$15,000 Space Commercialization Award to SolidEnergy, MIT for “Shipstone”

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize^® Trust, has awarded a $15,000 prize as part of the Rice Business Plan Competition. The business whose plan was chose to receive the Heinlein Prize Trust Space Commercialization Award is SolidEnergy, MIT.

SolidEnergy wins with a project with practical, environmentally-friendly, applications on this planet and potential applications reaching far beyond. Their product is a new battery design with more than twice the energy density of a regular lithium-ion battery. The battery can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, and, unlike most current batteries types, is far safer from leaks and explosions.

While the SolidEnergy team is looking toward mining on Earth as their first application of their battery technology, it is easy to see potential applications extending to electric cars, laptop computers, and beyond, including commercial space applications. We at the Heinlein Prize Trust find a certain satisfaction in contemplating a power source whose description evokes comparison to Heinlein’s Shipstones.

The SolidEnergy MIT team is advised by Professor Donald Sadoway. Team members are Qichao Hu (Technology Development), a graduate student in applied physics at Harvard who is doing his research at MIT, Louis Beryl (Business Development), a graduating masters student at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, Mike Hagerty (Market and Policy Consultant), a graduating Masters student at MIT Technology and Policy Program, and Vishwas Dindore (Market Consultant), an MIT Sloan Fellow. More on SolidEnergy

The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest business plan competition, with 42 teams from across the globe pitching their new technology business plans to more than 250 judges who themselves are successful venture capital investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. More on all of the 2012 winners.