Profiles in clean energy: Former Shell VP helps create a new way of making clean electricity

Associated Press

At oil and gas giant Shell, Cindy Taff was in charge of drilling wells that are considered unconventional because the oil or natural gas is difficult to access. When she learned about geothermal energy — energy from the heat of the Earth — she wanted Shell to use its drilling know-how to pursue a clean energy alternative. That didn’t happen and Taff left a 36-year career at the company to become the chief operating officer at Sage Geosystems in Houston, Texas, a startup that aims to make clean electricity. Geothermal still accounts for less than half of one percent of large-scale electricity generation in the U.S., but there are ambitious projections for it to grow.