Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been steadily pushing the Trump Administration deeper into clean tech territory, regardless of President* Trump’s pro-coal rhetoric. In the latest development, the Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced a new round of $5.7 million in funding for next-generation energy storage technology, aimed squarely at driving down the cost of electric vehicles and pumping up the range, to boot.
Perry is also steadily getting more frantic in his efforts to satisfy the inclinations of President Trump and the conservative base, but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.
The new energy storage funding round comes under the Battery500 consortium, which is spearheaded by PNNL with a focus on improving lithium-metal batteries.
Battery500 was established under the Obama Administration in 2016. Back then, clean tech rated lavish attention from the Commander-in-Chief. Rather than leaving it up to the Energy Department, the White House took up the task of defining the Battery500 mission:
…The Battery500 Consortium aims to triple the specific energy (to 500 WH/kg) relative to today’s battery technology while achieving 1,000 electric vehicles cycles. This will result in a significantly smaller, lighter weight, less expensive battery pack (below $100/kWh) and more affordable EVs…
The $5.7 million in funding will go to 15 projects that fall into the seedling category, defined by PNNL as “new, potentially risky battery technologies that could pay off big and grow into significant energy storage solutions.”
Battery500 seems to have taken recent improvements in battery technology under consideration when setting a goal for the 15 projects. The current goal is to double, not triple specific energy:
Battery500 seeks to develop lithium-metal batteries that have more than double the specific energy found in batteries that power today’s electric cars. Specific energy measures the amount of energy packed into a battery based on its weight.
Meh, double, triple. It depends on where you set the level of specific energy typical of “today’s” EV batteries. PNNL currently puts that around the 170-200 watt mark.
Either way, the end result will be a new generation of EVs that could outrun gasmobiles on two key metrics, cost and range.
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