The US Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide US$120 million in funding over the next five years to renew a federal energy storage research programme.
The cash will be directed to the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)— led by the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.
JCESR, since its launch in 2012, has “demonstrated a new class of membranes for flow batteries and made substantial progress in establishing the scientific foundations for batteries based on doubly-charged magnesium instead of singly-charged lithium”, the DOE said. The centre has also “developed computational tools that screened over 24,000 potential electrolyte and electrode compounds for new battery concepts and chemistries”.
The JCESR will now focus on the development of “multivalent battery designs, intended to significantly increase the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries, as well as on new concepts for flow batteries for grid-scale deployments”.
US under-secretary for science, Paul Dabbar (pictured), said JCESR is “one of our most important centres for discovery and innovation”.
Separately, Boston-based Nanoramic laboratories announced it had closed a $5m investment round, with the majority of the capital coming from Japanese companies NGK Spark Plug and semiconductor firm the Marubun Corporation.
