Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Fellow Feature: Zev Pinker

The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY)'s Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Fellowship matches 10 undergraduate and graduate students with non-profit, low-profit, and governmental organizations committed to energy equity and the deployment of clean energy into low- and middle-income communities. The program provides summer research and internship opportunities to students at Yale who are committed to advancing energy equity and pursuing a career in the clean energy field.

Zev Pinker is a rising senior at Yale College, studying Computer Science and Energy Studies. Through the Planetary Solutions in Clean Energy Fellowship, Zev interns at Aion Grid Inc. Aion provides innovative AI-driven software solutions for the management of Distributed Energy Resources /Virtual Power Plants (VPP).

 

Tell us a little about yourself and what led you to intern at Aion this summer?

 

 

What exactly does Aion Grid do and what does your role look like within the organization?

 

Aion grid deals with a very specific field within the energy sector called distributed energy resource (DER) management. Right now, the tool for managing distributed energy resources is the virtual power plant, in contrast to the concentrated management of a single generation source. If you want a more diverse, flexible and clean grid, you can add battery storage or solar panels. The result is that you start building this network of smaller, but numerous distributed energy resources. However, it can be complicated to manage the supply and demand, which is where centralized software to coordinate all those resources comes in. With AI-driven platforms offered by Aion Grid you can do predictive modeling for things like load forecasting or predicting outages. It’s all about doing the hard work of implementation and trying to make it cost effective and even lucrative for people to make the transition to clean energy. Aion works mostly with commercial and industrial clients with projects all around the world, with a growing interest in states like Connecticut and Massachusetts that have good incentive programs for DERs.

In terms of what my work looks like, it can really vary. Sometimes, I’ll do market research on the current incentive programs in different states, like Connecticut, for example, and write reports. And sometimes, the e-mail servers go down, and I need to kind of hop on that and get those back up and running. Generally, it is also just helping manage the software stack and the cloud infrastructure, ensuring that we can share the software with people, either as a demo or as a real product.

 

What new information did you learn over the summer because of the fellowship?

 

Two things. One is how RFPs, request for proposals, function, and how time-consuming they are for a smaller company. You do your best to work to develop these RFPs and generate the highest quality project bid, but there is no guarantee that it will pay off. I look forward to staying on the team in a part-time capacity throughout the first semester and continuing to work on developing RFPs.

The second thing I’ve learned pertains to software engineering. For the first time, I’m doing work that involves building out the technological backbone for a company. It requires a skillset that they don’t teach in class or research labs, provisioning and securing cloud resources. It has reignited my desire to be a software engineer. I got to tinker for hours, teaching myself how to build some of the most important elements of a software product.

 

What have you really enjoyed about the fellowship? 

 

I really enjoyed being in the CBEY and ClimateHaven offices and working with professionals in all kinds of different spaces within clean energy. Moreover, I had the privilege to connect with the folks at CBEY who work to run the fellowship. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to be here and get their advice and mentorship.

 

What advice would you give to other students or folks looking to explore clean energy?

 

 

What do you hope to do in the future? 

 

I want to continue to work in clean energy and to continue to develop my skills as a software engineer. Overall, I want to work to become more knowledgeable and competent in this kind of work.