Throughout my school and now work years, I have almost always been the only black male in the room. This dynamic has been present for so long that I just expect it. My parents, teachers and bosses have done a great job in helping me to feel comfortable and proud of who I am. Still, there is just something about being the “only” in so many situations that can create a lingering feeling of loneliness and self-doubt that I have never fully escaped.

Why am I the only one who looks like me in these situations? The reasons are many and complicated. I do know, however, that the legacy of race in our country has created a lack of equitable access to the opportunities that I have been afforded.

Moreover, “onlyness” can have real consequences. One particular experience from ninth grade sticks with me. I was starting high school that year with new peers. Frustrated after a group presentation went poorly, I yelled at the five classmates on my project team. In that small classroom, everyone saw me. As I processed the class’s reaction, I was hyper-aware of my blackness and internalized in that moment that my behavior was perceived as threatening by at least a portion of the class. High schoolers are not known for their emotional maturity, and everyone has a story about losing their cool. But as the “only” I realized that I get less margin for error. I do not recall ever raising my voice at anyone since then.

No overeager ninth grader should have to worry about whether his nerdy perfectionism could be perceived that way. No young man should have to shoulder the emotional energy of anticipating how others might react to his every thought and feeling. And yet — as I’ve experienced over time and as the news makes clear — our society often places this burden on black men. We are expected to show extreme stoicism and even deference in our interactions with others in society. It’s exhausting.

This is however a time that no longer merits looking to others to take the lead or grant permission. I do have privilege, and I commit to doing more to create space for others to speak up. This of course means speaking up more myself, even when controversial or difficult.

Black voices matter. Black lives matter.

New Energy Nexus is an international organization that supports clean energy entrepreneurs with funds, accelerators, and networks. We started in California and now also operate in China, India, Southeast Asia, and East Africa.

Our Journey So Far

Since 2004, the California Clean Energy Fund has been the leading nonprofit clean energy fund, supporting clean energy startups through programs, events and capital. In 2016, New Energy Nexus became a California Clean Energy Fund program, focused on supporting an international network of clean energy incubators and accelerators. Since then, New Energy Nexus has evolved to encompass seed and debt funds, corporate innovation programs, an accelerator field guide and toolkits, plus a bigger team in chapters across six countries.

Now, from Earth Day 2019, our California Clean Energy Fund brand is evolving into New Energy Nexus to better align with our international expansion and the broadening of our scope.

What’s New?

• Mission: We support diverse entrepreneurs to drive innovation and build equity into the global clean energy economy
• Vision: New Energy Nexus strives toward an abundant world with a 100% clean energy for 100% of the population in the shortest time possible
• Updated Brand Architecture: In order to accommodate our existing and growing portfolio of programs, we have updated our brand architecture and guidelines. New Energy Nexus will replace the California Clean Energy Fund as our brand name, and our programs will be categorized by region and/or category affiliation such as New Energy Nexus California, New Energy Nexus Indonesia and New Energy Nexus Energy Storage.
• Expanded Programs: Our program offerings are now more comprehensive than ever before. We help startups launch by hosting hackathons and bootcamps. We help startups accelerate by creating viable business models and products. We help fund startups by providing grants, debt, and equity. We also help startups scale up by doing match-making of corporate partners and facilitating pilot projects. And we now will do all of this is in the U.S., China, India, Southeast Asia and East Africa.

Where to Find Us:

• New Website: We have moved our website to www.newenergynexus.com. Check it out and bookmark it so you will have it at your fingertips.
• Social Media: Find us at New Energy Nexus on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and YouTube, where we will post news, deadlines and events.

We are thrilled to be embarking on this journey with you and look forward to supporting diverse entrepreneurs to drive innovation and build equity into the global clean energy economy — 100% for the 100%.

California Clean Energy Fund Evolves Into New Energy Nexus was originally published in New Energy Nexus on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From iPhones to electric cars to storage paired with renewable energy, batteries are at the heart of our modern world. CalCharge and the Berkeley Lab partnered this week to discuss “building better batteries” in convening the fourth annual Bay Area Battery Summit in Berkeley, California. The series focuses on bringing together startups, investors, researchers, and other parts of the industry to explore new innovations in batteries and energy storage.

The year’s summit builds on past discussions as well as the highly successful Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) held last month in San Francisco. Speakers from around the world at the GCAS emphasized the rapid declines in lithium-ion battery costs, as well as the rapid growth of their deployment. Tesla Motors is often cited as an example through its Gigafactory of the rapid growth of battery production. Tremendous strides in engineering and production capacity have helped to reduce battery costs five-fold since 2010, to the current lithium-ion battery pack cost of approximately $200/kWh.

Nonetheless, there are big issues to address if batteries are to progress further. The 200 attendees had a central question put before them — how can the industry build better batteries?

