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Clean Energy in Vancouver

by Rhythima Shinde, 18.07.2019
At the event location, Vancouver convention center, perfect architectural example of sustainability (photo credit: Rhythima Shinde/ETH Zurich)

I recently attended the Clean Energy Ministerial - Mission Innovation 2019 conference in Vancouver! Student Energy’s selected me as a Youth Delegate along with 60 other delegates from 25 countries around the world. It was an annual 3-day event to encourage a dialogue and exchange focused on accelerating clean energy transition between innovators, academics and ministerial members from around 30 member countries. When I started my personal dialogue, I set out with the intention of understanding the regulations in the bottom-up electrification market that I uncovered in the Energy Bazaar. I also wanted to gain a clearer perspective on youth involvement in the policy and innovation sector of clean energy.

First, I learned from innovators that the clean-tech space is no longer based in philanthropy or only public investment. Multiple private investment funds that support these technologies are ready to commit, if the innovation is ready regardless of risk and the length of time involved in a return on investment in this market (e.g., Gates Venture Fund, etc.). Among the innovators, our discussion with the Mission Innovation Champion, Mr. Santi Pada Chaudhari, the man behind the first off-grid plant in India, was particularly interesting. He emphasized how businesses play the role of “grid-integrator” between decentralized and centralized electricity sectors by phasing out off-grid in high demand and working with Purchase Power Agreements (PPAs), for example. Nevertheless, it was clear from the discussions that innovation needs a great deal of support from market regulators.

Gladly, I had the opportunity to be keynote speaker and delegate for the Mission Innovation round-table discussion with people from academia, business, and governments. The discussion centered on developing collaboration opportunities that incorporate digitization solutions in clean energy industries – especially in smart manufacturing. The group expressed a willingness to listen to disruptive solutions that challenge existing energy solutions. In spite of some friction, group members presented interesting solutions like an open marketplace for transparent recording of associated emissions along the manufacturing supply chain. Overall, it was my first hands on experience making innovator- oriented policies in the clean energy.
CEM10-MI4 youth delegation with Minister Amarjeet Sohi, Canadian Energy Minister (photo credit: Student Energy)
As youth delegate, I experienced many great and direct conversations with people like Amarjeet Sohi, Rachel Kyte and with the Dutch and Indian ministerial delegation. As much as we were curious about their policy plans, they were just as curious about our innovative ideas making it a great give-and-take! One thing I took away personally from the conversations was that it is important to develop and tap into the potential support groups, not just inter-generational and inter-sector, but also intra-generational and intra-sector, especially for a topic as challenging as the field of clean energy.
Overall, I learned that in order to implement an effective Energy Bazaar, we need a clear understanding of the roles of grid integrator and associated regulations in the market. The many discussions on market design and flexibility from the Swedish Smartgrid, etc. showed that regulators are aware and keen for developing flexible regulations.

As final note, I would say that I genuinely enjoyed these collaborative platforms, representing the needs of the youth and innovators, while stressing the bottom-up and dynamic open solutions in the clean energy space. I hope that the Clean Energy Ministerial - Mission Innovation will also hold a youth forum next year in Chile, and that many of the youth representatives will be there to be part of the debate, again.

About the author

Rhythima Shinde works for integrating societal demands with technologies for urban and energy sustainability. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), developing data-driven decision-making models, and tapping into ML/AI tools for sustainable urban housing policies. Leveraging her double masters in policy and computer science at TU Delft (Netherlands) and her bachelors in engineering at IIT Bombay (India), she works as the co-founder of Energy Bazaar, where she is developing blockchain based peer-to-peer energy trading platform. She has worked/volunteered across international organizations in sustainability and development field, based in India, USA, Europe and Africa.
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