Talk Title: Energy storage – from investment perspective. Case study (Amber Kinetics)

Abstract: Amber Kinetics, a flywheel based energy storage start up, is one of the investment which Dr. Xu manages. Dr. Xu will use Amber Kinetics and his technology as a case study to talk about energy storage from investment perspective.

Bio: Dr. Xu has 25 year management experience in business development, marketing/sales, manufacturing/operation, and product development both in US and China; in industries such as clean-tech & renewable energy, semiconductor, medical devices, wearable health devices and consumer products. Successful investment deals include Amber Kinetics Inc，Intraminds，and several others.  He is also a Senior advisor for UstarX, HNBC incubator, Makerehome, and Xian Jiaotong Incubator.  Dr.Xu graduated from Xian ChiaoTung University, a Ph.D degree in mechanical engineering from University of Minnesota.

Talk Title:

Bio: Haresh Kamath is Program Manager for Energy Storage at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), managing the Institute’s research into the development, assessment, and application of energy storage technologies for grid storage applications. He is also a Technology Scout for EPRI’s Technology Innovation Program, where he investigates advanced materials technologies for power delivery applications, and advanced energy storage technologies.

Kamath joined EPRI PEAC in 2002 as a project engineer in energy storage and distributed generation. His responsibilities grew to include management of the energy technologies group, encompassing EPRI Solutions efforts in energy storage, distributed generation, energy efficiency, and electric transportation. He was an author for the EPRI-DOE Handbook of Energy Storage and serves on the board of directors of the Electricity Storage Association.

Before joining EPRI, Kamath worked at Lockheed Martin Space Systems as a product engineer responsible for spacecraft batteries. He also served as an applications engineering and business development manager at a startup energy storage company.

Kamath received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Stanford University.

Mike Gravely, Deputy Division Chief of the Energy Research and Development Division
California Energy Commission

Prior to his current position, he was the Manager of the Energy Systems Research Office at the Energy Commission where he managed over $200 million in active energy related research and development projects in a variety of technical areas that include:  Smart Grid, Renewable Grid Integration, Microgrid implementation, Transmission, Distribution, Demand Response, Energy Storage, Distributed Energy Resources, Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), and Sustainable Communities.

Mike has over 30 years of engineering and integration experience in the energy, aerospace and communications fields.  Prior to the Energy Commission, Mike served in executive positions in the Federal Government and private industry including managing research, testing and fielding of distributed generation and energy storage systems for the Department of Defense, addressing the challenges of a start up energy storage company and overseeing a staffing and training company that specialized in serving the utility industry.  Mike Gravely has a BSEE from the Virginia Military Institute and an MSEE from California State University at Sacramento.