Former SolarCity, Applied Materials operations expert Chris Beitel to scale production of high performance, capital efficient storage technology

OJAI, Calif., Jan. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SimpliPhi Power continues to execute on its rapid expansion plans with the recent addition of Chris Beitel as chief operations officer. Beitel joins the SimpliPhi executive team after a noteworthy stay at SolarCity and prior to that, Applied Materials. Beitel will apply his extensive business commercialization expertise to scaling SimpliPhi's storage technology worldwide.

"SimpliPhi has established our technology in the market, serving the military, film, residential and commercial on and off-grid markets over the past decade with non-toxic, highly efficient lithium ferrous phosphate energy storage solutions," said Catherine Von Burg, CEO of SimpliPhi Power. "As the solar industry matures and awareness grows, the opportunities for energy storage deployment are ripening. Chris has made a name for himself scaling up differentiated technologies over his career in emerging markets such as ours, and his expertise will be valuable in growing our manufacturing footprint and customer pipeline. We are thrilled to welcome Chris to the SimpliPhi team."

Chris Beitel was most recently executive vice president of global operations and planning at Silevo, a wholly owned subsidiary of SolarCity, where he was responsible for global operations, supply chain, sales and marketing, product strategy and key partner networks to enable industry leading solar system installation cost and performance with the company. Beitel played a key role in the $350M acquisition of Silevo by SolarCity. He also was the principal executive who negotiated a $750M subsidy package from the State of New York to attract Silevo and SolarCity to set up manufacturing operations in the United States. Prior to Silevo, Beitel grew multiple products at Applied Materials, Inc., into billion dollar product lines.

"I am drawn to business environments where my charter is to take emerging, truly differentiated technologies and scale the business," said Beitel. "SimpliPhi has the right combination of perfected technology and a capital efficient business model that is already benefiting from the increasing interest in energy storage. And as we grow, the value proposition for SimpliPhi only gets better thanks to economies of scale. I look forward to bringing this impressive technology to full commercialization across the world."

Founded in 2002, SimpliPhi Power battery technology utilizes lithium ferrous phosphate chemistry with proprietary architecture and power electronics to deliver energy storage solutions that are non-toxic, lightweight and do not require costly and bulky heat mitigation. In addition to offering seamless integration with all industry standard inverter charge controllers, SimpliPhi Power solutions are modular and scalable with a lightweight form factor - all backed by a 10-year warranty.

For more from new SimpliPhi COO Chris Beitel, see his Q&A on the SimpliPhi blog here: http://simpliphipower.com/energy-storage-qa-with-new-coo-chris-beitel. Attendees of Cleantech Forum San Francisco can also hear him discussing the biggest trends in energy storage on the panel, More Storage, Less Hassle: Exploring New Models in Energy Storage, happening on Tuesday, January 26th at 11am.

About SimpliPhi Power

SimpliPhi Power designs and manufactures clean energy storage and management systems that utilize lithium ferrous phosphate chemistry. Founded in 2002 as LibertyPak/Optimized Energy Storage, California-based SimpliPhi combines non-toxic lithium ferrous phosphate chemistry with proprietary cell and battery architecture to create the most safe, reliable, durable and scalable on-demand power solutions available for the residential, commercial, military and film industries. Integral to all SimpliPhi solutions is a management system that further optimizes the lifetime performance and durability of its batteries. SimpliPhi Power storage system components are UL certified, and have been rigorously tested and deployed by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. For more information, please visit SimpliPhipower.com and follow us on Twitter @SimpliPhiPower or on Facebook and LinkedIn.