A Career in Transition: From Oil and Gas to Clean Tech

Explore how a career in petroleum geology evolved into investing in wind, solar, and storage.

In this episode of the FEG Insight Bridge, Jane Woodward, Managing Partner of Woven Earth Ventures, traces a career from exploration geologist at Arco to co-founder of MAP Energy. She explains how geospatial thinking guided MAP’s expansion from natural gas into wind, land-based solar, and battery storage, with grid interconnection and proximity to demand central to site selection. Woodward also describes how Stanford teaching and former students shaped her work, including her connection to Fervo Energy.

Key Takeaways

- Project value depends on location as much as resource quality: a site with strong sun or wind has little worth without grid interconnection and proximity to demand.

- Early positioning carried an advantage: MAP Energy secured sites in less obvious solar markets such as Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana ahead of competitors, reasoning that the best locations become scarcer and costlier over time.

- Woodward views clean technology as a source of value that can transcend partisan lines, because it delivers risk reduction and customer benefit regardless of who holds office.

- Her career illustrates the value of systems-oriented, interdisciplinary thinking, from Arco’s layered geospatial analysis of sedimentary basins to the investment decisions she later made across gas, wind, solar, and storage.

Disclosures

This information was prepared by Fund Evaluation Group, LLC (FEG), a federally registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, providing non-discretionary and discretionary investment advice to its clients on an individual basis. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The oral and written communications of an adviser provide you with information about which you determine to hire or retain an adviser. Fund Evaluation Group, LLC, Form ADV Part 2A & 2B can be obtained by written request directed to: Fund Evaluation Group, LLC, 201 East Fifth Street, Suite 1600, Cincinnati, OH 45202 Attention: Compliance Department.

This information is prepared for informational purposes only. It does not address specific investment objectives, or the financial situation and the particular needs of any person who may receive this presentation. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed in this report constitutes an offer, or an invitation to make an offer, to buy or sell any securities.

The information herein was obtained from various sources. FEG does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information provided by third parties. The information in this presentation is given as of the date indicated and believed to be reliable. FEG assumes no obligation to update this information, or to advise on further developments relating to it.