Climate Pathfinder: Fixing Environmental Problems — Rather Than Just Worrying About Them
He admits that he initially did not think Duke was the right place for him.
“I wanted to go to Penn simply because that’s where my older brother went,” he said. But he is now unequivocal, as well as humble, about how Duke has informed his academic and professional path.
“Now I can’t see myself anywhere else. Duke has been the perfect place to get sucked into climate and energy and learn how to work on solving these problems.”
Nease received a full four-year Questbridge Match Scholarship to attend Duke. “I wouldn’t be here empowered to do this work without the financial support Duke has provided,” Nease said.
Climate Learning Far Beyond the Classroom
Nease has taken every opportunity to learn and be involved in climate work at Duke, in and out of the classroom. As part of course in the Nicholas School of the Environment, Nease traveled with classmates, faculty and staff to install solar panels and battery storage in Puerto Rico. They did so at the home of a man living in a rural, power-insecure region. The man relies on electricity to refrigerate his medication, uses a wheelchair and lives alone. When storms knock out power, the consequences are real.
“You really get in touch with the human aspect of the climate problem as part of that experience,” Nease said. “We face disasters in the U.S., but a lot of people are insulated from them. In Puerto Rico, the power doesn’t just come back on in a day…it can take months.”
Back on campus, Nease has immersed himself in the university’s climate ecosystem. He serves as co-president of the Duke Undergraduate Energy and Climate Club and works as a Green Devil intern through the Office of Climate and Sustainability, guiding students through discussions on a range of topics, including behavioral science, energy systems and the psychology of climate communication.
“I try to walk them through how I process new climate-related content, whether it be academic articles or corporate sustainability claims — not necessarily what to think, but how to think about it,” he said.
Last summer, Nease interned with renewable energy developer DESRI, where he will begin full-time work in Denver after graduation in May (and after a backpacking adventure in Southeast Asia). The company builds utility-scale solar and battery projects, often serving hyperscale clients. He is candid and thoughtful about the tension posed by supporting the data center industry.
“Of course, it’s better that they use solar-plus-storage rather than natural gas,” he said. “But I still ask myself: What does it mean to fuel that growth?”
Fortunately, these tough questions propel Nease to try and find ways to address the tension.
Building a Startup for Solutions
To that end, Nease has begun work to accelerate real-world, commercial impact. Through the Department of Energy’s TechUP competition — where he was on a team that won the Geothermal Technologies Office bonus prize — and Duke’s Design Climate accelerator, he is building a startup aimed at a less glamorous but super critical challenge in the energy transition and decarbonization: supply chains.
We need infrastructure, says Nease. “We want to build the store brand version of deep-tech clean energy infrastructure,” he explained — standardized, cheap, modular components for geothermal and nuclear systems that lower cost and reduce risk through repeatability.
“If enough buyers commit in advance, new manufacturing becomes justifiable,” he said. “Yes, we can’t turn off fossil fuels tomorrow. But if we keep building gas because it’s cheaper and easier, we lock in decades of regressive infrastructure.”
He sees a way through to a solution, using the existing system to engender the needed change. Nease said: “There’s enormous capital flowing into AI and hyperscale infrastructure. If that money is going to be spent, let’s make sure it builds clean infrastructure instead of fossil infrastructure. We can pay a little more now to avoid paying infinitely more later.”
