Renewed Energy sheds lights on the recent history of clean energy between the 2009 recession and 2012. What went wrong? What went well? Discussions of the history of cleantech frequently focus on what policy initiative was proposed, what energy startup investment went sideways, or what business deal worked-with each of these conversations and analyses held separately. This book argues that these questions are so interconnected that they should not be examined in isolation. It is time to take a comprehensive look at the three worlds of policy, technology investment, and industry. Renewed Energy provides critical, first-hand perspectives from the industry's leading policy makers, technology investors, and industry experts. Behind the cover are experiences from Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of Defense William Perry, European Commission Director of International and Climate Strategy Artur Runge-Metzger, and investors Tom Baruch and Susan Preston, among many others. The insights from these accounts are crucial to moving cleantech forward. 2018 is an especially critical time for clean energy because the new presidential administration has ended the Environmental Protection Agency's clean power plan, which sought to lower carbon emissions on a state-by-state basis, and decided to exit the Paris Agreement, whereby countries agreed to voluntary limits on future carbon emissions. In light of these events, the energy discussion is vital now more than ever. Read accounts of the Obama Administration's efforts, venture capital investments in energy companies, and more-all synthesized into lessons that will bring us a cleaner, more powerful future.
About the Author: John Weyant, Ernestine Fu, and Justin Bowersock span the worlds of policy, technology investment, and industry. Weyant is a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. Honored as a major contributor to the Nobel Peace prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, Weyant has been a lead author for the IPCC and most recently served as a review editor. He is active in the U.S. debate on climate change policy through the Department of State, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and he is a member of the California Air Resources Board's Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee. Weyant is also Director of the Energy Modeling Forum, Deputy Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, and Chairman of the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium. Fu is a venture investor at Alsop Louie Partners, a firm focused on cybersecurity, big data, and hard-science companies. Outside her investment work, she has authored a number of publications on energy and policy: papers on global climate change, specifically its impact on extreme events such as hurricanes, storm surges, and floods; the report The State Clean Energy Cookbook led by former U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman and former Secretary George Shultz, analyzing and recommending state-level policies for energy efficiency and renewable energy; and the book Civic Work Civic Lessons with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich, discussing how and why people of all ages should engage in public service. She is an outspoken advocate for patent reform, immigration reform, and R&D funding. Bowersock is the founder and principal of Rockhill Advisors, an independent fiduciary that provides tailored wealth management and financial planning services to high net worth clients. As a Research Director at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy, Policy, and Finance, Bowersock's research includes leading a project funded by the Electric Power Research Institute to help tackle the commercialization funding problem for new electric power generation technologies, developing a proposal to use market competition to set limits on subsidy costs in collaboration with the Department of Energy and private investors, and advising Stanford on its buying strategy for $300 million of wholesale electricity. With 17 years of experience in the energy sector, Bowersock has worked closely with multiple energy companies and utilities.