Lucid Energy Appoints Bill Kelly as New Chief Executive Officer
Portland, OR (PRWEB) September 15, 2015 -- Lucid Energy, a provider of renewable energy systems for in-pipe hydropower and smart water infrastructure, today announced that its board of directors has appointed veteran water industry leader William (Bill) Kelly as president and chief executive officer of the company, effective immediately. Kelly succeeds Gregg Semler who tendered his resignation to pursue other career interests.
As the former president of Isle Utilities and senior advisor at SkyH20 and Clean Power Capital, Kelly comes to Lucid Energy with a strong background of leadership and sales in the water sector. He will continue to drive the broader commercialization of the company’s flagship in-pipe hydropower product, the LucidPipeTM Power System, and will oversee the development and commercialization of new products for renewable energy and smart water infrastructure.
“This is a very exciting time for Lucid Energy as it makes the transition into a fully commercial, sales-oriented company with a focus on providing a strong value proposition to its customers and driving new product deployments,” said Dr. Sam Bernstein, chairman of the board of Lucid Energy. “We believe Bill Kelly has the right combination of skills and expertise to lead the company into this next, continuing phase of growth.”
“I am thrilled to be joining Lucid Energy and its team,” said Bill Kelly, incoming president and CEO of Lucid Energy. “Fostering the commercialization of products in the utility sector motivates my best work, and I’ve been working closely with Gregg Semler and the Lucid Energy team for several years in my role as president of Isle Utilities and administrator of the North American TAG Forum. Lucid Energy is an exciting, dynamic company with a truly innovative product, and I look forward to continuing to build on the strong momentum they have achieved to drive widespread deployment of LucidPipe and other products across North America and around the world,” Kelly added.
Kelly has a broad range of experience working with utilities, technology companies and investors in the water sector. He became the first U.S.-based employee at Isle Utilities and served as its business development director until he was named President in early 2014. He was responsible for establishing the growing Isle Inc. Company presence in North America and facilitated and grew their Technology Approval Group (TAG), an innovation forum that brings new step change technologies to the municipal water and wastewater sector. He grew Isle’s North American customer base from one to more than 50 municipalities in just two years, forming seven different regional TAG groups and developing a thriving consultancy business. He also established the JetStream Program that connects manufacturer’s representatives with emerging technologies.
Through his consulting work with SkyH20 and Clean Power Capital, Kelly has helped companies define and develop new product lines, build industry relationships, grow staff and garner project and corporate financing. Kelly’s first priorities at Lucid Energy will be to follow-through on current projects in the deal pipeline, oversee LucidPipe design enhancements to meet specific customer needs in a wider range of pipelines and build the company’s corporate infrastructure to support a successful global sales effort.
Semler and Kelly have been cooperating to ensure a successful transition with Lucid Energy’s customers and management team.
Over the past four years Lucid Energy has developed, piloted and completed two highly successful implementations of the LucidPipe Power System in municipal water pipelines – a single-turbine system that has been operating for three years in Riverside, California and a four-turbine system in Portland, Oregon that came online earlier this year. The Portland project had the distinction of becoming the first project in the U.S. to garner a 20-year power purchase agreement with a local electric utility for renewable energy produced by in-pipe hydropower. The Portland LucidPipe project now serves as a model for other municipalities and water agencies for how they can develop public-private partnerships and utilize water agency infrastructure to produce clean, environmentally-friendly, low-cost renewable energy.
Lucid Energy is currently exploring opportunities with municipalities, water agencies and renewable energy investors from around the world. The company has secured private funding from a very active syndicate of investors including Northwest Pipe Company, the Israeli hybrid venture capital/crowdsourcing platform OurCrowd, Star Energy and the Harbourton Fund as well as more than $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is being used to accelerate commercialization of the LucidPipe Power System worldwide.
About Lucid Energy
Lucid Energy, Inc. is a provider of renewable energy and smart water management solutions that improve the economics of delivering water. Lucid Energy’s patented LucidPipe™ Power System enables industrial, municipal and agricultural facilities to generate clean, reliable, low-cost electricity from their gravity-fed water pipelines and effluent streams. http://www.lucidenergy.com.
Jennifer Allen Newton, Bluehouse Consulting Group, Inc., http://www.bluehousecg.com, +1 (503) 805-7540, [email protected]
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