Energy Tribune

Batteries are the silver bullet.  There’s no question that electricity is the key development factor in countries around the world. Countries that have cheap, abundant electric power have healthier economies than those that don’t. But the next big step in the efficient utilization of electricity is obvious: super-high-capacity batteries.

For more than a century, batteries have confounded some of the world’s greatest scientists. Thomas Edison spent more than a decade and some $1.5 million of his own money (about $32 million in today’s dollars) trying to perfect a battery that would make electric cars and trucks competitive with those fueled by gasoline. He failed.

It’s easy to understand why Edison and others have worked so hard to increase the energy density of batteries. A super-high-capacity electricity storage system would revolutionize the energy sector.

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind would be far more viable, as their intermittency problems would largely be resolved. Coal-fired and nuclear power plants could charge batteries at night when demand is low, improving their economics. During peak demand periods, batteries could feed that stored electricity back onto the grid, thereby allowing far better fuel efficiency. The electric grid would become more resilient. With thousands, or perhaps millions, of high-capacity super batteries distributed across the country, small businesses or even homeowners could buy and sell electricity to the local grid. Blackouts would be minimized because locally stored electricity could replace power lost due to wind storms or other disruptions.

“Batteries offer value to generators, transmission companies, and consumers. But because the benefits of batteries are distributed among all of these stakeholders, it’s not obvious who might be willing to pay for and own them,” says Robert J. King, the president of Good Company Associates, an Austin-based energy consulting firm. “One of the problems is that the utility engineers who control the wires and transport the electricity don’t see batteries as a needed technology because they’ve managed to do without them for the last 100 years.”

Several companies are now marketing high-capacity batteries for the stationary market. American Electric Power in Columbus, Ohio, one of the country’s largest utilities, plans to install 100 megawatts of sodium-sulfur batteries (built by the Japanese conglomerate NGK) on its system. But the NGK batteries are big, expensive, and run at temperatures exceeding 500 F. Competitors with batteries that run at low temperatures include Canada-based VRB Power and Wisconsin-based ZBB Energy. Like the NGK product, their batteries are bulky and expensive. King says that NGK’s battery can store electricity for about $250 per kilowatt-hour. Storage from VRB and ZBB costs about $400 per kWh. Of course, numerous companies are working to improve batteries for the transportation sector.

While batteries for stationary and mobile uses are slowly being improved, the sector is still not garnering enough money or attention. So I propose an incentive that could help foster a breakthrough in battery technology: The Super Battery Prize. In my new book, Gusher of Lies, I suggest that we offer $1 billion to the inventor of a super-high-capacity system that is compact, affordable, and capable of storing multiple kilowatt-hours of electricity. Offer $10 billion to the inventor of a system with all of those attributes that can store multiple megawatt-hours of electricity. The prize money and judging for The Super Battery Prize could be provided by the Department of Energy, or better yet, by a group of private foundations.

There are precedents for using prize money to drive innovation. In 1919, a hotelier named Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first pilot who could fly non-stop between New York and Paris. Eight years later, an unknown American named Charles Lindbergh collected that prize and the era of commercial aviation began.

The lure of $1 billion — or $10 billion — should motivate more scientists and tinkerers to look at batteries. And if they succeed in creating a super battery, the world could be altered even more profoundly than it was following Lindbergh’s landing in Paris.

Even a super battery won’t totally replace oil. But when it comes to making the most of electricity, batteries have always been the key technology. Edison recognized that 100 years ago. The Super Battery Prize could provide the incentive for the next Edison to devise the breakthrough we need.