NELHA Energy Storage Conference 2016

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Imre Gyuk, U.S. Department of Energy

 

After taking a B.S. from Fordham University, Dr. Gyuk did graduate work at Brown University on Superconductivity. Having received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics from Purdue University he became a Research Associate at Syracuse. As an Assistant Professor he taught Physics, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Architecture at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Gyuk became an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Kuwait University where he became interested in issues of sustainability.

 

Dr. Gyuk joined the Department of Energy to manage the Thermal and Physical Storage program. For the past 12 years he has directed the Electrical Energy Storage research program in the Office of Electricity developing a wide portfolio of storage technologies for a broad spectrum of applications. He supervised the $185M ARRA stimulus funding for Grid Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations and is now partnering with the States on storage projects for grid resilience. His work has led to 9 R&D 100 awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and he is internationally recognized as a leader in the energy storage field.

Speaker Highlights: Jud Virden, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

 

Jud Virden is Associate Laboratory Director for the Energy and Environment Direc-torate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

 

PNNL’s Energy & Environment Directorate is the home to 1,000 scientists, engineers, and staff who are delivering science and technology solutions for the nation’s complex energy and environmental challenges — including advancing energy storage technologies, modernizing the power grid, integrating renewable energy, advancing energy efficiency in all sectors, developing biofuels, ensuring sustainable hydropower, and resolving complex issues in nuclear science.

 

He is actively involved in the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, CleanTech Alliance of Washington, Oregon Innovation Council, University of Michigan Energy Institute, and Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute. He was elected in 2014 to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. In May 2015, he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Energy, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on “Innovations in Battery Storage for Renewable Energy.”

Speaker Highlights: Dr. Bryan Hannegan, National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

 

 

Dr. Bryan Hannegan is the Associate Director for Energy Systems Integration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development.  In this role, he leads NREL’s global initiative to optimize links between electricity, fuel, thermal, water, and communication networks in order to enable a more sustainable society.  Prior to joining NREL, Dr. Hannegan held several research leadership positions in fossil energy, renewable energy, and environmental science and technology at the Electric Power Research Institute, the non-profit R&D arm of the electric power industry.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Hannegan served as a senior energy advisor to President George W. Bush in staff positions for the Council on Environmental Quality and the National Economic Council, and he has also served as a staff scientist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.  Dr. Hannegan is a former elected Director of the Coastside County Water District, and he serves on numerous professional societies and commissions, including the California Council on Science and Technology, the American Meteorological Society’s Board on Global Strategies, and the International Energy Agency’s Renewable Energy Industry Advisory Board.   Dr. Hannegan holds a Doctorate in earth system science and a Master of Science in engineering, both from the University of California, Irvine, and he also holds a Bachelor of Science in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.

 

 

Speaker Highlights: Janice Lin, California Energy Storage Alliance

 

Janice Lin brings more than two decades of experience in clean energy strategy, market development, and corporate strategy to Strategen. During this time she has advised a diverse range of clients including renewable energy equipment manufacturers and service providers, large corporations diversifying into clean energy, and real estate developers building sustainable communities.

 

In 2014 Janice co-founded the Global Energy Storage Alliance (GESA), an international non-profit organization, and currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Executive Committee. Prior to that Janice co-founded the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) in 2009, and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) and the Energy Storage Committee of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Janice is also a Member of the Advisory Council of the German American Chamber of Commerce, the UCSD Strategic Energy Initiatives Advisory Council, and Chair of the annual Energy Storage North America (ESNA) conference.

 

Prior to founding Strategen in 2005, Janice held several senior management positions with PowerLight Corporation (now SunPower Corporation), including Vice President of Product Strategy and Vice President of Business Development. During her tenure at PowerLight, Janice led initiatives in product and new market strategies, business development, regulatory affairs, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and customer finance.

 

Janice holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a BS from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences. She is the winner of ESA's 2013 Phil Symons Energy Storage Award, and NAATBATT’s 2014 Market Development Award.

 

 

Panelist: Daniel R. Borneo, Distributed Energy/ Electrical Energy Storage, Sandia National Laboratories

 

Mr. Borneo is an Engineering Program/Project Lead and Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).  He holds both a BSEE and MSEE from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) and is licensed as a Professional Electrical Engineer in the state of New Mexico. He serves as the principal investigator and project team leader for the Department of Energy/Office of Electricity (DOE/OE) Electrical Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Testing and Demonstration Program. His primary focus is collaborating with representatives of the energy storage industry, academia, and state energy groups to facilitate moving innovative electrical energy storage technologies and systems to commercialized products and services. 

