Cosponsors: Columbia University Sustainability Management (SPS) and MPA in Enviro Sci and Policy (SIPA)

On Tuesday, October 29, Columbia University School of Professional Studies’ Sustainability Management MS program hosted the panel “Transitioning to Renewable Energy: From Theory to Implementation,” featuring insights to unlocking the future of renewable energy from industry innovators and start-up founders Frank Reig, CEO and Co-Founder of Revel Transit, and Jeffrey Prosserman, CEO and Co-Founder of Voltpost, both of whom are Columbia alums.

Revel is a Brooklyn-based electric mobility and infrastructure company whose mission is to “accelerate EV adoption in America’s densest cities.” New York is the first city to require its rideshare industry to go electric by 2030, but there are challenges inherent in transitioning to EVs in cities, where expanding charging infrastructure comes with a high price tag. Revel started out with shared electric mopeds in 2018 and has since grown into NYC’s biggest public fast-charging network, operating the city’s first all-electric, all-employee rideshare service. Access to energy is a huge obstacle facing his company today, Reig said, because the process of obtaining electricity from the grid to power the Revel fleet is on a five to seven year timeline. Reig champions a regulation to accelerate public charging network buildout by allowing public charging companies to receive priority in grid interconnection queues.   

The mission of Voltpost, founded in 2021, is to “decarbonize mobility by democratizing charging access,” with headquarters in NYC and San Francisco. Voltpost retrofits lamp posts into Level 2 public integrated electric vehicle charging platforms. The lamp posts host two to four chargers each and are 100 MW, and Voltpost is working on upgrading them to 240 MW. The advantages of this model are myriad: there is virtually no construction involved, curb space isn’t compromised, and the module can be installed in under an hour, reducing costs by up to 85% compared to standalone chargers. There is also circularity built in to this modular approach, as all parts are reclaimed by Voltpost at the end of their useful life, echoing MAC Global’s interest in waste-to-value. When asked about how to take public charging to the next level, Prosserman shared his vision of imitating the telecom industry’s utility franchise model to advance public charging grid interconnection from pilots to a streamlined program. In fact, Prosserman talked about integrating Voltpost’s lamp post infrastructure with the 5G network through innovative partnerships. 

Ultimately, both speakers agreed that expanding into energy management is the macro opportunity for their businesses, deferring costly grid upgrades, stabilizing the grid, and lowering energy costs. Reig dreams of Revel being an early adopter of V2G (vehicle to grid): this would entail electrifying every vehicle in NYC and feeding them into the grid, which he claimed could power the whole city. Most V2G bidirectional chargers are Level 2, however, which Reig argued is too slow for the purposes of grid interconnection. There is the additional challenge of working out new tariff models with utilities for compensating charging operators and/or vehicle owners for the energy they give back to the grid. 

In the near future, Reig hopes to incorporate a 1-2 MW battery into each charger. He reiterated that startups have to be cautious about adding new revenue streams, because the startup business model is all about speed, and each new feature – including battery storage – is an added cost. Oftentimes, this means that the economics of a project and its potential social or public benefits are at odds (for example, one side of the street falls within the boundaries of a census tract eligible for tax credits, but the other side does not). Once again, Reig stressed that these disharmonies can be resolved through more sensible policy-making. 

Revel is on track to open 200 new charging stalls next year, and Voltpost is collaborating with NYC DOT toward 10,000 curbside chargers by 2030.