These high-energy young entrepreneurs are innovating new methods to unlock a cleaner, greener future.
By Hank Tucker, Chris Helman and Igor Bosilkovski
Solar energy capacity has grown exponentially in the last decade as one of the leading catalysts of the green revolution away from fossil fuels, but a drawback of solar farms is that they can only generate energy in daylight. Ben Nowack is challenging this basic law of nature by selling “sunlight as a service” at all hours.
Nowack, 28, and his Reflect Orbital cofounder Tristan Semmelhack, 23, have raised $8.7 million from prestigious investors including Sequoia Capital to develop what seems like a fantastical idea of launching a set of mirrored satellites into space to reflect sunlight onto solar farms at night. Last year, they launched a hot air balloon outfitted with a reflective mylar panel to beam sunlight onto a set of solar panels in the Nevada desert in a small-scale proof of concept—the next step is commercializing it.
Tim Tadder for Forbes
“Solar is a great way to make power, until the sun goes down.” says Nowack. “The shadow of the earth is the biggest dam ever, holding back more energy than we could ever use, and all we have to do to access it is put some satellites up there.”
Nowack, a former SpaceX propulsion engineering intern, isn’t alone in testing the limits of physics in an effort to accelerate the fight against climate change. This year’s 30 Under 30 list in Energy and Green Tech includes dozens of creative innovators advancing new battery technologies, reducing waste, removing carbon and harmful materials from the atmosphere and keeping the U.S. at the forefront of renewable energy solutions. The 30 Under 30 list recognizes founders and trail blazers aged 29 or younger as of December 31, 2024, who have never before been named to a North America, Europe or Asia 30 Under 30 list.
Many on this year’s list are finding new ways to produce batteries, which is critical to keep up with the proliferation of electric vehicles and transition away from other high-emission processes. Julia Lamb, 29, is the head of cathode research and development at Bedrock Materials attempting to capitalize on the abundance and low-cost sodium compared with lithium to make sodium-ion batteries. Haylon Technologies cofounders Namin Shah, 24, Raj Lulla, 24, and Dante Vaisbort, 25, are developing high-performance batteries and have landed contracts worth millions, including one to prototype a quadcopter for the U.S. Air Force.
Stanford PhD Zhiao Yu, 29, is the cofounder and CTO of Feon Energy, which closed a $6 million seed round in June to create new electrolyte molecules to improve battery performance and efficiency. And KaLeigh Long, 29, is a well-connected former conservative political fundraiser who has raised $60 million to build America’s first major nickel refinery in Oklahoma. Long became inspired to help reduce dependence on China for key battery materials after working with Congolese activists and witnessing labor abuses in the cobalt mining industry.
Donald Trump’s election was seen as a blow to the climate movement, and he has promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and end what he terms the “green new scam” of giving hundreds of billions in tax credits and subsidies to renewable projects. But there are still plenty of reasons for optimism, and if there is less money flowing, efficiency will be paramount, particularly with Elon Musk joining Trump’s inner circle.
Mohammad Alkhadra, 29, is at the forefront of lowering the cost of lithium extraction as the cofounder and CEO of Lithios, which just closed a $10 million seed round to advance its efforts to selectively capture lithium from brine deposits, or salty water. Other honorees are pioneering methods of finding treasure from waste too, like Adam Uliana, 29, whose ChemFinity Technologies is using proprietary filters acting as tiny sponges to recover minerals like platinum from spent catalytic converters or copper from solar panels that would otherwise be destined for landfills.
The youngest members of the list are Ankit Singhai, 20, Vignesh Karthik, 20, and Connor Lee, 21, who dropped out of Columbia to start Anthrogen, a Y Combinator-backed company that raised $4 million in November. Their startup is developing genetically modified bacteria and AI-designed enzymes that they hope will be able to turn carbon from the air into cheap polymers like jet fuel.
Following a public nomination process, strong candidates are vetted by Forbes editors and judged by a panel of industry leaders. The expert judges for this year’s Energy and Green Tech list were Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDP Renewables North America; Alfredo Marti, cofounder and partner at Sandbrook Capital; and Troy Demmer, a former 30 Under 30 honoree and the chief product officer of Gecko Robotics.
This year’s list was edited by Chris Helman, Igor Bosilkovski and Hank Tucker. For a link to our complete Energy and Green Tech list, click here, and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.
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