GTM Forum: New England Solar & Storage

Kay Aikin, Chief Executive Officer, co-founder Introspective Systems. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with one of the first sustainability engineering degrees in the country. She has spent her 25 years career as an energy engineer, architectural designer, design/build contractor and business development executive.  She has spent four years with her co-founder Dr. Caryl Johnson studying the application of complex system design to "resource allocation problems", including the integration of Distributed Energy Resources into the electrical grid. Her current work for the Department of Energy involves leading a team of scientists and programmers developing a new Transactive Energy (TE) platform that utilizes one-way local pricing to manage the electric grid. At Isle au Haut, Introspective Systems is deploying that TE control platform to manage the functions of a microgrid controller and active management of heat pump loads to balance high solar periods and minimize battery sizing, lower costs.

Charlotte Ancel is the Director of Strategic Development at Eversource Energy, a publicly traded, Fortune 500 energy company serving 4 million electric, gas, and water customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Charlotte leads Eversource’s electric vehicle, storage, and other clean energy development and policy initiatives. She was previous Vice President of Power Supply and General Counsel at Green Mountain Power where she led the power supply, regulatory, legal, and project development teams. In that time, Charlotte’s team increased the Green Mountain Power supply portfolio from 20% to 60% renewable. She also led the construction of a fleet of low cost solar farms for customers, the acquisition of a fleet of small hydro plants, and obtained regulatory approval for several clean energy transformation initiatives. Charlotte was previously a partner at the law firm of Sheehey Furlong & Behm in Burlington, Vermont where she came of age working on permitting of a 63 MW wind project and various solar and other generation projects. She is a graduate of Boston College and University of New Hampshire Law School, from which she graduated first in her class and was Editor in Chief of the Law Review. Charlotte previously served as President of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Chittenden County and was appointed by Governor Peter Shumlin to chair Vermont’s Blue Ribbon Commission on high quality, affordable childhood care.

Jamal Burki is the Sr. Vice President at IHI Energy Storage, a subsidiary of IHI Corporation which is a 165-year-old global corporation with businesses in energy, aerospace, social infrastructure and industrial machinery areas. IHI Energy Storage is a systems integrator offering turnkey energy storage systems to global customers. Jamal is responsible for commercial, operations and services for the energy storage business. Previously Jamal was projects and services leader at GE Energy Storage where he led development and deployment of energy storage systems at multiple global locations. Prior to joining Energy Storage industry, Jamal spent over fifteen years in the wireless telecommunications industry developing, leading and deploying new technologies globally. Jamal is a graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology and Northwestern University with degrees in electrical engineering and management.

Jess Brooks is Chief Development Officer at Sunwealth, where she helps investors put their money to work building a more just, sustainable and inclusive energy future. Prior to joining Sunwealth, Jess was a Senior Vice President at Boston Community Capital, a national community development financial institution (CDFI) where she helped grow assets under management from $60 million to over $1 billion, leveraging over $5 billion in public and private investment in underserved communities nationwide; she has also worked as a director of online communities at The New York Times Company, in technology sales and as a securities trader on Wall Street. An active civic leader, Jess serves on boards of Generation Citizen Massachusetts and First Teacher, and chairs Brown University's Advisory Council on Relations with Tougaloo College, a historically black college in Mississippi. She is past chair of the boards of The Food Project, Cascap and Social Venture Partners Boston. Jess holds a BA from Brown University.

Fouad Dagher is the Director of Innovation at National Grid in Waltham, MA. He leads a team of professionals whose responsibilities are to identify and develop innovative energy solutions for National Grid customers. His areas of focus include smart cities, renewables and storage, electrification of transportation, and energy efficiency. Throughout his tenure, Fouad assumed different engineering and managerial positions within National Grid and led the development of National Grid’s REV demonstration in NY, renewable and storage in MA and the early deployment of National Grid’s network of EV charging stations in MA, NY, and RI.

Fouad holds a Master’s degree in engineering and earned an advanced certificate in Strategy, Innovation and Management. He is a registered Professional Engineer in MA and VT.

