October 20, 2022: The US Army is to evaluate a range of lead battery energy storage systems as part of a $3.5 million program to enhance its operational effectiveness in disaster zones and in combat, the Consortium for Battery Innovation announced on October 18.
The 18-month program also seeks to demonstrate how the army can use lead batteries sourced from the US Department of Defense supply system and from locally available sources such as vehicles, while increasing the lifecycle for certain battery types to meet battlefield energy demands.
The CBI partnered the US engineering firm Paragon Solutions to propose the project — an initiative supported by the federal government.
CBI said the project will work with the army in developing ESS systems providing between 125kWh to 250kWh of critical energy using three different lead battery technologies provided by US-based battery manufacturers — Advanced Battery Concepts, East Penn Manufacturing and EnerSys.
“These operational workhorses will be transportable, easy to operate by military personnel and can be integrated into tactical microgrids to provide power for critical loads,” CBI said.
The prototype lead battery energy storage systems will be constructed and tested in various simulated duty cycles to recreate typical field conditions for military operations.
CBI said the aim is to develop systems that could be rolled out across the army and, when the lead battery ESS prototypes are connected to army tactical quiet generators, the systems will provide a low heat signature and quiet energy assets, which are “essential requirements” for army activities in the field.
CBI project manager Matt Raiford (pictured) told BESB the project was not about picking a single product, but showcasing a range of batteries to demonstrate “the kind of technologies you can choose from”, depending on the scenarios in which they might be deployed.
Retired army captain and government technical lead for the project, Tom Decker, said: “This is an important project to the army because in any type of contingency environment — whether in combat situations or following a natural disaster — it all falls back on the Army Corps of Engineers to provide power to continue operations. This is where lead batteries come in.
“The durability of lead batteries has been proven over many decades, so we know what we’re getting when we use the technology. But then we get the added value of the advanced lead battery systems which the industry supplies, and this is the technology that makes the systems viable.”
A detailed report about the project will be featured in the upcoming autumn issue of Batteries International magazine.
