Menu

In the News 2017

Battery Market Goes Bigger and Better in 2018
Design News
December 26, 2017
Advances in battery technologies hold the keys to continuing progress in portable electronics, robotics, military, and telecommunication applications, as well as distributed power grids.
Here’s How the Next Big Thing Really Happens
Inc.
December 11, 2017
The JCESR model offers a great blueprint for the future. Innovation is always about networks rather than nodes and it is essential that we learn how to build those connections faster. Building intense collaboration between government labs, academic institutions and private businesses will be key to maintaining our technological and competitive edge.
Scientists are Developing Magnesium Batteries, Safer and More Efficient Than Traditional Lithium
Techspot
December 2, 2017
Efficient energy storage is one of the main challenges in large scale renewable energy projects. Scientists at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research are looking for a better solution and have been making some recent breakthroughs.
Magnesium Batteries Could be Safer and More Efficient than Lithium
Engadget
December 1, 2017
It’s still early days for the promise of safer, energy-dense solid-state rechargeable batteries. However, a team of JCESR scientists discovered a fast magnesium-ion solid-state conductor that will go a long way towards making non-flammable batteries with more capacity.
New Conductor Takes US Researchers Closer to ‘Holy Grail’ of Super Safe Battery
Global Times
November 29, 2017
The days of the lithium battery that dominates the market may be numbered as US researchers are developing a solid magnesium conductor that could lead to safer, cheaper and more efficient magnesium batteries.
Solid-state Magnesium-ion Batteries Could Lick Lithium
New Atlas
November 29, 2017
Lithium-ion batteries are the undisputed top dog of the battery world at the moment, but magnesium-ion devices have the potential to steal the crown – if scientists can crack the problem of finding an efficient electrolyte.
JCESR Team Advances Prospects of Solid-state Magnesium-ion Batteries with Discovery of Fastest Magnesium-ion Solid-state Conductor
Green Car Congress
November 28, 2017
A team of JCESR scientists has discovered the fastest magnesium-ion solid-state conductor, a major step towards making solid-state magnesium-ion batteries that are both energy dense and safe.
Storing the Change
Outlook
November 27, 2017
Cheaper and better batteries are set to revolutionize the concept of energy storage. Here is the tech spark that triggered the illuminating possibility of clean energy.
‘Holy Grail’ for Batteries: Solid-state Magnesium Battery a Big Step Closer
Phys.org
November 27, 2017
A team of JCESR scientists has discovered the fastest magnesium-ion solid-state conductor, a major step towards making solid-state magnesium-ion batteries that are both energy dense and safe.
Nature
November 1, 2017
Illinois has become a hotbed of research in the science of matter and its elementary substances. Regarding published papers, the state ranks fourth in the United States for its chemistry research output. Argonne is one of four institutions that produce the lion’s share of these papers.
Joule
October 2017
JCESR startup, Baseload Renewables, works to commercialize a JCESR prototype for long duration, low cost energy storage for the electricity grid.
Transatlantic Models Advance Battery Revolution
British-American Business Council – Thought Leaders Platform
October 26, 2017
Energy storage is a critical technology that has revolutionized consumer electronics, is revolutionizing transportation, and is poised to revolutionize the electric grid. However, significant reduction in cost, along with improved energy density, cycle life, charge times, and safety, are still needed to attain widespread deployment.
Green Car Congress
October 23, 2017
A JCESR research team led by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has discovered a set of chemical reactions involving magnesium that degrade battery performance even before the battery can be charged up.
Powerpulse.net
October 13, 2017
Wind and solar power are increasingly popular sources for renewable energy. But intermittency issues keep them from connecting widely to electric grids around the world: They require energy-storage systems that, at the cheapest, run about $100 per kilowatt hour and function only in certain locations.
Storage is Renewable Energy’s Greatest Challenge – This Low-cost Sulfur Battery May Help
Cell Press
October 11, 2017
MIT scientists have developed a battery powered by sulfur, air, water, and salt – that is nearly 100 times less expensive to produce than batteries currently on the market and can store twice as much energy as a lead-acid battery.
Harvard Business Review
October 10, 2017
While the execution of a conventional strategy lends itself to linear progress and clear benchmarks, innovation often proceeds by S-curves, moving at a slow crawl until it explodes at an exponential rate. To close the gap, we need to treat innovation differently than we do normal operations.
United Press International
October 6, 2017
Scientists and engineers are working in a variety of capacities to improve the electric car battery on several fronts, including efforts to boost its power, range, safety and durability. These efforts fall into two categories: research into incremental changes and research into step changes.
MIT Technology Review
October 3, 2017
MIT’s Yet-Ming Chiang has launched a flow battery startup, Baseload Renewables, aimed at making renewable energy competitive with fossil fuels. His early research on this approach began under JCESR.
Lab Manager Magazine
August 14, 2017
