New York State is a leader in battery technologies. Cornell was recently selected as the recipient of $17.5 million from the Department of Energy to fund an Energy Research Frontier Center focused on Nanostructured Interfaces for Energy Generation, Conversion and Storage. The goal of the center is to discover and design materials that will dramatically enhance the performance of fuel cells, batteries, photovoltaics and photo-electrochemical cells. The Cornell research s include an expanded search for better catalysts for fuel cells, work already in progress at the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute, and the development of better materials for electrodes in lithium-ion batteries to increase the amount of energy the batteries can store per unit of weight, which is essential for viable electric cars and will enhance wind and solar electricity systems.
The new Cornell Energy Frontier Center will be one of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) created by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Several of these new centers, including the one at Cornell, will be funded by President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package. Cornell also is collaborating with other institutions in two other EFRCs.
For more information on the Cornell Energy Research Frontier Center:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May09/EFRC.ws.htm
