Articles
Advances in many vital technologies, from electric cars to renewable energy storage, are being held back by failings in battery technology. As a result, labs around the world have become the setting for a techno-war being waged in a bid to become the leaders in advanced battery technology.
The stakes are high, with the winners set to unlock massive economic growth for their country and enable the switchover from oil to an electric age.
The Powerhouse provides us with an account of author Steve LeVine’s two years spent in a secure federal laboratory in Chicago called Argonne, where he follows the efforts
of a crack science team and their attempts to solve this massive physics and engineering puzzle.
More like a novel than a straightforward historical account, the book brings to life the US’s and China’s attempts to outstrip each other. We get the back story to each country’s efforts in battery development. This centres on the intertwining plots of Wan Gang, engineer-cum-Chinese minister, tasked with the mission to make China the world’s number-one producer of electric vehicles, and the Argonne team’s efforts to develop and commercialise an advanced lithium-ion battery with a unique nickel-manganese-cobalt core. This battery will end up in General Motors’ Volt vehicle.
LeVine provides colourful accounts of the characters, the conversations and the conflict. The book captures the energy, paranoia, secrecy and scientific espionage that go on behind the scenes.
However, while it is a page-turner and the technical content is well-explained, the book is by no means an in-depth look at battery science, and there is not a diagram in sight.
Overall, it is a fascinating insight into the trials and tribulations of invention, commercialisation and the vested interests of the political elite.
The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War, from Penguin Books, is priced at £12.99