InFocus: Women in Renewable Energy

Our latest InFocus video celebrates the women driving innovation, policy, and sustainability in renewable energy. It highlights industry leaders whose insights and leadership are shaping the future of energy development, finance, and legal strategy. Their contributions are fueling progress toward a more sustainable world.

Transcript

Sarah Johnson Philips
Minneapolis Office Managing Partner and Chair-Solar Working Group, Stoel Rives LLP

So I have been working in renewable energy since 2001, which is basically forever in the renewable world. Like five years and you're a veteran in solar; 10 years and you're a veteran in wind, and I go back to the olden days. Renewable energy is at the big time. The technology works. It's huge. Now it's a big industry and the one that everybody else has to compete with. So it's totally upside down from when I started. There was, you know, there were a couple of wind projects in Minnesota, there were a few in California, and everywhere else it was just hope. That was all there was. And now wind, solar, storage, it's everywhere. That's the future. It's not just the future, it's here.

What inspired you to pursue a career in renewable energy?

Britta von Oesen
Partner & Managing Director, CRC-IB

I've always been very interested in protecting the environment even since I was a kid and I had the lucky coincidence of coming out of school right when renewables were really taking off. And it's been an amazing journey of my career growth in parallel with the industry and it's been very, very tangible to be able to see the benefits we are having both on the environment and on the energy transition. This industry, although we have grown significantly, is still very small from an interpersonal level. There are a lot of the same people doing a lot of these transactions. I think we have hit a fundamental shift where the consumer market and the corporate market is actually driving policy shift and significant build out of renewables. It is no longer an industry that is driven by environmentalists, or strictly policy, or things of that nature. It really is a demand from the broader universe and that's, as I said, of consumers, corporates, et cetera, and I think we really expect to see that continuing to grow.

Where do you see leadership making a big difference in a project’s success?

Heather Godsmark
Chief Clients & Markets Officer, Leo Berwick

One of the things that you will see across the renewables and energy transition space is that there are a lot of women in leadership roles across those firms, both on the investing side as well as within the corporate leadership teams. Since all of these are new technologies, you need the best and brightest coming with new and different perspectives to solve problems and you don't do that if the team all has the same background, the same experience. I think it's great seeing women from across the spectrum coming together from both the corporate side, on the technology, as well as all of the investors and the advisors coming together and really networking in a different way and helping each other and coming up with new ways to connect each other. And I think that is also one of the reasons that the industry has grown like it has because there have been just this great network of people who are looking to help each other and support each other, which you don't always see in kind of a mixed society.

Margaret Fischer
Senior Manager, Corporate Finance, AES Clean Energy Development, LLC

I think oftentimes for a woman, if you don't see something in front of you that's happening, you might have to think that, you know, I just need to ask the question or put myself in this situation or, you know, try a little bit harder to think that even the, you know, if the CEO is not a female, it's possible that I could be the CEO and so I think you have to step out of your shell. You have to try a little bit harder to get yourself into rooms and advocate for yourself to get a seat at the table. But ultimately, just remember that you do deserve it. You just have to put yourself out there.

Jennifer Martin
Partner and Practice Group leader, Energy Development, Stoel Rives LLP

In the energy space, there's so much change that they really, our clients have really come to count on us to understand and to advise on the risks going forward. There's a lot of open areas, a lot of gray areas, a lot of areas for interpretation, but clients still have to make decisions even when there are gray areas. And so I think that where Stoel comes in is we help make, help them make good decisions with the information that's available and help them kind of look downfield to what we think is coming. What are the new risks? What do we need to be looking ahead to and protect against or at least allocate fairly with the counterparties on the deals we're working on? And that's, you know, that's tax, that's the regulatory market, that's how products are changing within the renewable energy space.

What do you see as the next big trend in renewable energy?

Sara Kane
Executive Vice President and Power & Renewables Practice Leader, CAC Specialty

I think the trend might just be more projects and like just the volume increasing to see the industry scale in the way that it has to kind of meet the moment. I think a lot of people worry about the demands and the kind of pressure that puts on the individuals who are in the seats. We can't get enough qualified people in to do the job.

Heather Godsmark
Chief Clients & Markets Officer, Leo Berwick

I think BESS has a great story behind it of what happens when you have smart tax policy along with funding that is really supportive of taking on these kinds of risks. I think, you know, you saw that before the IRA, you could not have standalone tax credits for BESS projects, and now with the IRA, the fact that they can have their own tax credits and incentives, you've just seen an explosion of interest, and therefore, you've seen a lot of new projects being built and technology being applied in different ways, which is exactly what we had hoped for coming out of this. And I think what you're seeing also is the opportunity for domestic producers. We all want more being manufactured here in the U.S. coming with all of the great jobs. And I think we'll see, you know, some strong competitors coming out, which I think is exciting. I think the more competition we have, the better products and the better technology we have, the better pricing, and overall, the better experience for the consumers.

Jennifer Johnson
Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

It really gives you a sense of gratification when, especially in development stage assets, later on down the road, you'll see pictures or you'll hear about it getting built and the fact that you're, what I did, it wasn’t just a deal that got closed that made people money, it was a deal that got closed that now is delivering clean energy and power, and that was, it's just a good feeling.

Jennifer Martin
Partner and Practice Group leader, Energy Development, Stoel Rives LLP

This is important. This is important to long-term goals of these companies and what they want to do to make the environment better, more sustainable, and it's just a really neat…that keeps me going is that I feel like I'm really doing something that's changing the world, changing the industry, making a better future for my children and all of the kids out there that are interested in this. It’s super neat.