US DOE Investing $120 Million Research for Batteries lasting 5x longer & 5x Cheaper

[dgstorm]

It appears that the folks at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have heard our cries of anguish over the state of weak smart-device batteries. We have word that the DOE is about to invest $120 Million dollars over the next 5 years to push research into improving batteries dramatically. Their goal is to develop batteries that last 5x longer and are also 5x cheaper to produce. They expect their research to bear fruit within that five year time frame, and to accomplish this they are planning to develop a collaborative team made up of some of the best researchers at six national labs, five universities, and four private firms. Here's a quote with some additional detail,

To accomplish this, U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is taking some lesson from U.S. history.

The DOE is creating a new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, at a cost of $120 million over five years, that's intended to reproduce development environments that were successfully used by Bell Laboratories in the World War II Manhattan Project that produced an atomic bomb.

"When you had to deliver the goods very, very quickly, you needed to put the best scientists next to the best engineers across disciplines to get very focused," said Chu at a press conference Friday that was streamed live from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The center will be located there.

The Battery and Energy Storage Hub project will involve six national labs, five universities -- Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and University of Michigan -- and four private firms, Dow Chemical, Applied Materials, Johnson Controls, and Clean Energy Trust.

While physical proximity will have a role in the research, Chu said electronic communications and video conferencing will help achieve similar results.

The intent is to organize research in a way that can "change the rate in which something is actually done," said Chu. The key is moving technology innovations from the lab to the private sector as quickly as possible, he said.

It's great news to hear that the DOE is getting serious about pushing this kind of technology to the forefront. Sound off!

Source: ComputerWorld

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[vampirefo.]

Sounds great.

[MA83]

The other main driver for this is the renewable energy market. The number one thing holding back is intermittent energy sources (solar, wind, etc) is storage. The cost of storage facilities and their reliability is the main fault of the technology. Without low cost, reliable, long life storage renewable energy will not be able to compete effectively without heavy subsidies that end up weighing heavy on the shoulders of the tax and rate payers.

[leeshor]

Everything considered that's a drop in the bucket. Don't get me wrong, the research needs to be done, but there are plenty of companies out there doing the research. The next company that comes out with even a 2x improvemnt will have the world beating a path to their door. There is plenty of incentive out there now.

[robop]

Didn't we have a story last month or two ago about a company using silicone to improve batter life by 5x?

[leeshor]

I'm pretty sure you're right. The first problem is developing the technology but the second problem is the mass production and getting that tech out the door, (and at the right price point). Lead times are measured in years, not months.