Sara Baldwin
Senior Director, Electrification
Sara is the Senior Director, Electrification at Energy Innovation, where she leads the firm’s electrification policy practice area to advance economy-wide decarbonization through the strategic electrification of buildings, transportation, and industry. She and her team provide policy analysis, thought leadership, and original research to support policymakers and decision-makers at the federal, state, and local levels.
Sara has testified before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, served as faculty for the Center for a New Energy Economy’s Clean Energy Legislative Academy, and served on panels and delivered presentations for various events, including those convened by the National Council on Electricity Policy, the National Academies of Sciences, the G20 Transportation Task Force, the California Energy Commission, American University, the University of Utah, and Northwestern University. She has been featured in and quoted in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Politico, Bloomberg, Grist, Forbes, Quartz, E&E News, the Salt Lake Tribune, Utility Dive, Automotive News, and Family Handyman magazine. In partnership with colleagues and partner organizations, Sara has contributed to several landmark reports on the Inflation Reduction Act, hydrogen, electrified transportation, electric vehicle charging access, and clean energy deployment.
Prior to joining Energy Innovation, Sara served as Vice President of Regulatory for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) and Senior Policy Associate for Utah Clean Energy. In both capacities, she led and coordinated efforts to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency policy and regulations in Utah, the West, and throughout the United States. She served on the Technical Team for the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Solar Market Pathways Initiative and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Distributed Generation Interconnection Collaborative Advisory Committee. She was named an “Innovator and Influencer” by Solar Power World (2017) and one of “Utah’s Enlightened 50″ by the Community Foundation of Utah (2012). Several projects under her direction have received awards and recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and Utah Business magazine. She also spearheaded Utah’s first Wind for Schools projects and Community Solar Bulk Purchase campaigns.
Sara is a member of GridLab’s advisory board, host of Energy Innovation’s Electrify This! podcast, and former host of the Grid Geeks podcast. She earned her Honors B.S. in environmental studies and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Utah, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.