Business Development Manager, Green Hydrogen | Avangrid Renewables
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Lindsay Ashby Devonas has worked on the project M&A team at Avangrid Renewables, on the Origination team at Clearway Energy Group, in the Maryland Legislature, and as a United Nations representative with the International Council of Women. She worked with Form Energy on her master’s thesis comparing long-duration storage and green hydrogen (electrolysis-based) technologies. She was an Atlantic Council Emerging Leader in Environmental and Energy Policy Fellow in 2015 and is a Yale Center for Business and the Environment “Financing and Deploying Clean Energy” ’23-’24 certificate candidate. She has moderated head-of-state-level economic development forums at the United Nations and in Hong Kong. She received a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar candidate.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I’m part of a nascent industry in the U.S. that’s at a tipping point. Policies and guidelines issued this year will likely determine whether the industry achieves market liftoff or whether only a few lucky projects will make it. I love picking apart arguments and studies that cherry-pick data, pointing out logical flaws, pinpointing what information really matters to stakeholders, and ultimately creating and pushing the evidence needed through our projects to make sure this industry succeeds. This includes triangulating customer willingness to pay, internal rate of return metrics, and accounting for all the competitive moving pieces of various projects to arrive at the right policy recommendations.
What advice would you give to young women looking to succeed in your field?
Find your passion. It’s more than a mere platitude. I spent a summer early in my career pursuing my interests in New York City and found the energy sector, which sits at the intersection of all my interests. It underpins foreign policy, aids U.S. energy independence and security, has robust and evolving market dynamics, attracts the latest in technological inventions, and can help clean the air by harnessing natural resources like wind and solar energy. My nerdy, endless fascination for the sector propelled me to dive into podcasts and online certificates, attend lectures, complete a master’s degree and learn everything I could to land my current dream job at one of the top U.S. renewable developers. Pay attention to the issues that executives and stakeholders in the field care about (like basis risk and what makes a competitive project), and you’ll be prepared to both interview well and focus on what matters the most in this exciting field. Finally, look outside the box. There are jobs out there that pay well, are incredibly fulfilling, have great team dynamics and allow you to achieve the right work-life balance. To Main Page