Two key areas of focus emerged for improving lithium-ion batteries: cost and the societal impact of battery supply chains. From those two areas of concern came three recommendations: (1) reducing the cobalt content in batteries, (2) rethinking the material loop for batteries, and (3) accelerating the technology development and commercialization cycle.

Reducing the Cobalt Content in Batteries

First, improving today’s standard battery — lithium-ion — provides an opportunity to review the battery’s composition and production impact. A key question is the use of cobalt.

Cobalt is key to most lithium-ion battery chemistries. For example, Tesla in its Model S and Model 3 cars uses the NCA (nickel, cobalt, aluminum) battery chemistry, approximating 4.5 kg of cobalt per vehicle. Reducing cobalt composition thus first enables a chance to reduce the cost of the battery by replacing cobalt with lower priced or more abundant minerals. In addition, cobalt mining is associated with significant human costs to vulnerable populations. More than 60% of global cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mines there are often associated with the use of child labor, poor compensation, as well as toxic and otherwise deplorable work conditions. Danielle Cass of Amnesty International spoke at the summit and highlighted the cobalt supply chain questions in their report Time to Recharge.

To reduce cobalt, the summit discussed a number of new technological pathways. Professor Gerbrand Ceder at UCB/Berkeley Lab gave a talk on cobalt free cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Dr. John Muldoon from Toyota Research Institute reviewed the current status and challenges facing lithium-sulfur batteries as a promising low-cost alternative. Finally, Dr. Marca Doeff of the Berkeley Lab shared with the audience her research on sodium-ion batteries as an example of batteries using earth-abundant materials.

Rethinking and Closing the Material Loop around Lithium-Ion Batteries

There are also opportunities to examine and work toward closing the material loop for today’s batteries. One example is examining what takes place at the end of a lithium-ion battery’s useful life. Battery recycling is a small industry today, however the environmental imperative and value capture opportunities will grow as battery production continues to expand over the next decade. A number of approaches to recycling — direct recycling, pyrometallurgy, and hydrometallurgy — were presented and discussed.

Furthermore, prior to the initial battery production sits opportunities to rethink the broader approaches to extraction of the material inputs. One example on lithium extraction is Lilac Solutions, which is working to make it faster and more economic to extract lithium from global sources of brine. Additionally, cobalt extraction can be improved through measures that directly address the human costs and create transparency and protect local workers.

Accelerating Technology Development and Commercialization

Finally, the summit addressed speeding up the cycle of technology R&D and commercialization. Battery technologies are tied to materials science and tend to have inherently long development cycles. Sony started its battery business in the mid 1970’s and produced the first commercialized lithium-ion battery in 1991. Since then, lithium-ion batteries have significantly improved, yet the intervening more than two decades have not seen a fundamental successor technology emerge for general commercial use.

That said, significant resources and funding support from entities such as the U.S. Department of Energy and private companies are reimagining the lab to commercialization process. The DOE’s national laboratories, including the Berkeley Lab, are supporting efforts to improve battery technologies through programs such as the Applied Energy Materials Group and the Cyclotron Road program. Moreover private companies are engaging further. CalCharge has partnered with LG Chem on a new Battery Challenge. The program will make an initial $2 million (with potential significant follow-on funding) available to early stage battery startups and provides access to LG Chem’s manufacturing resources, testing facilities and feedback.

As ideas mature and startups form, there are also lessons to be learned from other industries. Vijay Ullal, CEO of Seabed VC, shared at the summit lessons learned from the semiconductor industry. In particular, he stressed the need for startups to be more transparent and collaborative, including seeking feedback from industry incumbents. He also emphasized the book the Innovator’s Dilemma for new entrepreneurs in this space. To him, this means a reduced focused on stealth and rather than additional willingness to seek wide feedback, even from industry incumbents. He also emphasized the book the Innovator’s Dilemma for new entrepreneurs in this space.

The summit also featured a range of further startups working on these challenges, including Coreshell Technologies, Form Energy, OnTo Technology, Saratoga Energy, and Sepion Technologies.

Conclusion

It is an exciting time to be working on innovations in batteries. Lithium-ion battery production is projected to grow at a 20% combined annual growth rate between now and 2025. Rob Morgan, CEO of GE Power’s Energy Storage Unit, spoke to how technological changes such as this tend to scale faster than generally expected.

Commissioner Carla Peterman of the California Public Utilities Commission discussed in her closing keynote the important role that batteries and energy storage will play in supporting the transition to a clean energy economy. She cited the wide range of needed technologies to continue this progress, and that regulatory bodies such as the CPUC are working hard to support this work.

The summit showcased that future is bright. Next year’s summit at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will focus on improving battery fast charging. In all, startups, investors, researchers, industry appear well positioned to meet the challenge of building better batteries!

