SSTUSA - Key Persons
Dr. Yao Yu earned his Bachelor degree in Building Environment and Equipment Engineering in 2004. He received his two Masters degrees in Architectural Engineering and Civil Engineering in 2008 and 2012 respectively. In 2014, he earned his Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University. This interdisciplinary academic experience gives Dr. Yu a solid understanding of knowledge on various disciplines as well as diverse research interests including building/underground thermal energy storage, ground source heat pump, building energy conservation technology, building energy management, computational airflow modeling, HVAC system design and simulation, etc. As the author or co-author, he has contributed to more than twenty publications on the topics related to his research interests. After graduation, Dr. Yu worked in industry as an energy engineer to perform building energy modeling and simulation. He is a LEED Accredited Professional, an ASHRAE Building Energy Modeling Professional (BEMP) and Building Energy Assessment Professional (BEAP). Currently, Dr. Yu is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Construction Management and Engineering at North Dakota State University.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant and Inventor With Engineering
Gaylord Olson is an independent consultant and inventor with engineering degrees from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and UCLA. He is a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee for Mechanical Engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 12 patents with several patents pending related to underground thermal energy storage and solar thermal energy collection. He is a member of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, the American Solar Energy Society, Radiant Professionals Alliance, and Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director and Cofounder of Seasonal Storage Technologies
Jeffrey A. Bisk has been a lifelong serial entrepreneur and consultant with abundant energy. Jeffrey is a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. After graduating from Rutgers with a dual major, Jeffrey founded and funded a multi-office real estate and insurance brokerage firm. Jeffrey has been a founder of a Toastmasters chapter and is active in Rotary. His latest venture into thermal energy production and storage has been over 10 years in the making. Jeffrey is very passionate about clean green, sustainable energy solutions and the war on carbon. Jeffrey is now taking a bold leadership role with major innovations in addressing the complex energy problem of carbon emissions and global warming.
Jeff Harrison has been a consulting engineer providing mechanical, plumbing and fire protection services in the State of Maine and throughout New England since 1979.
Currently as an Applications Engineer for Blake Group Holdings (BGH), specializing in Alternative Energy, Mr. Harrison spends a considerable portion of his time at BGH providing "Peak Performance Solutions" facility energy review services as part of a comprehensive plan to convert buildings from fossil fuels to integrated hybrid thermal solar and geo-exchange energy systems.
Beginning about 2012, Mr. Harrison began working with Geoexchange systems from a forensic engineering perspective to understand why systems were routinely underperforming from expectations. Based on this in depth understanding of the science of how geoexchange works, Mr. Harrison developed a new paradigm for "Near Net Zero Energy HVAC by Design" that encompasses more efficient borehole heat exchangers, more efficient pump and piping optimization, utilization of high efficiency frictionless chillers for geoexchange, and other aspects for a system wide approach ultimately resulting in a fourfold increase in geoexchange BTU/$.
At Blake's new warehouse facility in CT, he has installed a geo-exchange research facility with 4 different borehole heat exchanger styles to monitor and measure performance for comparison to commercial software calculation models for improvement of the software used in the industry.
While with Turner Building Science, Mr. Harrison developed and received a patent for hybrid integration of thermal solar and geoexchange into a combined system for higher efficiency.
Recent activities designing and installing both horizontal and deep borehole closed loop geoexchange systems have included many variations for hybrid thermal solar / geoexchange heating and cooling systems This hybrid application of his collection of peak performance equipment typically provides more BTU's / dollar than previously engineered systems.
Previous to joining BGH, Mr. Harrison spent 6 years as a principal with Turner Building Science & Design, 16 years as the principal of Building Tech Services - Consulting Engineers, 10 years as a mechanical engineer with Neill & Gunter, Inc., providing mechanical and electrical consulting engineering services and two years working for Carrier Corp. in the industrial chiller department.
Job Titles:
- Owner of Thomas Geothermal Engineering, LLC
- Senior Director of Design and Installation
Jim Thomas is the owner of Thomas Geothermal Engineering, LLC (TGE), a Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR) company incorporated in New Jersey in November 2010. Jim currently holds a NJ Master HVACR license and a NJ Home Improvement Contractor license. TGE acts as a project HVAC prime and is responsible for all system design, geothermal equipment selection, program management, installation supervision, and startup support. He holds a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Science degree in Electronics Engineering from Monmouth University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI). His company developed the first ever Geothermal HVAC Systems curriculum for Burlington County College in 2012, and taught the first course offering Spring Semester 2013. He is also certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to handle Class I and Class II refrigerants and is an active member in the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) based in Oklahoma State University. Jim has also received Bosch factory training for the installation of Bosch Geothermal Systems. He has recently been cited as an industry expert in the new "Modern Geothermal HVAC Engineering and Control Applications" textbook by Egg, Cunniff and Orio released by McGraw-Hill in June 2013.
Job Titles:
- Owner and Founder of Earth Environmental Group, LLC
Mr. Skinner, owner and founder of Earth Environmental Group, LLC. (E2G Solar), designs, installs, repairs, researches and teaches about residential and commercial solar thermal systems and their integration with a full range of HVAC and geothermal systems. These systems have been integrated with existing or new space, hot water and pool heating systems in New York and neighboring states. Mr. Skinner previously worked for the NYS Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau supervising a team of scientists who participated in a wide array of environmental litigation, legislation and policy development for 33 years. Mr. Skinner is a NYS registered professional engineer and has worked as an engineer, educator and legislative and policy advocate in the environmental field for the past 45 years.
Job Titles:
- Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs
Roni F. Epstein, Esq. has a Juris Doctor Law from Georgetown Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts form State University of Stony Brook. She was Counsel at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and served in both the Office of General Counsel and as a litigator in the Office of Administrative Litigation on precedent setting energy market matters. Roni was Assistant General Counsel at the Long Island Power Authority, and Counsel for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at New York Power Authority. Roni provides legal and regulatory counsel to local governments, climate stakeholders and infrastructure developers. She is formerly President and currently Board Member to the Northeast Chapter, Energy Bar Association and is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, New York, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Roni provides counsel on Energy Policy Development & Implementation, Energy market Development, Risk Mitigation, Continuity Planning , Reliability and Cyber Security Standards and Compliance, Litigation, Stakeholder Interface and Alternative Energy Development