Panelist: Ray Byrne, Sandia National Laboratories

 

Ray Byrne is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories, where he has been employed since 1989. He holds a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in electrical engineering (control theory and electronics), as well as an M.S. in finance from the University of Chicago. He is team lead of the Equitable Regulatory Environment thrust area for the Sandia energy storage program.

Panelist: Dr. Babu Chalamala, Energy Storage Technologies and Systems, Sandia National Laboratories Energy Systems Integration, National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

 

Dr. Babu Chalamala is Manager of the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratories. Prior to joining Sandia in August 2015, he was a Corporate Fellow at SunEdison (formerly MEMC Electronic Materials) for five years, where he led R&D and product development in grid scale energy storage. Before that, he founded two startup companies commercializing large format lithium batteries and digital x-ray sources. Earlier, as a research staff member at Motorola, Research Triangle Institute, and Texas Instruments, he made contribution to the development of electronic materials and device technologies. He received his B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University and his PhD degree in Physics from the University of North Texas. He authored over 90 papers and received 8 US patents. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Academy of Sciences St Louis, a Life Member of the Electrochemical Society and a Member of the Materials Research Society. As chair of the IEEE Photonics Society Technical Committee on Displays, he was instrumental in launching the IEEE/OSA Journal of Display Technology. An active member of the Materials Research Society for twenty years, he served as General Chair of the 2006 MRS Fall Meeting. He served on the editorial boards of the Proceedings of the IEEE, IEEE Access and Journal of Display Technology and was a guest editor of the MRS Bulletin and the IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. He currently serves as the Chair of the MRS Turnbull Award Subcommittee and as a member of the IEEE Fellow Committee. He received the 2015 James B. Eads Engineering Award of the Academy of Sciences St Louis.

Panelist: Kyle Datta, Ulupono Initiative 

 

As general partner of Ulupono Initiative, Kyle is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the firm, guiding system transformation and investment strategy. He forges and manages partnerships to harness the power of collaboration so that Ulupono’s ability to connect numerous institutions, constituencies, and individuals can make Hawai‘i more self-sufficient in locally produced food; clean, renewable energy; and waste reduction.

 

Previously, Kyle was the CEO of U.S. Biodiesel Group, a national biodiesel firm funded by private equity; Managing Director of Research and Consulting at the Rocky Mountain Institute; and a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton where he served as managing partner of the firm’s Asia energy practice and head of the U.S. utilities practice. 

 

Kyle received a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Organization and Management and a master’s degree in environmental science in resource economics from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is co-author of the RMI books “Winning the Oil End Game” and “Small is Profitable.”  Kyle serves on the board of directors for Blue Planet Foundation and the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation, and is national co-chair of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.

 

Field Visit Lunch Speaker: Pete Devlin, DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO)

 

As Market Transformation and Intergovernmental Coordination Manager for DOE FCTO, Pete directs activities for fostering fuel cell technology adoption by government and industry. Pete is also responsible for managing pre-commercial technology development projects and providing the input to R & D Programs. Prior to his current work of which he has been responsible for the past nine years, Pete was responsible for R & D in other alternative fuel technologies including advanced combustion engine and fuels for eight years at DOE. Also at DOE for seven prior years, he worked on developing advanced energy technologies. Pete spent the first 12 years of his career in private industry engineering advanced propulsion and power generation systems from alternative fuel sources. Trained and educated as an industrial engineer, Pete received a Bachelors of Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1979.

 

Field Visit Speaker: Michael Eldred, OTEC

 

Mr. Michael Eldred holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and has been employed by Makai for 7 years. He was responsible for the overall design of the OTEC Research facility located at NELHA.   As part of the same effort, Mr. Eldred developed and presently manages an aluminum corrosion test lab at NELHA to support ongoing OTEC heat exchanger research. Mr. Eldred previously developed the mechanical system for the laser guide star adaptive optics instrument at the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea.  He has a passion for the natural world and is motivated by a sustainable future. 

