Watt it Takes: Hydrostor Co-Founder and CEO Curtis VanWalleghem

Feb 26, 2026

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1:18

Curtis VanWalleghem,

Hydrostor

Curtis VanWalleghem is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrostor, a company that stores energy in underground rock caverns using compressed air and water, designed for ten hours or more of storage.

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In the conversation, Curtis walks through the path that led him to Hydrostor, from growing up in Ontario and studying engineering while playing varsity hockey, to a decade in global consulting, to confronting surplus power challenges at Bruce Power and deciding to build a company around compressed air energy storage. Founded in 2010, Hydrostor has raised over $550 million in equity, secured roughly $8 billion in revenue contracts, and is advancing a multi-gigawatt pipeline of long-duration storage projects across North America and Australia.

Curtis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrostor, a leading global long-duration energy storage developer and operator. Hydrostor leverages a proven, patented technology solution for delivering long duration energy storage to power grids around the world, using compressed air and water to store energy. The company was founded in 2010 and is backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Baker Hughes, CPP Investments, and Canada Growth Fund. Curtis has led Hydrostor since its founding, through technology development into commercial operations, to its current stage with one operational project, two projects in late-stage development, and a 7 GW pipeline globally.

Previously, Curtis was a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Corporate Strategy Consulting Practice where he advised and consulted for some of the top energy companies globally. He has also held positions at nuclear/wind generator Bruce Power and wind developer Environmental Electric Company. He has experience working in more than 10 countries, including time volunteering in India. Curtis was a varsity hockey player while earning an Industrial Engineering degree and MBA from the University of Toronto.

“When I started thinking about having to call everybody that had given me money… that to me was harder than solving the problem at hand. So I much preferred to put every waking moment into solving the problem at hand versus trying to tell people why it didn't work.”