Shashank Sane is the Executive Vice President for Transmission at Invenergy.
Invenergy is North America's largest, privately held renewable power generation company. They have developed more than 200 power generation projects around the world and are responsible for more than 31 gigawatts of power on four continents, with the majority of that being renewable energy projects, including wind and solar.
In his role as EVP of Transmission, Shashank is responsible for the company's efforts to create connectivity between solar and wind farms and end customers, and he's particularly focused on large-scale interstate transmission projects. Transmission is a topic that climate and energy experts will say is critically important. Our transmission infrastructure in the US has been built over more than a century. And yet, the Department of Energy recently estimated that the US needs to increase our transmission capacity by over 50% by the year 2035. That's a monumental jump. We're grateful to Shashank for volunteering to come on the pod and talk with us about transmission, how it works, why it's needed, and how projects get done.
In this episode, we cover:
- [02:22]: Shashank's journey to Invenergy
- [04:46]: His early experience at the company, Invenergy Edge, and acquiring Grain Belt Express
- [08:11]: Shashank's experience at Lehman Brothers in 2008
- [10:05]: Overview of Invenergy's approach to developing projects
- [13:51]: Definition of "transmission"
- [22:21]: Why more transmission is needed to enable renewable growth
- [26:40]: Transmission issues in the U.S. and the need to improve grid resilience
- [35:04]: The lack of federal oversight of the national grid
- [37:02]: Modifying the Grain Belt Express project to better serve Missouri
- [46:49]: Other major transmission projects Invenergy is developing
- [48:24]: Working with community and landowners before routing transmission lines
- [52:23]: The need to recognize the value of inter-regional transmission
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Episode recorded on Oct 16, 2023 (Published on Dec 4, 2023)
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
