Policy working group meeting- 11 June

Discussion points:

7th Knowledge Series webinar on Solar + Energy Storage

With the rapid adoption of solar energy in India there is a strong need for exploring the role

Vinod Khosla

Vinod Khosla is an entrepreneur, investor and technologist. In 2004, Vinod formed Khosla Ventures to focus on both for-profit and social impact investments; a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies. Vinod grew up dreaming of being an entrepreneur, despite being from an Indian army household with no business or technology connections. Vinod’s greatest passion is being a mentor to entrepreneurs building technology-based businesses. He is driven by the desire to make a positive impact through scaling new energy sources, achieving petroleum independence and promoting a pragmatic approach to the environment. He also is passionate about social entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on microfinance as a poverty alleviation tool. He is a supporter of many microfinance organizations in India and Africa. He also has been experimenting with innovations in education and global housing. Vinod also is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals that was founded in 1992 and has more than 40 chapters in nine countries today. He is a founding board member of the Indian School of Business (ISB). Vinod holds a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Rahul Walawalkar

Rahul is involved in providing inputs for demand response, energy storage & smart grid policy to government agencies in US and India as well as has provided inputs to multilateral agencies such as IRENA, IEA & ADB. He has served as an expert evaluator for US Department of Energy for various smart grid and energy storage demonstration projects in US during 2009-12.

In 2012, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) nominated him as chairperson of working group on Integrating Renewable Energy Sources, Micro-Grids and Energy Storage as part of Smart Grid Coordination Committee. In June 2013, he was also nominated as member of national taskforce for integration of Electricity from renewable energy sources in the Grid during the 12th Plan by Central Electricity Authority & Ministry of Power. In May 2014, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) nominated him on the standing committee for energy storage and hybrids.

Rahul has been a speaker in 100+ international conferences during the last decade and has also authored 5 book chapters on topics covering energy efficiency, demand response and energy storage. Rahul has obtained Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM) Navigator certification from Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and also a Masters in Energy Management from New York Institute of Technology, having obtained his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli.

Rahul is President and Managing Director of Customized Energy Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. and leads the Emerging Technologies practice for Customized Energy Solutions globally with focus on energy storage, renewables, demand response and smart grid technologies as well as international markets. He is also founder and Executive Director for India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). He served as member of the Board of Directors of Energy Storage Association (ESA) in US during 2009-15 and was elected as Secretory in 2013. He was elected as Vice Chair for Global Energy Storage Alliance (GESA) in 2014.

Gururaj Deshpande

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande is the President and Chairman of Sparta Group LLC, a family investment office and is also the Chairman of Tejas Networks. Dr. Deshpande has pursued an entrepreneurial career for the last three decades. He is involved either as the founder, a founding investor or chairman of several companies including Cascade Communications, Sycamore Networks, Coral Networks, Tejas Networks, Cimaron, Webdialogs, Airvana, Sandstone Capital, A123 Systems and Curata. Dr. Deshpande lives in Boston and serves as a life-member of the MIT Corporation, and his support has made possible MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. Deshpande co-chairs a National Council to support President Obama’s innovation and entrepreneurship strategy. Dr. Deshpande holds a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, an M.E. from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and Ph.D from Queens University in Canada.

Yashraj Khaitan

Yashraj Khaitan started working on Gram Power when he was 19. Before that, he worked on organic solar cells in high school, build cube satellites in college and after completing his B.S. at UC-Berkeley decided to drop out of his post graduate program to start Gram Power and work on high impact technologies for the masses. He has a strong unrest for scale and fuels the team with the same hunger. He finds the title of CEO very boring and prefers to call himself the team’s mafia! When he’s not in office, he’ll most likely be found gorging on Indian street food.

Dr. P. C. Maithani

Dr. P. C. Maithani is currently working as a Director in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. During his professional career he has worked on different aspects of renewable energy programmes and policies. Dr. Maithani was Visiting Fellow with TERI for a year in 2006 and also visiting Faculty at TERI University in 2013. He holds a doctorate in Physics and Post Graduate Diploma in Public Policy and Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He has contributed to many papers and articles and authored a book ‘Renewable Energy in the Global Context’.

Dr. Sajid Mubashir

Dr. Sajid Mubashir is Scientist G in Department of Science & Technology. He is member-secretary for the (new) DHI-DST Technology Platform for Electric Mobility (TPEM), which will implement demand-driven R&D / Roadmap based program to develop technologies in Battery & Charging Infrastructure; Vehicle Systems Integration; Electrical Components; Materials & Manufacturing. Most of the R&D Projects will be in Public-Private-Partnership mode, as Consortia Projects. The Mission will also establish half dozen major Centers of Excellence in Electric Mobility research. For the last 2 years he was Member R&D at the National Automotive Board (NAB), Department of Heavy Industry and has been part of the Collaborative Automotive R&D (CAR) Program (2004-2010), and Home Grown Technology Program (HGT) - 1997-2005.