3 Energy Jobs You Shouldn't Miss
Energy Terminal Weekly Newsletter
February 7th 2023 | Issue #38 | Subscribe here
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back everyone to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
🪨 The Great Raw Material Disconnect
👀 3 climate jobs to check out
🛢 Biden's approval of Alaska oil project
🇨🇱 Major flaws in Texas's grids
⛔ Roadblocks for clean tech success
🚨 Top 3 Energy Jobs 🚨
1) The Climate Corporation, Data Science Climate Change Intern
• Using field-verified data science models, Climate is shaping the future of sustainable agriculture across 180 million acres worldwide and counting. The Data Science intern will develop datasets and models to influence strategic direction of the business.
2) Advanced Energy Economy, Policy Intern - Market Reform
• The Advanced Energy United is a national association of businesses advocating for clean and affordable energy. Their team advocates for policies that will allow their members to re-power the US economy with 100% clean energy. The policy intern would conduct research on drafting materials to inform wholesale market stakeholders.
3) Ecogy Energy, Prospecting Intern
• With experience operating distributed generation resources, Ecogy Energy finances distribution generation assets for traditionally underserved entities. The prospecting intern will manage Ecogy's database of existing and potential clients.
🌟 Startup Spotlight: Bucha Bio
Bucha Bio creates sustainable biomaterials from bacteria and plants. Check out their website for more!
📣 Episode 22
You want to get involved in cleantech, but how do you find the right role?
To answer this question, we brought product management expert and author of the B2B Innovator’s Map, Daniel Elizalde, on the show. Daniel has worked with companies like Tesla, Microsoft, ABB, and GE to help them drive innovation and product success. He also serves as a mentor for cleantech startups through Third Derivative and Greentown Labs. Having worked with companies across the industry, Daniel has an unparalleled perspective on what opportunities are out there and how people can find their dream job in climate tech. In the episode, we cover this and more, including what product management jobs look like, the biggest problems facing cleantech startups, the best opportunities at cleantech startups, the most important skills to work on, and the fastest growing verticals in energy transition.
📚 Reading List (2/07- 2/13)
The importance of climate tech ecosystems, the largest U.S. producer of renewables and the pain points of lithium production. Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Columbia Energy Exchange, Clean Energy Tech: A New Industrial Age Dawns
Technology in the energy industry is undergoing immense innovation, from batteries getting denser and cheaper to direct-air carbon capture improving
There are many economic benefits of technological innovation, and many major economies like the US, India, and Japan are incentivizing the private sector to innovative further and manufacture domestically
Some of the major roadblocks in clean tech innovation are competition over necessary minerals and supply chain issues
The 2023 edition of the Energy Technology Perspectives report was recently released, and it serves as a guidebook for clean tech. Check it out here
Energy Tech Startups, Trevor Best
Co-Founder and CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics (and previous Energy Terminal guest!) joined Energy Tech startups to talk about Syzygy’s technology and the future of decarbonization
Top talent is one of the most important pieces of success in cleantech, and there are many opportunities available
Community and climate tech ecosystems like those being built in Houston are critical for founders–find your community and your support network
My Climate Journey, Simon Moores, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence
Lithium-ion and cobalt price curves are now being driven by the EV battery market, since this market hold 50% of the lithium-ion and cobalt market
It takes an average of 10 years to finance and build a mine and a chemical plant, and it takes 2 years to build a Gigafactory
This causes a huge disconnect, “The Great Raw Material Disconnect”
A major pain point for getting the raw materials that are highly in demand
¾ of the production of lithium today is done in China, though China does not mine the majority of lithium
China has the capacity for the chemical refining that lithium and other raw materials need
📰️ Articles:
UtilityDive, FBI thwarts neo-Nazi plot to attack Baltimore Gas and Electric substations
Two suspects have been charged with planning an attack on five substations
Had the attack been successful, the resulting outage could have been significant and caused prolonged outages
CNBC, Biden administration moves toward approval for major Alaska oil drilling project
Biden’s administration recommended a scaled down edition of WIllow, an $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska
Many environmentalists condemned the project and some referred to it as a “massive climate disaster” because it would generate 278 million metric tons of CO2 emissions in 30 years, and there are also concerns about how it would impact local wildlife
Supporters of the Willow project justify their stance by stating that it would generate 2500+ jobs, raise up to $17 billion in revenue for the federal government, and improve America's overall energy security
Time, Texas Leader’s Plan to Fight Power Outages Ignores Clean Tech
2 years ago, after major power outages in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbot blamed renewables, but the real culprit that led to these severe outages was natural gas
Texas controls its own power grid, thus it can’t get help from other states in issues of crisis
And, its deregulated system only pays power producers when they put electricity on to the grid, they are not compensated for being available in high demand scenarios
Attempts to stabilize Texas’s grid have led to incentivizing companies to build new power generation infrastructure
Overall, this increased reliance on fossil fuels in the US’s largest producer of renewables is an oversimplification of the issue
To really help Texas’s power problem, investment in batteries (and other long term storage) and modern home solutions (like better home insulation) must be done
⏰ Missed Episode 21?
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