National critical technologies report.

  • Office of Science and Technology Policy
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: National critical technologies report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their Ni-H, batteries, while the United States has almost 50 satellites with Ni-H, batteries currently on orbit. Japanese nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery R&D, a variant of the Ni-H, technology, is pressing the world state-of-the-art, although space applications will probably not occur until the late 1990s. European firms are slightly behind U.S. firms in battery technology. European work is dominated by the Societe des Accumulateurs Fixes et de Traction (SAFT), the battery manufacturing subsidiary of France's electronics and telecommunications conglomerate Alcatel Alsthom. SAFT is the largest alkaline battery company in the world and produces Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries for applications ranging from aerospace to electric vehicles. SAFT's technology is slightly behind that of the United States in Ni-Cd batteries as well as in Ni-H, and Ni-MH batteries. SAFT's technology position will benefit from its purchase of two U.S. aerospace battery producers. For terrestrial systems, especially electric vehicles (EV), SAFT will improve its NiMH—the most viable mid-term alternative to lead-acid batteries for EVs—and on the aerospace side, SAFT will get nickel-hydrogen (NiH) battery technology. Industry experts prefer NiH batteries for aerospace applications such as satellites, launch vehicles, and missiles,because of their longer cycle and shelf lives, but prefer NiMH batteries for terrestrial application because of their superior energy densities and significantly lower cost. No single country has a clear lead in electric vehicle battery technology. However, leaders are emerging in specific battery formulations. The Japanese lead in Ni-Cd batteries is unlikely to be relinquished as they are the only ones continuing development. Ni-Cd batteries store more energy than traditional lead-acid batteries and are able to recharge at a much faster rate than any battery that the United States has been able to develop. The Japanese may also have a lead in lithium technology on the basis of their efforts in the consumer electronics industry, a pool of developers that is virtually nonexistent in the United States. In contrast, European battery R&D is focusing on less expensive sodium formulations. These batteries offer a strong hope of providing to EVs the desired range of 300 kilometers at typical highway speeds by the end of the decade. Power electronics Just as low-power integrated circuits have revolutionized communications ~~ equipment, high-power semiconductor devices will profoundly change electricity transmission and distribution networks. Solid-state electronic switches, circuit breakers, and controllers offer significant improvements in efficiency, reliability and flexibility of the U.S. electric power grid. They increase the carrying capacity of existing power lines and permit power transmission over cee oo thus permitting more efficient matches of electricity supply and emand.