Electric cars get all the buzz.
Budding manufacturers draw crowds at auto shows and the electric Nissan Leaf is presently touring the country as if a gold medal winning Olympic athlete.
Every move by darling Tesla Motors is repeated by a fawning media, from its selection of a southern California factory site to the possibility it may sell shares to the public.
This bias was a part of the grants and loan guarantees the Energy Department doled out this summer and fall. Of the total spent on battery technology, $11 billion when to electric vehicle batteries and about $300 million to grid batteries, says Victor Babbitt in a blog post this week.
Designing an advanced battery for the more stable environment of the grid may make more sense
Perhaps the department should think twice.
Cars are difficult places for batteries, with heat, vibration and widely varying performance demands stealing capacity and endurance.
In contrast, grid batteries capturing the electrical output of a solar plant for use later have a relatively stable environment in which to live. They can be more reliable and have a longer lifespan.
“The main issue is cost. Presently, a Sodium Sulfur (NaS) battery by NGK Insulators will run you in the neighborhood of $600K/MWh, and NGK sold several hundred million $ worth in FY2009, and is primed to double production in 2010. Zinc Bromine flow batteries can be purchased today in the neighborhood of $300K/MWh, and several new technologies I’m familiar with are working toward breaking the $100K/MWh barrier, and beyond,” Babbitt says.
Get a grid battery below $100,000 a MWh and the market begins to take off. Beat $70,000 and it reaches into the stratosphere.
Advanced battery development is proving a monster technical hurdle. Perhaps more money should be brought to bear and targeted where it will do the most good.
