Monthly archive

Grid-scale Energy Storage: Politics, Promise, and Potential

August 13th, 2015

The hype and media noise around grid-scale energy storage in the U.S. is reaching saturation levels. California’s energy strategy is a forcing function for more storage but what about the rest of the country? While ISOs like PJM have instituted competitive frequency regulation procurement, storage is only one of many options that can compete for this service.

Jason Makansi

Job Title: 
President
Organization: 
Pearl Street Inc

Jason Makansi, a recent transplant to Tucson, AZ, is president of Pearl Street (www.pearlstreetinc.com), whose clients range from electric utilities, Fortune 50 global energy firms, growing technology firms, and garage shop inventors. He specializes in technology deployment for the electricity and energy industries.

A life-long entrepreneur, he has raised venture capital for clients, assisted in creating partnerships and collaborations, launched and managed a hedge fund focused on the electricity supply and delivery value chain, started up innovative publications in energy and environmental affairs, helped tech-based companies grow in preparation for acquisitions and exits, started up and managed two policy groups to support the grid-scale energy storage business, and launched a publishing company (now managed by his wife and two partners). He is the author of three professional books, including An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy (2002) and Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, The Global Economy, and What It Means to You (2007), both published by John Wiley & Sons.

His latest work is a popular book, Painting By Numbers: How to Sharpen Your BS Detector and Smoke Out the Experts, offering a lighthearted but serious approach to numerical literacy, twelve commandments for judging the certainty, validity, and relevance of any numerical result, along with examples from current events.

Makansi is a frequent keynote speaker, guest lecturer, workshop leader, panelist, and presenter on technology, business, and policy innovations for energy and electricity.

In the area of service, he mentors engineering and business students, lectures on numerical literacy to teachers and academics,  leads tours at the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson, interviews prospects for his college alma mater, plays viola and performs with inter-generational chamber groups and orchestras for seniors, juniors, and the general public.

He earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, has taken graduate courses in technology management, and several graduate courses towards a higher degree in Sociology. He moonlights as a fiction writer, evaluates fiction submissions for two well-known literary journals, and has published a dozen short stories. His first novel, The Moment Before, will be available early next year.

This will be Makansi’s third appearance as a lead presenter for USEA’s Briefing Series

 

Profile Type: 
Speaker

Post-Combustion Carbon Capture from Flue Gas

June 4th, 2015

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) began R&D activities for Carbon capture in 1990 and has developed a high efficiency chemical solvent process, the KM CDR Process®, in collaboration with the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. The process has been applied to eleven (11) worldwide commercial CO2 capture plants which are providing captured CO2 from natural gas-fired flue gas to enhance chemical production such as urea and methanol.

Osamu Miyamoto

Job Title: 
Process Engineering Manager of Carbon capture technology
Organization: 
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA)

Osamu Miyamoto is a Process Engineering Manager of Carbon capture technology for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA). He was employed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. as a process engineer in 2003. He has experience of several carbon capture projects for chemical synthesis in Asia and Middle East and R&D activity for carbon capture such as plant optimization, energy efficiency, and decrease of amine degradation. Now he is involved in the world’s largest Carbon capture project for EOR in Texas. He holds bachelor degree in integrated science

Profile Type: 
Speaker

Yusuke Yoshida

Job Title: 
Senior Manager
Organization: 
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA)

Yusuke Yoshida is a Senior Manager for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA), Environmental & Chemical Plant Division, Business Development based in Houston, Texas, taking a regional lead role in North America. He has more than 20 years experience in Plant Engineering & Construction Business for mainly Hydrocarbon Processing Projects in USA, Russia, South America, Southeast Asia and Japan, and has experience in marketing, proposal management, finance arrangement, contract negotiations and project execution support as Business Manager. He has worked for MHI for 22 years and holds a bachelor degree in business.

Profile Type: 
Speaker

Dale Wilterdink

Job Title: 
Project Manager
Organization: 
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA)

Dale Wilterdink is a Project Manager for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA). He has almost 40 years experience in the Power Industry, specifically in Coal Fired Power Plants including Plant Operations, Start-up Management, and Project Management, specifically for Air Quality Control Systems.  He has worked for MHIA for 5 years as a Project Manager and holds a BS in Chemistry and an MBA.

Profile Type: 
Speaker

Sydney Schneir

Job Title: 
Special Advisor
Organization: 
U.S. DOE Loan Program Office (LPO)

Sydney Schneir is a Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), where she is responsible for managing the office’s external affairs activities including communications, engagement, and development. Prior to joining LPO, she served as the lead speechwriter for Dr. David Danielson, Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and as an analyst in the Office of Strategic Programs.

Previously, she was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Transportation and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Sydney started her career in public service as a Legislative Aide to the Chairman of the House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change in the Massachusetts State House.

Ms. Schneir holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Politics from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and French from the University of Delaware. 

Profile Type: 
Speaker

U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office – Investing in American Energy

June 18th, 2015

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) invests in the power of American innovation.

LPO investments accelerate the deployment of innovative clean energy projects and advanced vehicle manufacturing facilities across the United States. The office’s team of financial, technical, environmental, and legal professionals is dedicated to advancing an all-of-the-above energy strategy that avoids, reduces, or sequesters greenhouse gases.

Joseph Marhamati

Job Title: 
Program Management Analyst
Organization: 
U.S. DOE Loan Program Office (LPO)

Joe Marhamati is a Program Management Analyst with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), where he leads the Technical and Project Management Division in Greenhouse Gas Lifecycle Assessment of all incoming Title XVII Loan Guarantee Applications. At LPO, he has authored several of the federal government’s first Environmental Assessments for utility-scale solar, wind, and geothermal projects, totaling over $5 billion and over 500 megawatts in renewable energy deals.

Previously, he served as an advisor on energy issues to the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he directed the Administration's Capital Solar Challenge and President Obama’s Performance Contracting Challenge.

Mr. Marhamati holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and a M.S. in Environmental Science from American University. 

Profile Type: 
Speaker

Financing CCUS Projects – How targeted policies can drive the industry

May 28th, 2015

Summit Power Group is an energy development company with a focus on carbon capture for enhanced oil recovery. This talk will provide a high-level overview of the status of CCUS in the power industry and discuss how different policy mechanisms under consideration can enable projects and support the growth of this emerging industry.

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