Lena Hansen is the Managing Director of Rocky Mountain Institute’s China Program, based in Beijing, where she leads a team of 20 to advise and support China’s energy transition in the areas of power market reform, city carbon peaking, near-zero carbon development, and freight electrification. She has 15 years of experience developing, testing, and implementing innovative efficiency and clean energy solutions.
Prior to joining the China program, Lena led RMI’s US electricity program, where she focused on electric utility business models and the integration of renewable and distributed energy resources into the grid. She co-founded RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (e–Lab), a unique multi-year collaboration of leading power sector decision-makers to create transformational solutions, and led RMI’s collaboration with the New York Public Service Commission on its industry-leading reform initiative “Reforming the Energy Vision.” Lena co-authored RMI’s 2011 book Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for a New Energy Era, a roadmap for an economic transition to a low-carbon system in the US.
Education and Awards
- Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
- Master of Environmental Management in Economics & Policy, Duke University
- Certificate in Energy & Environment, Duke University
- BA, Physics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Blog posts and Thought Leadership
9 Hot Topics in Carbon Reduction and the Energy Industry in China in 2017, Part 1
9 Hot Topics in Carbon Reduction and the Energy Industry in China in 2017, Part 2
Reforming the Energy Vision: Leveraging Distributed Resources to Drive System Efficiency
Updated March 2020.