CSP Panel

The goal of this panel is to elicit discussion around current innovation and future directions for the technology, market, and workforce of CSP. The panel hosts diverse perspectives from industry, academia, government, and national labs to discuss lessons learned and provide insight into potential pathways for CSP innovation.

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Moderator
Lindsay Walter, Ph.D.
ORISE Science and Technology Policy Fellow
U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office

Dr. Lindsay Walter is an ORISE Science and Technology Policy fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). She joined SETO in December 2023 and works on the Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power team. Prior to joining SETO, Lindsay earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah, where her research focused on modeling near-field radiative heat transfer between complex-shaped particles supporting localized surface phonons in Dr. Mathieu Francoeur's group.

 

Apurba Das, Ph.D.
VP Engineering
Heliogen

Dr. Apurba K Das is a recognized leader with extensive experience in the clean energy sector. He serves as a VP of Engineering at Heliogen, an energy technology company focused towards decarbonization. Apurba is experienced in concentrated solar power plant design, integration, startup, and commissioning. He has deep expertise in product development of direct steam (Gen 1), molten salt (Gen 2), and particle receiver (Gen 3) technologies for concentrated solar power applications. In recognition of his contributions, he has been honored with ASME Distinguished Engineer Award (Hartford, 2016). Recently he secured support from DOE for a proposal to develop solar calciner technology for industrial decarbonization. Dr. Das has authored multiple papers and patents, reflecting his commitment to research, innovation, and thought leadership in clean energy domain.

Apurba has a BTech & MTech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India. He also holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Jeremy Sment
Principal Engineer
Sandia National Laboratories

ASME Optical Systems, Receivers and Reactors Track Chair, Jeremy Sment, is a researcher and Principal Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he has worked since 2010. In his role at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility, Jeremy leads a team of particle-based CSP experts on the Generation 3 Particle Pilot Plant currently under construction. Jeremy focuses on thermal energy storage and market adoption of CST applications for industrial heat and solar wastewater treatments concerning the thermal decomposition of PFAS. Jeremy also specializes in system integration, commercialization, and techoeconomics and leads the Field Deployment task in HelioCon in collaboration with NREL. In this role, he has had the opportunity to conduct a series of interviews with industry experts around the world to develop a high-level understanding of solar field deployments in the context of US energy market trends. He is currently performing studies on site-selection and the impacts of heliostats and solar panels on desert tortoise habitats, and heliostat foundation requirements. Throughout his career, Jeremy has performed CFD modeling and measurements of wind loading over heliostat fields, and developed functions for photovoltaic power models and heliostat flux mapping and calibration tools. More recently, Jeremy has developed structural cost modeling tools for receiver towers with tower-integrated storage, particle hoists conveyance machinery, and ground based hot-particle silo construction. Jeremy holds a master's degree in Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.

 

Mike Wagner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mike Wagner is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is Director of the Energy Systems Operations Lab and a faculty member of the Solar Energy Lab. His research includes thermal systems modeling, system design and operations optimization, and predictive performance analysis of energy generation and storage technologies. Prior to joining UW-Madison, he was a Researcher and project manager for 12 years in the Thermal Systems group at NREL in Golden, Colorado. Dr. Wagner holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD from Colorado School of Mines.

 

John Webley, MSEE, DSc. (Hon)
Founder Chairman and CEO
Trevi Systems

With his two co-founders, John grew Advanced Fibre to a market capitalization of $6 billion in 1999 and thereafter he founded Turin Networks, with a subsequent sale to Dell for $700mm in 2007. John then founded Trevi Systems (2010) to commercialize a promising Forward Osmosis water purification technology which is in large scale pilot roll-out.

 

 

Guangdong Zhu, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher and Group Manager
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Dr. Guangdong Zhu has been a senior researcher since 2010 and the group manager of Thermal Energy Systems, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The Thermal Energy Systems group is focused on concentrating solar power technologies, thermal energy storage and renewable energy hybridization. At NREL, Guangdong has been leading research efforts related to solar collector development, linear Fresnel technology, seasonal storage, and renewable energy hybridization. He is the executive director of the newly formed 5-year $25M heliostat consortium co-led by NREL and Sandia National Labs, partnering with Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI). He is the associate editor of the ASME Solar Energy Engineering since 2023 and was the ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology between 2019 - 2022. He has served as technical/general program chair for ASME Energy Sustainability international conference in 2017 - 2020. He won NREL’s staff award for outstanding performance in 2021, President's award in 2016 and Outstanding New Partnership Award in 2016. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal/conference papers and given invited presentations at various research institutes. Dr. Zhu obtained his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2006.