Employee Profile: Peter Kuhn
RENEW’s Employee Profile series highlights our team members who make us great. This month we interviewed our intelligent and hardworking Project Engineer, Peter Kuhn.
Q: How long have you worked for RENEW Energy Partners?
A: Since June 2023
Q: What sort of work do you do for the company?
A: I work with the business development team to create initial financial models so that we can explore viable options to maximize customer value and decarbonization potential. I also work with the engineering side of the house on projects that are further down the pipeline.
Q: Where are you from? What is one aspect that you enjoyed about the place where you grew up?
A: I grew up in Asheville, NC. While it’s currently famous for flooding, back in 2000, we got a write-up in Rolling Stoneabout a guy known around town for hanging out wearing nothing but a thong. He ran for mayor on a platform of legalizing marijuana, which gives you an idea of the kind of place it was back then.
Q: What activities/hobbies do you enjoy in your daily life? How do you relax?
A: I like racing bicycles of all kinds, and occasionally doing triathlons—although I generally consider running to be a bad idea. I also enjoy rejuvenating old European cars that probably don’t deserve it.
Q: Have you ever worked in another field? What was it, and why?
A: I walked dogs and cleaned cat cages when I was a kid because my parents were veterinarians, and the commute and pay were decent. It beat working retail.
Q: What is one fun fact about you?
A: I have two of the world’s loudest children.
Q: Why is sustainability/decarbonization important to you? How did you get started in this career/field?
A: A large part of my network after grad school was involved in clean energy companies. I think that climate change is the most challenging issue of our time and something that must be solved if we want to ensure a bright future for our kids, future generations, and the non-Americans of the world.
Q: What sustainability practices have you seen that have surprised and/or excited you?
A: I think some of the most interesting green energy ideas are also some of the simplest. For example, there’s a company building an energy storage facility in China that’s just a massive building full of weights. When they want to store energy, they pick up the weights. When they want to release it to the grid, they put them down again.
Q: Why do you choose to work with RENEW?
A: I believe in the mission, but the best reason to work here is the people and the culture, which have a big impact on how fulfilling it is to go to work every day.
Q: What are you most excited about for the future of the energy industry?
A: There seems to be an increasing amount of political will to solve the problems that are facing us. Technologically we seem to be making a lot of progress, but that only helps if we have the will to implement it.
To be continued next month. We are lucky to be growing our team with exemplary individuals. The previous RENEW employee profile featured John Luleich.
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