On Monday, February 10, student finalists from across disciplines came together on the opening day of Energy Week at Penn to share energy-related research during the annual Lightening Talks. Among the undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral student presenters was Master of Environmental Studies student Gwendolyn K. Cochran.
Gwen is the 2024 Kleinman Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA) Fellow at the Philadelphia Green Capital Corps. She incorporated her summer fellowship research into her eight-minute Lightening Talk entitled An Exploration of Solar Access: How Can Tenants Benefit from Solar Financing Policies? In her presentation, she discussed the environmental and financial benefits of residential solar energy adoption, inequities in current solar financing policies, which favor homeowners over tenants, and ways to encourage equitable solar access for all US households.
As part of her fellowship, Gwen has had the chance to publish her research in written form. The Lightening Talks, she says, served as an opportunity to share her work in a new way. “It was really exciting to get to try and distill my work into a digestible, eight-minute talk,” she shares. “I feel like that's a whole other skill set.”
Fellow presenters covered sustainable energy topics including artificial photosynthesis, nitrogen-based fuel, food waste reduction, and energy-efficient optoelectronics.
Gwen, who will be graduating this May, came to the MES program to expand on her professional interests in sustainably energy and economic development. She chose the Environmental Policy concentration and has taken advantage of the energy management and policy graduate courses offered by Penn’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy to build her curriculum. “Penn has offered me the opportunity to really get in the weeds on policy and carbon emission reductions at a technical level,” she says.
You can view all the 2025 Lightning Talk presentations at the Kleinman Center's website. Gwen’s full research publication can also be found on their site.
The 2025 Energy Week at Penn takes place February 10-14 and includes energy-focused activities across campus.
Lightning Talks are co-hosted by the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
