Energy Storage Association Brings On New Leadership

on June 28, 2017

energy storage greentech mediaThe energy storage industry group has beefed up its leadership team as it prepares for a rapid scale-up of the companies it represents.

The Energy Storage Association hired Kelly Speakes-Backman as its first CEO, starting July 1. Executive Director Matt Roberts is moving to a new role as vice president for external affairs, where he will focus on messaging and strategic planning. Nitzan Goldberger also joined the leadership team as state policy director, coming from the policy shop at Borrego Solar. 

The expansion comes shortly after Roberts announced an ambitious goal for the energy storage companies he represents: to deploy 35 gigawatts by 2025. The industry itself has posted rapid progress — the 234 megawatt-hours of capacity deployed in the first quarter of 2017 marked a 945 percent increase from the first quarter of 2016. Now the diminutive industry group is growing its infrastructure to follow suit.

Speakes-Backman jumps into the fray armed with experience as an energy regulator, as well as in private industry.

She served as the director of clean energy for the Maryland Energy Administration under Governor Martin O’Malley, before becoming a commissioner at the Maryland Public Service Commission. That particular PSC keeps popping up as a key player in clean energy leadership — other alums include Anne Hoskins, now chief policy officer at Sunrun, and Abby Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Prior to the government postings, Speakes-Backman worked as marketing director in the early days of SunEdison, and at several other energy companies, including Wartsila. She came to ESA from the Alliance to Save Energy, the energy-efficiency trade group, where she directed policy work.

That cross-cutting experience with solar, efficiency and conventional energy colors Speakes-Backman’s approach to storage.

“Energy storage is the hub of all of these clean energy technologies that can help catapult us into a more modern, cleaner, more efficient grid,” she said in an interview. “I want to figure out how to get to this 35 gigawatts through practical implementation. Who do we need to coordinate with?”

That practical implementation will focus on two major hurdles: market access and recognition of value streams, Speakes-Backman said.

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GreenTech MediaEnergy Storage Association Brings On New Leadership