In Texas?
Picturing the scene from Oppenheimer with Texas officials noting the plates of any researchers driving EVs as possible climate change believers
The Department of Defense has become the latest US government body to push for next-gen battery manufacturing in America, with a $30 million (£24m) investment in an energy storage systems campus in the Lone Star State. The funds, awarded to the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and a consortium of other universities, …
In My Bombastic Opinion any new battery tech needs to focus on something OTHER than lithium, particularly something that is CHEAP to build, yet still lightweight.
Aluminum battery tech may be the best alternative to something that is likely to form a bottleneck in the supply chain (i.e. Lithium batteries made by CCP). If they are SERIOUS, this is what they will do.
But, if they just want to suck away public funds to hire overpaid people and get ALL NEW equipment for the lab... don't expect ANYTHING revolutionary.
(and NO hiring CCP foreign nationals, either)
Other inexpensive and lightweight materials may be just as good (or better) than aluminum. Problems with lithium (easily catches fire under certain conditions) would be eliminated (not to mention the ENRICHING of the CCP as they have cornered the market on Lithium)
I'm not a fan of pure EV but HYBRID often makes sense as long as the battery does not make them cost prohibitive. Domestically produced inexpensive batteries using materials like Aluminum (which is cheap and available) would help a LOT. Aluminum batteries would also be good for phones, laptops, and so on. I'd just deal with the extra few ounces of weight, if any.
"UTD said a fourth priority, developing a US workforce needed to make the aforementioned three goals possible, is also as important as the other three. "
If this isn't the most important thing, then this screams "outsourcing" to me.
Better beef up the student loan amounts!
.. and it might be cow droppings ...
.. Lets hope the actual researchers get funds to research with; not the typical "Big hat, no Cattle" RepubilTards Texas seems to be good at raising and nurturing, and even rewarding even when they do boo boo's.. (I'm looking at you, Ken and the Texas Senate)
(At least you can eat a cow ..)