Interview with Sandhya Ganapathy, EDPR NA | Google & Microsoft Partnerships, AI in Cleantech, & Solar Recycling

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine McLean, Founder and CEO of Dylan Green. We’re filming today from the WRISE Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. I’m very excited to have with me Sandhya Ganapathy, who’s the CEO at EDPR North America.

Sandhya: Thank you so much. I’m equally excited as well.

Catherine: Thank you. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your current role?

Sandhya: Sure. So I run EDP businesses in the U.S. So here we do onshore wind, solar, batteries. We also do distributed generation. So both utility scale as well as distributed generation. EDP is the fourth largest renewable operator in the world. We are present today in 30 different markets. But U.S. is our single largest market. We have eleven hundred people on the ground, a bit more than ten gigawatts of assets under management and still growing.

Catherine: Yeah, I want to talk about this amazing partnership that you did with Microsoft and Bolt Energy Utility. I’d love to hear about your landmark agreement as well with Google to develop and install 500 megawatts of distributed solar projects. This is the largest distributed generation sponsorship signed between two companies in the U.S. at the time.

Sandhya: Yeah. So I personally believe that the energy transition will not be complete unless we are taking all of us along with us. So it has to be just and equitable and sustainable. So I think the organization believes very, very deeply in that. And a couple of partnerships that you mentioned are at the core of that belief. The arrangement that we have with Microsoft and Bolt is through something what we call an environmental justice EPA. What does that mean? Because, as you know, renewable energy, the value proposition is so much more than just green electrons. We are present to the communities. We are present. We are providing jobs. We are providing benefits to the communities, more income to the farmers and so on and so forth.
But beyond that, the communities do need more things. And we are in their backyard for 35, 40 years. So as responsible corporate citizens we came up with this concept. And what does that mean? It means that a certain portion of the revenues that we get from the offtake of the project, the offtaker is Microsoft, actually goes into the community. Right. So there are specific programs. There are specific opportunities that are identified where we can work with the community. That’s where the world angle comes from. And so it’s been absolutely brilliant, because not as I said, not only are we providing green electrons, I think that’s been given us a greater opportunity to have a bigger impact on the ground. And so we are super, super pleased with how that has come up and also hope that we can replicate and do many, many of those.
The second one is the partnership with Google that you mentioned, which is a 500 megawatt framework that we have entered through our distributed generation company where really we are targeting to put projects in economically disadvantaged areas, so areas where the low and medium income communities. And that’s where we will be putting the projects. And in turn, the projects would be providing generation. So, again, targeting places which are economically advantaged where we can have create a bigger impact, a bigger sort of a contribution to the community beyond the green electrons that facilities generate.

Catherine: I love that. Thank you for explaining that. What role do you think AI will play in the energy transition? I know AI is a really hot topic at the moment.

Sandhya: I think on both sides, on the demand side, if you see, the U.S. has had literally a flat demand over the last two decades or so. Not because the demand was not growing, but there was an energy efficiency. So that increase, nominal increase in demand. And then you have energy efficiency that were kind of offsetting each other. And so we didn’t see that massive, big need for incremental generation in the system. But with AI coming, we are talking about significantly more generation required, not just in the U.S., but globally. But when I’m thinking about the U.S. context there are different data points that are floating around, ranging from three to five to six percent increase in the generation demand. And it will not be complete if we say that AI is only resulting in an increase in generation demand, because it’s very important also to realize that it must not result in incremental emissions.
And how do you manage that by actually having more clean energy in the grid? And so I think it’s a wonderful time to be in the sector just because of the demand that we are seeing. On the other hand, something which we don’t talk a lot about is how can we use AI as a tool? Renewables, by definition, are intermittent resource. So how do you integrate that resource into the system to bring more stability, more reliability into the grid? And AI can be a super powerful tool for that. Within our company, within ADP, we have started using AI across the value chain.
And this could be because AI can help you in better weather forecasting. So it’s a very, very powerful tool to not just manage your trading positions, but also to manage how much of generation you can supply to the grid. AI is a very, very powerful tool when it comes to predictive maintenance to ensure that your turbines and your panels and your fleet is actually operational and you can actually maximize the value out of it, not just from a company perspective.
I think when you’re looking from a system perspective, I think grid operators can use AI as a powerful tool in order to ensure that they are looking at all systems, all generators in the system and helping balancing. And so I think both ways, AI is definitely a consumer. But AI is also a great source in order to ensure that we are efficiently producing and distributing generation.

Catherine: What are some of the key challenges the ADP or North America are facing and scaling renewable energy projects?

