Energy Innovation Hub - Batteries and Energy Storage

Energy Innovation Hubs are composed of large, multidisciplinary teams of investigators whose research integrates basic to applied research and focuses on a single critical national energy need. Batteries and electrical energy storage technologies are pivotal and straddle two major energy sectors: transportation and the grid. For vehicles, new batteries with improved lifetimes and storage capacities are needed to expand range of electric vehicles? for a single charge while simultaneously decreasing the manufacturing cost and weight. For the electrical grid, new approaches to electrochemical energy storage can enable inherently intermittent renewable energy sources to meet continuous electricity demand. Today?s electrical energy storage approaches suffer from limited energy and power capacities, lower-than-desired rates of charge and discharge, cycle life limitations, low abuse tolerance, high cost, and poor performance at high or low temperatu res. The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will accelerate the development of energy storage solutions that are well beyond current capabilities and approach theoretical limits. This development will be enabled by cross-disciplinary R&D focused on the barriers to transforming electrochemical energy storage, including the exploration of new materials, devices, systems, and novel approaches for transportation and utility-scale storage. The Hub will provide a critical mass research effort to overcome the current technical limits for electrochemical energy storage to the point that the risk level will be low enough for industry to further develop the innovations discovered by the Hub and deploy these new technologies into the marketplace. To achieve these goals, the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will foster unique collaborations bridging fundamental scientific research and technology development. The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will be the fourth such Hub established by DOE. Three Energy Innovation Hubs were launched in FY 2010 ? Fuels from Sunlight; Energy Efficient Building Systems Design; and Modeling and Simulation for Nuclear Reactors. The Hub will be funded up to a total of $20 million in the first year; up to $10 million of those funds can be devoted to infrastructure start-up for the Hub, including building renovation (but not new construction), lease arrangements, equipment, and instrumentation. It is anticipated that the Hub will be funded up to $25 million per year for Hub operations in the final four years of the award period, pending Congressional appropriations.