In this podcast series commemorating International Youth Day, Jennifer Anya, a renewable energy operations manager at Husk Power Systems, speaks to Power for All’s Aashna Aggarwal on her journey and experiences as a young woman in the sector and the role of youth in championing the clean energy transition.
She said it was thanks to her father that she didn’t pursue her plan to build a career in tourism. ‘Right after my secondary education, I actually wanted to do tourism and travel the world and see what it felt like living through other people's lenses and experience other cultures. But my father had my report card and he said tourism wasn't going to earn me money,” she said.
Jennifer ended up majoring in Economics at the university but her path to the renewable energy sector only became clear as a result of her laptop and its faulty power plug which did not allow her to work when there was no electricity. This problem inspired her to research how as an economist she could fit into the energy space and she stumbled upon energy economics.
“I then started taking double classes. After I finished my economics classes during the day, I’d go for my evening lessons at the physics and solar department. Here, I had the experience of working with solar panels,” Jennifer said.
Now working as a renewable energy operations manager at Husk Power Systems, Jennifer said an engineering degree was no longer the only prerequisite to work in the renewables sector. Listen to the rest of the podcast to hear Jennifer’s expectations from the upcoming COP 27 and how her home country, Nigeria, has embraced renewable energy.
