About Us
Our Story
SolStor Energy LLC is a Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) technology company and developer whose Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and Electrical Thermal Energy Storage (eTES) projects will be built, owned, and operated by separate equity partners, of which SolStor will be a minority owner. The substantial amounts of photovoltaic (PV) electricity being constructed to meet the daytime power demands have created a large and rapidly growing need for electricity generation when PV output stops. CSP plants are designed with thermal energy storage (TES) to store energy during the day to meet the energy needs from the evening, through the night, until PV generation picks back up in the morning.
SolStor is a partnership between Solar Dynamics LLC, a CSP technology company, and six globally recognized CSP experts: Dr. Frederick Morse, Dr. David Kearney, Hank Price, Xavier Lara, Ryan Shininger and Fernando Gonzalez to market the next generation of CSP and eTES technologies. During the last eight years, Solar Dynamics has been developing next generation CSP technologies and was awarded R&D contracts worth over $20 M by the US DOE and NREL. Solar Dynamics led an industry team (that included Morse & Kearney) that wrote the NREL CSP Best Practices report. Collectively, the founders have played major roles in the design, development, financing, construction, or operation of 40% of the CSP plants operating globally, excluding China.
Our Mission
To deploy Concentrating Solar Power and Thermal Energy Storage projects in the United States, utilizing the flexibility of the technology to deliver stored solar energy at times of day when other renewables are less available, thereby accelerating the decarbonization of America’s energy supply.
“Given the substantial amounts of photovoltaic electricity being constructed to meet daytime power demands have created a large and rapidly growing need for electricity generation when PV output stops. Our plants are designed with long duration thermal energy storage to capture and store solar energy during the day to meet energy needs at night.”
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Dr. Frederick H. Morse
CEO
Dr. Morse is also the President of Morse Associates, Inc, a renewable energy consulting company formed in 1989.
He is the former Senior Advisor, US Operations for Abengoa Solar, Inc. where he led the company’s business development activities in the US. Dr. Morse played a key role in the development and financing of the Solana and Mojave Concentrating Solar Power plants, each 280 MW with a combined investment of about $4 Billion.
Dr. Morse first became involved in renewable energy issues in the late 1960s when he served as Executive Director of the White House Assessment of Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource.
In his work at the US Department of Energy, Dr. Morse played a significant role in defining and managing major solar energy R&D programs, including Solar Heating and Cooling, PV and CSP.
For over a decade, Dr. Morse was the Chairman of the Utility-Scale Solar Power Division of the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
Dr. Morse is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
He was awarded with the IEA’s SolarPACES CSP Lifetime Achievements 2013 Award.
Hank Price
COO
Hank Price is also the Managing Director of Solar Dynamics LLC, a technology company committed to sustainable solutions for energy and infrastructure needs. With over 35 years of experience in CSP technologies, Price’s expertise spans across various roles, including working at operating solar power plants, serving as a systems analyst and technology manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and was the US CTO for a large global CSP development company.
Under Price’s leadership, Solar Dynamics has been awarded numerous R&D contracts by the U.S. Department of Energy and NREL to develop next generation CSP technologies and CSP plant configurations. He led the industry team supporting the NREL CSP Best Practices Study.
Hank Price holds a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Resource Engineering from Cal Poly Humboldt. He is a registered mechanical engineer in the State of California.
Xavier Lara
CTO
Xavier Lara is also the CEO of AELIUS Energies and Santa Cruz Termosolar SPV, where he is actively involved in the development of green hydrogen and green ammonia projects across various countries.
With over 20 years of experience in the solar thermal industry, Lara has a unique combination of knowledge and experience in R&D, engineering, construction, commissioning, and business development of CSP. He is also skilled in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) of renewable assets.
In addition to his roles at SSE LLC and AELIUS Energies SLU, Lara is Spain’s ambassador to the EU’s Climate Pact and a member of the Board of Directors of the Ammonia Energy Association (AEA).
Currently, Xavier Lara serves as International Senior Advisor on CSP and Green Ammonia for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Spain and a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in Solar Astrophysics from the University of Central Lancashire in England.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and he was awarded with the IEA’s SolarPACES CSP Lifetime Achievements Award in 2022.
