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Energy Opportunity Lab
Overview
The Energy Opportunity Lab (EOL) at the Center on Global Energy Policy seeks to generate insights and innovations to expand energy opportunity in the United States and around the world.
Energy is foundational to economic prosperity. Affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy systems underpin economic opportunity. Energy also enables industrialization, urbanization and digitalization, as well as improvements in quality of life. Yet significant energy challenges persist. Millions of households in the United States struggle with energy affordability, an issue that has only been exacerbated with rapid growth in electricity demand. Meanwhile, more than 700 million people globally still lack access to electricity, and many developing economies face severe constraints in building the energy systems needed for growth and poverty reduction.
Established in 2022 with support from the Bedari Collective, EOL combines rigorous research, policy dialogue, and educational activities to identify practical solutions that expand energy opportunity while advancing economic development, well-being, and long-term sustainability. The Lab operates through two complementary programs:
- Energy Opportunity Lab – Domestic, focused on energy affordability, energy insecurity, and equitable energy transitions in the United States.
- Energy Opportunity Lab – International, focused on energy’s role in enabling economic growth, structural transformation, and poverty reduction in emerging markets and developing economies.
EOL works across disciplines and sectors to bridge research and practice, engaging policymakers, investors, industry leaders, civil society organizations, and academic institutions to advance actionable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing energy challenges.
Team
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Leadership
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Jonathan Elkind
Senior Research Scholar
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Diana Hernández
Faculty Affiliate and co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab
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Zainab Usman
Senior Research Scholar and Managing Director of International Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
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Core Team
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Vivek Shastry
Senior Research Associate
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Qëndresa Krasniqi
Research Associate
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Gautam Jain
Senior Research Scholar
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Luisa Palacios
Adjunct Senior Research Scholar
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Jonathan Elkind
Senior Research Scholar
Biography
Jonathan Elkind is a fellow and senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Elkind came to the Center after a long and distinguished career devoted to energy and environment policy in the private and public sectors. From 2009 to 2017, he worked on international energy and climate issues at the United States Department of Energy, helping to coordinate energy policy in the Obama Administration and leading climate and energy programs with key global partners. He departed DOE as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs.
Before his service in the Obama Administration, he founded Eastlink Consulting, LLC where he guided corporate and non-profit clients on commercial energy projects in Europe and Eurasia, and he served as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, researching international energy security issues.
Earlier in his career, Elkind focused on energy, environment and economic issues in the post-Soviet nations in a variety of posts with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, the U.S. National Security Council, Office of the Vice President of the United States, the Department of Energy, and the Council on Environmental Quality.
Elkind holds a Master of Business Administration in Strategy and International Business from the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, a Master of Arts in Russian History and a Certificate in Soviet Studies from the W. Averell Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in History from the University of Michigan. He is also a distinguished associate with the Energy Futures Initiative Foundation; a founding principal of Acceleration Energy LLC; and a senior advisor with WestExec Advisors, a Washington, DC-based strategic advisory firm.
Diana Hernández
Faculty Affiliate and co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab
Biography
Dr. Diana Hernández, a tenured Associate Professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, is the Founding Principal Investigator of the Energy Equity, Housing, and Health Program and co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab at the Center on Global Energy Policy.
Dr. Hernández is a pioneering sociologist and leading authority on energy insecurity, a concept she defined and operationalized through groundbreaking mixed-methods research. Rooted in community engagement and policy innovation, her work addresses systemic barriers to energy access for disadvantaged populations and tests promising interventions. She is lead author of Powerless: The People’s Struggle for Energy (with Jennifer Laird, Russell Sage, April 2025), the first major book on energy insecurity in the U.S.
Dr. Hernández has authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles as well as book chapters, and policy briefs in top-tier journals and secured nearly $10 million in competitive funding from federal agencies and philanthropies. A sought-after thought leader and speaker, Dr. Hernández has delivered more than 250 invited lectures and presentations. She is regularly featured in national media, has served in key leadership roles including as a mayoral appointee to NYC’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board and is the recipient of multiple honors, including induction into Columbia's Academy of Community and Public Service.
As native of the South Bronx, Dr. Hernández has led small-scale social impact real estate projects where she has implemented clean energy and energy efficiency deep retrofits. A proud product of NYC public schools and Section 8 housing, she earned a BA from Hunter College and a PhD from Cornell University in Sociology.