Robin Dutta joined SunPower in 2015 where he leads the company’s east coast state policy initiatives, as well as supports the company’s Federal Affairs team. Robin is a bit of a throwback, having broken into the industry working on solar water heating policy for Skyline Innovations. His move to the PV space has shifted his focus to net metering/rate design, community solar, energy storage policy, and the next generation of state renewable goals. Robin currently sits on the boards of the Maryland-DC-Virginia Solar Energy Industries Association and the Solar Research Institute. Prior to entering the solar industry, Robin worked on various electoral campaigns in New Jersey and Delaware. He holds a M.A. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware, and a B.A. in Political Science from Drew University. Originally from New Jersey, Robin currently resides in Washington, DC.

Ilan Gutherz is Borrego Solar’s national Director of Policy and Business Development, based out of the company’s regional headquarters outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Ilan is responsible for setting Borrego Solar’s national policy direction, driving policy changes that promote the development of renewable energy, and catalyzing the organization’s entry into new markets. Prior to joining the Borrego Solar team, Ilan worked in a range of legal and policy roles for clients and organizations in the electric utility, clean energy, storage, transportation, environment, and land use spaces. Ilan is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a law degree from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where he graduated with highest honors.

Stephen Lacey is Editor-in-Chief of Greentech Media. He manages a team of writers focused on solar, storage, efficiency, mobility, and grid modernization. He’s also host of the Energy Gang podcast, a weekly roundtable on the latest energy and environmental news.

Ravi is the head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie, where he focuses on solar-plus-storage, solar integration on the grid and related power markets issues. Prior to his current role, he was the head of Wood Mackenzie’s energy storage research practice and covered global storage markets and value chain analysis. As an industry expert, Ravi has been quoted in various publications including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg, National Public Radio, BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Wired, and Verge. Ravi has over 10 years of experience in renewables as a consultant, analyst and engineer. Ravi holds a Master of International Business degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering degree from University of Washington, Seattle and a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India.

Allison is a Solar Analyst at GTM Research, focusing on the competitive landscape of the U.S. downstream solar market.  Prior to joining GTM, Allison was a Senior Analyst at Compass Lexecon, an economic consulting firm, where she did research and data analysis for litigation and regulatory cases in the electricity and natural gas industries.  Allison holds a B.A. in Economics from Colby College.

Hannah is Director of Public Policy at Clearway Energy, one of the nation’s largest owner-operators of renewable energy projects including solar and wind, and the leading provider of community solar. Hannah serves as Chair of the Board of the Coalition for Community Solar Access, the national trade association for community solar. She was previously Vice President of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at Clean Energy Collective, the company that pioneered the concept of community solar in 2009. Prior to entering the private sector, Hannah spent 3 years at the advocacy group Vote Solar, where she led campaigns to advance solar in the southeast and to expand community solar nationwide. Hannah also spent 4 years at the U.S. Department of Energy solar office, where she managed the Solar America Cities program to jumpstart solar growth in 25 major U.S. Cities. Hannah holds degrees in Environmental Policy and Political Economy from UC Santa Barbara and Clark University. She is based in upstate New York.

Austin Perea is a senior analyst for Wood Mackenzie and is the lead analyst for the U.S. Solar Market Insight report series. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Austin worked at The Boston Consulting Group, where he supported the energy practice as a research associate. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in economics and political science and a minor in Middle Eastern studies from the University of New Hampshire.

MJ Shiao currently serves as the Director of Community Solar at Arcadia Power, where he works to connect residential customers with community solar projects developed by Arcadia Power's partners. Before Arcadia, MJ held various positions at Greentech Media and Wood Mackenzie, including leading GTM Research, a 30-person team tracking, analyzing and forecasting the evolution of the solar, energy storage and grid edge industries.  MJ is a leading expert in the transformation of the electricity sector. He has spoken at numerous conferences, testified in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission on solar trade issues and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg and Buzzfeed. Before joining GTM Research, MJ managed and designed several MWs of residential and commercial PV projects. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware, where he was named a National Truman Scholar. A believer in the social benefits of solar power, MJ has also researched, installed and tested rural off-grid PV in India and Thailand.