Scientists aim to develop safe, reliable, and affordable battery for electricity grids In a new major research project supported by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, scientists seek to overcome hurdles to grid-scale energy storage with a new battery technology that is not only safe and reliable but also cost-effective. Traditional batteries, while effective, often face issues related to safety, lifespan, and high costs, limiting their application in grid-scale energy storage. The team consists of 31 leading battery scientists, engineers, and physicists from 12 universities in North America, as well as from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. They, along with scores of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, think the key is to make a major component of the rechargeable battery mostly from water and the rest of the device primarily from abundant materials. The project, which is spearheaded by Stanford University and SLAC, can receive up to $62.5 million over five years as part of the DOE’s Energy Innovation Hubs program. However, “the barriers to such a new aqueous battery have stymied inventors for years,” said the project’s chief scientist, Linda Nazar, a professor of chemistry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Voltage remains stubbornly low, energy density is low, water can corrode battery materials, and the cells can fail after just hundreds of charge-discharge cycles “We don’t know the solutions to those hard problems, but with the Department of Energy's support we intend to find out,” said the project’s director, Yi Cui, a Stanford professor of materials science and engineering. Partner universites aside from Stanford and University of Waterloo are: @CSULB; @FAMUFSUCOE; @NCState ; @OregonState; @SJSU; @UCLA; @UCSanDiego; @ucsantabarbara; @UofMaryland; and @UTAustin. News article from Stanford here: Press release from DOE to be posted here soon: