Erik B. Olson is an Innovative Partnering Specialist at the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), where he advises DOE programs on better engaging startups, community organizations, and other nontraditional Department of Energy partners via DOE’s Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA). He comes with a background of thinking at the intersection of technological, environmental, and political challenges to provide high-quality and timely research and analysis on energy policy matters.
Prior to joining the Department of Energy (DOE), he was a Research Associate at EFI Foundation, working under the leadership of Former Secretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz to maximize the transformational impact of the Energy Act of 2020, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Chips and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act on DOE’s energy innovation and commercialization ecosystem. Before EFI, he helped impact and implement statewide energy policy at the Virginia Department of Energy—supporting key decision-makers and stakeholders in government. Before that, he studied and wrote about deep decarbonization technologies and how to make clean energy cheap at the Breakthrough Institute. Olson developed his passion for energy technology and policy while a mechanical engineering student at Utah State University—where he was a leader in student government and Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Olson lives in Washington, D.C. and enjoys pickup basketball, Utah skiing, playing the guitar, reading long-form journalism or other nonfiction work, and chatting about energy policy.