EnerVenue, the first company to bring metal-hydrogen batteries capable of more than 30,000 cycles to the clean energy revolution, today announced the appointment of Rob Willy as Senior Vice President, Manufacturing. Willy brings decades of experience in manufacturing acumen and new product launches to EnerVenue. He will lead manufacturing operations and optimization at EnerVenue’s new gigafactory in Shelby County, Kentucky.
Willy joins EnerVenue with 20+ years of leadership experience at General Electric Appliances. He headed the company’s Advanced Manufacturing Engineering team and served as Plant Manager across several U.S. factories. Among his accomplishments at GE Appliances, Willy was instrumental in rebuilding manufacturing capabilities that enabled significant business growth and created jobs for U.S.-based workers. Most recently, Willy has served as the Vice President of Manufacturing at Fortna for the past two years, where he led three manufacturing sites that built high-volume capital equipment to enable industry-wide expansion of e-commerce and intralogistics networks. Willy holds a B.S. in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Ohio University.
“EnerVenue has quickly made a name for itself as a clear alternative to lithium-ion for large-scale clean energy projects,” said Willy. “The cost, durability, versatility, and sustainability benefits of EnerVenue’s Energy Storage Vessels™ have become clear to developers, utilities, and partners, and production must accelerate to meet demand. EnerVenue is doing just that with its massive gigafactory and strategic materials and equipment deals. As a long-time resident of Kentucky, I’m especially excited to lead manufacturing operations at our gigafactory and bring high-paying advanced manufacturing jobs to Shelby County.”
In the plants he has led, Rob has launched the Toyota Production System and employed Lean problem-solving methodology to drive next-level productivity gains, operational efficiency, and world-class quality. He was an early adopter of Industry 4.0 to enable real-time problem-solving through shop floor visualization and automation.
“Rob gives EnerVenue the proven leadership we need as we begin production in our gigafactory,” said Jorg Heinemann, CEO, EnerVenue. “He brings a unique blend of technical and operational expertise, and has been very successful at building and developing strong teams that optimize plant performance and efficiency. As we embark on the next chapter at EnerVenue—one of significant scale to bring our storage solutions to more customers—the experience and insight Rob adds to our manufacturing direction is pivotal.”
EnerVenue’s gigafactory is expected to begin production in 2024. The company expects to invest in excess of $1 billion to expand to more than 20 GWh per year across its domestic manufacturing sites in subsequent phases. The company has more than 7 GWh of customer commitments from Pine Gate Renewables, Nicon Industries’ Green Energy Renewable Solutions, and others.
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