Leading Data Innovators in the Energy Sector

Need some energy for the new week?
 Get ready for high voltage. Innovation moves faster than the news cycle.
 These women build what the climate demands.
 Solar, fusion, carbon capture, real tools, real impact. Welcome to the energy revolution. 📌 Dr. Rose M. Mutiso The power strategist electrifying Africa’s energy future. PhD in nanotechnology, fluent in policy and physics. Co-founded Mawazo to train African women in STEM. Champions energy equity through African-led solutions. 📌 Dr. Esther Takeuchi The chemist who turned batteries into lifesavers. Holds 150+ patents in energy storage tech. Powers millions of implantable medical devices. Built lithium batteries that last—and save lives. 📌 Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus The polymer pioneer building soft, smart power. Creates batteries from recyclable organic materials. Invents flexible energy for wearable tech. Designs storage systems that bend, not break. 📌 Dr. Sarah Kurtz The solar scientist who raised the efficiency ceiling. Developed cells that power both satellites and cities. Set global standards for solar performance. Made sunlight a stable, trusted energy source. 📌 Dr. Olga Malinkiewicz The physicist who printed power onto plastic. Invented perovskite “solar ink” for any surface. Made solar cheaper, lighter, and scalable. Turns windows and walls into power plants. 📌 Dr. Anne White The physicist decoding the chaos inside a star. Leads fusion research at MIT’s Plasma Science center. Maps turbulence inside reactors for stable energy. Builds the science behind limitless, clean power. 📌 Kirsty Gogan The advocate bringing nuclear back—with reason. Co-founded TerraPraxis to modernize nuclear solutions. Drives clean heat for heavy industry and grids. Pushes climate strategy beyond renewables alone. 📌 Dr. Betar Gallant The chemist trapping carbon with battery precision. Leads an MIT lab rethinking CO₂ as a resource. Designs materials that store energy and clean air. Builds new chemistries for a livable planet. 📌 Susan Petty The pioneer drilling for Earth's hidden power. Co-founded AltaRock to scale geothermal energy. Engineers tech to tap deep, constant heat. Builds baseload power beneath our feet. 📌 Katherine Hamilton The connector translating tech into law and markets. Co-founded 38 North to guide clean energy policy. Advises governments on grid, storage, and access. Builds bridges from labs to legislation. 📌 Audrey Zibelman The executive rewiring how nations use power. Modernized grids in New York and Australia. Now builds smart systems at X (Google’s moonshot lab). Designs grids that think, learn, and adapt. 📌 Nancy Pfund The VC who bet on green before it was hot. Early backer of Tesla, SolarCity, and Beyond Meat. Proved clean tech could win in the market. Funds founders building the climate economy. They build grids, not headlines. They power solutions, not slogans. Feeling energised already?

AI has an insatiable appetite for energy. But, can AI help energy companies cook up a buffet? GE Vernova just acquired Alteia, the energy sectors first major acquisition to aimed at simultaneously powering the AI revolution and using AI to manage the resulting grid complexity. The acquisition will enable GE Vernova to, rather than building generic AI capabilities, develop visual intelligence specifically for energy infrastructure – enabling utilities to "see" their grids through AI-powered damage assessment, vegetation management, and asset inspection. Their GridOS® platform represents an AI-native approach to grid management, designed from the ground up for renewable energy integration rather than simply adding AI features to existing systems. GE Vernova's $9B commitment through 2028 represents one of the most aggressive AI investment strategies in the energy sector, far exceeding most competitors' disclosed AI-specific spending. This signals that leading energy companies view AI as fundamental infrastructure for future competitiveness, not just a technology add-on. Meanwhile, competitors across energy’s competitive landscape are taking their own approaches to AI. Siemens Energy leads with the most comprehensive strategy among traditional competitors, launching an industrial foundation model with Microsoft and pursuing workforce transformation (AI-powered learning for 250k+ employees), autonomous manufacturing (targeting 30% productivity gains), and AI-driven sales optimization. Schneider Electric, ABB, and Honeywell focus on partnerships and smaller acquisitions for IoT integration, predictive maintenance, and building automation. Notably, while some competitors have broader industrial AI portfolios, none match GE Vernova's strengthend, specific focus on AI for grid asset management; a critical differentiator as AI and visual data analysis become increasingly important for grid reliability. Every major energy company has embraced cloud partnerships (Microsoft Azure, AWS, NVIDIA) to support AI ambitions, but GE Vernova's sector-specific partnerships like its Chevron joint venture for AI data center power infrastructure demonstrate how companies are creating entirely new revenue streams. Traditional energy companies appear to be lagging in AI adoption, creating market share opportunities for AI-forward competitors. GE Vernova's is looking to win with a strategy of building proprietary AI capabilities through strategic acquisitions, rather than relying solely on partnerships. The companies that successfully integrate AI into their core operations – rather than treating it as an add-on – will likely capture disproportionate value as the energy sector digitizes.

