Materials Science and Market Signals in Clean Energy Supply Chains

Catalog description

The economics and security of the global energy system are increasingly shaped by the supply chains for the materials needed to manufacture clean energy technologies. The resilience of these supply chains can be strained by the scarcity of inputs, geopolitics, issues of social license, and other sustainability considerations. Effective policymakers and investors are sensitive to these risks, and, in turn, broadcast market signals aimed at bolstering the resilience of these supply chains. Students will learn about these market signals, and how these market signals can serve as drivers of induced innovation in the materials science behind key technologies like batteries and electrolyzers. This course will focus on how materials innovation – and substitution plays in particular – can remake supply chains and, by extension, the global energy system. This course will also cover the supply chain resilience opportunities emerging from materials recycling and AI-enabled research acceleration. Lectures will provide a materials overview of key technologies, risks to supply chains, and types of market signals broadcast by policymakers and investors. Students will learn to assess supply chain risk, develop tradeoff analyses, and structure resilience-forward strategies from the perspectives of innovator, industrial, policymaker, and investor. Students will critically review assigned scientific papers and business case studies in group discussion. In addition, groups will be assigned to propose an innovation project involving a clean energy supply chain – from materials science to market signals, considering the strategic perspectives of innovators, industrials, policymakers, and investors. Individual assessments will include problem sets and midterm exams.