Energy Vault Holdings, Inc., a leader in sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, announced the appointment of Craig Horne, Ph.D., as Vice President, Advanced Energy Storage Development. Dr. Horne will be based in Energy Vault’s U.S. headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif.
Dr. Horne began working with energy storage technologies more than 30 years ago and joins Energy Vault with deep domestic and international experience. Over multiple decades, Dr. Horne managed the development and commercialization of advanced energy storage systems, as well as materials, processes, and diagnostic methods for energy, electronics, and telecom applications.
In response to a fast-moving market requesting more sophisticated storage solutions, Dr. Horne will be responsible for the expansion of Energy Vault’s portfolio of energy storage solutions that complement the company's current offerings, supporting early-stage research at the company, and supporting commercial activities involving the current solution offerings.
“We are privileged to have Craig join as a leader of Energy Vault. Craig brings extensive experience to Energy Vault with a proven track record in leadership roles across a unique set of storage industry segments, including technology and product development, project integration and project execution,” said Marco Terruzzin, Chief Commercial and Product Officer, Energy Vault. “Dr. Horne will be responsible for driving new technologies and solutions to market that address customer demand for a wide range of storage requirements, while further enhancing our current portfolio.”
Dr. Horne’s appointment further demonstrates Energy Vault’s successful rapid execution of the Energy Vault Solutions (EVS) technology-neutral integration and software strategy, introduced in Q4 2021, to provide customers with the most flexible and cost-effective energy storage solutions regardless of the underlying storage and generation technology. EVS leverages the most advanced software architecture, cyber security protocols, and optimization algorithms to enable the secure integration and orchestration of multiple energy assets under a multitude of use cases.
As recently announced, Energy Vault through its EVS offering, signed three EPC contracts for a total of 495 MWh with Jupiter Power and Wellhead Electric. This includes a 100 MW (200 MWh) battery energy storage system in Fort Stockton, Texas to provide Fast Frequency Response and energy support to the ERCOT market, a 10 MW (20 MWh) system in Carpinteria, California for Resource Adequacy in the CAISO market as well as energy resiliency in a disaster-prone, transmission-vulnerable stretch of the Southern California coastline, and a 68.8 MW (275.2 MWh), in Stanton, California, to meet critical power needs for southern California.
“I am delighted to join the Energy Vault team and am especially excited to capitalize on my thirty years working with battery technologies, the last seven of which have been spent in the system integration, EPC, and owner/IPP sectors of the industry to bring additional breakthrough storage solutions to the market,” said Dr. Craig Horne, Vice President, Advanced Energy Storage Development, Energy Vault. “It recently became clear to me just how drastic the limitations are related to how far incumbent lithium-ion based solutions can go in satisfying the accelerating demand for energy storage. With the shift to intermittent renewable energy assets, the power sector needs a diverse set of economically competitive energy storage technologies for long-duration applications. In addition, the competition for Li-ion batteries from the transportation sector has increased prices and squeezed supply. These market forces have created an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the development of alternative energy storage technologies for stationary energy applications. I believe Energy Vault’s strategy to create multiple solutions that satisfy the wide range of requirements across the spectrum of storage projects is best positioned to capitalize on this opportunity and enable a renewable world.”
Immediately prior to joining Energy Vault, Dr. Horne served as Managing Director of Energy Storage at Wellhead Electric Corporation, a leading developer and operator of innovative energy generation and energy storage facilities. Prior to his role at Wellhead Electric Corporation, Dr. Horne held senior leadership energy storage roles with Swinerton Renewable Energy, RES Group and EnerVault, which he co-founded and served as Chairman, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer. Dr. Horne also served six years on the Board of the Energy Storage Association (now American Clean Power), including Chairman from 2018-2019, and two years on the Board of the California Energy Storage Alliance. Fifteen of his 22 awarded U.S. patents are in the fields of batteries, fuel cells, and grid storage.
Dr. Horne holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Mineral Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, an M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.S. with high honors in Materials Science & Engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville.