Ken Alston is Investment Manager at the California Clean Energy Fund, which operates CalCharge. Prior to this role, Ken has spent time at the White House, U.S. Department of Energy, Simbol Materials, Penta Group, and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MS in Environment and Resources from the Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences.

Three Ways To Make Better Batteries For iPhones, Teslas and Everything In Between was originally published in New Energy Nexus on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Working with entrepreneurs is at the heart of our work at the California Clean Energy Fund. Last year, we launched the CalSEED Fund, which has funded over $4 million across more than two dozen startup teams. Moreover, since the organization launched in 2004, we have funded over 50 companies, including companies such as Tesla and BrightSource Energy as part of our first fund.

What is Connex Investor Night?

One of the best parts of my role as Investment Manager is working with entrepreneurs as they prepare to pitch their technology and plans to grow. Every quarter a select group of our portfolio companies participate in our startup pitch event, Connex Investor Night. This summer, we held this event for the first time in Los Angeles. Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation set the tone for the night with an inspiring keynote speech. Six startups participated, including three from our portfolio as well as three portfolio companies from the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

We were also fortunate to work with excellent partner organizations. Our partners for this event were Covington & Burling, LACI, Angeleno Group and Boundary Stone Partners. Furthermore, CalSEED is made possible by support from the California Energy Commission.

The presenting companies to the invited audience of investors, policymakers and industry members were:

• Solstice Energy Solutions: developing IoT and software for intelligent management of distributed energy resources, with an initial focus in emerging markets
• South 8 Technologies: an energy storage company which has developed a breakthrough new electrolyte chemistry for use in lithium batteries and electrochemical capacitors
• Arctica Solar: engineering and manufacturing durable, high performance solar air heaters
• AVM: developing electric vehicles for commercial applications, including a first product — an all-electric EV shuttle — that is capable of charging in under 10 minutes
• CLEVR: building a turnkey intelligent LEV mobility platform
• MOEV: developing smart solutions for managing electric vehicle energy usage within microgrids

Three Top Event Takeaways

Innovation in Electrified Transportation is Thriving

Many of the startups that presented focused on opportunities in transitioning transportation toward being powered by electricity. MOEV, which has hardware and software products to support electric vehicle charging, is developing solutions that can balance EV charging demands with grid operations as well as distributed energy resources such as solar energy or battery storage. CLEVR is focused on integrating and managing low-carbon city transport systems such as shared scooters and bikes through a software platform. In addition, AVM discussed its 100% electric commercial vehicle product, utilizing lithium-titanate (LTO), a novel fast-charging and long duration battery chemistry.

New Startups are Working to Address Global Challenges

Addressing climate change requires a range of solutions tailored to specific markets and challenges.

One example is Nigeria, one of the world’s fastest growing countries. Solstice Energy Systems has developed SHYFT, an IoT and software platform that can displace polluting diesel generators with integrated clean energy solutions such as solar and battery energy storage. The firm’s Stanford-trained leadership is developing products that will make an impact in their beachhead market — the megacity of Lagos, Nigeria.

Moreover, South 8 Technologies, based in San Diego, has developed a technology that can be deployed globally to address improving battery performance in challenging parts of the planet, including deep-sea and aerospace applications.

Los Angeles Offers a Strong Ecosystem for Clean Energy and Transportation Innovation

Five of the startups that pitched at Connex Investor Night are based in Southern California. Startups in the market are supported by a strong supporting ecosystem. LACI counts AVM, CLEVR, and MOEV among its portfolio companies. Angeleno Group is a long-time investor in clean energy companies. Furthermore, Boundary Stone Partners features veterans of the energy policy world and is able to bridge the private and public sectors.

These strengths of Los Angeles are also showing themselves through a range of new initiatives. This past May saw the kickoff of the 2028 Zero Emission Roadmap, a partnership designed to reduce carbon emissions from transportation ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in LA. The initiative’s leadership council includes the Mayor of Los Angeles, and senior leadership from organizations such as Southern California Edison, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and LACI. In addition, the new California Climate Cup prize competition launched this year through a partnership between LACI and the California Clean Energy Fund. Winners of the Cup will be announced at a finals event in Los Angeles, just prior to the announcement of the winners at the Global Climate Action Summit.

We look forward to continuing this series of events. If you are interested in joining our next event, join our email list!

Ken Alston is Investment Manager at the California Clean Energy Fund. Prior to joining the California Clean Energy Fund, Ken has spent time at the White House, U.S. Department of Energy, Simbol Materials, Penta Group, and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MS in Environment and Resources from the Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences.

Three Takeaways from Startups at Summer 2018 Connex Investor Night was originally published in New Energy Nexus on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.