Sunday, April 29, 2012

TWiB is back (hopefully with actual content next time)


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