Now We’re Cooking With … Batteries

For a look into what the battery-powered future might hold, however, the Johnson Controls research lab is a good place to start. The company's lithium-ion production line is sealed off in a climate controlled "dry room." While technicians mix a slurry of chemicals that are applied to thin sheets of copper and rolled through a drying oven, a computer monitors the room's humidity and dew point. Moisture is a big problem in battery making—it can contaminate the chemicals and increase risks of a thermal runaway. No more than eight workers are allowed in the room at a time, says battery engineer Jim Symanski, because too much exhaled water vapor could harm these newborn batteries.

At Johnson, much of the excitement revolves around the promise of how better batteries could fuel a new generation of cleaner cars, which could help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. In a garage off the back of the lab, senior VP Mary Ann Wright keeps a Ford Escape Hybrid, which she engineered while working at Ford. When she arrived at Johnson Controls, she and some co-workers replaced its nickel-metal-hydride batteries with lithium-ion. The old batteries weighed 192 pounds versus 130 pounds for the new ones, which yield more power. The result: her jury-rigged Escape gets off-the-charts mileage. Prius owners who've done plug in lithium-ion conversions say they get 80mpg, and some analysts believe GM's Volt could break 100mpg.

There's groundbreaking research happening inside other U.S. companies as well. In Watertown, Mass., A123Systems has received $148 million in venture funding to create advanced batteries. It already makes rechargeable batteries for Black & Decker tools and is in the running to power GM's Volt. EnerDel, an Indianapolis startup, is supplying batteries to Think electric cars in Europe. The government plays a role too: both Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories have teams working on advanced batteries. Researchers are coming up with new chemistries and employing nanotechnology to make lithium-ion safer and more reliable. A123's battery, for example, employs nanophosphate technology that helps prevent thermal runaway and improve battery life. The trade-off: many of these alternative chemistries also lower the battery's voltage.

Despite their work, the U.S. battery makers don't stack up well globally. U.S. automakers' enthusiasm for electric vehicles died a decade ago, when GM's allelectric EV1 proved to be a flop. Since then Toyota and Honda have come to dominate the hybrid-car market, which is why Asia leads the world in advanced-battery production, for both cars and gadgets. "The U.S. missed out on a great deal of the advanced-battery business over the last 10 years," says A123's CEO, Dave Vieau. "The next 10 years will see a significant increase in battery use, and it would be a mistake for us not to participate in that." While U.S. battery makers play catch-up, the Japanese battery industry is consolidating: Panasonic, Toyota's battery supplier, is in talks to acquire Sanyo, Honda's battery maker. South Korea has also demonstrated battery savvy, as does China, where the iPhone batteries are assembled. For some observers, this is a cause for concern. "Are we trading our dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on batteries built in foreign countries?" asks Chrysler vice chairman Jim Press.

It's an issue that goes beyond cars and mobile devices. To reduce carbon emissions, utilities are likely to shift more generating capacity from coal and natural gas to renewable sources like wind and solar. Solar cells and wind turbines require batteries because they provide power intermittently. The wind, for example, blows hardest at night when our energy needs are low, so storing that energy is essential to what utility companies call "load leveling."

To store energy generated by giant solar and wind installations, some utilities are experimenting with sodium-sulfur batteries that are the size of tractor-trailers. As more homeowners put solar panels on the roof and wind turbines in the backyard, utilities are trying to scale down these superbatteries; right now, however, it would require a battery the size of a nice bathroom to take your home "off the grid" with wind and solar power. Researchers are looking into thin-film batteries, but they're costly and hard to mass-produce.

Optimists are confident that those challenges can be overcome. They envision a day when your electric car helps store the power generated by your rooftop solar panels, with many homeowners selling homegrown electricity back to the utility companies over the grid. This vision of energy nirvana sounds great to Molinaroli, who runs Johnson Controls' battery business, but you'll excuse him if he's a bit jaded. "If you went behind the curtain at our tech center, you could probably find electric-vehicle projects from 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago," he says. "There's a lot of skepticism." But this time, with billions riding on battery breakthroughs, there's hope the electric economy might finally come to light.

With Patrick Crowley and Hilary Shenfeld

© 2008