Emily Kirsch turned down a college scholarship, instead headed to Central America after high school to work on an organic chocolate and coffee farm in Costa Rica. The farm was off-grid and fully powered by solar and storage.
“My first experience with clean energy is pretty unique,” Kirsch told PV Magazine in an interview last year. “I remember being mesmerized by this technology that could provide us light at night with no generator, no noise, no fumes. Just peaceful, quiet bliss in Costa Rica.” That’s when she decided she wanted a career in clean energy. Kirsch joined Van Jones, former advisor to President Barack Obama on clean-energy projects, in Oakland for six years doing workforce development, climate policy and California state-ballot initiatives focused on clean energy. Jones, who now has his own show on CNN, was friends with the late singer-songwriter Prince, who was doing anonymous philanthropic work across the country. |
Kirsch told VP Magazine that Prince wanted to do something related to clean energy in Oakland and he gave a grant to Mosaic, a small solar-energy startup. She says they needed someone plugged into the Oakland community, so she helped with the pilot. And clean-tech entrepreneur Danny Kennedy connected them to their first investors.
“I realized then that every startup needs those three things: customer connections, capital connections, and physical space,” Kirsch told PV. “This is the San Francisco Bay Area. There must be someone, some organization, helping clean energy startups get access to those three things.” |
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She says she was young and idealistic enough at age 27 to think she could do it herself. She and Kennedy created Powerhouse, which today connects startups, corporations and investors to build energy systems that are “decarbonized, democratized and digitized.”
They then launched Powerhouse Ventures in 2018 with the idea of investing in seed-stage startups in an effort to change the way we power the world. Today, the $7 million venture has made 12 investments to date and profits are growing at about 20% a year. They’ve also hosted more than 60 clean energy startup events out of their offices in Oakland, in an effort to connect startups with corporations and investors.
Fostering Opportunities for Women
Kirsch believes the male-dominated industry is changing. And she’s sees her role at Powerhouse to create more opportunities for women at clean-energy startups.
"The reality of the energy industry today is that it is overwhelmingly male, in large part because we have not adequately fostered opportunities for women to enter the space,” she told Energy Today. “Every woman who enters the field is another potential innovator, entrepreneur, investor, or corporate leader who will play a key role in equipping us to address the climate crisis and building the energy system we need. And they will likely do a better job at it; studies, including a recent S&P Global Report, have shown that women outperform men in executive roles.”
That 2019 S&P Global Report looked at companies in the Russell 3000 — an index that tracks the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S.-traded stocks — from 2002 through 2019 and found that those with female CFOs generated $1.8 trillion more in gross profit than their sector average. Companies with female CFOs also experienced bigger stock price returns than firms with male CFOs during the executives’ first 24 months in the role. And firms run by female CEOs saw more value appreciation and greater gender diversity on their boards, the study found.
They then launched Powerhouse Ventures in 2018 with the idea of investing in seed-stage startups in an effort to change the way we power the world. Today, the $7 million venture has made 12 investments to date and profits are growing at about 20% a year. They’ve also hosted more than 60 clean energy startup events out of their offices in Oakland, in an effort to connect startups with corporations and investors.
Fostering Opportunities for Women
Kirsch believes the male-dominated industry is changing. And she’s sees her role at Powerhouse to create more opportunities for women at clean-energy startups.
"The reality of the energy industry today is that it is overwhelmingly male, in large part because we have not adequately fostered opportunities for women to enter the space,” she told Energy Today. “Every woman who enters the field is another potential innovator, entrepreneur, investor, or corporate leader who will play a key role in equipping us to address the climate crisis and building the energy system we need. And they will likely do a better job at it; studies, including a recent S&P Global Report, have shown that women outperform men in executive roles.”
That 2019 S&P Global Report looked at companies in the Russell 3000 — an index that tracks the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S.-traded stocks — from 2002 through 2019 and found that those with female CFOs generated $1.8 trillion more in gross profit than their sector average. Companies with female CFOs also experienced bigger stock price returns than firms with male CFOs during the executives’ first 24 months in the role. And firms run by female CEOs saw more value appreciation and greater gender diversity on their boards, the study found.
Read More about Kirsch and Powerhouse Ventures in this PV Magazine story.