Background: Aluminio, Inc was created to dramatically reduce the demand for critical materials in solar power and Li-ion batteries to enable terawatt scale production of solar cells and sustainable EV production. Aluminio was co-founded by Dr. Brian Hardin and Dr. Max L’Etoile. Brian was previously a co-founder of PLANT PV, which commercialized silver metallization pastes for silicon solar cells and was acquired in 2019. Max recently received his PhD in Materials Science from MIT. Aluminio has received a Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, a multimillion dollar grant, and is privately funded by Prelude Ventures, a top cleantech VC that has approximately $2Bn assets under management. We are based in San Carlos, CA.
Our mission is to develop products in critical segments of the battery and solar supply chain that meaningfully improve their cost, efficiency, and sustainability. Our goal is to test with customers early in the process and quickly iterate to demonstrate commercial value. Customer validation is the greatest driver of value creation in a startup. We need to speed up the pace of innovation and convert new ideas into commercial products in 2-3 years instead of 7-10 years to combat climate change.
Solar power project overview: Silver consumption is the top concern of solar cell manufacturers. Silver used on silicon cells accounts for 17% of global demand and represents 10% of the total module cost. The solar industry currently spends >$5 Bn/yr purchasing silver metallization pastes. Solar production is expected to rise 3-10x over the next 10 years and may be unsustainable without significant silver reduction. Furthermore, next generation solar cells use 50%-150% more silver than conventional (PERC) cells preventing higher efficiency modules from entering the market. We have created novel foils that are used in the “Aluminio” process to replace silver lines in next generation cells, which would enable cell makers to mass produce them.
Battery project overview: Copper is a critical material in many clean energy technologies, and demand is set to outstrip supply by 3-5 million tons in 2030. Li-ion anode current collectors, which must currently be made from copper foil, constitute a significant and rapidly growing source of demand for copper. A Tesla Model 3/Y contains roughly 88 pounds of copper foil, which costs ~$500/vehicle. Our novel foils can serve as a drop-in replacement for copper, alleviate critical material constraints, and would lightweight a Tesla battery pack by ~60 lbs.