Dr. David Kearney
VP, Strategy
Dr. Kearney is also the President and principal member of KA Solar LLC, a company specializing in Concentrating Solar Power technology and electric solar power plant development. He provides consultation services for the commercial development and project implementation of solar thermal systems, with a primary focus on solar electric power plants and R&D projects to advance the technology.
With more than 40 years of mechanical engineering experience in the fields of thermal and power engineering, Dr. Kearney has specialized in solar and other renewable and energy-efficient thermal energy systems for over 25 years. His expertise and contributions to the field of CSP have been recognized with several awards.
Currently, Dr. Kearney also serves as a CSP expert for the International Finance Corporation (IFC / World Bank Group).
His work spans various projects related to CSP technology and solar power plant development, making him a valuable asset to the SSE LLC team. His leadership and expertise play a crucial role in driving the company’s mission to revolutionize the renewable energy sector.
He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He was awarded the IEA’s SolarPACES CSP Lifetime Achievements Award in 2018.
Ryan Shininger
VP, Project Development
In addition to his role with SolStor, Ryan Shininger is also a Senior Engineer and Project Manager with Solar Dynamics. He has spent the entirety of his 20-year career in the energy business, predominantly concentrating solar technologies, focusing on the development of parabolic troughs with thermal energy storage, from research & development to utility scale power plant deployments. During his prior employment with an international CSP project developer, Ryan served as the engineering manager in the United States and later as their country manager of Israel where he oversaw the development and construction of a 110 MW CSP parabolic trough plant with 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage.
Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an executive education certificate from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado.
Maria Delgado
VP, Finance and Administration
Maria Delgado is also the CFO at Solar Dynamics.
With over 20 years of experience in Renewable Energy companies, she was VP, Finance at Abengoa North America, Inc, and her experience includes also former positions in companies as Abengoa Solar Inc, and Iberdrola.
She holds a double Bachelor degree in Economics and in Laws (Business Laws) by the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid and she is a CPA by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
ADVISOR
John Paul (JP) Moscarella
Investment Senior Advisor
John Paul (“JP”) Moscarella is currently a Managing Director at Sustana Cooling Impact Fund and one of the co-founders. JP is an entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded five (5) companies, including: Emerging Energy & Environment (EEE), a fund management platform with approximately US$65 million in assets under management (AUM), and Econergy International (“Econergy”), a renewable developer with 260 MW (190 MW net) and a large carbon credits portfolio at the time of its sale in 2008 to GDF Suez (now Engie). At Econergy, he was also responsible for an Energy Services Company (ESCo) division in Mexico for several years.
As a prior fund manager and General Partner for two private equity (PE)/VC funds, he has launched investment platforms in climate and clean energy. Additionally, he served as a board director for sixteen (16) companies and organizations, including a former role as Chair and Board Director of the Latin America & Caribbean Council on Renewable Energy (LAC-CORE). JP is a pioneer in the field of carbon credits and climate finance and has participated in its application since the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992. His technical experience includes natural gas power, wind, hydropower, biomass, fuel cells project development, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (EV) assembly and EV supply equipment (EVSE) technology companies, along with ESCO experience and developing solar more recently.
He has raised capital for start-up companies and several private equity clean energy funds or specialized environmental carbon funds for approximately US$1.5 billion in total capital (including an IPO on the London AIM market for Econergy in 2006 with over US$100 million in the initial float). Currently, he is working on climate tech and recently has raised capital for clean energy and climate start-ups, arranging seed financing and investing directly into several start-ups including a community solar company (Neighborhood Sun in USA) and distributed solar company (9Energia in Brazil), The Climate Service, Inc. (climate analytics software-as-a-service), sold to S&P Global in 2021), Gybe (water analytics), Pirl (smart EV charger) and Brightfield Transportation Solutions (EV charging stations), and solar financing (Sunstone Credit) among others.MBA from the Yale and a BS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. He is a native of Mexico, is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and conversational in French, has worked in over 40 countries worldwide and has lived in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and USA mainly, as well as working in India doing biomass cogen energy development work.