 

Field Visit Lunch Speaker: Mitch Ewan, HNEI Hydrogen Project

 

Mr. Ewan is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada.  After a successful naval career that included command of submarines and a destroyer, Mr. Ewan entered private industry where he has served in a variety of senior executive positions including senior management of publicly traded companies.  His hydrogen and fuel cell career spans over 25 years.  He led the team that designed and built the “Green Car”, the world’s first PEM fuel cell powered automobile. Mr. Ewan is the former Vice Chairman of the United States National Hydrogen Association and has served on the Business Advisory Board of the Florida Solar Energy Center.  For the past 15 years Mr. Ewan has been on the staff of the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (“HNEI”) as the Hydrogen Systems Program Manager where he is helping to develop HNEI’s hydrogen and fuel cell programs.  Major projects currently underway include a hydrogen production and fueling station located at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and a hydrogen production station and fueling station located at NELHA on the Island of Hawaii, and a hydrogen fueling station at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Field Visit Speaker: Aaron Fyke, Edisun Heliostats 

 

Aaron Fyke has deep experience as an operating executive, investor, and engineer, having spent over twenty years as both an entrepreneur and venture capitalist.  He has founded, or co-founded, five companies across a number of technology areas including fuel cell, ocean power, concentrating solar, advanced automotive engines, and energy storage technologies with these companies receiving support from Idealab, Bill Gates, Steve Case, Claremont Creek Ventures, NRG, and others.

 

Aaron earned his MBA and MSME as an LGO Fellow at MIT, and his BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria, where he graduated at the top of his class. He has achieved certification as a Professional Engineer both in California and British Columbia.

 

 

 

Panelist: Mark Glick, Hawaii State Energy Office 

 

Mark Glick is Administrator of the Hawaii State Energy Office, a post he has held since October of 2011.  As Administrator, Glick leads Hawaii’s internationally regarded clean energy transformation and innovation efforts. Some highlights of his tenure include passage of the nation’s first 100 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS), exceeding Hawaii’s interim 2015 targets for Hawaii’s RPS and energy efficiency portfolio standard, and leading the nation for four consecutive years in the per capita value of energy savings performance contracts.

 

Glick served as senior advisor to the Texas Land Commissioner from 1987 to 1991, when he played a decisive role in passage of amendments to the Texas Clean Air Act and similar provisions in the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. For the next decade, Glick was a successful small business owner focused on reducing urban air pollution in the U.S. and abroad in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Gas Research Institute, Petrobangla, Southern California Gas Company, Pacific Gas

& Electric, Transco, Southern Union Gas Company and the New York City Department of

Transportation.

 

Returning to the public sector in 2003, Glick headed operations and economic development for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs from 2003 to 2010. Glick is Vice Chair of the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority and serves on the Boards of the National Association of State Energy Officers, the Washington Place Foundation, and previously as three-term Chair of the Executive Committee of the Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club. Glick has a Master of Science, Public Management & Policy from Carnegie‐Mellon University and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Lamar University.

 

Panelist: Jay Ignacio, HELCO

 

Born and raised in Hilo, Jay Ignacio has been the president of Hawai'i Electric Light Company since March 2008 and assumed the additional responsibilities as Senior Operations Adviser to the President and CEO of Hawaiian Electric in Aug. 2015.

 

He joined Hawai‘i Electric Light in 1990 as a substation design engineer and was promoted to superintendent of Construction and Maintenance in 1994. In 1996, he became the manager of the Transmission and Distribution Department where he stayed for 12 years.

 

Prior to working at Hawai‘i Electric Light, Jay held positions as an outside plant engineer at GTE Hawaiian Telephone and a satellite test engineer at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. He also was a small business entrepreneur.

 

Jay holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and is registered as a Professional Engineer in the State of Hawai‘i. He is actively engaged in the Hawai‘i Island community, including as a board member of the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board, Hawai‘i Island United Way, Hawai‘i Island Adult Care, and Hilo Medical Center Foundation. He is a member of the Waiākea Lions Club and has been an active supporter of the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program for more than 10 years.

