"The Accidental Battery Guy" Featuring Christopher Mohajer, U.S. Capital Advisors
Today we had the pleasure of hosting Christopher Mohajer for a discussion centered around batteries and battery technology. Chris serves as the Director of Battery Technology Equity Research at U.S. Capital Advisors (USCA) and has a background in technical sales, having previously worked with Digatron Power Electronics, a supplier of battery test and formation equipment. Before that, he held several roles at the California Clean Energy Fund. Last year, Chris and the USCA team published a comprehensive report highlighting batteries as a pivotal component for decarbonization. We were thrilled to visit with Chris and discuss the latest developments and trends in the world of batteries. Our discussion today started with Chris’s background and what drew him to batteries originally. It was here that he made his light-hearted comment around being the “accidental battery guy.” At the heart of today’s discussion, Chris walked us through about 15 slides pulled from his and his team’s work on batteries. The presentation slides are linked here. In the presentation, Chris covers battery history from lead acid to today, the different battery chemistries, the metrics for measuring battery performance, the tradeoffs between performance, cost, and safety, cathode and anode technology developments, and the surprisingly lengthy duration to bring new technology to market. Chris also shares insights on battery production, the battery supply chain, and the importance of permitting and potential for the US to develop its own battery supply chain if the right conditions are met. Whether you are new to batteries or well-versed, Chris’s overview is very likely to be interesting to you. Today’s other discussion topics included mining challenges, battery market growth, battery innovations, proposed US battery factories, utility-scale storage, the role of batteries on the grid, public equity investor sentiment, and more. We ended with asking Chris what he thinks the future of batteries will look like in ten years. He is definitely bullish on their role in our future energy systems. We want to thank Chris for joining us today and for providing a great and detailed overview. We learned a lot and look forward to continuing to follow Chris and his team’s insights. Mike Bradley kicked us off by pointing out the remarkable stability in global markets since the breakout of the Israeli war with Hamas. He observed that both US bond and equity markets have traded higher, and that equity market volatility has actually fallen. He flagged that 10-year bond yields have pulled back from Friday’s close of 4.8%, are trading at ~4.65%, for what looks to be a temporary rush to safety. Mike also noted that this week’s CPI & PPI prints will be important in determining whether the FED will pause/raise rates at their November FOMC meeting. He highlighted the modest increase in WTI crude oil price this week (~$3.00/bbl.) and also indicated that it had underperformed most trader’s expectations. He noted that crude oil traders will be very focused on Cushing weekly inventory levels, with consensus looking for a slight build, but that an unexpected draw could push WTI price/time spreads much higher. He rounded out the conversation by flagging that Q3 reporting is set to begin mid-next week with a handful of oil service companies. Todd Scruggs also joined today’s discussion and shared a few observations upfront, including both positive developments as well as potential challenges in battery technology and manufacturing. We greatly enjoyed the conversation with Chris and hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Our best to you all!