Correspondent: Jorge Barrientos
Sgt. at Arms: Toni Harper
Invocation: Randy Saunders
Flag Salute: Jeff Johnson
Song: Ed Tomlinson, “This Land Is Your Land”
SPOKE EDITOR PROFILE:
Jorge Barrientos is the director of marketing and public relations at Chain | Cohn | Clark law office. He serves on board of directors for a variety of community organizations including The Hub of Bakersfield, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (Kern County Chapter), and Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Business Education Foundation. When he’s not working or serving our community, you can find him traveling the world and hanging with his family, which includes wife Carla, 5-year-old son Julian, and 2-year-old daughter Gianna Sol.
GUESTS:
- J. Francisco Ruesga, Ruesga Farms (Juan Bustamante)
- Ron Sandhu, Arco (Juan Bustamante)
- Javier Soegaard, Citizens Resources LLC (Kristen Watson)
- Stephanie Sanchez (Doc Ervin)
- Visiting Rotarian Andy Stanley
GOOD NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Bell ringing for the Salvation Army will be held Friday, Dec. 8, around Bakersfield. See Mike McCoy, Jeff Johnson, Pat Collins, Andrae Gonzales, or Dave Turner to sign up and participate.
Welcome Milad Vakili of Bakersfield Cash Register as the newest member of Bakersfield Downtown Rotary.
President Joe Hay shared that Jim Burke Lincoln will hold an open house from 5:30-7:30 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
Jorge Barrientos gave a couple of announcements and provided an update on Frank C.’s travels:
- The Hub of Bakersfield “Night of Magic” will be held this Saturday. Celebrate and support downtown’s revitalization efforts and buy your tickets today.
- Jorge turned 40 on Tuesday and celebrated the milestone with his wife and 26 friends and family with a trip to Jamaica. Included in the group were long-time friends and Rotarians Vin Dang and Jean-Luc Slagle.
- Also joining in on the fun was East Bakersfield Rotary Frank Colatruglio.
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
- Dark next week for Thanksgiving
- Thursday, Nov. 30, at BMoA with District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer
PROGRAM
We were joined by
Kemp Gregory, CEO and a co-founder at Bakersfield startup Renewell Energy, which aims to convert “oil and gas’ largest liability into renewable energy’s greatest asset.”
In short,
Renewell Energy’s technology repurposes orphaned or idle oil wells by using a gravity power system as a lower-price alternative to lithium batteries. The system uses renewably powered winches to lift weights from near the bottom of oil wells and then lowers the weights to run a generator that feeds the grid. This solves two big problems we face, Kemp said.
- The need to spend $400 billion to clean up all oil and gas wells.
- The need to increase U.S. energy storage by 10 times for solar and wind.
And there is opportunity in Kern County and beyond:
- 21,500 wells potentially suitable that can be “plugged, protected, and monitored.”
- 4,000 jobs transitioned from oil and gas industries, “using the same folks doing the same things, but with a different outcome.”
- 2,000 MWh, the most flexible and efficient energy storage in the world.
- California has 50,000 idle wells, requiring about $13 billion to clean; about 350,000 residents live within 600 feet of these wells.
Earlier this year Renewell won $3.1 million in grants and raised $3.4 million in seed money for their projects. It works with established operators locally including Aera near Lost Hills and CRC in Elk Hills. It is pursuing federal grants to use locally and developing local community partnerships.
In 2024, it hopes to install and deploy 25 commercial devices. In the meantime, the Renewell team is helping draft legislation to create a path for gravity well conversions.
Before starting Renewell Energy, Kemp worked for Shell for 5 years, where he installed and managed capital-intensive projects and coordinated large operations teams across North and South America. He earned his MS in sustainable engineering from Stanford University and his BS in mechanical engineering from UT Austin. He is an avid table tennis player, and his wife is a local nurse at Adventist Health.
Learn more:
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