Zainab Usman
Senior Research Scholar and Managing Director of International Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
Biography
Dr. Zainab Usman is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She is Managing Director for International Programs at the Energy Opportunity Lab, where she leads the Center’s work on energy for development in emerging markets.
Usman’s research focuses on how energy systems can support structural transformation and industrialization in low- and middle-income economies. Her work spans industrial policy and global supply chains, financing the energy transition and managing just transitions, as well as technological innovation. At the Center, her research builds on deep experience in Africa and extends to South and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
Previously, Usman was the founding director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. From 2021 to 2025, she built the program into a globally recognized platform for policy-relevant research and high-level convening, raising millions of dollars in philanthropic support, leading a multidisciplinary team, and producing research that shaped international debates on energy, trade, and economic development. She was previously a public sector specialist at the World Bank, where she worked on energy policy reforms, social sustainability, natural resource governance, and digital technologies. She has advised governments and development partners in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Serbia, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan.
Usman has briefed senior officials at the White House, the U.S. Departments of Energy, State, Commerce, and Treasury, the U.S. Trade Representative, and subnational governments in the United States. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and briefed the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and institutions of the European Union.
Her enduring area of expertise is the political economy of natural resources, particularly the policies and institutions that enable resource-rich emerging markets to harness hydrocarbons, minerals, and metals for sustainable economic development. She is the author of Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, selected by the Financial Times as one of the Best Economics Books of 2022. She is also co-editor of the World Bank volume The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All, and a contributor to major World Bank flagship reports, including Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries.
Usman’s research has been published in African Affairs, the World Bank’s Policy Research Working Paper Series, and edited volumes by Oxford University Press. Her work has appeared in The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, Bloomberg, BBC, Forbes, Der Spiegel, Al Jazeera English, and The Washington Post.
Usman is the founding principal and chief executive officer of Elem Analytics and Advisory Group, a boutique data analytics firm. She serves on the boards of BRAC Global in Bangladesh, the Natural Resources Governance Institute in New York, and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation in Nigeria.
She holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford, an MSc from the University of Birmingham, and a BSc from Ahmadu Bello University.
Vivek Shastry
Senior Research Associate
Biography
Dr. Vivek Shastry is a Senior Research Associate at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), where he supports research, strategic initiatives, and development for the Center’s Energy Opportunity Lab. His research focuses on the intersection of energy and development policies in emerging economies, as well as pathways to energy affordability in the United States.
Prior to joining CGEP, Dr. Shastry was a researcher in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where his work focused on the impacts of productive uses of energy, energy access for rural healthcare, and data-driven public policy analysis. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on energy poverty, energy transitions, and energy in the built environment. His work has appeared in leading journals including Energy for Sustainable Development, Energy Research & Social Science, and the Energy Law Journal. In addition to an interdisciplinary research portfolio, he brings a grounded field perspective through his time as a Program Manager at SELCO Foundation.
Dr. Shastry holds a PhD in Public Policy, an MS in Sustainable Design, and an MS in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology Karnataka. He is a JN Tata Fellow and was a JJ “Jake” Pickle Fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, where he currently serves on the alumni board.
Qëndresa Krasniqi
Research Associate
Biography
Qëndresa Krasniqi is a Research Associate at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Her work focuses on climate-induced energy insecurity, utility affordability, and regulatory reform. Her research examines how extreme weather, power outages, and high energy burdens affect historically marginalized communities. She conducts research and coordinates cross-sector convenings to develop policy recommendations that inform grid modernization, emergency response, and utility rate-setting with equity and affordability at the center. Qëndresa also holds a concurrent role at Columbia Climate School’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), where she works on vulnerability metrics, hazard projections, rural disaster risk, and equity-informed emergency planning.
Qëndresa holds a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts in Financial Economics from Methodist University. Previously, she has taught economics and worked on policy analysis and mixed-methods research with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the European Stability Initiative (ESI).
Gautam Jain
Senior Research Scholar
Biography
Dr. Gautam Jain is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He focuses on the role of financial markets and instruments—including thematic bonds, blended finance structures, and carbon markets—in the energy transition, with an emphasis on emerging economies.
