Abstract: The adoption of renewable energy technologies hinges on the availability of many critical minerals. To meet the large demand for critical minerals, it is vital to scale up mineral supply chains that are resilient and sustainable. In this talk, Karan will introduce the STEER program at Stanford which is guiding policy and innovation for the energy transition by conducting systems analysis that incorporates materials availability, technology learning, and energy markets. The talk will focus on models that evaluate how supply and demand for critical minerals will evolve, and quantify the life-cycle impacts from the production. He will cover case studies on battery minerals, showing how electric vehicle costs and deployment are impacted by: i) restricting environmentally-damaging nickel production pathways, and ii) trade disruptions due to geopolitical tensions. Discussion will focus on necessary policy mechanisms to support sustainable domestic production for critical minerals.

Bio: Karan Bhuwalka is a Staff Research Engineer at Stanford University's Precourt Institute for Energy. He leads the materials supply chain modeling for STEER, a collaboration between Precourt and the SLAC National Lab conducting techno-economic systems analysis to guide investment, innovation, and policy for the energy transition. Karan earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on how to build a sustainable and resilient supply chain for materials needed in the energy transition. He builds computational systems models that integrates geologic data on mineral deposits, materials engineering, life-cycle assessments, and economic analysis. The models guide decision-making on where, how, and how much to build mining projects for energy transition needs by accounting for environmental costs and geopolitical supply risks.

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