 

Panelist: Dr. Bill Kramer, Argonne National Laboratory 

 

Dr. Kramer has worked in the DOE National Laboratory system for over 19 years.  He currently works at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as the principal and lead engineer for projects at DOE’s new Energy Systems Integration Facility.  Using a systems integration approach, he works to advance renewable energy technologies with existing and new technologies to find optimal solutions for Industry, the Utilities, and Government.  Dr. Kramer served as a Manager of NREL’s Distributed Energy Systems Integration Group where he focused on conducting research, simulation, and testing of components and systems for the development of integrated systems and controls for smart grid, micro grid, energy storage, PV and fossil fuel generator technologies, advanced power electronics and supervisory control and data acquisition systems.

 

Earlier research at NREL included the development of optimized hybrid electric vehicle controls for GM and Chrysler.  He also conducted research on coupling battery and ultra capacitors for transportation applications.

 

Prior to joining NREL, Dr. Kramer owned and managed his own consulting firm that was involved in developing advanced control systems based on multiple hardware and software control platforms to integrate Agilent’s stationary electronic board test equipment. Other engineering positions were held at Lockheed as a manager for Advanced Automotive Technologies at DOE’s Idaho National Engineering Lab.  During this time he was responsible for the management of staff and projects for the United States Advanced Battery Consortium, DOE’s Ultracapacitor Program and DOE’s Electric Vehicle Program. 

 

Dr. Kramer received his Ph.D from Colorado State University, a M.S. and B.S. at Kansas State University.

 

Panelist: Gregory Krumdick, Argonne National Laboratory

 

Mr. Gregory K. Krumdick is a principal systems engineer in the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Laboratory.  He earned his MS degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on process development and control systems.  Mr. Krumdick has spent the past 25 years with Argonne, where he has been the principal investigator/lead engineer on numerous industrial process scale-up projects earning him 3 R&D 100 awards, an FLC award and many patents.

 

Mr. Krumdick designed and helped establish Argonne’s Materials Engineering Research Facility and is leading Argonne’s battery materials scale-up and manufacturing research programs.  Greg’s team has successfully scaled over 20 advanced battery materials and has collaborations with numerous national labs, universities and industrial partners.

 

 

Panelist: Dr. Boryann Liaw, Energy Storage and Advanced Vehicles, Idaho National Laboratory 

 

Dr. Boryann Liaw is manager of the Energy Storage and Advanced Vehicles Department at Idaho National Laboratory. Before joining INL, Dr. Liaw was a specialist and tenured faculty member at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At HNEI, he focused on advanced power source systems for vehicle and energy storage applications. He received his bachelor’s in chemistry from the National Tsinghua University in Taiwan, his master’s in chemistry from the University of Georgia, and his doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. He conducted his post-doctoral fellowship research at the Max-Plank Institute of Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. For the past three decades, Dr. Liaw has been involved in R&D projects related to electric and hybrid vehicle evaluation and advanced battery diagnostics and prognostics. His major research activities comprise laboratory and real-life battery and vehicle testing, data collection and analysis, battery modeling and simulation, battery performance and life prediction, battery rapid charging technology development, and battery diagnoses and prognoses. He also expanded his endeavors to bio-fuel cells, including sugar-air alkaline battery development, and transforming ambient energy resources into useful power sources for portable or stationary applications. Dr. Liaw has co-authored more than 150 technical papers, seven book chapters, and eight patents and patent applications. He is currently an associate editor for the Journal of Electrochemical Society and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

Panelist: Nicole Lowen, State House Representative 

 

Representative Nicole Lowen is the State House Representative for District 6 which includes Kailua-Kona, Holualoa and Kalaoa on the West side of Hawaii Island. Rep. Lowen is the current Vice-Chair of the House Standing Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Ocean and on Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs in addition to serving as a member of the Water & Land and Finance Committees.

 

 

Panelist: Vincent Paul Ponthieux, Blue Planet Research 

 

Paul Ponthieux is the Director and CTO of Blue Planet Research, LLC located on the Big Island of Hawaii. From an architectural and engineering background he has been involved with sustainability issues throughout the Pacific for the past 25 years. In 2010 he cofounded Blue Planet Research to promote distributed generation micro-grids through the use of renewable energy technologies.

 

Blue Planet Research has been conducting real-world testing of renewable energy generation and storage technologies along with micro-grid design since its inception. Using various battery technologies and hydrogen they have demonstrated the feasibility of being energy independent with a hybrid system approach. BPR installed the first Vanadium Redox Flow Battery in the state, and were the first private facility to generate, store and utilize renewable solar hydrogen.

