Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Project: Eleven - data accelerated advanced manufacturing of sodium-ion cathode materials for a sustainable, equitable, and resilient energy future

Started: 08/2022

Why: Our work on lithium-ion batteries revealed that upstream & midstream lithium-ion supply chain constraints will limit electrification (both in total capacity & economically disadvantaged communities)

How: Solomon and I have started Eleven as a for-profit corporation, spun out of our experience during our PhDs at Stanford

Description: We are developing a technology that uses abundant domestic feedstocks to manufacture high energy density sodium-ion cathodes materials for sodium-ion batteries. The materials we manufacture work as a drop-in alternative to current lithium-ion technology (at both battery manufacturing and OEM use cases).

Our technology enables batteries that are significantly cheaper (~1/2 price of lithium-ion), safer, and work at a wider temperature range.

Additionally, our manufacturing technology uses low temperatures and sustainable feedstocks, enabling orders-of-magnitude decrease in manufacturing emissions.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

As natives of Puerto Rico and Nigeria, we both understand the importance of climate change for our vulnerable communities. Furthermore, as members of the Latinx and black communities we are committed to building climate solutions that bring those benefits to disadvantaged communities.

Our mission at Eleven is to empower a sustainable, equitable, and resilient energy future. Eleven will engage with stakeholders to explore project feasibility and preferences, design project positions, and integrate DEIA principles into all project phases. We will use analytical tools to identify disadvantaged communities and measure the direct benefits and investments to these communities. To minimize burdens and harms, we will take regulatory, compliance, and enforcement actions and have a staff member dedicated to environmental justice and the implementation of the Community Benefits Plan, focusing on developing guidance and strategy, engaging with the community, and providing staff training.

Electrification is our most powerful tool in the fight against climate change, with battery energy storage being a critical component. However, current lithium-ion technology is expensive, emissions intense, and not resilient.

By creating a battery technology that is more affordable (~$70/kWh vs. ~$151/kWh) we can bring battery technology (and the benefits of electrification) to a wider population. Using sustainable feedstocks and low emissions manufacturing, we can reduce the time needed for battery technology to reach emissions negativity. Lastly, by using domestically abundant feedstocks and brownfields we are able to bring jobs and economic prosperity to the hardest hit communities in the US (and eventually, abroad).

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Mission Statement:

We are currently in the process of building our prototype manufacturing facility. We are waiting on hearing back from 2 non dilutive programs (Activate and Breakthrough Energy Fellows) before we sign a lease contract on our first facility.

We are happy to update you as things evolve.

We will be based primarily out of the San Francisco Bay Area, however, our full scale manufacturing facilities will likely be in brownfields/economically disadvantaged areas that have experienced facility closures in the past 15 years.

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