Vanessa Chan

Most people may not have heard of the Office of Technology Transitions at the U.S. Energy Department, but it’s played an outsized role in bringing climate technologies to market. That’s thanks to the work of Vanessa Chan, who leads the office. Last year she spearheaded the department’s “Pathway to Commercial Liftoff” reports which, for the first time, provide a national roadmap for how to decarbonize a slew of sectors, from geothermal and hydrogen to chemicals and cement. And already they are influencing government and private sector clean energy investments, the department says. In June, the office announced $41.4 million in federal funding for 50 clean energy projects.

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government (other than your own), needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

Go first, and take risks together. For clean energy technologies to be fully deployed, they need to get down the cost curve but the risks and investments needed are bigger than one entity is willing to take. Everyone is first in line to be 8th or 9th but no one is first in line to be first because the risks are so high. As an ecosystem, we need to be bold in our collaboration between finance, private sector companies, government, philanthropy, insurance industry, manufacturers, etc. All of us need to move from our traditional way of doing business. Boards of companies need to empower CEOs to invest in new technologies that may yield earnings years from now. The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports that our team put together show the business case for 11 different technologies that will help us decarbonize the economy. Those reports highlight the exact kind of investments that the private sector can be making in partnership with other players to help us reach the tipping point needed to bring the costs of our technologies down.  

What is a climate solution (other than your own) that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?

Electricity demand is expected to grow 15-20% in the next decade driven by economic development (manufacturing, data center expansion) and beneficial electrification (transport, building, industrial).  There are solutions that can be profitably deployed now; including virtual power plants and advanced grid solutions to enhance the existing transmission and distribution. Unfortunately the ecosystem is slow to deploy these because it requires changes in how we do things. It is imperative we deploy these now to support the increased demand on our grid while buying us more time for other technologies like nuclear, geothermal, etc. to get to scale.

If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next U.N. climate conference, what would you say?

The DOE mantra is “private sector-led, and government-enabled”—we’ve seen this working already, and others should follow. The numbers from the Biden-Harris Administration are astounding. At the end of this year the amount of clean electricity added to the U.S. grid is the equivalent of 30 Hoover dams, the U.S. has created 800 new and expanded manufacturing facilities across the nation, we’ve created 400,000 new jobs related to clean energy, 81% of our impact has been in areas where the community has below average salaries and for every $1 we have deployed, the private sector has brought in $6 to match it. It takes bold thinking, such as from policies like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. This bold thinking has empowered the private sector to act and it is important that we do this across the world.