Show Notes
In this episode, we talk with battery industry legend Bob Galyen. Reflecting on his nearly 50 years in the battery industry, Bob shares his career journey from the US automotive industry to last week’s announcement of his receiving the Benchmark Lifetime Achievement Award. He details his experience as an early executive at CATL, where he played an instrumental role in building what is now the world’s biggest battery company. We discuss batteries' role in saving the planet by reducing po...
More from IONS by Peak Energy
This episode was recorded in June 2026, following the announcement of the strategic partnership between GM and Peak Energy. In this episode, Cam sits down with Kurt Kelty, a 35-year veteran of the battery industry and the catalyst of some of the most consequential deals in energy: the Panasonic-Tesla Gigafactory partnership, the development of Tesla's cell supply chain, and now General Motors' landmark partnership with Peak Energy. Cam and Kurt first explore their connections in what was once...
In this session of IONS, Cam is joined by Dr. Adrian Yao, founder of Lithium-ion cell development company EnPower and STEER, Stanford's center for energy feasibility research. Cam and Adrian have both been in the battery space for years, and their experience across chemistries, academia, and industry informs a conversation that ranges from material development to project economics and the approach needed to commercialize batteries in the west: technological pragmatism. For the first tim...
In this episode of the IONS podcast, host Cam Dales sits down with energy storage pioneer Marek Kubik to discuss the past, present, and future of the grid-scale energy storage industry. Drawing on over 16 years of experience, from the early commercial projects at AES to the scaling of Fluence, Marek provides a unique perspective on how storage has evolved from a niche grid-stabilization tool into a cornerstone of the global energy transition. The episode explores several key themes: The Middl...
This episode of the IONS podcast features host Cam Dales of Peak Energy with Dr. Venkat Srinivasan, a prominent battery scientist at Argonne National Lab. Dr. Srinivasan, an electrochemist with 30 years in the field, explains Argonne's "big science" mission to solve national problems like energy storage, also aiding industry. His industry sabbatical reinforced his dedication to fundamental scientific inquiry. The conversation highlights a shift in battery applications: beyond mature ele...
This IONS podcast episode features Cam Dales (Peak Energy) with Ben Steinberg and Carly Good from Venn Strategies, a lobbying and consulting firm based in Washington DC. They delve into how policy significantly impacts the energy and battery storage industry. The discussion traces US energy policy evolution from the Obama administration's Recovery Act and its early battery manufacturing investments to the current era of industrial policy. Key legislation highlighted includes the Bipartisan In...