Creating Climate Wealth - Ep9: Jigar Shah

What this episode covers

How does one come up with a brand new clean energy business model? Why if energy transition is the 'biggest wealth creation opportunity of our lifetimes' many have been slow to get on board? What went wrong in California with rolling blackouts and why Jigar Shah believes it has to do with the sunny state being a nanny state? Jigar Shah is one of the few people that have actually invented a whole new clean energy business model. In 2003 he founded Sun Edison which allowed people to get solar panels on their roofs on ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, instead of paying upfront. In 2009 he became the first CEO of Carbon War Room – a ‘global non-profit commitment to supporting global entrepreneurs scale their climate solutions’ founded by Richard Branson. His time at Carbon War Room inspired him to write a book called ‘Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy’. In 2014 Jigar co-founded Generate Capital and has been running it ever since, investing in climate energy projects and opportunities. He’s a fellow podcaster, a co-host of the ‘Energy Gang’ with Stephen Lacey and Katherine Hamilton, covers energy, cleantech and the environment. Jigar is a mechanical engineer by education and he holds MBA from the University of Maryland.