Dr. Jain has an extensive background in the financial industry where he covered emerging markets as a portfolio manager and strategist. He has worked at asset management firms and an investment bank, including The Rohatyn Group, Barclays Capital, and Millennium Partners. He has helped manage emerging market local debt and hard-currency bond portfolios, encompassing currencies, interest rate instruments, and sovereign credits. He specialized in portfolio construction and asset allocation incorporating macroeconomic, policy, and political developments in emerging markets.
He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Columbia University. He also has an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a CFA charter holder, a Cornell Emerging Markets Institute Fellow, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank on local currency hedging mechanisms and has previously been one to the United Nations to support a Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance workstream on “Tackling Local Currency Risk”.
He has co-authored publications in the Journal of Derivatives, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Applied Probability, Probability in Engineering and Informational Science, and the International Journal of Production Economics. He has also contributed chapters for the 2020 and 2021 Cornell EMI Annual Reports.
Luisa Palacios
Adjunct Senior Research Scholar
Biography
Luisa Palacios is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), where she also served as Interim Senior Research Director and Managing Director of Energy Transition Finance.
She joined CGEP after a multidisciplinary career in the intersection of energy, finance, and policy. She served as the first Chairwoman of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corporation during a critical period in its history, as it faced significant geopolitical, financial, operational, and legal challenges. As Citgo’s first-ever chairwoman, Palacios also shaped efforts to strengthen corporate governance, ethics, and social responsibility. During that time, she was also President of Citgo Holding and PDV Holding.
Prior to Citgo, Ms. Palacios was a Senior Managing Director and a member of the management committee at Medley Global Advisors, a macroeconomic and energy policy advisory firm based in New York. Earlier in her career, she worked at Barclays Capital as a Director in the emerging markets research department in New York, and as an Economist in the risk department at Société Générale in Paris. She also served as a Senior Economist at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and as a Consultant in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Palacios has a bachelor’s degree from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela), holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and earned a Ph.D. in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Dr. Palacios is an adjunct faculty member at the School of International and Public Affairs, an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University, and a member of the faculty advisory committee of Columbia University’s Santiago Global Center in Chile. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Americas Quarterly and is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Among her international engagements, Dr. Palacios serves on the Steering Committee of the Methane Finance Working Group (MFWG). She previously served as Deputy Chair of the Transition Finance and Investments Working Group of the Sustainable Business COP (Brazil, 2025) and as Deputy Chair of the B20 Finance and Infrastructure Task Force during Brazil’s G20 Presidency. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hudson School.
Dr. Palacios is on the Advisory Board of Flying Rivers, a Latin American investment fund.
The Energy Opportunity Lab brings together experts in energy systems, finance, economic development, social sciences, and international affairs to address energy challenges through an interdisciplinary lens.
The Energy Opportunity Lab draws on expertise from across the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, and works closely with a broad network of external partners to ensure that research findings inform real-world decision-making.
EOL–Domestic
The Energy Opportunity Lab – Domestic examines how energy systems affect affordability, equity, and well-being across the United States.
As electricity demand rises and energy systems undergo significant transformation, millions of households continue to face high energy burdens and difficulty accessing affordable energy services. EOL-Domestic seeks to identify practical policy solutions that improve affordability, strengthen household resilience, and ensure that the benefits and burdens of the energy transition are shared equitably.
Areas of Work
Modernizing Energy Assistance
Community engagement and policy dialogues at city, state, and utility-levels aimed at strengthening energy assistance programs and improving access to support for energy burdened households.
Utility Ratemaking for Affordability and Strategic Partnerships with Utilities
Analysis of how electricity rate structures, infrastructure investments, and utility regulation affect household energy burdens and energy justice. Partnering with regulated utilities to support compliance with state laws regarding disadvantaged communities, community-centered capital planning efforts and durable energy affordability strategies.
Local Government Engagement on Energy Insecurity
Facilitating convenings and peer-to-peer learning among city governments, and researching, conceptualizing, and providing guidance on a range of solutions pathways for addressing household energy insecurity suited to varied state-level enabling environments.
Artificial Intelligence and Energy Affordability
Research on emerging legislative, regulatory, and corporate strategies to improve energy affordability and equity in regions experiencing rapid price increases driven by AI and large loads.
