Financing the Energy Transition: Insights from Charlie Donovan

As the energy transition advances, clean energy finance is evolving in parallel — offering new opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers alike. 

For Charlie Donovan, Clinical Professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and faculty member in the Master of Energy Transition (MET) degree program, the sector's biggest technological challenges present compelling investment opportunities. 

"Technology has solved the problem of how to produce clean energy affordably, but we haven't solved the problem of getting it to consumers efficiently. The grid is the constraint," Donovan says. "Entrepreneurs are building new ways of connecting. There is an unbelievable amount of innovation in this area, especially in connecting homes and commercial facilities to distributed energy resources [DERs], such as solar and batteries."

Donovan notes that this moment is exciting not only for business innovators but also for consumers, who stand to gain greater energy independence.

"Through the clean energy revolution, consumers have an opportunity to be producers as well," says Donovan, referring to how households can supply energy from their DERs to the grid. "There are many people who are not concerned about climate change but see the potential to reduce costs and reclaim a sense of independence over their energy supply — it's about having more control and more choice going forward."

Building financial fluency for the energy transition

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Master of Energy Transition classes are held in the Institute's Call to Lead Lab.

In the spring term, Donovan is teaching Finance & Accounting for the Energy Transition (ENTR 180), where MET students build a foundational understanding of valuation, investment theory, and corporate finance in the context of rapidly evolving energy systems.

Donovan's course in the MET program — offered through Dartmouth's Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies — synthesizes a broad range of financial concepts into a single, accessible foundation. As a former investor in the clean energy sector, he aims to ensure that students develop the practical skills needed to move energy projects from concept to execution.

"We are immediately applying tools to big questions when it comes to energy finance," Donovan notes. 

As a core business course in the MET curriculum, ENTR 180 prepares students to advance energy projects across roles in policy, technology, and communications. For those pursuing careers directly in finance, it provides the grounding needed to engage more deeply with more specialized topics.

"Being conversant in financial language, which sometimes seems like a foreign language, is the key to unlocking understanding," Donovan says. "Everyone needs to understand how investors in the private sector make decisions. You have to be able to converse with people on the other side of the table."

Alongside investment risk analysis and project financing, students will explore emerging financial innovations shaping the next generation of financial products & services, and the institutions accelerating the energy transition. 

Encouraging innovation through strategy and market insight

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Charlie Donovan, Clinical Professor at the Tuck School of Business, teaching in the 2025 TuckLAB: Energy program.

Donovan's work at Dartmouth bridges foundational knowledge and strategic application across undergraduate and graduate education. At Tuck, Donovan teaches courses focused on business and climate change, and financing clean energy.  

"Every senior manager needs to have a basic level of awareness about the financial impacts of climate change on business and the economic risks of a delayed transition away from fossil fuels," Donovan notes. "These are huge trends shaping business."

Donovan also serves as an instructor in TuckLAB: Energy, an annual week-long immersive program for undergraduates held in partnership with Tuck and the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society. In the Business Model Innovation in Energy module, Donovan guides students in thinking critically about entrepreneurship and strategy in the energy sector.

"We often think of entrepreneurship and innovation as having a new idea of inventing something," Donovan says. "While there is room for basic invention, a lot of times what constitutes innovation is a shift in how companies do what they do — not what they do."

Capping off TuckLAB: Energy in 2025, students developed conceptual business models and presented solutions to real-world energy challenges. Social entrepreneurship emerged as a key theme, with projects incorporating energy security, policy, environmental benefits, and community empowerment.

A practitioner's view on energy finance: A look back & look ahead 

Prior to joining Dartmouth, Donovan held leadership roles across the private sector and academia. He is also the co-author and editor of Renewable Energy Finance: Powering the Future, which offers an insider's perspective on financing renewable energy projects.

"In 2015, the general reputation for renewable energy wasn't accurate. The book gave industry practitioners — in private equity, banking, and corporates — a platform to describe the sector in terms of risk and financial return," Donovan shares. "For capital providers, renewable energy is a massive global growth opportunity." He is currently writing a new business book on solar energy, scheduled for release next year.  

Donovan's perspective on energy finance is rooted in his early experience in policy. He began his career as an energy policy analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration, where he supported climate change negotiations, as well as programs supporting business adoption of solar energy and electric vehicles.

"It was a window into the constraints that all governments face," Donovan says. "It was also an opportunity to see fairly early the big trends that were likely to shape the economy going forward."

Building on this policy foundation, Donovan moved into the private sector. At BP, Donovan served as head of structuring and valuation, helping launch a low-carbon power company as part of BP's broader business strategy. The effort was ultimately curtailed following the 2008 financial crisis, which reduced oil prices and dampened interest in renewable power.

"The oil and gas industry is still trying to find its role in a low-carbon energy future," Donovan observes. "Oil and gas majors sell molecules — coal, oil, natural gas. But the world going forward increasingly wants electrons — electricity to power air conditioning, cars, and data centers. It's a strategic challenge that cuts to the core of who they are as companies."

This intersection of markets, strategy, and long-term risk led Donovan into academia. At Imperial College London, he served as the founding executive director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, helping to advance research at a time when climate risk was becoming more central to financial decision-making.

"We were at an incredible moment of change, particularly in the UK and Europe, with respect to awareness of climate as a financial risk," Donovan recalls. "People were looking for more genuine and rigorous research in how climate manifests as a financial risk to firms." 
 
From there, Donovan returned to the investment world, applying these insights in practice as a principal economist at Impax Asset Management, a sustainability-focused investment firm.

"There is a transition that's occurring to a more sustainable economy — not just in energy but in water, food, transportation, and beyond," Donovan notes. "The firm was founded on the premise that investors will earn superior returns by aligning themselves with technological themes."

Reflecting on his experience in clean energy finance and higher education, Donovan sees growing momentum in the energy transition — particularly among students eager to shape a more sustainable future.

"At every level we see the direction of where things are going," Donovan says. "There is increasing excitement among young professionals who want to be senior leaders in the global economy, and who have no doubt as to the trajectory of where technology is leading us."

By bringing his experience as a clean energy finance practitioner into the classroom, Donovan equips MET students with the tools, strategic perspective, and fluency needed to step into leadership roles and move real energy projects forward.