Advanced Batteries: Here Come the Californians | The Energy Collective

On August 11, 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced 175 million in new vehicle efficiency technology grants.&nbsp; The largest portion of the awards, 50 million, was directed to 12 projects relating to advanced cells and design technology for electric drive batteries.&nbsp; Several of the new grants went to companies that received awards in 2009 as part of the 2 billion Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative (DOE-FOA-26).&nbsp; But a number of awardees were new.&nbsp; Most striking was the concentration of awardees in California.&nbsp; Amprius, Applied Materials, Seeo and Nanosys collectively pulled in a little less than 20 million of the 50 million awarded <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>internet coupons </strong></a> nationwide.&nbsp; California-based companies received almost no part of the 2009 grants. The shift westward in the DOE's attention reflects the DOE's increasing focus on next generation battery technologies. This focus is proper and welcome.&nbsp; If U.S.-based companies are going to play a leading role in the energy storage industry of the 21st Century, it will not be because of their prowess in mass producing existing products.&nbsp; It will be because of their ability to innovate new and better technology and, hopefully, to hold on to as much of the manufacturing of products incorporating that new technology as possible until U.S.-based innovation makes, in turn, that new technology obsolete. So why the concentration of awards in California?&nbsp; With apologies to my West Coast colleagues, it is not because people in California are smarter or more innovative than people elsewhere.&nbsp; What seemed to drive many of the awards to California was that state's association with a particular element that may become increasingly important to advanced batteries:&nbsp; silicon. Commentators have long mourned the absence of a Moore's Law in advanced battery technology.&nbsp; Progress in lithium-ion technology has been steady but incremental.&nbsp; The great leaps in battery power and energy capacity necessary for mass electrification of motor vehicles will have to come from commercialization of next generation technologies, such as lithium-sulfur, lithium-air and metal air batteries. Of the next generation technologies, most experts seem to agree that the first to be commercialized will probably be those using silicon-based anodes in place of the carbon-based anodes used in today's lithium-ion batteries.&nbsp; Silicon-based anodes should be able to just about double the energy capacity per kilogram of today's lithium-ion cells.&nbsp; But silicon is a tough <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>printable coupon </strong></a> element to work with.&nbsp; It expands and contracts and fractures as it captures and discharges electrons, a characteristic that has poor implications for battery cycle life.&nbsp; He who can <a href="http://www.436100.info/view.php?id=22"><strong>Designer Sunglasses – Must-have in Your Travel Check-list! | ######## ...</strong></a> solve the problem of the silicon anode, however, will be able to make a very powerful new battery. Enter California, land of the semiconductor.&nbsp; It is perhaps not coincidental that of the four California awardees, three seem to be working on silicon anode technology and the fourth (SEEO) is led by a long-time semiconductor industry veteran. I make no prediction as to the success of silicon anode technology.&nbsp; It is possible that the riddle of the silicon anode will never be solved or that their mass production will prove to be uneconomical.&nbsp; But I have written several times in this column that the battle for the global advanced battery industry is a boxing match, not a race.&nbsp; The key for American industry is to understand that we will lose in the early rounds but must stay in the fight long enough to land our left hook—innovation and superior technology. We have some tough rounds ahead.&nbsp; 2011 and 2012 may bring bad news for many U.S. companies.&nbsp; Some degree of reorganization and consolidation in the industry is inevitable.&nbsp; So it is comforting to read the list of the most recent DOE battery grants.&nbsp; Because in that list you can glimpse, if just for a moment, our left arm.