The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra will be the first director of the Clean Energy Investment Center (CEIC), located within the Office of Technology Transitions.
According to the DOE, the CEIC was established in 2015 as part of the Obama administration’s Clean Energy Investment Initiative to advance private, mission-oriented investment in clean energy technologies that address the present gap in U.S. cleantech investment. CEIC will also help to enhance the availability of the DOE’s resources to private-sector investors and potential partners in the public.
“Dr. Malhotra’s unique experience as an accomplished scientist, entrepreneur and businessman will be invaluable as the first director of the Clean Energy Investment Center,” says Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
As the center’s first director, Malhotra will be responsible for standing up the CEIC, which will serve as a single point of contact for investors to access technical experts, acquire the latest reports on clean energy technology, and identify promising projects.
He will also be instrumental in supporting Mission Innovation, an initiative that was announced at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris to accelerate global clean energy innovation.
Malhotra joins the center after most recently serving as a consultant with the DOE’s Fuel Cells Technologies Office. Previously, from 2005 to 2014, he served as the founder, president and CEO of Oorja Protonics, which designs, develops and manufactures methanol fuel cells. During his time at the company, the DOE says, he attracted more than $32 million in investments from private-sector equity firms and brought the company to profitability.
Over the course of his diverse career, he has been an advisor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, served as part of the executive management team at DCH Technology and H Power Corp., and worked as a researcher at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.
