Cornell Energy Connection Encourages Collaboration and Resilience Amid Uncertainty

Panelists and speakers at the 15th annual Cornell Energy Connection (CEC), held at the Verizon Executive Education Center on the Cornell Tech campus at Roosevelt Island in New York City on November 22, were cautiously optimistic about the energy industry’s future.

“Obviously, we have a long way to go before we hit net zero,” said Ethan Wolff ’25 in his opening remarks. “But the explosive growth of global renewables certainly paves the way towards reducing the emissions intensity of our currently fossil-heavy energy mix.”

Wolff is founder and president of the Cornell Energy Transition Club (ETC), which hosted the event in collaboration with the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise (CSGE) at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell Energy Club (CEC), Cornell Student Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists, and the Cornell Policy Review (CPR).

Leaders from policy, academia, industry, and the student community expanded on the event’s theme, “Building the Energy Future Amid Uncertainty,” by emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration on energy innovation, including grid resilience, insurance, carbon capture, and decarbonization.

Growing energy consumption will compel grid development and resilience

Did you know that an AI search uses 10 times more energy than a Google search? As data and cooling needs grow, energy grids will need capacity for these larger loads. Experts on the grid infrastructure panel discussed approaches.

Nelson Yip, MEng ’02, director of strategic planning for Con Edison, stressed that the role of the utility is evolving to address the dual challenges of maintaining “blue sky” reliability during normal conditions and building “gray sky” resilience to extreme events.

Bruce Schlein ’88, director and global head of ESG at OMERS Infrastructure, advocated for investments in microgrids, local generation, and high-voltage DC (HVDC) cables to enable robust infrastructure. Capital expenditures will be needed to promote local generation. Labor and management will need to be skilled in operating new systems and modes of working (for instance, workers in high-temperature areas like Texas will likely work eight-hour days between 3 am and 11am, for health and safety purposes). These changes will require investments, which will need protection through updated insurance underwriting.

Jeff Weiss ’79, executive chair of Distributed Sun and truCurrent, emphasized that systemic solutions need to be developed simultaneously with new design thinking and updated supply chains. “The U.S. grid will triple in the next 20 years: from scratch, not an upgrade,” he said. “This is going to require a combination of intelligence and adaptation that will enable planners to develop a blue-sky system from scratch, including the tech, skills and jobs, supply chains, regulation and finance needed.”

Notes from COP 29: Expect to see progress in national commitments

Cornell’s Mark B. Milstein, clinical professor and academic director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, spoke with Jennifer Layke, global director of energy at the World Resources Institute, about her takeaways from the COP 29 UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan—arguably the most significant global energy conference on policy and practice in renewable energy.

CEC attendees were directly invested in COP 29’s negotiations, which had faltered but have since achieved some resolutions, including a sixfold increase in storage and grid expansion agreements. Despite COP 29’s noted silence on topics related to local communities, equity, and civil society, Layke stressed that the meeting was still valuable to forthcoming strategy, because nations are poised to declare their individual goals in the next year. Significant innovations, like Indonesia building its own battery industry rather than just exporting nickel, will affect important supply chains and drive acceptance of the need to collaborate. Asked to advise those graduating soon, Layke said: “Go into energy!”

Pioneering solutions and trends in carbon capture, energy storage, and tech

Will Martin, MBA ’11, director of low-carbon fuels at Anew Climate and a graduate of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, moderated the panel on trends in carbon capture technologies, discussing direct air capture (DAC) and scalable, cost-effective approaches. Jason Hochman, cofounder and executive director of the Direct Air Capture Coalition, a global nonprofit advancing DAC development technology, noted DAC’s high energy requirements. Neda Jafar ’08, partner at Kimmeridge, an alternative energy sector asset manager, highlighted the importance of nature-based solutions like forestation and of ensuring carbon credit integrity in voluntary markets.

Energy storage was top of mind. Panelists detailed their business models for virtual power plants, large-scale commercial and industrial storage, and utility-scale projects. Battery technology, control software, and optimization will allow grid flexibility. Advanced energy storage will enable the proliferation of small-scale charging stations. Panelists discussed financing strategies, as well as the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act and potential regulatory changes, expressing cautious optimism on the industry’s future in any political climate.

Insurance and a risk-transfer mindset will protect the energy transition

Afternoon speaker Nathan Maggiotto, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Energetic Capital, argued for the importance of insurance in the energy transition. “Insurance is critical to every single element of the energy transition, because it is critical to every element of everything,” he said. Maggiotto explained that economic activity is ultimately driven by the ability to identify, mitigate, and allocate risks. Investors who bear these risks (lenders, equity providers, suppliers) make decisions accordingly. Risks are perceived to be high in developing economies, but risk mitigation can enable investment. Insurance provides that mitigation, in the form of protection from financial damage, and this permits investment and growth.

The future will be more collaborative than ever

Students always enter the job market with curiosity and drive. The next generation, however, will experience the real-time evolution of skills and collaborative processes as the energy transition moves forward. The CEC’s focused expert panels, interspersed with networking breaks, interactive workshops, and student-led initiatives, allowed participants to share practical approaches to waste reduction, reuse of critical minerals, and policies encouraging circular economies, including local and regional R&D in resource-rich but economically disadvantaged areas.

Overall, the discussions emphasized the importance of fostering connections across disciplines and sectors. “While political headwinds may be stronger in the near term, one thing remains unchanged: there are jobs in the energy transition,” Wolff said.