Batteries will eventually play a leading role in our nation’s energy independence on two (and as will be shown related) fronts:  Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the Smart Grid.  The “eventually” part of this prediction depends on first overcoming a few challenges, however.  The main challenge with EVs is the battery’s weight.  For the Smart Grid, the main challenge is cost.  That’s not to say battery cost is not important for EVs; it’s just that on the scale of a car, the cost is already at acceptable levels.

That an all-electric fleet of vehicles would greatly reduce (and may even eliminate) our dependence on foreign oil is rather obvious.  Getting there will take some time, of course, and will be driven mostly by the price of gasoline.  If the price remains around $3/gallon (adjusted for inflation), it will take the rest of the century; if prices rise to over $5/gallon, most cars could be all-electric within two decades.

Achieving that worthy goal will also be possible only with a better battery, and that means a much lighter batter.  Propelling a vehicle that weighs less demands proportionally less power.  But way too much of the total weight in today’s EVs comes from the batteries themselves!  This is not unlike rockets, where the weight of the propellant needed to reach orbit constitutes 80-90% of the total weight.  Without a lighter battery, EVs will be relegated to local commuting.  And that’s not good enough.  What is truly needed, therefore, is a lightweight battery that can go up to a few hundred miles on a single charge, or one that can be fully recharged in mere minutes—or both.

Although not as heavy as lead-acid batteries, the various lithium battery chemistries in use today are not exactly lightweights.  Next-generation battery systems currently in development are showing great promise for increasing energy density by as much as three times, resulting in a battery weighing one-third (or less) of today’s best EV battery.  And these batteries could be available in as few as three years.  When that happens, the auto industry will finally be poised to begin eliminating gas-guzzling vehicles.

In the Smart Grid today, the battery’s role today is limited mostly to “smoothing” the production of solar and wind power as renewable sources of energy.  Periodic cloud cover and regular variations in wind velocity make solar and wind quite intermittent, which complicates their integration into the electrical grid on a large-scale basis.  Batteries can minimize these peaks and valleys, making solar and wind more dependable, if not dispatchable in “virtual power plants” that aggregate multiple, distributed sources.

But can batteries really compete effectively with traditional large-scale energy storage technologies, such as pumped hydro and compressed air, which are used in peaking power plants?  Not today.  And some of the current and exotic chemistries proposed, like sodium-sulfur and vanadium redox, may never be cost competitive.

But imagine tens of millions of EVs plugged into the Smart Grid.  Such an enormous amount of storage could enable, quite literally, a nationwide vehicle-to-grid (V2G) virtual power plant.  Much work needs to be done, of course, to ensure that all these batteries can give back some power when needed by the grid while still maintaining their “all gassed up and ready to go” charge for the commute to and from work.  As for cost?  That’s also good news, because utilities will incur little or no capital expenditures to make this possibility a reality.

How will the V2G virtual power plant help achieve energy independence?  In meeting the ever-increasing demand for electricity, it will make renewable sources of energy more viable and minimize the need for utilities to build more gas-fired power plants, leaving our nation’s reserves of natural gas for other uses.  (Note that building new coal-fired power plants will become increasingly problematic with the need to reduce our carbon footprint.)  And if that next-generation battery is able to eliminate a future dependence on foreign sources of lithium, then the U.S. may well be able to achieve full energy independence.

Lost in the hype surrounding next-generation rechargeable batteries being developed for EVs and smart grid applications is the intensifying need for significant price/performance improvements for new advanced primary batteries.

Why?  There is a large and growing range of portable power applications served by primary batteries that require higher power and energy densities, extended service life and uninterrupted operation under extreme temperature conditions and/or hostile environments.  The transportation, government and defense, medical, industrial and specialty application markets are still reliant on primary batteries that now constitute a $1.5 billion global market opportunity.  Applications as diverse as tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), unmanned aerial vehicles, extra-terrestrial rovers, oil exploration systems and glucose monitoring systems (to name just a handful of examples) are all seeking new advanced primary battery solutions that will change the current price/performance equation.

And that’s why Contour Energy Systems is initially applying its breakthrough advancements in new fluorine-based battery chemistries, nanomaterials science and manufacturing processes (that will find their way into next-generation rechargeable systems as well) to advanced primary batteries.  Not only will applications leveraging advanced primary batteries serve as an important proof point for Contour’s unique carbon fluoride battery technology, they will enable oil exploration companies to search for new sources of energy where they haven’t been able to go previously; or how patients can improve their quality of life with critical medical devices such as cardiac defibrillators; or how the military can deploy UAVs with much greater range and mission time; or how motorists can be assured of a TPMS that last the life of a tire with far fewer “false positive” warnings.  And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Our tagline of “reshaping portable power” not only extends to coin cell, cylindrical, thin film and prismatic form factors, but to how our systems deliver superior price/performance.  In the case of advanced primary batteries serving disparate applications, we’re helping customers achieve an optimal combination of higher energy and/or power densities and discharge rates.  And this is key because every single application has unique operating needs that can’t be satisfied by off-the-shelf batteries.  At Contour Energy Systems we see tremendous innovation opportunities for advanced primary batteries spanning multiple robust markets worldwide

Contour Energy Systems is emerging from stealth mode with an ambitious mission of Reshaping Portable Power™.  Can a start-up really reshape an entire industry?  Our investors, partners and customers certainly think so.  But what about others in the industry?  With so much money being invested in battery technology today, what makes Contour uniquely qualified to lay claim to such a lofty ambition?

At a macro level, our technology is truly remarkable.  Our roots in leading-edge academic research, our top-notch R&D team and the partnerships we are establishing combine to provide Contour with an impressive (and growing) portfolio of intellectual property that is already Reshaping Portable Power for primary lithium batteries.  Our advanced carbon fluoride technology delivers up to three times the energy density and up to eight times the power density of other primary lithium batteries.  And with the ability to alter how fluorine is introduced into the carbon nanostructure at the atomic level during the manufacturing process (what we call the Tunable Cathode™), Contour has become the first company with a customizable battery that can be fully optimized for different applications.

Initial testing of our next-generation rechargeable battery technology has demonstrated even more impressive improvements in energy and power densities, and other operating characteristics.  As we prepare to commercialize this technology, we see its promise to become a genuine next generation battery system capable of reshaping the portable power industry once again.

Contour Energy Systems has a compelling story to tell.  And I invite you to revisit our Website and company Blog that will provide meaningful commentary and perspective on the course of the portable power industry.  What is abundantly clear is that the global market’s appetite for portable power solutions continues to grow at a robust rate.  Diverse applications across multiple vertical markets continue to emerge, each with their own unique requirements.  So stay tuned to see just how Contour Energy Systems is Reshaping Portable Power.