Our Employee Spotlight series celebrates and highlights the EVLO team’s unique talents, achievements, and perspectives. This month, we’re highlighting Raphaël Nadeau, Senior Electrical Engineer, for his exciting contributions to the fields of engineering and clean technology.
Q: What is your professional background?
A: With a master’s in electrical engineering, I’ve always been focused on optimizing and innovating energy and power electronics. At my first job, I designed electrical motors for a small startup. Although at the time I was just beginning my career, I assumed the role of Chief Electrical Designer. Eventually, the company pivoted to designing wind turbines, giving me my first direct experience with renewable energy. From there, I moved into the energy storage sector, primarily building microgrids for small hospitals and schools throughout France and Africa. I did a brief stint as the technical director of an EV startup before deciding to go back into energy storage at a company that was working on much larger battery applications. For me, this was a great opportunity to adapt to a new scale of storage, from KW to MW. It was at this point that EVLO approached me to join their world-class R&D team — an offer I couldn’t refuse — where I’ve remained ever since.
Q: What drove you to follow a career in energy storage with EVLO?
A: I’ve been a ‘battery geek’ all my life and energy storage technologies allow me to indulge in my passion while making a real difference in the world. After being exposed to green tech early in my career and seeing the incredible opportunities the industry was driving — enabling the renewable energy transition — I was hooked. Energy storage is a fascinating, fast-moving sector and with my previous experience in small-scale battery technologies, the move to EVLO’s more impactful utility-scale applications simply made sense.
Q: What do you like about your job?
A: Navigating the constant challenges of the energy transition means that my day-to-day work varies significantly, which helps to keep it fresh and engaging. Energy storage hits a ton of the different points I look for in an industry; I love solving puzzles and technical challenges, and continuously evolving products to match where a company is in its market journey. It’s extremely satisfying, not to mention rewarding, to see these innovations come to life.
Collaborating with my colleagues and helping them grow organically — much in the same way others helped me when I first started in battery technology — is another highlight of my work. Growing the energy storage industry’s talent pool will be critical as deployment kicks into high gear, and I’m thrilled to be able to play a part in it.
Q. What are your future goals for EVLO?
A: During the development of EVLO’s latest energy storage system — the EVLOFLEX — we introduced a number of new features to enable easier and more cost-effective installation and maintenance. I want to keep building on the advantages of the EVLOFLEX, improving the logistics of the systems, particularly when it comes to designing for manufacturing. With a laser focus on building leaner, more efficient, and more economical systems, I’m committed to helping EVLO achieve the next level of scalability.
Influencing safety standards and pushing beyond basic storage certifications is another area that EVLO can lead on. We’re seeing a growing push for intra-industry safety with the establishment of new standards like 9540 and 9540A. EVLO offers some of the safest battery technology on the market, so we’re in a prime position to push our influence to raise the bar for industry certification.
Q. Can you share a proud moment from your time at EVLO?
A: While I’ve been in energy storage for almost two decades, I’ve always held a core promise to myself — that I would make sure the products I worked on would not cause harm to anyone. Over the past two years, our R&D team has been making calculations about the performance and safety of the EVLOFLEX, and we ultimately realized we hit the nail on the head. Everything safety-related, including both passive and active safety features, works as, or better than, intended. The EVLOFLEX landed exactly where we wanted it to, and that to me is extremely meaningful.