Approach
EOL-Domestic combines rigorous research, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration with policymakers, utilities, legal experts, and community organizations to develop evidence-based solutions that address energy insecurity and improve affordability.
EOL–International
The Energy Opportunity Lab – International examines how energy systems can support economic growth, structural transformation, industrial development, and poverty reduction in emerging markets and developing economies.
The program is founded on a simple premise: there are no energy-rich and income-poor economies. Energy systems are foundational to development, yet many emerging markets face significant constraints, including limited access to finance, technology, infrastructure, and institutional capacity. At the same time, geopolitical fragmentation, fracturing global trade, industrial policy competition, and declining development assistance are reshaping the global energy landscape.
EOL-International seeks to be a leading authority at the intersection of energy policy and economic development. It conducts policy-relevant research, convenes stakeholders, and trains the next generation of practitioners to identify opportunities to expand investment in energy systems essential for growth and poverty reduction.
Areas of Work
Energy Value Chains and Industrial Policy
Research on how energy systems can support industrial upgrading, manufacturing and supply chain development. These include the value chains for critical minerals, petrochemicals, batteries, and other strategic energy industries.
Energy Technology Choices and Partnerships
Analysis of the economic, technological, and geopolitical tradeoffs associated with different energy pathways, including renewables, natural gas, nuclear energy, hydrogen, batteries, and productive-use applications.
Financing Energy Systems and Transitions
Research on mobilizing capital for energy infrastructure, addressing currency risk, financing energy transitions, financing critical minerals projects, and developing new investment mechanisms for emerging markets.
Approach
The program advances its mission through: research and evidence-based analysis, policy dialogue and stakeholder engagement and executive education and capacity building. Its work spans Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets.
City Solutions
Flagship Initiative for EOL-Domestic: City-level Solutions to Energy Insecurity Reduction
With funding from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and in collaboration with Professor Sheila Foster (Columbia Climate School), EOL-Domestic launched an initiative in 2025 entitled, Cities Uniting to Reduce Energy Insecurity (CUREi) to establish a network of cities exploring energy insecurity mitigation strategies. The CUREi project harnesses city-specific competencies by building a focused network of urban centers, starting with three pilot cities – New York City, Denver, and Atlanta.
By tapping into local governance strengths such as access to impacted populations, agile public policy mechanisms, and the ability to integrate data collection and stakeholder engagement, the CUREi initiative is building capacity to address energy insecurity at the city-level by:
- Cultivating a network of urban leaders connected via bi-directional learning opportunities
- Developing evidence-based tools to guide decision-making and local action
- Providing resources and technical assistance to city partners
- Identifying research and pilot project opportunities for future city-academic collaborations
Universal Energy Abundance
Flagship Initiative for EOL-International: High-Level Panel on Universal Energy Abundance
The High-Level Panel on Universal Energy Abundance is a flagship initiative of the Energy Opportunity Lab and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The Panel brings together a distinguished group of global leaders with experience from government, industry, finance, development, and civil society to explore strategies for achieving universal energy abundance and accelerating investment in energy systems that support economic development and human prosperity.
Comprising seventeen senior leaders, including from cabinet-level government roles, chief executive officers, and internationally recognized experts, the Panel will convene on multiple occasions over two years and will examine distinct dimensions of universal energy abundance:
- The development imperative
- Energy technologies
- Energy finance
- Implementation issues: policy and institutions
The Panel’s work will culminate in a set of recommendations that governments, investors, development institutions, philanthropic organizations, infrastructure developers and industry leaders may find useful for facilitating the delivery of affordable, reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy systems worldwide.
Relevant Articles
Energy Insecurity in the United States | Trends, Disparities, and a Widening Crisis: 2024 RECS Update
Fact Sheet
by Diana Hernández • April 29, 2026
Center on Global Energy Policy, Rockefeller Foundation Create New High-Level Panel on Universal Energy Abundance
Panel to be Chaired by Former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet Top Energy, Finance, Industry, Philanthropy, and Government Leaders to Examine Pathways to Drive Energy Development in Low-...
Announcement
• April 14, 2026
Rajiv Shah on Advancing Universal Abundant Energy Access
Energy abundance means different things in today’s global context than it did even a decade ago. It is about expanding electricity access while meeting rising energy demand. It...
