LF: Government agency claims to have found ‘holy grail’ of batteries than can outdo Elon Musk's Powerwall (but won’t say what it is)

Title: Government agency claims to have found ‘holy grail’ of batteries than can outdo Elon Musk's Powerwall (but won’t say what it is)
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet ... -s-Powerwall-won-t-say-is.html
Published: Mar 5, 2016
Author: Ellie Zolfagharifard
Post Date: 2016-03-05 10:52:56 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 3066
Comments: 15

A US government agency claims it has battery technology that could outdo anything dreamt up by the likes of Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) – a branch of the Department of Energy – says it has several next-generation battery storage projects in the works.

While the organisation won't go into details about its technology, it says it has found the 'holy grail of batteries' could transform the US electrical grid within five to 10 years.

The battery division of Musk's Tesla Motors turned a profit in the fourth quarter.

This came after the first shipments of its rechargeable products helped to reduce losses from the company's auto business.

Its Powerwall batteries store energy that homes and small businesses generate with solar panels. The Powerpack model is designed for large commercial facilities.

Ellen Williams, director of Arpa-E, said her agency has helped kickstart a dozen high-risk projects based on newer technologies that could soon outperform Tesla batteries.

'What Musk has done that is creative and important is drive the learning curve. He's decided to take an existing, pretty powerful battery technology and start producing it on a very large scale,' she said.

'But it's not technology innovation in the sense of creating new ways of doing it. We are pretty well convinced that some of our technologies have the potential to be significantly better,' Williams said.

The battery division of Elon Musk's Tesla Motors turned a profit in the fourth quarter. This came after the first shipments of its rechargeable products helped to reduce losses from the company's auto business. Its Powerwall batteries (pictured) store energy that homes and small businesses generate with solar panels

'Five years from now there will be a few technologies out there that nobody saw coming.'

ARPA-E is set to get a huge boost after the US and 19 other countries launched Mission Innovation at the United Nations climate summit in Paris late last year.

The governments pledged to double spending on clean energy research and development over the next five years.

The US will boost its overall energy research and development budget to $12.8 billion by 2021.

ARPA-E was launched in 2009 with a budget of $400 million and a mandate to fund the most cutting edge technologies.

President Barack Obama's budget request for 2017 would increase its allocation to $1 billion in five years.

'With that increased budget we can definitely make a difference,' said Williams.

Pictured is a utility-scale version of Tesla's Powerwall that can be used by businesses and scaled up for more power. Ellen Williams, director of Arpa-E, said her agency has helped kickstart a dozen high-risk projects based on newer technologies that could soon outperform Tesla batteries

Government invents most really complicated things. The question then becomes whether what government scientists invent can be turned into something commercially viable. With unlimited funds, the government can make materials do things that can't be done on a real budget.

Having been there, done that, I can assure you government contractors deserve most of he credit.

Government contractors succeed in spite of government bureaucracy not because of it, imho.

Government contractors would not do squat if they were not paid by the government.

Only the government has the resources to be able to put together the biggest, hardest, longest- term projects.

That's why all of the major modern technologies and breakthroughs were first invented by government.

Not an accurate statement on several fronts. The government didn't invent anything, it financed others that did the inventing. That is a distinction with a difference.