A new material developed by JCESR shows promise for batteries that store electricity for the grid. The material consists of carefully structured molecules designed to be particularly electrochemically stable in order to prevent the battery from losing energy to unwanted reactions.
ScienceDaily
August 12, 2017
JCESR scientists have engineered a new material to be used in redox flow batteries, which are particularly useful for storing electricity for the grid.
Inc.
July 29, 2017
Historically, developing new materials has been a slow and expensive process because while there are countless materials and ways to process them, identifying one that will give you the properties you want is like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, now there is an effort to change that.
Gas & Electricity
July 8, 2017
JCESR researchers at MIT are developing a new approach to the design of a liquid battery using a passive, gravity-fed arrangement similar to an old-fashioned hourglass.
Harvard Business Review
June 21, 2017
Innovation is, at its core, about solving problems – and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve. Of the best-kept secrets is how industry can access federally funded world-class research.
Europhysics News
June 16, 2017
Disruptive innovation often occurs via the convergence of several creative advances. Transportation is ready for such a disruptive leap, arising from electric vehicles, charging/electrical infrastructure, ride sharing, self-driving cars, and big data.
ScienceDaily
June 6, 2017
JCESR researchers built a new stage and created a designer electrolyte to obtain both detailed and broad overviews of a troubling layer that causes promising lithium-sulfur batteries to fail.
Wall Street Journal
May 21, 2017
The rap on solar and wind is intermittence—they don’t produce power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. But with better energy storage, that downside could fade away.
Green Car Congress
May 2, 2017
JCESR researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories have significantly improved the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries under lean electrolyte conditions, as published in the ACS journal Nano Letters.
Inc.
April 22, 2017
In a networked world, the best way to become a dominant player is to be an indispensable partner. In a race to create the next-generation of batteries, JCESR is an example of the collaboration necessary to meet big goals.
Chemical & Engineering News
April 3, 2017
A new technique developed by JCESR scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Utah identifies nonaqueous electrolytes for RFBs that will enable the batteries to have high energy density and high stability.
Inc.
March 19, 2017
To solve big problems, mere tinkering won’t do. We need to build new platforms for collaboration and the work being done on advanced batteries at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory offers a promising model for the future.
Smithsonian.com
March 7, 2017
The world is waiting on a battery breakthrough. Nearly every sector of the electronics industry, everything that runs on a battery, is limited by the power output and energy life of the batteries that run it.
Greentech Media
March 7, 2017
Argonne handles everything from theoretical work to small-scale cell prototyping, larger batch production and automated assembly-line fabrication. On a recent visit to the lab, GTM identified ongoing research efforts of particular interest to our readers.
Aurora Beacon-News
March 3, 2017
Wind farms and the electricity grid, cars and cell phones are benefiting from technology developed over the course of a $120 million research project at Argonne, scientists told U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, during a recent annual review.
Engineering360
March 2, 2017
JCESR researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Utah are working to develop industrial-scale batteries to store energy from intermittent sources such as wind and solar.
Energy Matters
February 23, 2017
A team of chemists from Utah and Michigan Universities have developed a charge-storing molecule that they say is 1,000 times more stable than the compounds currently used in flow battery systems.
Engineering & Technology
February 22, 2017
The success of electric cars is ultimately defined by their batteries. We are reaching a point where the multifaceted trade-offs between cost, safety, range and the speed and accessibility of charging are starting to seriously impress, but can the breakthroughs continue?
Phys.org
February 21, 2017
Chemists at University of Utah and University of Michigan use a predictive model to develop a charge-storing molecule around 1,000 times more stable than current compounds, as reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Science Friday
February 17, 2017
Will any new battery chemistries approach the success of lithium ion? Electric vehicle advocate and blogger Chelsea Sexton joins George Crabtree, JCESR director, to discuss potential successors to the popular lithium ion battery.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
February 14, 2017
JCESR has been working toward the goal of developing batteries that are five times as powerful but cost five times less than battery technology did when the center started. Many in the industry scoffed at the idea that those goals could be met within five years, but the energy storage center is working to do just that.
Science News
January 9, 2017
New chemistries and designs promise to take batteries into the 21st century to store energy from solar and wind farms and send energy to homes and businesses. In late 2017, JCESR scientists will introduce prototype batteries to be developed by manufacturers for potential commercialization. Some contain new ingredients — sulfur and magnesium — that help store energy more efficiently, delivering power for longer periods. Others will employ new designs.

Latest Updates

See All