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Peter Fox-Penner

Director, Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Professor of Practice, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Dr. Fox-Penner is Founder and Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy and Professor of Practice at the Questrom School of Business, where he teaches courses on sustainable energy and electric power.

His research and writing interests are in the areas of electric power strategy, regulation, and governance; energy and climate policy; sustainable finance; and the relationships between public and private economic activity. Prior to BU, he served for over two decades as principal and chairman of the Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm where he remains an academic advisor. Before this he served as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dr. Fox-Penner is a frequent speaker on energy topics and the author of numerous published articles and books, including the highly acclaimed Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010) and its sequel Power after Carbon (Harvard University Press, 2020). His research has been widely cited, including in one Supreme Court decision.

In addition, he is a Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Impact Partners, one of the largest dedicated clean energy private equity fund groups in the world. He is on the global advisory council of Earth Day Network and on the advisory boards for Mobility Impact Partners and the National Regulatory Research Institute’s Training Initiative. He previously was on the boards of the Solar Foundation and the Global Energy Group and served as an advisor to the Center for National Policy, the Aspen Energy Institute, the Hewlett Foundation, and other organizations.

Experience

  • –present
    Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Professor of Practice, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Education

  •  
    University of Illinois, BS, Electrical Engineering
  •  
    University of Illinois, MS, Mechanical Engineering (Energy Policy)
  •  
    University of Chicago, PhD, Economics, Booth School of Business