Building a Better Battery for Vehicles and the Grid

November 30, 2012

Argonne scientists Ira Bloom (front) and Javier Bareño prepare a sample of battery materials for Raman spectroscopy, which is used to gather information regarding the nature of the materials present in the sample. | Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.

If you wanted to shorten the path from discovering to commercializing a promising battery technology for electric and hybrid vehicles and the electricity grid, you’d probably want to start an Energy Innovation Hub. That’s exactly what happened today, as Argonne National Lab takes the reins of the newly formed Batteries and Energy Storage Hub.

It’ll be known as the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), pronounced like “J-Caesar,” and it will play a valuable role in advancing battery technology in the United States.

Selected for an award of up to $120 million over five years and directed by George W. Crabtree, Argonne Senior Scientist, the Hub will be the most advanced energy storage research program in the country, providing engineers and manufacturers with the tools, resources and market reach necessary to produce major breakthroughs.

Improved battery storage straddles two important energy sectors: transportation and the grid. 

On the transportation side, radical advances in battery technology are needed to build vehicles that go further on a gallon of gas -- or on their charge. Through interdisciplinary research and development, the Hub is looking to accelerate the technologies that will increase power capacities and charges, and ways to ramp up manufacturing this technology to full scale quickly.

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