Sustainable Energy Speaker Series
The Sustainable Energy Speaker Series was created to deepen campus and community understanding of contemporary energy issues and spur conversation around energy topics. The series is a joint effort of the Appalachian Energy Center and the Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment.
Upcoming speaker
Advanced Lithium Metal Anodes (LMAs) and Sustainable Energy Solutions by Soelect Inc
Dr. I. Paul Kim, Vice President of Business Development for Soelect. Inc.
Thursday April 25, 2:00-3:30 pm
Plemmons Student Union 169 (Three Top Mountain)
FREE and open to the public. Attendance will be tracked for faculty offering extra credit to students.
What’s this session about and who’s the expert?
Dr. I. Paul Kim is the Vice President of Business Development for Soelect. Inc. and has more than 25 years of experience in the electronics industry materials space. Prior to joining Solelect in 2023, he led business development operations at DuPont, and previously served in leadership positions at Maxim Integrated and AMD. Dr. Kim earned his doctoral, master’s, and bachelor degrees from Seoul National University.
Dr. Kim will discuss the advanced battery production technologies that will power the next generation of electrical vehicles (EVs) and consumer electronics. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Soelect Inc. is a manufacturer of high-performance battery components. Soelect’s production capacity is increasing from the current 200MWh to 7GWh by building Net-Zero LiX® Anode Smart Campus, which can power a total of 121,700 EVs per year (based on a Tesla Model 3 with a 57-KWh pack). The campus can process 406 metric tons using at least 20% of recycled lithium feedstocks from spent lithium-ion batteries and non-battery resources, by developing a powder to foil (P2F) process.
The net zero campus will acquire 50% of its energy needs from all clean and renewable energies, such as solar and biomass energies. Additionally, it will utilize the most advanced energy-efficient smart manufacturing processes, AI-driven Lithium Metal Anode (ALiMA) and Dynamic Dry Room (DDR), to continue decreasing energy usage. Soelect will continue to strive for its NetZero goal of 100% renewable energy usage by 2035.
The LiX® in the smart campus leads Soelect to compete with the current leading lithium metal companies, mostly based in China, to capture a market share of more than 25% in the global LMA market by 2031 with revenue exceeding $200 million and CAGR over 80%, and to play the main role in establishing domestic supply chain of US lithium battery industry.
Previous speakers
| Speaker | Topic |
| Rob Leonard | Phius Passive Buildings |
| Mike Kapp | Phius – The Cost-Optimized Approach to Zero |
| Kate Bashford | Electric Vehicles: Not Just Cars |
| Dr. Murray Fisher | Harnessing the Power of Technology: Sustainable Wind Energy in the Southeast |
| Dr. Adrian Pugsley | Adaptive Facades: Current State of the Art |
| Sophie Mullinax | The Blue Horizons Project: Community Energy Planning in Action |
| Diane Cherry | Consulting Pathways in Clean Energy |
| Ryan Childress | Renewable Natural Gas: What It Is, and Its Role in the U.S. Energy Transition |
| Dionne Delli-Gatti | Promoting Clean Energy Through Community-Based Solutions |
| Tommy Williamson | Grid Modernization and Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Integration in North Carolina |
| Ronald DiFelice | Near-Term and Long-Term Prospects for Grid-Scale Energy Storage |
| Ryan Miller | Building Energy Efficiency: The Foundation of North Carolina’s Clean Energy Future |
| Cindy Shea | Sustainability Goals and Initiatives at UNC Chapel Hill |
| Maria Kingery | Solar Coaster |
| Lida Poger | Electric Vehicle Strategies for Electric Utilities |
| Landon Williams | Duke Energy: Utility Initiatives for a Low Carbon Future |
| Sean Hayes | The Oberlin Project: Achieving Community-Scale Sustainability |
| Bill Pfleger | The New Energy Landscape: Microgrid Trends & Future Directions |
| Sal Gill | Energy Storage Systems and Solutions |
| Jarrett B. Davis | Putting Building Science into Practice: Technolgoy and Building Forensics |
| Patrick Richardson & Jim Dees | App State is 45% More Energy Efficient Since 2002-03: How it was Achieved and Future Goals |
| Katharine Kollins | Utility-Scale Wind Energy Development in the Southeast |
| Brian Bednar | Solar Electricity Development in the Southeast: Process and Prospects for the Future |
| Dr. Gregg Marland | Climate Change 1001: What, Why, How, Who? |
| Robin Aldina | North Carolina’s Clean Energy Industry: Status and Prospects |
| David March | Financial and Economic Analysis for Investing in Renewable Energy and Energy Markets |
| Brian Southwell | Behavior change to reduce home energy use: Ideas to encourage multisector collaboration |
| Jeff Tiller & Chuck Perry | Implementing Energy Conservation Policy via the North Carolina State Building Code |