Sandhya: Yeah. Like, how are you overcoming these? So, look, we have amazing aspirations and ambitions for this for our efforts on the ground in the U.S. Globally, as I mentioned, we are the fourth largest owner operator today. ADP today is present in 30 different markets and different markets. We have different challenges. But when I think about just the U.S., I think we have fundamental or macro challenges and that the whole sector has. Then we have got structural challenges. And I will talk about what these are when I’m thinking about macro or economic or fundamental challenges. Of course, renewables actually had a fantastic ride the last decade because it was a very low interest rate environment. Inflation was low, which are both super important, as this is a very capital intensive industry.
And so when rates started going up, of course, the industry, it started impacting us because this is an industry where we are providing long term fixed prices. Whereas your operational cost and your capital expenditure just keep changing with interest rates and inflation. So on one side, when I’m thinking about supply chain in particular, in particular in the context of the U.S., we have two massive challenges. One is around trade tariffs, and the second is around UFLPA or forced labor issues with the Chinese equipment. And one of the things that we have done and we absolutely love to have domestic manufacturing super, super thrilled and excited about everything that’s happening on the ground on that front. But we are also very committed to buying equipment that is manufactured in the U.S. It’s a long term arrangements with First Solar, arrangements with Q-cells and the other manufacturers who are on the ground. And that’s very important for not just ensuring that we are supporting domestic manufacturing, but also ensuring that we are able to execute our projects on time and able to provide the power to the offtakers because they are relying on us. And so that credibility of the industry is very important. And so that’s something that we are very focused on.
On the other hand we are also preparing ourselves for the huge demand that is coming from an AI perspective by being sort of by being very active in our pipeline development. Today, our projects are there across the U.S. We are not specifically focused on any one single market. We are present in 20 plus states. And so just having that pipeline so that we are able to provide sort of more renewable energy into the grid, but also our aspirations for the U.S. is also significant. Just in the current business plan, which is through 2026, we have ambitions of investing 11 billion dollars in the U.S. And that’s significant from our perspective. And so we are doing everything that is possible in order to ensure.

Catherine: Yes, to back that. That’s wonderful. By 2050, global e-waste… And I feel like this is not something that’s talked about enough. So I’m glad that we’re going to discuss it now. By 2050, global e-waste from solar panels is expected to hit 80 million tons. EDPR, North America’s Close the Loop Initiative, aims for a 90 percent waste recovery rate by 2030. What are the primary strategies you all are implementing to accomplish that?

Sandhya: Yeah. Yeah. Now, you raise a very, very key and important point because renewable energy must be sustainable. Green must be sustainable across the value chain. Right.
So when you’re talking about scope to scope, three emissions as a company, we EDP has our targets and we you know, we are committed to sustainability. We are actually a leader in sustainability. We are part of the Sustainability Index and have always been ranked the most sustainable utility in the world. And so and so from that perspective, we are committed to being 100 percent green by 2030. We are committed to be sort of carbon free by 2040. So we have our own aspirations.
But on the ground, of course, you talked about solar panels and that those are genuine concerns, because again, the U.S. standards are not on par with the European restrictions in terms of how do you dispose of waste? I think Close the Loop is a fantastic initiative, which our own people, my own people, and my own people came up with. And so it’s amazing. We have more than 20 plus vendors now enlisted through that program. And what does that mean? Because we believe that it always it’s it’s less difficult in order to make the OELs sign up to sustainability because they are large manufacturers and so they can have that impact. But then when you look at the value chain, there are a lot of small counterparts, there are a lot of small vendors who may be supplying small parts to the from a CAPEX, from a construction perspective. And how do you bring them on board to be sort of to ensure that we are producing the equipment, we are producing the nuts and the bolts that are required in a more sustainable way.
So that is what we are trying to do with Close the Loop, is get as many vendors as possible. Make sure that they are committed to being sustainable and focus on recycling, not just panels and pallets and other things that come when you are constructing, but also recycling blades.
We are doing a lot of repowering. And so how do you ensure that you’re able to bring that aspect of recycling and reducing wastage? So we just hope that we can keep adding more vendors to it. And I’m genuinely pleased with the work that has gone so far.

Catherine: Great. And hopefully it’ll be a blueprint as well for other companies. I do hope that many others take that. Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you how you promote and ensure diversity and inclusion within your organization. And what advice would you give to women and those with marginalized identities who are aspiring to be in leadership roles in clean tech?

Sandhya: Yeah, look, I genuinely believe that diversity is like a tapestry. There’s a reason why the creator made all of us differently. And there is power and there is strength and strength and diversity. And within our organization, of course, even in the U.S. we recently sort of got the statistic. Even in the U.S., we have got people from four to six different nationalities working in our company. That’s out of eleven hundred people. So diversity there are different buckets that society we have created for ourselves, whether it’s based on nation, whether it’s the color of your skin, whether it’s your gender, whether it’s your orientation, whatever that be. I think it’s fundamentally our philosophy, my belief and my commitment to the company that every person will get an equal opportunity.
So to me, it’s inclusiveness, giving a seat at the table for every person. It’s celebrating who we are and empowering people and enabling them to be the best version of themselves at work. We have a lot of synergy groups which are employee led synergy groups within the company.
Women LGBTQ, we have veterans. And so a number of those forums where people are able to bring, come together and have shared unified vision. But more importantly, they’re able to celebrate who they are. And that’s the most powerful thing I think we believe in, which is we want everyone to be the best version of themselves at work.

Catherine: I love that. Well, thank you so much for speaking with us.
I really, really appreciate it.

Sandhya: Thank you.

Catherine: Thank you so much.