This should be interesting to follow.. taxpayer funded research develops new type of household battery and has no loss of function after recharge. life expectancy thirty years +. built and tested and proven. inventor cannot get capital to build is story so he went to China iso investors licenses tech to China even though that should not have been approved by US gubmnt license tech to Germany against US gubmnt rules but with some beaurocrat approval somebody got paid or got blackmailed How the U.S. gave away a breakthrough battery technology to China : NPR They were building a battery — a vanadium redox flow battery — based on a design created by two dozen U.S. scientists at a government lab. The batteries were about the size of a refrigerator, held enough energy to power a house, and could be used for decades. The engineers pictured people plunking them down next to their air conditioners, attaching solar panels to them, and everyone living happily ever after off the grid. "It was beyond promise," said Chris Howard, one of the engineers who worked there for a U.S. company called UniEnergy. "We were seeing it functioning as designed, as expected." The Chinese company didn't steal this technology. It was given to them — by the U.S. Department of Energy. First in 2017, as part of a sublicense, and later, in 2021, as part of a license transfer. An investigation by NPR and the Northwest News Network found the federal agency allowed the technology and jobs to move overseas, violating its own licensing rules while failing to intervene on behalf of U.S. workers in multiple instances. Now, China has forged ahead, investing millions into the cutting-edge green technology that was supposed to help keep the U.S. and its economy out front. ......................... Department of Energy officials declined NPR's request for an interview to explain how the technology that cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars ended up in China. After NPR sent department officials written questions outlining the timeline of events, the federal agency terminated the license with the Chinese company, Dalian Rongke Power Co. Ltd. The department is now conducting an internal review of the licensing of vanadium battery technology and whether this license — and others — have violated U.S. manufacturing requirements, the statement said. Forever Energy, a Bellevue, Wash., based company, is one of several U.S. companies that have been trying to get a license from the Department of Energy to make the batteries. Joanne Skievaski, Forever Energy's chief financial officer, has been trying to get hold of a license for more than a year and called the department's decision to allow foreign manufacturing "mind boggling."
Mustn't mess with Big Oil. Anything that disrupts the Golden Goose must be administered. Nothing to be concerned with. Keep moving on. Besides, America's Got Talent is coming on!!!
From my observation the battery didn't become available until 2012. In 2016 the license is moved to Germany and batteries are manufactured in China. The US navy purchases batteries for use at Naval Base Ventura County in 2016. The Naval base uses the batteries coupled with solar energy to support the grid. There is no information available on commercial use although the article implies there are some commercial sales. The article states the batteries have a 30 year life span without any supporting evidence that these batteries will last that long. From 2016 to 2022 (6 years license now resides in Europe and China manufactures the battery). The article mentions no information from the Navy concerning the performance or capability. Much less when the project became operational. I assume the solar facility was built but I have not been able to find any information on it or how long it to complete. Where we go from here is the next question. The minimal research I have done on Unienergy shows they were heavily invested in government projects throughout the US not just NVBA. Removed - bankruptcy filing as that was for some other company named Unienergy.
Information on Flow Batteries Global Flow Batteries Market Report 2021-2026 Featuring Redflow, ESS, Vionx Energy, Unienergy Technologies, EnerVault, Primus Power, Sumitomo, Electric Industries, ViZn Energy, Younicos, Primus Power Furthermore, China's deployment of large-scale flow battery projects has led to speculations and optimism for the global adoption of flow batteries. However, the flow batteries industry still has not been fully commercialized due to the high installation and maintenance cost of flow batteries. Among flow battery technologies, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) dominate the flow battery industry due to superior technology and the product's significant adoption by China. Also, the properties of vanadium electrolyte are highly suitable for flow battery technology and attaining a long-life product cycle. Asia-Pacific leads all regions in flow battery consumption. China is the largest consumer of flow batteries due to significant vanadium raw material availability and the country's leading technology. In other countries, flow batteries are steadily gaining traction. Currently, several startups and small-scale industries are operating in this space.
Didn’t China Purchase the companies with leading Solar tech years ago? We develop it, they buy it and sell us products. Winning strategy.
You believe they can think past their bought-and-paid-for elected officials? Stupid comes in all sorts of packages. I am reminded that Apple was a struggling company after they moved out of their parents' garages and Jobs got to go to Zerox and their research area. He was shown their concept of a new computer setup, much more intuitive than the mainframe monsters of the day. It was essentially the object-based operating system we all use today, and now the mainframe is essentially obsolete. It was an executive who gave him permission to peruse their research because they did not see the personal computer as a threat to their core business of royally screwing the large, established mega-corporations of the day. And so, he was basically allowed to play trucks in the company sandbox with their shiny new and quaint trucks. And now, Apple isn't Zerox, it is WAY bigger than they ever were. Zerox is mainly a trivia answer to the question, "how stupid can classic US corporations be?" Methinks Big Oil has a few Zerox playbooks and has refined them.
Hot Take: What could go wrong with licensing technology to a Chinese born research scientist with a US citizenship who then sub-licenses the technology to a Chinese company, files for bankruptcy, and then moved the original license to a Netherlands based company? Who was the DOE dummy in 2017? One Rick Perry.
Is there anything preventing domestic licensing and production? I agree Perry’s licensing deals sounds fishy, nothing developed in the U.S. should be “exclusive” to the Chinese government. But it’s not clear to me that is the case. The story to me hinges more on whether it’s “open source” type deal (or at least open licensing), or whether they literally signed away exclusive rights. If it’s not exclusive and available for a U.S. startup or any other producer to license, and nobody wants to do it because of higher costs, capital or lack of market opportunity that would be a different argument from “traitor Rick Perry gave away technology to the chinese”.
It was sub-licensed to the Chinese company. The DOE was apparently not reviewing the US manufacturing requirement. So, Rick Perry’s DOE was probably doing Rick Perry things. Was it illegal or illicit? Probably more like incompetent.
Do we know how high up the chain these licensing decisions go? Was this decision made by Perry or was it made by some bureaucrat much further down the ladder?
I’m surprised this technology did not fall under Department of Commerce export controls or the ITAR limitations on exporting technologies that can be used in military equipment.
