Internship Spotlight: Saskia Rohde ’25, Broadscale Group
A summer internship with a venture capital firm investing in renewable energy technologies taught Saskia Rohde ’25 the meaning of “disruption for good.”
We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they applied the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Internship: Broadscale Group, New York City
Pronouns: she/her/hers
The SOM classes you’re using on the job: Renewable Energy Project Finance, Innovator, Sustainable Business Capstone Consulting Clinic
Go-to work lunch: Inday in Midtown
After-work routine: Run (or walk) around the Central Park Reservoir
Favorite thing about New York City: Seeing other Yalies in the city
Having worked in renewable energy consulting before coming to SOM, I became interested in enabling the development of emerging climate technologies. Through my work, I gained experience advising on virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs), contracts in which large organizations can purchase renewable energy from a specific solar or wind project. These agreements have significant impact, but they’re only a piece of the renewable energy equation. I noticed that corporate “offtakers,” or buyers, were becoming increasingly focused on holistic decarbonization, including renewable fuels and thermal electrification. Through SOM, I hoped to transition to a career in climate tech venture capital, where I could finance and scale solutions in sectors which are more difficult to decarbonize. Broadscale Group’s mission of “disruption for good” aligned with my goal.
Broadscale’s work scaling low-carbon solutions solutions allowed me to leverage my thinking around solar offtake and apply that to "first-of-a-kind" climate technologies, including green molecules and carbon capture. To supplement my consulting background, I took Renewable Energy Project Finance, a joint class offered by SOM and Yale School of the Environment. Throughout the class, Professor Dan Gross assigned contracting and modeling exercises to evaluate an example VPPA project. I could not have predicted then how well a knowledge of VPPAs would serve me in my current internship. VPPAs have become the norm in the renewable power sector and are often referenced across commodities; in essence, they are a method of promising to sell something in advance and leveraging that guaranteed revenue stream to access upfront investment. Many years of development have established such structures in the electricity sector, and the technologies that follow suit can capitalize on this model.
At Broadscale, I enjoyed attending meetings with industry leaders and entrepreneurs to discuss their challenges in building and deploying those first-of-a-kind technologies. I conducted market research on multiple unfamiliar products, from methane detectors to sodium ion batteries. For these projects, I drew on SOM’s Innovator class, which prepared me to listen to startup pitches and brainstorm the right questions. Professor Tristan Botelho applied a hands-on approach by asking students to invent a business idea, which allowed me to think from an entrepreneurial perspective. A foundation in entrepreneurship was crucial, since venture capital requires believing in a founder’s potential as much as the technology itself.
During my internship, I also prepared a research report on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). My introduction to SAF began at Yale when I spoke with Perry Bakas ’24 and Harrison Meyer ’24, the founders of the carbon conversion company Oxylus Energy. I ended up consulting for their startup through the Sustainable Business Capstone Consulting Clinic (SBCCC), a class taught by Peter Boyd which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the market. I appreciate this unique academic and professional experience and still leverage the Oxylus team’s expertise today. I encourage other students to reach out to classmates and alums in Yale’s startup ecosystem, especially in subject matters of interest.
Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to break into venture capital and work on the technologies that interest me most. Renewable Energy Project Finance, Innovator, and SBCCC were integral in my Yale experience, along with Tsai CITY and the school’s community of startups. I have a network of Yale students, professors, and alums to thank. I’ll be continuing my work this coming year as the climate deal team lead of SOM’s Meng Impact Investment Fund.