Energy Trading with Apache Kafka and Flink: Real Time Decisions in Action Real time data has transformed how the #energy sector operates. In energy trading, every second matters. Prices change fast. Supply and demand fluctuate. Weather patterns shift. #IoT sensors and smart meters constantly feed new information into trading systems. That is where #DataStreaming with #ApachaKafka and #ApacheFlink comes in. Together, they power the real time pipelines that make energy markets more transparent, responsive, and predictable. Leading companies such as #Uniper, #realto, and #Powerledger already rely on this architecture. Their results show how scalable, reliable, and event driven data streaming brings measurable business impact: • Faster decision making and improved risk management • Automated trading workflows and event driven alerts • Real time integration of IoT data from energy grids and sensors • Improved forecasting with fresh, contextual data Uniper uses Kafka and Flink to process millions of messages per day across trading, dispatch, and invoicing systems. Confluent Cloud provides the scalability and SLAs for mission critical workloads. Powerledger combines Kafka and #blockchain to enable peer to peer energy trading and renewable energy certificate tracking. re.alto connects smart meters, APIs, and #IIoT systems for solar and smart charging use cases. These examples show how Data Streaming creates the foundation for next generation #EnergyTrading systems, uniting financial and IoT data to deliver real time insights, flexibility, and compliance. In a world where milliseconds can mean millions, Apache Kafka and Apache Flink are not just technologies. They are strategic tools for modern energy companies. How is your organization preparing to handle the growing demand for real time data in trading and energy operations? #DataInMotion #IoT #StreamingAnalytics #EnergyInnovation #AI #EventDrivenArchitecture https://lnkd.in/eHAdJEcg

The energy transition is no longer a game of inches—it’s a data-driven chess match where every move counts. And Orennia just became the grandmaster. Fresh off closing their Series C funding round, led by Decarbonization Partners (the heavy-hitting BlackRock-Temasek duo), this Calgary-based team is taking #renewableenergy investment out of the Wild West and straight into the future. With this latest influx of capital, Orennia isn’t just doubling down; they’re playing a whole new hand in the energy game, one built on precision, transparency, and AI-fueled strategy. Let’s break it down. Orennia’s Ion_AI platform is like having the Oracle of Delphi whispering in your ear—except instead of vague prophecies, you’re getting billions of data points processed in real-time, mapped out, and ready to rock. #Solar, #wind, #storage, #hydrogen — you name it. This platform transforms noise into actionable intelligence, helping #institutionalinvestors, #developers, and #energy giants cut through the chaos and make decisions that actually make sense. It’s not just about predicting the future of energy assets; it’s about de-risking that future. The result? A 93% boost in better capital allocation decisions across their client base. That’s not just a statistic—it’s a mic drop. The renewable energy market, barreling toward an estimated $2 trillion by 2030, has one big Achilles’ heel: a data bottleneck. Orennia saw the gap, grabbed the wrench, and built a system designed to turn that bottleneck into a firehose of clarity. And the industry is taking notice. With investors like Wellington Management, Quantum Energy Partners, LLC, and Veriten already on board from earlier rounds, this Series C only solidifies what insiders already knew—Orennia is the real deal. And let’s not forget the visionaries steering this ship. Co-founders Brook Papau and Tanya Baeza have taken Orennia from a bold idea to an industry cornerstone in just a few years. Add Meghan Sharp, PhD MBA of Decarbonization Partners into the mix, and you’ve got the kind of brain trust that doesn’t just navigate markets—they shape them. But here’s the thing: this isn’t the finish line. This Series C is fuel, not a trophy. With plans to scale the Ion_AI platform, expand into new markets, and tackle massive challenges like #gridoptimization and #decentralizedenergy sources, Orennia’s work is just getting started. So here’s the question: if Orennia can make #energyinvestment smarter, faster, and more profitable, what happens when they turn their sights to the next frontier? One thing’s for sure—the chessboard just got a whole lot more interesting. Let’s see who’s ready to play. #Startups #StartupFunding #CanadaTech #Energy #Renewables #CleanEnergy #DeepTech #VentureCapital #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem

America cannot power its next century with the same grid it relied on last century.    This is very good news for the right energy founders. The increasing complexity of the grid financially, technically, and physically creates opportunities for cutting-edge software companies to break out, meet the moment, and build huge businesses.     Below are sixteen top startups leading the new energy economy from the front lines, divided into three broad categories.    -Utility Data: Arcadia, UtilityAPI, Bayou Energy, and Deck   -B2B Data and Simulation: Pearl Street Technologies, Texture, Bidgely, Halcyon, Innowatts, and Leap   -Electrification and Rebates: Commonweal portfolio company Pearl Edison (shoutout to Evan and Jake), 257, Sealed, Eli Technologies, Rock Rabbit, and David Energy   These three categories share the DNA of using software in novel ways to disrupt the traditional ways business was done in energy, whether by making siloed utility data more easily accessible to the long list of stakeholders who need it, by giving the long tail of energy companies ways to communicate and operate more productively, or by bringing powerful analysis to the residential level as America electrifies and policymakers roll out complex rebate programs. #AmTech   These startups have raised capital from the best climate and generalist investors including:   Aligned Climate Capital , Pear VC, Powerhouse Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, Cathay Innovation, Union Square Ventures, Keyframe, Equal Ventures, BoxGroup, Fifth Wall, Greycroft, MCJ, Voyager Ventures, New System Ventures, Abstract Ventures Inc., Lerer Hippeau, J.P. Morgan, Valor Equity Partners, Energy Impact Partners   This is part one in a series on #AmTech leaders shaping the future of the grid.    #AmTech #MeetTheMoment