5 Things You Need to Know About Advanced Batteries

Who Supports the Research

Along with organizations studying existing lead-acid battery advancements worldwide like Sweden's Effpower and Tudor Exide in Europe, there is the United States Advanced Battery Consortium. This organization is made up of Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors in collaboration with the United States Department of Energy. The United States Council for Automotive Research is the parent organization for the USABC.

Where Advanced Batteries are Being Used

The USABC's mission is "to develop electrochemical energy storage technologies that support commercialization of fuel cell, hybrid, and electric vehicles." Advanced batteries tend to present a more energy-efficient and ecologically friendly power source for electric cars and other electronic devices. Replacing conventional and lead-acid batteries, they are smaller, give off significantly lower emissions and offer a longer lifespan.

Goals For Advanced Battery Research

As outlined by USCAR, the listed goals for advanced battery research are:

- Continued development of high-power battery technologies to reduce cost to $20/kW and extend life to 15 years;
- Develop battery technology to support electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles;
- Develop ultracapacitor technology for hybrid electric vehicle applications;
- Conduct benchmarking activities for both high power and high energy batteries and ultracapacitors to validate technologies; and
- Publish technical goals and associated test procedures to guide the development of electrochemical energy storage systems.

Benefits to Consumers

If vehicle manufacturers can find a way to reduce the cost of advanced batteries, the payout could be huge for both the environment and consumers. For example, Ford identifies decreased costs for energy to the tune of 50-75 percent of petroleum costs to consumers as a large bonus of relying on electricity for vehicles. The stability of electric costs in comparison to petroleum costs would be much easier on consumers' wallets as well.

Benefits to the Environment

Using excess electricity in the power grid that's available each night during off-peak hours would allow as much as 73 percent of light-duty trucks and cars in America to be powered without having to build even a single new powerplant. Using this idle energy could bring down the overall cost of electricity to consumers with no harm to the environment. Along with preserving fossil fuels, the use of advanced batteries will decrease greenhouse gases normally created by combustion engines.

Tracie Close is a freelance writer for print and the web on eco-friendly topics. Her articles have been published in Saving American Manufacturing, Philadelphia Style Magazine, and High Tech, High Touch. She also has contributed numerous articles about green living for eHow.com.