by Jim Harger
MLIVE
November 30, 2012
GRAND RAPIDS, MI ‚Äì A new U.S. Energy Department project to create a “research hub” for advanced batteries will take a “five times five times five” approach to improving battery-powered cars, its proponents said Friday.
The $120 million program will focus on making batteries “five times more powerful, five times cheaper and five times longer-lasting,” said Randy Thelen, president of Lakeshore Advantage, an economic development program that promotes the Holland, Zeeland and Saugatuck area.
Headed by the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the program will bring two new advanced battery research facilities to Michigan — one at Michigan State University’s Bioeconomics Institute in Holland and one on the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor.