U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative Off to a Good Start

by James Greenberger on September 3, 2010

Last November, President Barack Obama of the United States and President Hu Jintao of China announced the formation of a U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative to explore ways of collaborating on advanced battery research for hybrid and electric vehicles. The first meeting of the initiative took place this week at Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago. I was pleased and honored to attend that meeting at the invitation of the U.S. Department of Energy on behalf of NAATBatt.

The three-day meeting featured an initial plenary assembly followed by three separate roundtable sessions on battery technology roadmapping, battery test procedures, and vehicle demonstrations and infrastructure. The battery roadmapping session, led by Dave Howell of the DOE and Wu Feng of the Beijing Institute of Technology, explored the possibility of promoting shared research in pre-competitive, early-stage battery technologies, such as lithium-air, lithium metal and certain aspects of advanced lithium-ion technology.

The battery test procedures session, led by Jeff Chamberlain of Argonne and Qiu Xinping of Tsinghau University, explored the somewhat different approaches being taken by the U.S. and China to battery testing and considered ways that procedures might be harmonized and results jointly published.

The vehicle demonstrations and infrastructure session, led by Keith Hardy of Argonne, Steve Goguen of the DOE, and Wang Hewu of Tsinghua University, focused on encouraging greater cooperation between standards setting bodies in the U.S. and China, specifically between the SAE and CATARC, and on the compatibility of U.S. and Chinese supporting infrastructure for PEV’s. Demonstration session participants agreed to cooperate and coordinate PEV demonstration projects in Los Angeles and Shanghai. [click to continue…]

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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander M. Levin (D-MI) in Chicago and speak with him about the future of the advanced battery industry in the United States. Chairman Levin is among the strongest supporters of the industry in Congress and understands as well as anyone the critical importance of our industry to the future economy and energy security of the United States.

I spoke specifically with Chairman Levin about NAATBatt’s concerns, previously expressed in this column, about possible short term overcapacity in the industry and the negative impact such overcapacity might have on the future of electric drive. I outlined NAATBatt’s thoughts on the role that stationary storage applications, and in particular community energy storage, might play in making the industry’s short term prospects a little brighter and promoting consumer acceptance of electric drive. Chairman Levin was very interested in NAATBatt’s ideas and asked me to reduce them to writing. In lieu of my usual column this week, I reproduce below the letter I sent to Chairman Levin at his request: [click to continue…]

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Collaborative Private Industry Directed Research Must Pick Up Where The ARRA Will Leave Off

August 21, 2010

For the past two years federal government support for energy storage technology has been unprecedented. The government has invested billions of dollars in all facets of the advanced battery supply chain, from basic research in advanced materials to full scale mass manufacture of battery systems. It is sobering to remember that only two years ago, [...]

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NAATBatt Files Comments with FERC Highlighting the Opportunities and Challenges of Distributed Energy Storage

August 13, 2010

On Monday, August 9, NAATBatt filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in response for FERC’s solicitation for guidance from industry on how to better regulate and administer grid-connected energy storage technology. This topic is of critical interest to the advanced battery industry as well as to automakers hoping to produce plug-in electric [...]

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Comments to FERC Underline Need to Listen to Utilities on Community Energy Storage

August 6, 2010

On Monday, August 9, NAATBatt will file with the FERC comments in response to its Request for Comments Regarding Rates, Accounting and Financial Reporting for New Electric Storage Technologies, Docket No. AD10-13-000. The filing of NAATBatt’s comments will culminate a process that has involved numerous meetings and telephone conference calls among more than 20 companies, including [...]

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COMMUNITY ENERGY STORAGE MAKES PROGRESS AT THE FERC

July 30, 2010

Yesterday, I was proud to lead a delegation of ten NAATBatt member firms and supporting organizations to a meeting with Chairman Jon Wellinghoff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  Representatives of General Motors Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, EnerSys, EaglePicher Technologies, Altairnano, Applied Intellectual Capital/East Penn Manufacturing, A123 Systems, Saft America, American Electric Power, [...]

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IF NOT A PRICE ON CARBON, THEN WHAT?

July 23, 2010

On Thursday, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he was abandoning efforts to pass a broad energy bill this summer that would have included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions.  By Senator Reid’s calculation he did not have the votes to move that legislation.   The demise of cap-and-trade is another watershed event [...]

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A MODEST PROPOSAL: BUILD A PEOPLES’ CAR FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

July 16, 2010

On June 22, 2010, Kathryn Clay of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) testified before the Senate Energy Committee on the proposed Promoting Electric Vehicles Act of 2010, S. 3495 (PEVA).  In a shock to many observers, the AAM declined to support the PEVA.  Ms. Clay said that the PEVA’s emphasis on electric vehicles is [...]

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WILL A REGULATORY ANOMOLY THWART THE NEXT “KILLER APP” FOR ADVANCED BATTERIES?

July 7, 2010

Despite the attention that automotive applications for advanced batteries have received over the past several years, it is entirely possible that the next “killer app” for advanced batteries will be something slightly more mundane:  community energy storage (CES).  CES describes the installation by utilities of relatively small, 75-100 kWh, stationary batteries in individual communities downstream [...]

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500 MILE BATTERY PRIZE BEGS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

July 2, 2010

The proposed Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 (S.B. 3442) contains a number of provisions of interest to the advanced battery community, but none more innovative than the Advanced Batteries for Tomorrow Prize referenced in Section 10 of the bill.  The Prize would award $10 million to an entrant submitting a cost-effective, reasonably sized battery [...]

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