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My current company is helping reduce energy usage by organizations historically under-served when it comes to energy efficiency - portfolios of small commercial facilities. Energy savings are typically in the 10-20% range, with payback in as little as 1 year. My previous company provided smart grid applications for utilities and helped those utilities help their residential and small commercial customers become more energy efficient. I started my career right out of MIT in transportation and then transitioned - not so far - to energy, where I have spent the past 30 years.
Katy Hartman
VP of Research and Development — Tessolar
Katy leads research and development at Tessolar, keeping the company on the leading edge of product innovation and product integrity. Katy designs and directs experimental programs for the evaluation of PV racking technologies with a focus on significantly decreasing cost and PV module installation time while meeting or exceeding industry standards for strength, durability and reliability. Prior to her innovation work at Tessolar, Katy was a PhD candidate and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she worked on various earth-abundant replacement materials for thin film solar cells. While an undergraduate, Katy proved the concept of dislocation density reduction by high temperature annealing in multicrystalline silicon wafers. She began her experience in the solar industry as an intern at crystalline silicon ribbon innovator Evergreen Solar. Katy’s 11 years of experience in and enthusiasm for the PV industry was established at MIT where she participated in the Energy Club and earned a BSc. and Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering.
Charles Heaps
Senior Scientist — Stockholm Environment Institute
Dr. Heaps is the designer of LEAP, the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System, a scenario-based modelling system for integrated energy planning, air quality and climate change mitigation assessment. LEAP has thousands of users in over 190 countries worldwide including government agencies, national laboratories, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. He is also the founder and manager of an online initiative designed to foster a community among developing country energy analysts working on energy for sustainable development, which currently has over 40,000 members worldwide. LEAP has been used by more than 40 countries as their main framework for planning their commitments to the UNFCCC’s climate process, and it’s also used by the State of MA as its main analytical tool for planning how to achieve MA’s commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Dr. Heaps studied energy engineering in the UK before doing a Ph.D. in environmental technology at Imperial College in London. He has been with SEI throughout his career since 1990, starting as a researcher and including stints as the founding director of SEI’s US research center hosted by Tufts University. Dr. Heaps has worked in more than fifty countries around the world. He has consulted widely with numerous national and international agencies including US-EPA, US-AID, US-DOE, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNIDO, UNDP, and the World Bank. In 2015, Dr. Heaps was the first recipient of the LEDS-Global Partnership Award for “Leading LEDS Design”.
Julie McNamara
Senior Energy Analyst — Union of Concerned Scientists
Julie McNamara is a senior energy analyst with the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, she analyzes state, regional, and national policies relating to clean energy development and deployment. Her research includes electricity system resilience, state and federal power sector transition policies, and the implications of variations in carbon pricing policy design. Previously, she worked to develop proactive and adaptive risk management frameworks at MIT’s Program on Emerging Technologies, and served as an environmental scientist supporting federal and state agencies at ERG, an environmental and public policy consulting firm. Ms. McNamara holds an M.S. in technology and policy from MIT, and a B.A. in biology and political economy from Williams College. Energy transition: As an analyst within a science-based advocacy group, my work centers on informing the policies that shape the energy transition at hand. This includes conducting technical analyses to understand the implications of various policy choices, as well as communicating those findings in ways that are actionable to decision-makers and the broader public alike. Career trajectory: I have long had an interest in policy and economics alongside science and analysis, but opportunities to concurrently undertake both can be rare. In doing technical work for federal agencies, I learned enormous amounts about how to conduct such analyses, but did not have the ability to shape the questions being asked. Following graduate school, where I studied the intersection of science, technology, and policy, I joined the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has afforded me the chance to conduct technical work in service of shaping and informing broader policy goals.
Francis O'Sullivan
Senior Vice President, Strategy — Lincoln Clean Energy
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