Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Legislation and Policy, USA


This could be big. The US Department of Energy has announced a five-year, $120-million award for a team of 14 companies, universities and national laboratories led by Argonne National Laboratory that will be charged with creating next-generation batteries for use in vehicles and the grid. In short, a sort of "Manhattan Project" for advanced EV packs.

Officially called the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub, aka the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), was announced by US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu as well as Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As you might guess for that list, the Argonne National Laboratory is in Illinois.

The state of Illinois is kicking in $5 million to build out the JCESR facility at Argonne in suburban Chicago, while Quinn is trying to work up another $30 million for the building. The battery-specific efforts are centered around improving storage capacity, which will both help automakers get a better single-charge range and communities to add battery-assisted infrastructure. Single-charge range and infrastructure have both been viewed as stumbling blocks in terms of getting faster adoption of EVs.

Other entities in the group include the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Northwestern University and University of Chicago, as well as Dow Chemical Co. and Johnson Controls. The latter company is expected to bid on bankrupt lithium-ion battery producer A123 Systems later this month. Check out the DOE's release about the Energy Storage Hub below.Continue reading DOE's new Energy Storage Hub a "Manhattan Project" for better batteries

DOE's new Energy Storage Hub a "Manhattan Project" for better batteries originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



Permalink | Email this | Comments

More...