Through the Lab Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP), the Office of Electricity (OE) is thrilled to sponsor two new promising entrepreneurs with game-changing energy storage and electric grid innovations.
November 12, 2024
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Through the Lab Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP), the Office of Electricity (OE) is thrilled to sponsor two new promising entrepreneurs with game-changing energy storage and electric grid innovations. LEEP recruits the best and brightest minds from across the energy sector and embeds them at the national labs for two years to help bring their early-stage energy technologies to market. LEEP also gives fellows entrepreneurship training and a networking ecosystem to navigate the hurdles traditionally faced by early-stage tech startups.
OE’s Energy Storage Division is supporting Heather Platt of Mana Battery at the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL)’s West Gate node in developing a self-extinguishing electrolyte for sodium-ion battery cells that provide energy levels comparable to LFP (lithium-ion phosphate) cells at 35%–70% of the cost. Not only can sodium-ion batteries be made with minerals readily available in the United States and potentially secure material supply chains, but the electrolyte she is developing has benefits for battery safety. This solution will provide more affordable, safer energy storage. Check out how Mana Battery’s self-extinguishing electrolyte compares to other materials after being ignited. (See image below).
OE’s Grid Systems and Components Division is sponsoring Carla Pinzón at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cyclotron Road node. Pinzón, the founder and CEO of Expand Power, will be using high frequency power electronics to build PowerGuard, a Solid State Transformer (SST) that is smaller, safer, and smarter than the incumbents and can be fully manufactured domestically. The electrification of the grid, combined with new loads (e.g. artificial intelligence (AI) and onshoring manufacturing), has caused a huge demand for grid components. Distribution transformers have been identified by many industry experts as the number one key component of need. To be able to support the industry, the diversification of technologies are needed; PowerGuard can provide industry with a new distribution transformer technology to help the supply chain issues and better support the loads connecting.
We’re also excited to see the progress that the Energy Storage Division’s 2023 LEEP fellow, Manas Pathak of EarthEn, is making. Manas is embedded at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Innovation Crossroads node. He is advancing supercritical CO2-based, thermo-mechanical technology to provide flexible-duration energy storage. The charge cycle includes compression of CO2, while the discharge cycle expands the CO2 in a closed-loop system.
We congratulate Heather Platt and Carla Pinzón, the new class of 2024 OE LEEP Fellows, and look forward to seeing their projects develop. We also want to commend last year’s OE LEEP Fellow, Manas Pathak, for progress on his project and wish him continued success as he completes his second year. Promising innovations like theirs have the potential to build and scale America’s energy economy and modernize our nation’s grid. OE is proud to sponsor the next generation of energy entrepreneurs and support innovation for a stronger, more resilient and reliable energy system.
To find out more about DOE’s LEEP Program, including instructions on how to apply, click here.
Nyla Khan
Nyla Khan was a program manager and engineer in the Office Electricity's Energy Storage Division at the U.S. Department of Energy. She supported the Energy Storage Materials and Systems group where she advanced a portfolio of research and development projects for bi-directional electrical energy storage technologies as a key component of the future-ready grid. Her work promoted long duration energy storage and provided support for variety of energy storage technologies, including innovative alternatives to lithium-ion batteries.
Nyla holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering & Public Policy, where she analyzed tradeoffs between performance characteristics of energy storage technologies and material supply chain vulnerabilities along with recycling and end-of-life options. She has over 10 years of experience in the energy sector and previously consulted in the building energy efficiency industry.