Meet the Forum Team: Emily Khym 

How did you initially get interested in clean energy and what brought you to the Forum? 

I'm from Honolulu, Hawai‘i, and so at a young age, I had a lot of exposure to environmental issues, in particular energy issues. Hawai‘i is one of the most progressive states in terms of trying to achieve net zero and decarbonization. I also see the future in clean energy, which is why I was interested in the Yale Clean Energy Forum last year. I’ve seen that policy often lags behind technological innovation, especially in the energy field, and a carefully crafted media discourse can play an instrumental role in reducing this disconnect. This interest in shaping the energy media discourse is ultimately why I joined the Forum and why I think it matters.  

How are you approaching your second year at the Forum differently than your first year? What are your intentions for the upcoming year of writing? 

I’ve learned a lot this past year through interviewing many different people with varying perspectives, like how to best represent their voices without including biases. I think this year I'm going to be a little more intentional in providing a nuanced perspective, whether that’s through providing additional background or up-to-date industry news. 

I'm also excited to explore and research topics like AI and energy usage, complementing larger discussions on grid-scale energy. Moreover, I’m interested in battery storage and pursuing stories about battery storage from an international perspective. 

In terms of my intentions as a writer, my main goal is to showcase a lot of different stakeholders in the energy field. Oftentimes, we only get the perspectives of advocates or lobbyists. What are the perspectives of utilities? Homeowners? I would love to have more pieces where there are different voices and opinions. Something like a comments section to incite some public discourse and awareness. But I think that also comes with increasing the brand and visibility of our Forum. 

What experiences or resources at Yale have really informed or complemented your interest in energy? 

CBEY has been a great resource with a lot of support from Julia Nojeim and Stuart DeCew. I have taken a couple of energy courses at the undergrad level and energy policy courses at the Yale School of the Environment (with Professor Rob Klee). Our Director of Undergraduate Studies of Energy Studies has also recently changed to be led by Dr. Catherine Pomposi. She’s a great resource and I’m excited to see how the Energy Studies Department is going to grow under her expertise. 

If you could interview one person in the energy space, who would it be? What's one question you would ask them? 

California state senator Josh Becker. He has been an energy pioneer, working at the forefront of clean energy to pass legislation at the state level to promote solar energy for schools through various incentive programs. I'm really curious to see what it takes to get a bipartisan bill to pass and what it takes generally to build bipartisan support. Basically, I would like to know how he goes about advocating for energy.  

What’s a topic within the energy space that you feel is underdiscussed? 

Battery storage.  I just think there's so much potential for battery storage to integrate with solar energy. There are all these benefits with batteries—grid stabilization, lower costs, capacity markets, grid resiliency, etc. There's so much that battery storage, especially behind-the-meter storage, can do, but it's often not talked about because I think it’s a complicated and technical topic.  

What do you hope to do in the future in the energy space? 

I am really interested in the energy policy and law sphere. Last summer I worked as a Green Buildings Fellow at an energy nonprofit, and this summer I'm hoping to work at either a utility or an energy investment firm so that I can get a different perspective of the energy field. Ultimately, I want to work a bit in the energy policy sphere and then go to law school for energy law. 

What advice would you give to a student who's interested in clean energy, but new to the topic?   

First off, I love it when people are interested in energy. I would encourage students to explore. For example, I'm part of the Yale Energy Association and I also started a group called the Renewable Future Alliance, which is geared towards better understanding energy policy. There are tons of classes across the university from policy to engineering and reaching out to our Dr. Catherine Pomposi is a great place to start. Plugging into events and resources at CBEY is a great way to connect and then signing up for various energy-related content like Heatmap News is really helpful.  

What are you reading right now that keeps you informed? 

Various climate tech leaders have formed a new coalition to map out the future of decarbonization. McKinsey, Stanford University, Energy Innovation, Breakthrough Energy, Elemental Impact, Speed & Scale, and more have created the Climate Tech Atlas. It’s this really cool hub that maps out different job opportunities and innovation. I think this is a really great tool to keep track of as climate tech continues to grow in importance.