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Remember
back two years ago when gas was almost $5 a
gallon? That was a major threat to small
businesses who depended on vehicles for
their survival. At the end of the is year,
the
Chevy Volt and
Nissan Leaf electric vehicles will
demonstrate that fuel cost stability is
possible. The
Ford Focus EV and
Ford Transit Connect EVs will follow
and the 150 mile range
Toyota Rav4 EV is due soon after
that. With these and other vehicles to
come, we'll be far less threatened by high
oil prices. That will be good for businesses
and consumers.
Now we're hearing about the possibility that
energy stored in the batteries of these new
vehicles could actually help businesses and
consumers earn a buck or two if there
is energy to spare during the middle of the
day when electricity is both expensive, and
especially during heat waves, scarce. Sound
too good to be true?
HRL
Laboratories,
a member of the Malibu
Chamber, is one of several companies
working now to deliver that reality. The
day when that will happen got a bit closer
with the recent announcement by the
Department of Energy.
HRL Laboratories
recently won over $5 million in grant
funding in the following area:
Switches - Automobiles: Gallium-Nitride
Switch Technology for Bi-directional
Battery-to-Grid Charger Applications
"The purpose of this project is to develop
efficient, compact, and low-cost battery
chargers for electric cars. This compact
battery charger will support two-way power
flow enabling the electrical grid to access
the vehicle's battery. More specifically, it
will utilize an advanced semiconductor
material called Gallium Nitride (GaN) grown
on inexpensive silicon to form high voltage
switches."
HRL Laboratories, LLC, will be a partner in
Stanford University's Center on
Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy
Conversion (CNEEC), established in 2009 with
a $20 million, five-year grant from the
Department of Energy's Office of Science.
The CNEEC mission is to research sustainable
energy technologies through nanostructuring
and material science. Knowledge about how
systems work at the nanoscale (1 billionth
of a meter) can lead to advances in energy
devices like solar cells and batteries.
Specifically, HRL scientists will
investigate nanomaterials for lithium ion
batteries, the most promising candidate to
power next-generation hybrid and electric
vehicles. "We will be looking for
breakthroughs in battery technology by
advancing our understanding of solid-state
ionics at the nanoscale, also known as
nanoionics," said Dr. Ping Liu, manager of
the Energy Technologies Department at HRL
and lead on the effort.
HRL will systematically study the effects of
material size on its reaction with lithium.
"Our theoretical understanding of nanoionics
will guide us in designing new material
architectures for next-generation lithium
ion batteries with higher capacity and
longer lifecycles," Liu said.
In addition to staff and students from
Stanford's departments of chemical
engineering, material science, engineering,
mechanical engineering and physics, the
Carnegie Institution and the Technical
University of Denmark will also participate
as CNEEC partners.
When people ask, "Just what are clean energy
jobs?", we submit that the answer lies, to a
significant degree, in the kind of research
work California chamber members like
Malibu's HRL do and have done for decades.
Applying the innovation that is so much a
part of the "California Dream" to solving
problems is what comes naturally here,
especially given the many colleges and
universities that consistently deliver the
native brainpower that fuels this powerful
economic engine.
To join the Malibu Chamber of Commerce,
click
HERE! To other California chambers:
Please let us know about your Green Members
so we can publish your story in the C of C
GreenSheet! |
