Energy Resilience Specialist Helps Improve His Home

Name: Kevin Moy (he/him)

PhD: Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, 2023

What was your main area of research?

I developed ways to more accurately test and model lithium-ion batteries under realistic usage conditions. This is important as existing methods are insufficient or overly-simplified from real-world usage, such as grid-scale storage or electric vehicles.

My research developed laboratory testing protocols synthesized directly from real-world, application-dependent data to drive aging experiments where we showed an over 40% increase in expected battery lifetime vs. existing testing methods, showing this disparity.

I also developed electrochemical aging models to more accurately tie such laboratory aging data to fundamental physical principles.

What is your current job?

I am an Energy Resilience Project Specialist for the Hawaii State Energy Office in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I help manage projects for energy resilience, which ensures Hawaii's residents will have sufficient electrical power before, during, and after severe weather events or other shocks to the electrical grid system.

I also conduct analyses for grid resiliency, including microgrid sizing and capacity expansion modeling, to meet Hawaii's 100% renewable goals by 2045 while still ensuring reliable, resilient, and clean power.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

I love working on issues that use my expertise and academic interests to directly impact my hometown community.

Helping Hawaii reach its renewable portfolio standard goals -- and in turn, unlocking a more sustainable, self-sufficient, and cleaner energy economy -- has always been in my statements of purpose, from undergrad to grad to PhD applications, and even on some job applications.

I feel that this job fulfills my sense of purpose in that way: taking the learnings, experiences, and knowledge gained during my time away from home in the SF Bay Area, and applying them to improve the community that gave me the background and support necessary for the opportunity to attend Stanford (and all the Bay Area adventures during/afterward).

What is the most important skill you developed or experience you had during your PhD that now helps you in your current position?

Aside from subject matter expertise, I have learned to learn quickly from new information. "Literature review" is forever useful; you will always be learning from the works of others, whether it's an existing model, spreadsheet, report, or study.

How did you build the skills necessary for your current role?

I also worked for three years before my PhD. This gave me some industry skills and exposure that were also helpful, in particular working with grants, applications, and contracts.

How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?

I was fortunate to talk to a great industry leader in energy transitions, Dr. Holmes Hummel. While taking Dr. Hummel's class at Stanford, I was able to talk to them about my future career prospects, and they mentioned the Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO) as a potential option. I then was lucky to find that HSEO was hiring at the time, and then applied on the website.

B.S. ➡️ M.S. ➡️ energy storage start-up ➡️ consulting ➡️ PhD graduate ➡️ HSEO

If someone is interested in a similar role, what would you recommend they start doing now to prepare?

Nothing, really.

If you are already studying/researching in energy (or adjacent fields, like sustainability, biology, general engineering, biology, law... etc), you could work at a place like HSEO.

Many of my colleagues also happen to have PhDs but not necessarily within the field they work in. It is more important that you can learn on the job and are open to learning new things.

Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?

I didn't even set out to do a PhD after my Master's lol. But I saw a great opportunity to do some really interesting research in batteries.

So I was never committed to a career in academia -- I didn't and still don't think that the hours and workload are for me. But I am still open to doing research with the local university here (in particular, the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute) after I have established myself at HSEO, and would be open to academia/research positions in the future as it unfolds.

What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?

Keep your mind and eyes open -- keep talking and networking to others, but don't stress it -- follow your passions and interests, even if they are not exactly what you are working on now -- close as few doors (and burn as few bridges) as possible.

Are there any components of your identity you would like to share, including how they have impacted your journey?

Do you know how rare it (feels) to be a BIPOC-American in this field (especially being in a highly-technical STEM field in renewable energy)?? LMAO