Michigan Researchers Seek New Chemistries to Diversify Rechargeable Battery Applications

Author: Jimmy Brancho

Editors: Irene Park and David Mertz

battery-lab
Figure 1. Researchers at the University of Michigan are testing new battery materials in coin cell batteries. Locked inside one of these cells could be a breakthrough that will push energy storage forward.

Off the Danish coast in Copenhagen, Don Siegel, an associate professor in the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, is on sabbatical. He said the ocean is speckled with tall, white windmills. At some sites, they stand in great curving rows; at others, they’re arrayed in a geometrical pattern.

“Denmark’s very windy,” he said over the phone.

He’s right. The country, according to Energinet, receives 42 percent of its electrical power from wind alone. In fact, Siegel said sometimes there are “emergency situations” where the turbines are pumping out electricity faster than it can be used.

“If we had extra energy storage, imagine what we could do with that,” he said. Continue reading “Michigan Researchers Seek New Chemistries to Diversify Rechargeable Battery Applications”