CBI researchers create high performance battery program for green vehicles and energy

Renewables, energy storage, and hybrid electric cars stand to benefit from a new program created by researchers with the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), which will produce high performance batteries for the United States.

The program establishes a set of research objectives focused on short term goals for performance and lifetime improvements to both automotive and energy storage batteries over the next three years. CBI hopes to encourage growth in four areas: renewable energy integration to support smart grids and remote area power supplies, energy storage for homes, energy storage for commercial and industrial premises, and in transmission and distribution reserves, to provide backup energy storage at a grid level.

“We’ve designed our research program to help meet rapidly growing demand for battery energy storage – from cars to renewable energy,” Dr. Alistair Davidson, director of CBI, said. “That means designing longer-lasting batteries with more sophisticated technology. It’s important that we create the right conditions for battery manufacturers to innovate and expand in the U.S.”

Consortium members include battery manufacturers, universities, and research institutes. Their plans are intended to also help those outside their organization: car-makers, for instance. The hope is that researchers will be able to accelerate the creation of start-stop and micro-hybrid vehicles and store more of the energy created when a car breaks through more advanced lead batteries. Boosting the lifetime of these batteries through enhancement of partial state-of-charge is also a goal — one with the potential to increase their cycle life up to five times, by researcher estimates.

“There is no doubt that, in the U.S., we will need to support a range of battery technologies to meet the needs of diverse products and applications,” Dr. Tim Ellis, president of RSR Technologies and chairman of CBI, said. “One of the great advantages of lead batteries is that we’re only now beginning to unlock the full potential of the technology.”

The first quarter of the year brought 148.8 megawatts in battery energy storage growth to the United States, representing significant growth over the previous year. CBI expects this growth to continue as demand increases.