He designed the NASA funded HISEAS Mars Habitat located on Mauna Loa which is powered by renewable energy and hydrogen fuel cells, and continues to serve as a test-bed for new technologies in partnership with Cornell and the University of Hawaii. As an active private pilot, he flies throughout the islands for projects.

 

BPR assists with first responder training, and has an ongoing program to educate the public about the safety and benefits of using hydrogen in applications from energy and transportation, to cooking. They continue to test and evaluate hydrogen technologies  ranging  from  electrolyzers  and  fuel  cells  -  to  internal combustion engine conversions.

 

Blue Planet Research is currently involved in major projects on the Big Island incorporating energy, transportation, and agriculture to demonstrate the potential of a self-sufficient community. Projects like this will enable Hawaii and other Island Nations to achieve energy independence and security, and sustainable prosperity.

Panelist: Richard Rocheleau, HNEI

 

 

 

 

Panelist: Will Rolston, County of Hawai'i

 

Will Rolston has 25 years’ experience in the energy field as both a power engineer and an energy analyst. He started as a power engineer for Westinghouse and then Siemens with concentration on energy projects and market analysis. Will then became an energy analyst for investment firm Janus Capital and then a partner in private equity firms. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a Masters in Business Administration from Florida Institute of Technology. In Hawaii, he was Renewable Projects Administrator for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority and now serves as County of Hawai`i – Energy Coordinator.

 

Field Visit Speaker: Roland Shackelford, Renewable Energy Services

 

 

 

Panelist: Dr. Travis Simpkins, National Renewable Energy Laboratory  

 

Dr. Travis Simpkins is a Senior Engineer in the Energy Analysis and Decision Support Department of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has over 15 years of experience with modeling, simulation, and optimization of complex systems.  At NREL, he is the technical lead of the REopt software modeling platform for energy system integration and optimization. His research interests include the techno-economic optimization of renewable energy systems in both grid-connected and islanded systems, optimizing the dispatch strategy for energy storage to maximize revenue across multiple revenue streams, and valuing resiliency benefits from solar plus storage. Previously, Dr. Simpkins was a Senior Research Scientist at a technology incubator developing MEMS-based spatial light modulators for scene projection and adaptive optics.  He has a Ph.D. and S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Financial Technology Option certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics from Case Western Reserve University.  He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and has published numerous papers in the fields of energy optimization, renewable energy, control algorithms, and integrated circuits.

 

Panelist: Jill Sims, Energy Excelerator 

 

In 2012, Jill co-founded Energy Excelerator with Dawn Lippert to fill a void in funding and support for clean energy companies. She currently manages the Demonstration Track and the daily operations of the program, which includes funding, partnerships, and demonstration projects for Energy Excelerator Portfolio Companies.

 

Prior to Energy Excelerator, Jill worked within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy managing and $80M portfolio of 40 R&D and demonstration projects for U.S. Department of Energy. She worked on energy projects at SRA International with clients such as the U.S. Pacific Command, assessing energy usage across all DoD bases and service branches in Hawaii. She also worked closely on grants strategy with the University of Hawaii and others, raising $38M for early education, STEM, and workforce development in Hawaii over a period of four years. 

 

Jill received her degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and started her career as a systems engineer at UTC Fuel Cells (now UTC Power) developing controls for fuel cell vehicles and auxiliary power units.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panelist: David Tomlinson, UniEnergy Technologies

 

As UniEnergy Technologies’ (UET) Senior Director of Project Development, Mr. Tomlinson leads the firm’s energy storage project development program. He has more than 25 years of energy infrastructure development experience encompassing a wide range of generation, transmission and storage projects throughout North and South America. 

 

Prior to joining UET, Mr. Tomlinson cofounded Solar Horizon to focus on solar energy development opportunities in Hawaii, California, Washington and Alaska where he successfully developed more than 100MWs.  Mr. Tomlinson has also served as Director of Power Services for Ecology and Environment, Inc. (E & E), a multi-national engineering and environmental consulting company.

 

 

Field Visit Speaker: Larry Visocky, Koyo USA

 

Larry Visocky is currently Koyo USA’s Chief Production Officer. He has held that position since 2010 after joining the company as its Maintenance Manager in 2005. Larry’s background is in controls and field service engineering, a field he worked in form 1988 through 2005 before joining Koyo USA.