Shocked Battle of the Batteries
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Nov 10, 2025 
Join Shirley Meng, a Pritzker School professor and battery scientist, alongside Spencer Gore, co-founder of Bedrock Materials, as they dive into the fascinating world of battery innovation. They discuss the potential of solid-state sodium-ion batteries as a game-changer in energy storage. Spencer shares insights into his startup's challenges and the difficult decision to close, while Shirley highlights the urgency for the U.S. to advance sodium technology amidst growing competition from China. Can the next generation of batteries rise to the occasion?
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Sodium Reuses Lithium Manufacturing Advantage
- Sodium-ion batteries reuse much of lithium-ion manufacturing tech and rely on abundant sodium from trona.
- That makes sodium a potential way to avoid lithium supply chokepoints if economics align.
Seeing China’s Gigafactories Up Close
- Spencer visited large Chinese battery material factories and found huge, advanced campuses with massive automation.
- He contrasted their scale and R&D with Bedrock's small set of reactors and realized the competitive gap.
When Bedrock Called Time On Sodium
- By late 2024 Bedrock's models showed no clear path for sodium to beat lithium on cost.
- Spencer and the team concluded lithium prices and oversupply made scaling sodium uneconomical, so they closed the company.