Former Breakthrough Energy leaders have launched CleanEcon to make clean energy central to US economic growth
The initiative focuses on enabling faster energy project construction, reducing costs through innovation, and derisking investment
CleanEcon says it aims to connect startups, policymakers, and investors to modernize America’s energy system for future demands
A group of former Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy leaders has launched the Clean Economy Project (CleanEcon), a new national initiative that they say aims to make clean energy the ‘engine’ of US growth and innovation.
Led by President Aliya Haq, former head of US Policy and Advocacy at Breakthrough Energy, CleanEcon brings together a 10-member team from the Breakthrough Energy policy program with backgrounds in government, startups, advocacy, and philanthropy.
The founders of CleanEcon say America’s outdated energy systems are unable to meet the surging power needs driven by artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and data centers. Rising costs, aging infrastructure, and legacy regulations threaten the country’s economic expansion.
“America’s economic edge will be built or lost on energy. We built the grid that powered the industrial age. To lead in the next century, we need a system built not for the past, but for the speed, scale, and complexity of what comes next. Energy is the oxygen of modern industry – essential, invisible, and too often taken for granted until it runs short,” said Haq.
CleanEcon seeks to position clean energy as the most affordable, reliable, and rapid pathway to power America’s future. The nonprofit’s policy agenda focuses on 3 core areas: enabling faster construction of energy projects, accelerating innovation to reduce costs, and derisking private investment to scale new industries by working at the ‘intersection’ of policy, politics, and the private sector.
Through its 3 ‘vehicles’, namely Innovation Policy Hub, Energy Momentum, and Innovation Initiative, CleanEcon said it will tackle different barriers to bring in new ideas, infrastructure, and smarter connections between innovation and policy.
It will support cleantech startups and innovators to engage with policymakers and boost commercialization at scale, create political space for clean energy growth through campaign-style engagement, push for market changes, and advance clean firm energy policies.
“The Clean Economy Project is tackling the energy challenges that limit growth,” said the CEO of the Clean Energy Buyers Association and a CleanEcon board member, Rich Powell. “Businesses across sectors want more clean energy options, and CleanEcon is helping remove barriers to make that possible.”
CleanEcon team claims its work at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) helped influence landmark legislations like the Energy Act of 2020, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
BEV was founded in 2015 to finance, launch, and scale companies that work to reduce GHG emissions globally. However, earlier this year, the organization reportedly let go of its energy policy team as BEV felt it couldn’t make inroads with the US administration under Trump 2.0 with regard to clean energy, according to The New York Times.
Since taking office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump has largely deprioritized clean energy, while scaling back climate initiatives. He has curbed federal support for renewables, while expanding fossil fuels (see Trump Signs Executive Order To End Green Energy Subsidies).
