The Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) said it won a contract from the US military to design and prototype a power skeleton of batteries for when the military responds to domestic and international emergencies.
Dr Matt Raiford, Senior Technical Manager at the CBI, told BEST that the $3.5 million contract is designed for military response situations – on the battlefield and in civilian situations.
“We’ve been working with the US military for about 18 months,” he said, “working with a group called CERL (Construction Engineering Research Laboratory), which is part of the US Army Corps.”
CERL provides many services for the US Army. They include repairing bridges and roads on the battlefield and dealing with sanitation in flooded homes following hurricanes, for example.
Raiford said the military was aware relief efforts required power, and that automotive lead batteries were always around in plentiful supply – fitted in military vehicles.
The contract entails:
- Providing power for the services required with very robust systems
- Creating a skeleton for automotive batteries to plug into power lighting, telecoms, sanitary systems, kitchens etc.
“We’re designing the system and prototyping it,” said Raiford. “It has to be rugged and portable.” The idea is they bring the skeleton to where they are operating. As the US Army uses a lot of lead batteries, the power source is already on hand and the systems just plug in.
The project, known internally as ‘Frankenstein’ involves three battery companies – names not disclosed. The output of the plug-and-play units is designed to be 30 and 60 KWh respectively.
The project runs until March 2023. It is CBI’s first contract with the US military and came about as a result of contact with project management firm Paragon.
Picture caption: CBI’s Matt Raiford welcomes a $3.5m US military contract
