It was reported last week (April 6th) that Japan’s Hitachi Ltd. has developed a material that can double the life of lithium ion batteries. The company apparently has an eye on the anticipated demand for rechargeable storage batteries required for smart grids (which is interesting in itself – please see the second half of this commentary). Hitachi expects the global market for industrial-use lithium ion batteries to reach 3 trillion yen (US$32 billion if my arithmatic is correct) by 2020.

As reported, “Hitachi's new battery will use manganese -- which enjoys stable supplies and low prices -- in its positive electrode, reducing use of the rare metal cobalt. Hitachi will also use a metal additive in the new battery, although it doesn’t allude to what that metal additive is. This is seen to extend the battery's life to more than 10 years, double that of existing manganese lithium ion batteries.

Hitachi not only expects the longer-life batteries to be used in smart grids, but for uninterruptible power supply backup systems, and possibly into construction machinery and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Teaming up with Shin-Kobe Electric Machinery Co, Hitachi will complete prototypes of a new battery and peripheral equipment as early as fiscal 2010.

To my ‘Smart Grid’ comment above… I just read Katharine Brass’ (Ms. Brass is a Program Manager with GE’s Energy Ecomagination group) commentary on earth2tech.com, in which she reports that almost three-quarters of the US and Australian Electricity customers haven’t heard or know of a Smart Grid. She goes on to describe some of the benefits and challenges associated with the technology – from the integration of energy savings and renewable resources to cost and consumer privacy concerns. But really, and as Ms Brass recognizes…if folks aren’t even aware of the Smart Grid initiatives, how can they determine if, to what extent ands how it could or should be implemented.

The announcement on Hitachi’s initiative can be found by clicking on http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20100405D05JFN05.htm