Register today for the 4th seminar of the ESE Fall 2026 Seminar Series: The Janak Raj Lectures. This seminar is available online only via Zoom. 

TITLE: "The Real Dealbreaker in the Energy Transition: Why Bankability, Not Technology, Decides What Gets Built."

Presented by: Luke Killam, Co-Founder & CEO, GreenKey Energy

REGISTER HERE

TIME: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Eastern Time 
LOCATION - ZOOM MEETING link to be sent prior to the seminar date
CONTACT US: inesei@lehigh.edu  

ABSTRACT: When people discuss the energy transition, they often assume the hard part is engineering. Usually, it isn't. Technologies that work, at costs that compete, routinely go unbuilt, while less elegant alternatives reach commercial operation. What gets built is ultimately determined by bankability: whether a project's revenues are sufficiently contracted, its risks are allocated to parties capable of carrying them, and its returns clear the cost of the capital available to it.
This talk examines how that test operates in practice, drawing on two decades in global energy development, including running a development funnel that spanned more than 35 GW and over $1 billion of annual capital allocation.
It looks at the capital-markets gap facing first-of-a-kind projects, which are often too large for venture capital yet too unproven for conventional project finance. It also explores how a more efficient solar module can lose to a less efficient one with a stronger balance sheet behind its warranty; why policy decisions about what a battery is permitted to do determine what it can earn, and therefore what gets financed; and why grid operators facing record interconnection queues are increasingly asking which projects are financeable enough to justify scarce grid capacity.
The session closes with what this means in practice: the design and development choices that create or destroy bankability, how to set honest expectations for projects, and why fluency in the language of lenders is becoming as valuable as technical depth.

BIO:  Luke Killam is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GreenKey Energy, an independent energy consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta. He has spent more than twenty years in global energy, across both conventional and renewable sectors.
Most recently he was Shell's Global Development Funnel Manager for Onshore Renewable Power. In that role he was responsible for a development portfolio exceeding 35 GW and more than a billion dollars in annual capital allocation. Earlier roles included Chief of Staff for Onshore Renewable Power, Offshore Operations Manager in Qatar, and operations leadership at Shell Albian Sands in Fort McMurray.
He holds a TRIUM Global Executive MBA, delivered jointly by NYU Stern, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris. He writes regularly on energy development, project finance, and energy policy.

Come join us for this seminar!