Cohort 8 (2023): Solid-State, BESS Operations and the Critical Raw Materials Act

Our Cohort 8 battery course ran through August 2023, and the group that gathered was drawn to the questions the industry was actively arguing about that summer: would solid-state deliver, could sodium-ion carve out a role, and how should Europe respond to the Critical Raw Materials Act. Across ten lectures, a long list of office hours and five case studies, the sessions moved from market forecasts to grid operations to the fine print of recycling law. This recap draws together the themes that defined the cohort.

Markets, money and policy

The cohort opened with the commercial big picture. Sessions on battery market trends and investing in batteries set the frame, and the group returned often to the gap between forecast demand and the capital, materials and factories needed to meet it. Responsible sourcing of cobalt kept the supply-side risk in view, echoing a concern the industry cannot shake.

Policy was unusually prominent this cohort, reflecting the moment. A lecture tying EU policy, gigafactories and the Critical Raw Materials Act together gave everyone a shared reference for how regulation was reshaping where and how batteries get built in Europe. That policy lens ran into the case studies too, with techno-economic analysis of the battery value chain and comparisons of investment routes. Case work on CATL's investment across the US and EU markets, and on building lithium-ion capacity in ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, gave the group live geography to reason about.

Chemistries in flux

If one theme gave Cohort 8 its energy, it was the sense that battery chemistry was genuinely in motion. A lecture on the solid-state battery traced its path from a long-promised hope toward something nearer to a real product, and the group weighed how much of the excitement was engineering and how much was timeline optimism. A companion lecture went deep into lithium-ion cell components, keeping everyone grounded in the technology that still dominates.

Sodium-ion ran as a parallel storyline. Several office hours framed it not as a replacement for lithium but as a complement, well suited to stationary storage where energy density matters less than cost and raw-material security. Two separate sessions looked specifically at sodium-ion in battery energy storage systems, a sign of how seriously the cohort took it. Around these sat talks on high-manganese cell life cycles and on anode-free and current-collector approaches aimed at dendrite-free cells, the kind of frontier work that hints at where the next decade goes.

Operating storage and closing the loop

Much of the cohort's practical weight fell on stationary storage and its full life cycle. A lecture on optimising battery energy storage system operations, supported by office hours on operation and maintenance of BESS, grid-balancing services in Lithuania and the Baltics, and a behind-the-meter commercial and industrial study, turned the abstract idea of grid storage into an operations problem. Coupling strategies for hybrid solar and storage, and the journey from car to ESS, showed how assets get combined and repurposed to earn their keep.

Recycling and its rules formed the other bookend. Alongside a lecture on the battery recycling business, office hours dug into the current recycling landscape, the legal framework and EU regulation, and how to build a durable circularity model. Aerospace batteries, aerospace-grade safety, smart battery management for fast charging and pack design considerations rounded out a cohort that moved comfortably between the cell, the system and the statute book. Long-duration energy storage closed the case studies, pointing at the storage challenge that sits just beyond today's lithium-ion.

Safety, freedom to operate and the fine print

Cohort 8 also gave real attention to the less glamorous constraints that decide whether a battery business survives contact with the real world. A lecture on lithium batteries in aerospace set a high bar for safety and qualification, a reminder that some applications tolerate no shortcuts and that the discipline they demand tends to raise standards everywhere. Office hours on smart battery management for fast charging and on pack design considerations kept the engineering grounded, showing how thermal control and cell balancing shape both performance and safety.

Two threads stood out for their practicality. A talk on freedom-to-operate searches and patent clearance for lithium-ion cells reminded the group that intellectual property is a live commercial risk, not a legal afterthought, and that clearing the path matters before a product scales. Alongside it, procurement considerations for battery electric transit buses grounded the cohort in the buyer side of the market, where fleet operators weigh cost, reliability and charging infrastructure. Together these sessions rounded out a cohort that moved fluently between chemistry, operations, law and the customer, which was very much the point.

What tied the whole cohort together was a refusal to treat any of these subjects in isolation. Market forecasts only made sense once the group had weighed the materials, the factories and the policy that had to line up behind them. Recycling law read differently once everyone understood the chemistries it would govern, and storage operations meant more once the cohort had traced where those systems sit in the grid and on the balance sheet. That connected view, moving comfortably from a cell component to an EU regulation to a project pro forma, was the thread the sessions were designed to build.

Key Takeaways

• Cohort 8 was shaped by the summer 2023 debates over solid-state, sodium-ion and EU battery policy.
• Market and investment sessions kept the demand-versus-capacity gap front of mind, with responsible cobalt sourcing as a persistent risk.
• The Critical Raw Materials Act framed a strong policy thread about European gigafactories and supply security.
• Chemistry was in flux, with solid-state, sodium-ion, high-manganese and anode-free approaches all examined.
• Stationary storage was a major focus, from BESS operations and maintenance to grid balancing and hybrid solar coupling.
• Recycling was studied as both a business and a legal framework, including EU regulation and circularity models.
• Case studies spanned CATL's US and EU moves, ASEAN manufacturing and long-duration energy storage.