with law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

On Thursday, April 24, the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at SIPA’s Women in Energy Initiative hosted a panel discussion and networking night on the changing landscape of energy finance in the United States. As political climates in the US and on the international stage shift consistently, the opportunities and initiatives within the sector change as well. Hosted in partnership with law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, the event began with a panel discussing legal and financial trends shaping sustainable energy.

The first panel began with an introduction from Jessica Weis, Program Director for the Women in Energy Initiative at CGEP. Weis gave a brief overview of the program’s goals: to establish equal gender representation across the energy and finance sectors by providing research opportunities and professional development and by supporting professionals at each stage of their careers. 

To frame the discussion, a partner in the Energy Finance Practice at Pillsbury, Shellka Arora-Cox, described the energy finance sector and its dynamic nature. As a woman in the legal profession, Arora-Cox spoke about being the only woman in the room both as a lawyer and sustainability professional. Under the Trump administration, she and others at her firm have had to reevaluate how they structure legal documents due to major uncertainty surrounding environmental legislation. As economic and geopolitical landscapes shift, Arora-Cox remarked that the only “constant is change.”

To fully understand where patterns are moving, as far as renewable energy is concerned, it is important to understand the sectors receiving the most investment. According to attorney advisor Kate Benner from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, capital inflow on federally funded projects is trending strongly towards nuclear energy. Most projects require a mix of private and public funding, and corporations are particularly expressing strong interest in contributing to upfront costs for these plants. Out of multiple types of clean energy, Benner noted that nuclear energy receives the “most bipartisan support,” meaning it is less likely to experience as many funding cuts under the new administration.

In addition to nuclear power, Benner foresees an uptick in hydropower as well as geothermal energy. Geothermal energy offers a particular advantage that solar or wind power can not, as it can be harnessed globally at all times of day, not just in certain areas. This is due to its use of heat energy directly from the Earth’s core, which is uninhibited by season or location. 

Another speaker, Elina Teplinksy, a partner at Pillsbury specializing in energy, stressed the similar impact federal funding can have on the private sector. Even more than the national government, foreign relations can have an outsized impact on which projects receive capital inflow, especially for nations in the developing world that rely on external support from global financing organizations. For example, Teplinsky was once involved in a cross-border transaction between the Russian and Turkish governments, where the Russian government was meant to supply capital for a green energy project in Turkey. However, in the wake of the conflict between the countries, this funding was compromised. Even so, private investment in renewables is generally increasing, a promising sign amidst potential cuts by the Trump administration.

Following Teplinsky, Mahsa Nami, a principal at Montauk Climate, spoke about the impact of some of these regulatory shifts on investment strategies. She spoke specifically about the promise of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS), which capture carbon dioxide directly from the air and solidify it. However, the regulatory environment is impacting how much revenue these projects can actually generate because of the need for strong upfront investment from major players. The ambiguity in the macroeconomic environment is making it difficult to project how much cash is needed for these projects, making the future of CCS “nebulous and unclear.”

The panel then opened up to audience questions. Many asked about the future of sustainable energy with the growing power demands of artificial intelligence technologies. As data centers centered around AI increase, attorney Benner said her department is investigating how different types of energy can power AI. This is particularly important because they forecast “extensive energy demand issues” as AI usage permeates all aspects of life. According to Nami, her firm is particularly interested in optimizing power consumption for GPUs (graphing processing units used for machine learning).

After the first conversation around trends in the energy sector, a second panel began discussing potential opportunities in energy finance for interested professionals. Danielle Zukoff, a member of the Investment and Strategy team at MN8, shared three key trends from her hiring experience over the past six years in the sector. The first built on the previous discussion about AI, emphasizing the need for round-the-clock carbon-free electricity to power data centers and individuals who understand the pricing aspect of this need.

The second point revolved around the evolution of capital markets groups specifically relating to sustainable finance and the need for technically savvy individuals to finance projects through debt and equity. Finally, she acknowledged that the costs of some of these data centers are far from universal across the nation—where should they be built considering that much of “existing power grids are archaic?” 

Hayley Dalton, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Generate, shared an alternate approach for professionals looking to curate their personal narrative: aligning themselves with the four C’s. At her firm, hiring managers are looking for candidates who demonstrate critical thinking, capability, commitment, and collaboration. They want to see a deep passion for decarbonization strategies with a genuine connection to sustainability that is equal parts analytical and innovative in their approach. In order to move forward in the world of energy finance, it is imperative that students and professionals thoroughly understand major economic institutions and the science behind climate change.

Windmill via Bwarchives