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Danny Kennedy

Senior Advisor at The Sunrise Project

Oakland, California

Overview 

Danny Kennedy, based in Oakland, California, is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with a strong focus on clean energy and sustainability. He has held key roles such as Managing Director at CALCEF Ventures and Cofounder at Powerhouse, contributing significantly to the growth and development of various clean energy startups. Danny has also been a Venture Partner at New Energy Nexus, showcasing his expertise in fostering innovative energy technologies and supporting early-stage ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Work Experience 

  • Senior Advisor

    2024 - Current

    Sunrise is a strategic re-granting organisation that supports global networks of organisations to collaborate to drive the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

  • Director

    2025

    I am honoured to have been elected to the Strategy Board of the Global Solar Council at this inflection point in history as the world moves to run on sunshine. We need an industry association up for the task! That’s where the Global Solar Council (GSC) comes in. As the unified voice of the global solar PV and battery sector, GSC brings together national and regional solar associations, industry leaders, and policymakers to accelerate a just, inclusive energy transition. 🔆 We advocate for policies that put solar at the heart of climate strategies. 🔆 We connect markets, enabling shared expertise and collective momentum. 🔆 We raise standards to ensure quality, sustainability, and long-term impact. 🔆 And we support emerging economies in unlocking solar's full potential. At GSC, we strongly believe that solar power has much yet to offer — if we unite to unlock its potential.

  • Senior Adviser

    2024

    Wollemi Capital exists to accelerate climate innovation, investment and action. See Wollemi.com

  • Venture Partner

    2024

    Working with our amazing SE Asian teams to bring early stage catalytic capital to entrepreneurs that need it most in the fight to slow climate change in a key market.

  • Chief Energy Officer

    2019 - 2024

    I was grateful to handover to Henri van Eeghen on the first of the month for a very smooth transition. I cannot wait to see how he and team evolve NEX to achieve its mighty mission and support 100,000 diverse entrepreneurs in the energy transition.

New Energy Nexus is an international organization that supports clean energy entrepreneurs with funds.

  • Unreasonable Mentor

    2022

    Unreasonable focuses on scaling what works. The Unreasonable community of entrepreneurs is shaping trillion-dollar industries and uplifting the lives of more than 1.4 billion people. They handpick and privately invite the world's most impactful growth-stage companies into the Unreasonable Fellowship. As an Unreasonable Mentor, I get the incredible opportunity to help scale the efforts of these history-defining ventures.

Unreasonable builds community between entrepreneurs, institutions, and investors to profitably solve pressing global problems.

  • Managing Director

    2015 - 2024

    CalCEF’s team of leading financial professionals, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and scientists believes that a new model of entrepreneurship and financial innovation in the public interest is required to speed the transition to a clean energy economy. We curate an ecosystem to optimise the energy transition.

The California Clean Energy Fund supports the ecosystem of entrepreneurs and investors making the clean energy transition a reality.

Raised $10,999,701.00 from California Energy Commission.

  • President

    2015 - 2023

    CalCharge was a public private partnership we ran for a decade to boost battery startups in the energy innovation ecosystem of the golden state. After a decade of success' we started to globalize the work, with our Just Batteries initiative, and decided to wind down this organization. Li costs are around $107 kwh and the IRA is putting billions into the industry, Lithium Valley stemming from Imperial County is becoming a reality and some of our little startups like Cuberg have exited and are building big factories. It feels good to claim victory and move on to what's NEX!

  • Member of the California 100 Commission

    2021 - 2023

  • Founding Board Chair

    2020 - 2023

    A joint venture of RMI and New Energy Nexus, Third Derivative is a new vertically-integrated engine for climate innovation. We find, fund, hone, and scale the world’s most-promising technologies to achieve larger, faster reductions in global carbon emissions.

Third Derivative is an accelerator focused on clean energy and climate tech.

  • Cofounder

    2012 - 2023

    Powerhouse is an innovation firm and venture fund. The firm partners with corporations and investors to help them find and engage with cutting-edge startups, tap into proprietary market insights, and lead the next century of clean technology innovation. The fund, Powerhouse Ventures, identifies and supports founding teams building innovative software to rapidly transform our global energy and mobility systems.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems.

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