The Lake Tahoe Transportation Forum is back for a second year. It's Thursday at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline.
One of the sponsors this year is Dragonfly Energy, a Reno-based company that started more than a decade ago and has grown and evolved with Northern Nevada's economy.
"It's a technology company, ultimately," said CEO Denis Phares. "And the focus is on manufacturing. We want to revolutionize how lithium-ion batteries are manufactured. So a decade ago, we basically applied a process called a dry electrode process to produce lithium-ion cells, which is a much hotter topic now, and that's basically what we've done; we developed this technology, worked on the cost of manufacturing this technology so that it can be done domestically and still able to compete on the world stage. But the way Dragonfly Energy evolved is, since there wasn't a lot of interest at the time, we assembled battery packs that we called Battle Born Batteries, proliferated those globally, and that's how we financed this whole thing."
Now, Battle Born Batteries is one of the biggest lithium brands in the world.
"We're very proud of that, coming from the state of Nevada, and we are ready to deploy the dry electrode technology, so everything has culminated to this point," Phares said. "It's a very exciting time and it coincides with the state of Nevada and the lithium loop and we're very excited to play a big part of this."
And as the company continues to grow, the aim is to make Nevada the hub of that lithium loop - where the element is found and where it is returned.
"We're going to get lithium out of the ground, we're going to refine it here, we're going to produce cathode active materials, cells, battery packs, sell them all over the world, bring them back here for recycling, and then start that process over," Phares said. "It's so exciting being here on the ground floor and being part of the community, I'm so lucky."
Dragonfly Energy is one of dozens of sponsors of the second annual Lake Tahoe Electric Transportation Forum, an event that showcases the latest in green technology with one of world's most iconic lakes as a backdrop.
"We'll have an exhibit there with electric bikes, electric cars, electric scooters, all kinds of electric vehicles," said Kevin McGehee, the event's founder and organizer. "Electric boats, we'll have marina charging stations, so there's a variety of things to see. But this is really an educational forum for people to inform themselves about what they can do to participate in the changes that are going to be necessary to protect Lake Tahoe."
The mission is one that hits close to home.
"The impetus for developing this forum came from my love and devotion to Lake Tahoe," McGehee said. "So as concerned citizens, it's incumbent upon us to do whatever we can to take care of the lake."
The forum is a way to bring public entities, private businesses, and those concerned citizens to the same table.
"This is a complicated regulatory situation because we have two states, four U.S. senators, five counties, six different transportation organizations," McGehee said. "So it's really trying to harmonize all these different elements. We want to bring everyone together and have them make decisions together so we can start effecting positive change in the future. If you love Lake Tahoe, if you love transportation, if you love the environment, this is an event you need to be at."
The event is at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline. Registration is open at: https://laketahoeelectrictransportationforum.com/
