Sanjna Malpani

Sanjna Malpani has spent the past couple of years working at cutting-edge energy software companies that focus on grid modernization and DERs (primarily energy storage). She has also helped build one of the world's largest Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) with AMS. Prior to this, she worked on Product Strategy at Geli, another VC-backed DER software company.

Outside of her current day job, she manages a network of 200+ clean energy professionals in the Bay Area where I am Alumni Manager with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) - a non-profit that provides a training program and mentorship opportunities for exceptional leaders in the field of renewables. She is also a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum in the San Francisco Hub.

She graduated with a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale FES in 2017, where she focused on energy policy and finance and . At CBEY, Sanjna wrote for the Clean Energy Finance Forum and served on the entrepreneurship team as a liaison between the School of Forestry and other entrepreneurial activities on campus. She also served as a OneEnergy Scholar as one of the six graduate students chosen from a pool of applicants across the U.S for their dedication to advancing the field of renewables. 

At the age of 19, she founded and ran a social venture known as “Jal Jyoti” (meaning water-light in Hindi), which provides cost and energy-efficient lighting solutions to densely packed urban slums in Mumbai using Alfredo Moser’s “Bottled Light” concept. The organization has lit over 130 homes in various slums across the city, and has lead to an annual average saving of Rs. 2500 per household. Jal Jyoti has also won two international awards, including the Walmart Women’s Empowerment grant. 

Sanjna spent one year in Madrid on scholarship where she studied business administration at ICADE – Comillas Pontificial University (and attempted to learn Spanish). She also gave a TEDx talk at TEDxUPComillas about her journey through the Mumbai slums. Her interests lie in redeveloping urban slum areas using solar energy. She has also spent some time in China, researching the potential of third party financing for renewable distributed generation. She graduated with distinction from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai with a degree in Life Science and Biochemistry.