{"id":363832,"date":"2017-03-21T02:30:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=363832"},"modified":"2017-03-21T02:30:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:30:22","slug":"elena-lucas","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/elena-lucas\/","title":{"rendered":"Utilities keep solar companies in the dark. Elena Lucas brings energy data into the light."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"g50-profile__stats-block profile__stats-block--profile-363832 \">Cofounder &amp; CEO, UtilityAPI<br \/>\nSan Francisco, California<br \/>\nAge: 28<\/aside>\n<p>Behind the business of energy production, there are a lot of numbers. Usage data is essential to solar companies who are trying to figure out how to work in a given region &#8212; but it\u2019s often hidden away in the outmoded databases of individual utility companies who aren\u2019t in the business of accessible data storage.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a year after kicking off her clean-energy career as a low-level analyst at PG&amp;E, Elena Lucas decided she wanted to tackle that problem head-on. She cofounded the Bay area\u2013startup UtilityAPI in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote share=&#8221;true&#8221; hashtag=&#8221;Grist50&#8243;]\u201cWe&#8217;re the data infrastructure for the new energy economy.&#8221; [\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>UtilityAPI wrangles the data and delivers to the companies who need it &#8212; and in doing so, it has brought the cost of installing solar panels down by 5 to 10 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Lucas is also working to to make her company &#8212; and tech culture at large &#8212; more welcoming to women. Nearly half of UtilityAPI\u2019s employees are women, most in executive positions. \u201cI think it\u2019s really different than a lot of other companies in the Bay Area,\u201d Lucas says, \u201cand I\u2019m so proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This entrepreneur helps the solar industry compete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57007830,"featured_media":490292,"menu_order":28,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-363832","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-economy","grist-50-energy","grist-50-13"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Utilities keep solar companies in the dark. 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