Nano4EARTH Roundtable Discussion on Batteries and Energy Storage

September 26, 2023
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET
Online and L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C.

The Nano4EARTH roundtable discussion on batteries and energy storage aims to identify fundamental knowledge gaps, needs, and opportunities to advance current electrification goals. By convening stakeholders from different sectors, backgrounds, and expertise the goal of this roundtable is to identify applicable lessons across the spectrum of technologies, discuss system-specific needs, scalability and commercialization challenges, and potential paths forward. These needs could have a near-term impact on energy efficiency, sustainable development, and climate change. The moderated discussion will tackle all aspects of the topic – ranging from exciting R&D opportunities to commercialization challenges – by featuring a small group of experts from different sectors and backgrounds.

This roundtable is a critical part of the Nano4EARTH National Nanotechnology Challenge, which aims to leverage recent investments in understanding and controlling matter at the nanoscale to develop technologies and industries that address climate change. Nano4EARTH focuses on facilitating opportunities for members of the nanotechnology community to convene, collaborate, and share resources. Nano4EARTH also strives to provide mechanisms that support technology development and commercialization of nanotechnology-enabled climate solutions.

The topic of this roundtable was identified at the Nano4EARTH kick-off workshop (summary readout and video archive) as a particularly promising area that could have an impact in a short time frame (four years or less). This roundtable is the second of four.

MEETING LOCATION:

Online and the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office: Suite 8001, 470 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC 20024. Directions are available here.

DISCUSSION SUMMARY

Click here to download the discussion summary.

AGENDA:

September 26, 2023
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

INVITED PARTICIPANTS:

Tad Glauthier Vice President of eMobility Stem	Sooyeon Hwang Staff Scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory	John Lee Co-Founder & CEO, Safire Technology Group	Ping Liu Professor and Director of SPEC, UC San Diego	Katherine Jungjohann  Group Research Manager III-Materials Science, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Virginia Klausmeier President & CEO, Sylvatex	Rodrigo Salvatierra Chief Science Officer, Zeta Energy	Jonathan Tan Co-Founder & CEO, Coreshell	Michael Tinskey Professor of the Practice, Georgia Tech	Chunsheng Wang Robert Franklin and Frances Riggs Wright Distinguished Chair, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland
Gleb Yushin Co-Founder & CTO, Sila Nanotechnologies

RESOURCES AND RELEVANT BACKGROUND:

Development and maturation of batteries and energy-storage technologies is key to achieve current electrification and decarbonization goals. Electric vehicles are transforming the transportation sector, and decentralized energy storage is projected to increase renewable energy capacity in the electric grid. As the usage of these technologies become more ubiquitous, increased lifetime, safety, recyclability, and usage of earth-abundant materials needs to be prioritized. The goal of this roundtable is to identify the most pressing near-term knowledge gaps, needs, and opportunities that deserve our attention, as we look to accelerate the impact of these technologies. For example, according to the International Energy Agency, the demand for lithium may increase 40-fold by 2040, due to the projected growth of electric vehicles and other energy-storage demands, which poses a risk for energy security and the overall cost of electrification. To illustrate, in the last decade, 9 GW of energy storage was added to the U.S. grid, and 99% of the new energy storage capacity has been provided by lithium-ion batteries. New chemistries and architectures can help diversify the electrification market.

Vision: Nanotechnology as a catalyst for innovation in key areas and industries that could help accelerate progress toward climate change mitigation and sustainable development goals in the short term.

Objectives

• Identify key knowledge gaps, needs, and new use-case opportunities.
• Identify approaches, tools, questions, and needs to address knowledge gaps.
• Identify the most impactful ideas in the short term, based on strategic opportunities, scalability, and commercial potential.

Suggested reading

• Background
  • Nano4EARTH Kick-off Workshop
    • Summary
    • Video archive
• Climate change technology needs
  • U.S. innovation to meet 2050 climate goals , White House
  • Net-zero by 2050: a roadmap for the global energy sector , International Energy Agency
    • Updates since publication
  • UN sustainable development goals
  • Project Drawdown
• Technology opportunities (illustrative examples)
  • Batteries
    • What is next for batteries?
    • Roadmap for a sustainable circular economy in lithium-ion and future battery technologies
    • Want to know where batteries are going? Look at their ingredients
    • The role of critical minerals in clean energy transitions
  • Energy Storage
    • The future of energy storage
    • Challenges and future perspectives on sodium and potassium ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage
    • Future energy infrastructure, energy platform and energy storage
    • Moving beyond 4-hour Li-Ion batteries: challenges and opportunities for long(er)-duration energy storage [1]
    • Next generation electrical energy storage
       

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Maria Fernanda Campa