Cost-effective energy storage ranks among the most critical scientific and technological grand challenges of our time. Significant progress is being made in electrochemical batteries (e.g., for electric vehicles), but the vast majority of deployed energy storage capacity (>94% on a rated power basis) continues to be pumped hydro. Advancing thermal energy storage technologies may offer a grid-scale alternative with the potential to improve the efficiency and resiliency of U.S. power systems. Cutting-edge materials discovery, device design, and system architecture developments are converging to enable the next wave of dramatic breakthroughs in thermal energy storage. This presentation describes the current status and prospects of innovative thermal storage materials and systems. Presenter: Dr. Ravi Prasher, LBNL
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Biography
Dr. Ravi Prasher
Ravi Prasher is the director of Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division (ESDR) at LBNL. ESDR conducts R&D in energy conversion, storage and distribution. Prior to joining LBL, Ravi was the VP of product development of Sheetak Inc., a startup developing thermoelectric energy converters. Ravi was also an adjunct professor in the school of engineering at ASU from 2005 – 2013. Ravi earlier worked as one of the first program directors at ARPA-E. At ARPA-E, Ravi created two programs on cooling/heating of buildings and thermal storage for applications ranging from climate conditioning of electric vehicles and high temperature solar thermal power plants. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Ravi was the technology development manager of thermal management group at Intel. Ravi is a recipient of Intel Achievement Award, the highest award in Intel for technical achievement. Ravi has published more than 85 archival journal papers and holds more than 30 patents. He is a fellow of ASME and senior member of IEEE. He is on the editorial committee of multiple journals including Annual Reviews of Environment and Resources and ASME Journal of Heat Transfer. Ravi obtained his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi and Ph.D. from Arizona State University.