As Chief Product Officer and AES Next President, Chris Shelton leads a team addressing the energy industry’s biggest challenges by turning transformative ideas from concept into reality. He is responsible for developing and identifying new solutions to best meet our customers’ diverse needs, enabling us to accelerate a cleaner energy future for everyone.
Throughout his career with AES, Chris has driven transformation in our global businesses through innovative business models and technologies, including energy efficiency, digital customer engagement, robotics, electric-mobility, and new clean energy solutions including wind, solar, and battery energy storage. He has built strategic solutions and capabilities into AES, including the acquisition and integration of our innovative high-growth solar team.
Building on the broad industry expertise across AES, Chris pioneered the development of Lithium-ion battery storage for the electric industry by applying the technology to power markets for the first time in 2008 and was instrumental in the formation of Fluence, our joint venture with Siemens, the world leader in energy storage solutions and technologies. Under Chris’ leadership, AES has continued to support the development of scalable ecosystems for the clean energy transition. These include Uplight, the leading customer action platform for utilities and 5B, the prefab solar PV product delivering faster, higher density solar projects for customers. Chris is a member of the Boards of Fluence, Uplight and 5B.
Chris received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and completed executive certificate programs at Georgetown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds several patents in battery storage, renewables integration, and electric vehicle and distributed energy resources management.