Friday, September 26th, 2025 | 10:30 – 11:50am | Location: Online Webinar
Karan Bhuwalka, Staff Research Engineer, Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy
Join via Zoom (passcode: ucdenergy)
Join us for the first seminar of the UC Davis Energy & Efficiency Institute’s Fall 2025 Energy Seminar Series. These weekly Friday morning seminars feature leaders in energy and climate research, providing insights for students, professionals, and the public.
Materializing the Energy Transition
The success of the global energy transition is dependent on the availability and secure supply of critical minerals. As the demand for these materials grows exponentially to support the deployment of renewable energy technologies, it becomes imperative to develop resilient and sustainable mineral supply chains.
In this seminar, Karan Bhuwalka will demonstrate how systems models can project the supply and demand for critical minerals. He will present examples focused on battery materials to show how techno-economic models can be used to evaluate the impact of supply chain disruptions on the energy system, as well as future life cycle impacts.
The examples will explore i) the costs of scaling graphite production in the US, impacts of Ii) the environmental consequences of nickel production, ii) and the impact of trade disruptions on EV costs. Finally, the seminar will highlight a processes for engaging industry and using practitioner feedback can improve the techno-economic analyses.
Dr. 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.
