Ep 33: How Launch Alaska Is Taking Action to Transform the Power Supply for Local Communities

Renewable Rides

Today we’re joined by Isaac Vanderburg, President & CEO, and Matt Nejati, Principal – Deployment, of Launch Alaska, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating climate tech deployment. In this episode, they will be discussing the EnergyShed project, Launch Alaska’s mission, inspired origins, and the transformative Tech Deployment Track Program (TDT). Explore the power of community and the EnergyShed Program’s goals, aimed at alleviating energy challenges faced by Alaskan communities.

Listen in to hear how Launch Alaska and VECKTA's collaboration addresses energy affordability and reliability issues. You'll learn about the strategies for effective integration and benefit of energy projects within local populations, as well as the scalability potential of the EnergyShed program's model beyond Alaska.

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

• What Launch Alaska is and how it was inspired.
• What the Tech Deployment Track Program is.
• The power of community.
• The origins and primary goals of the EnergyShed Program.
• How EnergyShed will impact Alaskan communities.
• Who their partners are in helping this come to fruition.
• How VECKTA’s platform addresses the needs of the EnergyShed program.
• How EnergyShed is going to be collaborating with local communities.
• Whether they plan on replicating this framework in other regions.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

• “By aggregating energy projects and having a platform that enables visibility and transparency, we can start to bring in investment funds to places that are not otherwise seeing those dollars. And that's what we're really excited about. That's the impact we're aiming to have." - Launch Alaska
• "VECKTA has built the critical tool we needed to look at a large variety of project options that are all clean and energy-focused. We can then layer on optimization and feasibility study results—to give insight and help stakeholders make informed decisions about what is worth doing. And then having a pathway through the marketplace to not just source the equipment, but also services and financing really captures the entire focus of the energy shed project. It was really a perfect technology fit for us." - Launch Alaska
• “We're seeing more and more communities all around the world realizing that if we continue to rely on utilities and be passive consumers of energy, and not actually take direct control over our own destiny, then there are challenges with that. There is an opportunity to prove this concept and create massive value for communities." - Launch Alaska

Resources In Today's Episode:

• Isaac Vanderburg: LinkedIn | Launch Alaska
• Matt Nejati: LinkedIn | Launch Alaska
• Gareth Evans: LinkedIn
• Dan Roberts: LinkedIn
• VECKTA: News

You can view a video of the conversation on VECKTA's website here: https://tinyurl.com/36t4f75v