POWER’s Rising Star Award focuses on individuals who have had a positive impact on the power generation sector early in their careers. Naphtal Haya, Practice Lead, Long Duration Energy Storage at DNV Energy USA, is one of those people. Haya in a short period of time has established himself as a trusted technical authority when it comes to long-duration energy storage (LDES), supporting the deployment of technologies essential to grid reliability, renewable integration, and the energy transition.
Haya has driven DNV’s initiative to expand the company’s technical leadership beyond conventional lithium-ion battery systems. He has led and supported independent engineering and advisory engagements across residential, commercial and industrial, and utility-scale energy storage products, directly informing investment decisions and project execution. His work has strengthened DNV’s capabilities in emerging technologies including flow batteries, metal-air batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and sensible thermal energy storage. Haya has translated complex system-level risks into bankable engineering assessments, helping accelerate the commercialization of next-generation storage technologies. His work has aligned with his group’s continued emphasis on innovation and practical results.
“Naphtal stands out because he has done something the energy storage sector urgently needs: he has translated technical uncertainty into a practical, financeable framework,” said Jamie Daggett, Energy Storage & Fuel Cell Lead at Ariel Green, a technology performance insurance group. “His work on the LDES Bankability Scorecard, including the Deployment Maturity Index, gives investors, developers, insurers, and other market participants a more disciplined way to evaluate long-duration energy storage technologies based on field reliability, deployment scale, geographic diversity, and repeatability. That type of work is highly valuable because it helps move the market beyond broad technology claims and toward objective evidence of commercial readiness. Naphtal combines deep technical credibility with a clear understanding of what is required to make emerging storage technologies bankable, which makes him exceptionally deserving of POWER’s Rising Star recognition.”
Haya has a degree in bioengineering from Harvard University, graduating cum laude in 2022. His academic research on aqueous organic redox flow batteries addressed membrane-electrolyte compatibility, ionic crossover, and system-level trade-offs between energy and power density. His work has been published in journals of the American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society. He is known for bridging research and engineering rigor with and real-world deployment, supporting enhanced decision-making for utilities, developers, and investors navigating emerging energy storage technologies.
“From day one at DNV, Naphtal has demonstrated initiative well beyond his years. He brings intellectual curiosity, discipline, and a genuine commitment to advancing the energy storage industry through his client work, thought leadership, and community-building efforts in the LDES space,” said Michael Kleinberg, Vice President-Energy Storage Advisory at DNV. “He is exactly the kind of emerging leader this award is meant to recognize. It’s been an absolute pleasure to mentor Naphtal during his career at DNV and watch him develop into one of our industry’s next great leaders.”
Haya’s work in the power sector includes thought leadership and industry engagement. He has been interviewed as a subject matter expert for Green America, and has authored articles in Global Mining Review that examine battery supply chain risk, ethics, and circularity. He is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences, including The Battery Show and Intersolar Energy Storage North America, and serves on the advisory boards of The Battery Show and Fastmarkets. He also founded and moderates the Global LDES Commercialization Forum on LinkedIn and publishes FairGreen, both of which promote knowledge-sharing and accelerate adoption of LDES solutions.
“What makes Naphtal especially impressive is the breadth of his contribution to the energy storage market at such an early stage in his career,” said Daggett. “His work spans electrochemical research, independent technical diligence, project finance, risk allocation, supply chain risk, and long-duration storage commercialization. From his early flow battery research at Harvard to his current work at DNV advising on technical due diligence and emerging storage technologies, Naphtal has consistently focused on the practical barriers that determine whether new technologies can move from promising concepts to financeable infrastructure. His thought leadership on LDES procurement, risk treatment, project financing, and bankability has helped advance a more serious and commercially grounded conversation around long-duration storage. He is exactly the type of emerging leader the Rising Star Award is meant to recognize.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
