Register today for the first seminar of the ESE Fall 2026 Seminar Series: The Janak Raj Lectures. This seminar is available online only via Zoom. 

Presented by: Dr. Rudy Shankar, Director & Professor, Energy Systems Engineering, Lehigh University

REGISTER HERE

TIME: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Eastern Time 
LOCATION - ZOOM MEETING link to be sent prior to the seminar date
CONTACT US: inesei@lehigh.edu  

ABSTRACT:  The energy landscape over the past year has overwhelmingly focused on one scenario: satisfying the large energy appetite of AI-driven data centers. The initial joy of utilities expecting a sharp uptick in demand and the enormous investments made by the “Big 7” was replaced with dire warnings of affordability, reduced reliability, and vast mismatch on expectations. Geopolitical events did not help matters. There were significant steps taken: FERC mandated drastic reductions in time to approve interconnection times, almost unanimous for data center vendors to BYOG– bring your own generation—much larger funding for nuclear and geothermal and almost zero funding for traditional renewables. For the first time, solar output exceeded coal plants output. However, CCGT was found to be an invaluable asset to meet peak demands quite frequently even while the name-plate capacity of renewables showed a steady increase. Long duration energy storage (LDES) was one very bright spot. Installation of Vanadium flow batteries have proven to be bankable. Nuclear power was rightly considered the one green energy source that could provide at scale what was sought from renewables but never realized because of intermittency. While this change was generally viewed as negating the advances of renewable energy, the focus on advanced nuclear generation as well as carbon capture and storage(CCS) for coal plants gives hope that perhaps the net zero goals by 2050 may yet be achieved. This talk will examine how far we have come, how far we need to go, to meet a low-carbon or

no-carbon economy.  Come join us for this seminar!

BIO:   Ramesh ("Rudy") Shankar is the Director of the Energy Systems Engineering program at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA,. The program supports the 10-month, 30-credit Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) in Energy. In this capacity, his responsibilities include development of course curriculum and industry projects. 
He was previously the Vice President and Chief Technology Advisor for the Tennessee Valley Authority which managed more than 11 million customers in seven States. His duties included managing renewable energy technology, developing electric transportation & infrastructure, consumer innovation, technologies for power generation and power delivery. His previous appointments included: President/CEO of Signatech Systems and led the efforts to develop requirements for asset management and fleet-wide monitoring for a large Asian utility (30 GW capacity); consulted with the U.N. IAEA on nuclear power requirements for developing countries. He was a Program Manager for fossil- and nuclear-generation sectors for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), 

Dr. Shankar completed his undergraduate work at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi; Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from the University of Delaware, and an MBA at Queens University in an Executive-sponsored Program. Dr Shankar has attended Leadership Development course at Eckerd College and project management training. He has conducted power industry-related training courses & workshops around the globe in Europe, Asia and the Americas.