The Third Element

Battery power – a technology market that is heating up in a big way. I have seen some projections that market for rechargeable batteries is expected to zoom from $36 billion in 2008 to $51 billion in 2013. And yet, the battery market gets less attention than solar or wind power, its higher profile, but less technologically developed cousins.

Modern battery technology is the keystone of the global push to find an energy alternative for oil. In fact, a specific new category of rechargeable batteries is actually a ‘breakthrough’ technology that has the potential to replace as much as 148 billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years with a potential savings of $10.4 trillion at current prices.

What these numbers don’t tell you is that there is a big powerful catalyst at work, one that is behind the big push to develop new, rechargeable battery technologies – the electric or ‘hybrid’ car. In response to the oil price surge in 2008, US President Barack Obama promised to invest at least $150 billion on alternative energy during his term.

The technology in question: Lithium-ion.

Sometimes referred as the ‘Third Element’ – because of its No 3 position on the Periodic Table of the Elements, lithium is believed to have been one of the few elements synthesized in the ‘Big Bang’ that created the universe. Now it is a key ingredient of the new class of rechargeable batteries used to jump-start the plug-in car market.

President Obama’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act allocates $2 billion for the development of battery systems, components and software for advanced lithium-ion batteries and for hybrid electric systems. Another $300 million will support an Alternative Fueled Vehicles Pilot Program.

Automakers have latched onto lithium-ion battery technology as the road to the future. Right now, nearly every automaker on the planet is gearing up to flood the market with some form of electric-powered car.

Daimler AG plans to roll out a hybrid version of its S-Class sedan later this year. Nissan Motor retooled a factory in Smyrna, Tenn to produce a pure electric vehicle and expect to sell as many as 50,000 units of the hybrid Altima in its first year. Meanwhile, Ford Motor is bringing out the pure electric Transit Connect commercial fleet van in 2010 and Chinese carmakers Hafei and Coda are planning to bring a mass-produced electric car to market in California in fall 2010.