PhD Internship Spotlight: Aaron Wade
Faraday Institution PhD researcher secures role at Exawatt following internship
Aaron Wade is completing his PhD at UCL, working on the Faraday Institution’s Multi-scale Modelling Project. His research at UCL is investigating early detection of particle cracking using X-ray imaging. He completed a three-month internship in May 2021 with Exawatt, an SME based in Sheffield that provides strategic consulting, research and insight in the areas of solar photovoltaic modules and systems, electric vehicles, power electronics, high-purity quartz and energy storage. As part of their newly formed energy storage team, Aaron created a next generation battery cost model.
Following the internship’s success, Exawatt hired Aaron part-time to continue the model development.
The internship project
Aaron’s bottom-up model takes all the components that make up a cell and costs them to what would be paid in industry, factoring in the cost of running machines for each step.
| By the numbers | |
|---|---|
| Over 100 | Input variables in the model |
| Over 170 | Companies’ data used |
The model then calculates the cost of every major component in the cell, the cell cost and cost per kilowatt hour. The data from the model is used to advise cell and/or policy makers on the current and future cost to manufacture lithium-ion cells. This enables stakeholders to make decisions on cell chemistries, factory locations, and suppliers. There are over 100 input variables, ranging from the cathode and anode chemistry to which country the battery is being produced.
The experience
All of Aaron’s PhD work at UCL is lab-scale and he relished the new experience of working in industry. He enjoyed working in Exawatt’s team, which is gaining traction in the battery industry, and was excited to play a part in helping them move forward.
I have a much better understanding of the wider industry now and an appreciation where my research fits in.”
As the only member of the Exawatt team completing a PhD in battery science, Aaron’s in-depth knowledge was an asset to the company. He attributes the success of his internship project to the vast amount of knowledge within the Exawatt team, combined with his ability to adapt their learnings to the battery industry.
Aaron really impressed the team with his ability to get up to speed rapidly with our methods and principles of technoeconomic analysis, which were well outside his academic experience. He quickly became an integral part of our battery storage team, and has played a critical role in helping to develop our detailed battery cost and performance forecasting models. On the strength of Aaron’s excellent work during his internship, we were delighted to offer him part-time employment from August 2021.” Simon Price, CEO of Exawatt
During the internship Aaron was able to hone existing skills; he modelled a whole battery factory on Excel, which was something he never envisaged being able to do. Working in industry led Aaron to adapt and develop his communication style. He comments that when explaining his work to his PhD supervisor, information has to be distilled in a succinct way that focuses on key points. He notes that this is the same in industry, but with the added challenge of communicating with people that do not have the same research interests and knowledge, but who want to understand what his modelling means from a commercialisation perspective. “I have to translate something I find fascinating in the lab into an industry setting, generating key metrics to feed to decision makers, helping to enable decarbonisation through electrification.”
The internship also gave Aaron the opportunity to work with the next generation of battery scientists. An undergraduate intern on the Faraday Undergraduate Summer Experience (FUSE) Programme helped test Aaron’s model and used it to inform his work, giving Aaron an opportunity to supervise a more junior researcher.
Aaron reported that the highlight of his experience with Exawatt was the opportunity to work directly with companies who are solving today’s climate change problems.
As well as finishing writing up his PhD thesis, he is now working part-time with Exawatt, establishing himself as a leader in battery costing.
The relationship between Exawatt and the Faraday Institution internship programme is continuing with a second PhD Researcher, Rosie Madge of the University of Birmingham, securing an internship for the autumn of 2022.
Find out more
Connect with Aaron Wade on LinkedIn
