Experts Pitch the Problem: Yale Clean Energy Conference 2025

By: Shira Lyss-Loren, MEM ‘27 

Over a fast-paced hour, experts from Voltus, Connecticut Innovations, Avangrid, the Connecticut Green Bank, and RWE presented a problem their companies are solving for to achieve a clean energy future – and then did something few events do, they sought audience feedback.  

10% of our electric capacity is built to meet peak demand which occurs less than 1% of the time, an inefficiency Voltus identified and is on a mission to solve via virtual power plants. Voltus pays consumers to adjust their power use when the grid needs it most and sells that unused energy to wholesale markets, expanding capacity across North America’s markets now -- not in the years additional infrastructure to enable increased demand would require. Audience members engaged to understand why opting in is required for this business model, rather than creating an opt-out model, and suggested community engagement tactics to overcome the consumer opt-in barrier.  

Connecticut residents pay the second highest electric prices in the U.S., and the Connecticut Climate Innovations Tech Fund is investing in novel tech and new companies to bring this cost down for residents. The $100M fund has invested in companies such as Budderfly and Tantalus that have massive implications for a sustainable green economy in CT. But the scalability of grid innovations is a real challenge for the Fund which the audience suggested solving by launching a state-level Moonshot for Connecticut where ideas could be incubated, piloted, and the best ones scaled.  

New industrial development requires reliable energy now, not in 7 years when gas turbines could come online, and RWE aims to address this need with industrial scale solar. At a moment where industrial demand for power has seemingly endless growth, RWE is solving for aesthetic, political, and financial concerns regarding solar projects, enabling counties with aspirations to win industrial contracts requiring energy now to boost their economy with expanded solar energy. RWE works closely with implementing counties on developing strong mutually beneficial partnerships. However, community opposition remains a challenge for scaling solar energy to utility scale. A solution suggested by a participant: community benefit agreements that ensure long term community support crucial for RWE’s business model.  

We can all think of moments our homes or work lost power in the past few years, disrupting our lives-- utilities are personal. That is why Avangrid is innovating to increase whole-system resilience amidst increasing demand and more severe weather threatening electric disruptions. Fifty percent of outages in Avangrid territory were due to vegetation so Avangrid implemented ecologically informed vegetation management. Other outages are from severe weather, so Avangrid is improving and increasing predictive technology to rapidly repair problems. A limiting factor to the company’s ability to continue this trajectory is operational expertise. Audience ideas included AI enabled tools that would enhance the efficiency of Avangrid’s operational response time and expand expertise.  

Electrifying school busses to protect kids from gas fume inhalation while boarding the school bus every day requires innovative uses of clean energy technology and cross-sectoral partnerships, something that the Connecticut Green Bank is working alongside school districts to accomplish. Despite solving for childhood health concerns and reducing CT’s fossil fuel emissions, this program faces high upfront and uncertain operating costs, public sentiment, and operator preparedness barriers to deploying across the state. Participants brainstormed how to engage the third-party operators and owners of school busses to overcome these obstacles – many of which the Green Bank is already implementing.  

Ranging from national markets to state-level innovation speakers pitched not just their problems and some solutions but hope for continued innovation amidst the national political climate that seems to be pulling back from clean energy investment.