The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology plans to establish an international center to develop solid-state batteries.

Associate Professor Alevtina Smirnova says the solid-state batteries developed at the new Center for Green Solid-State Electric Power Generation and Storage (CEPS) will be ideal for portable and medical applications, electric grids and the automotive industry.

The university recently held a conference to coordinate support for CEPS. Industry attendees included Ford (which is working on an electric F-150), LafargeHolcim, Garmin, Caterpillar, the Naval Air Systems Command, Solvay of Belgium, Collins Aerospace, L3Harris Technologies, 3M and Parker-Hannifin.

“We welcome these companies to our campus and look forward to sharing this exciting research with them,” Smirnova says. “Solid-state is the future of energy storage.”

The conference was the second step in the process to bring CEPS to its fully-funded fruition. In January, Smirnova secured a $60,000 planning grant from the National Science Foundation to create an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) on campus. SD Mines will be the lead center, and three other universities (South Dakota State University, the University of South Dakota, and Northeastern University in Massachusetts) will work on specific pieces of research. Each institution received $15,000 from the planning grant, and each will now secure three business partnerships and partner with national labs for research assistance.

Source: South Dakota School of Mines & Technology via Green Car Congress