US government funds five-year tech research 'hub' to make substantially cheaper, more powerful batteries
Want substantially better battery tech? Sometimes, you just have draw together the greatest heroes scientists and engineers and just hammer these things out -- and it helps when there's some money to splash around, too. The US government's awarding $120 million over five years to a new research hub that will draw together a handful of progressive independent research programs, coordinating five national labs, five universities and four private firms to push the humble power pack to new heights. These future advances may not be precisely geared toward making your phone go (even) further however, with energy storage improvements likely to feed into improved vehicle battery storage and charging and better ways to hold onto renewable energy sources. The hub management is being compared to the likes of AT&T Bell's transistor development, the Manhattan project and MIT's Lincoln lab that was responsible for the radar. So no pressure there then.
