Over the last year numerous (!!) folks have asked me why I
have not written a blog post. Even at
the best of times, the title “this week in batteries” was a wee bit
optimistic. A better title would have
been “this month in batteries”, but TMiB is not a pronounceable acronym. But the last year has been particularly slow
going at TWiB.
Turns out that I have been extremely busy this last year. We had decided to remove cable television and
move to using a Roku box with Netflix. You
will be amazed at how long it takes to get through all the seasons of Lost,
CSI, 24, Community, and the rest Netflix’s content (answer: a year!).
Anyway, all good times come to an end and I’m pretty close
to being stuck with watching things real time.
While I’ve been glued to the box, many things have changed
in the battery world. President Obama
decided he wanted EVs Everywhere, my home state of CA decided that they wanted
15% EV and PHEVs by 2025, and Governor Brown has decided he wants charging
stations everywhere.
Meanwhile, battery energy densities, after evolving at 5% a
year, doubled this year.
Simultaneous, one battery company declared (Chapter 11)
bankruptcy, another company is having financial difficulties, cars are catching
fire, and batteries are catching fire.
To top it all funding to cleantech seems to be getting
harder.
Is there a mismatch between what the government wants to see
and what batteries can deliver?
And are we about to hear a “pop” (of a bubble
bursting)?
It seems like someone needs to be discussing these
issues. And I can't think of any other forum but TWiB to do it.
Unfortunately, I beginning to realize that at this stage,
I’m more qualified to talk about why season 2 of Community seemed worse than
Season 1, than I’m about the status of battery technology. So, over the next few weeks, I’m going to
brush up on my knowledge and hope to be back to writing regularly.
So stay tuned folks… I’ll be back.
Venkat
