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The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China
NPR ^ | 3 Aug 2022 | Courtney Flatt

Posted on 08/04/2022 5:45:53 AM PDT by Rummyfan

When a group of engineers and researchers gathered in a warehouse in Mukilteo, Wash., 10 years ago, they knew they were onto something big. They scrounged up tables and chairs, cleared out space in the parking lot for experiments and got to work.

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."

But that's not what happened. Instead of the batteries becoming the next great American success story, the warehouse is now shuttered and empty. All the employees who worked there were laid off. And more than 5,200 miles away, a Chinese company is hard at work making the batteries in Dalian, China.

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: batteries; battery; china
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NPR. Yes, NPR.
1 posted on 08/04/2022 5:45:53 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

“The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China”

Might as well, since the Left won’t let us manufacture jack in this country.


2 posted on 08/04/2022 5:48:15 AM PDT by BobL (The Globalists/Neocons desperately want Ukraine to win...makes it easy for me to choose a side)
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To: Rummyfan

Government officials got bought, that’s the explanation. Why?
Because we’ve been indoctrinating the population into the idea that America is evil.

Who in government has any loyalty to a “Evil Patriarchy, etc.”

Reap the destruction of American progress and its theft by other countries because no one in the USA can be trusted at all with the interests of the American people.


3 posted on 08/04/2022 5:50:33 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: Rummyfan

“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.”


4 posted on 08/04/2022 5:54:40 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Rummyfan

Communists said, “Capitalists will sell us the rope that we will hang them with.”


5 posted on 08/04/2022 5:55:20 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BobL

Hmmmm........who as POTUS then?...................


6 posted on 08/04/2022 5:56:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Rummyfan

This might be a good thing. Electric Vehicles are a scam. Let the Communists chase that pipe dream.


7 posted on 08/04/2022 5:57:56 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: dfwgator

Except it’s not the capitalists, it’s the grifters in the government that made this happen.


8 posted on 08/04/2022 5:59:57 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Rummyfan

So selling the US out to China is not new.


9 posted on 08/04/2022 6:01:02 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: T.B. Yoits
"This might be a good thing. Electric Vehicles are a scam. Let the Communists chase that pipe dream."

Flow batteries...not a good match for cars...ideal for whole-house and utility-scale.

10 posted on 08/04/2022 6:03:17 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (Not Responding to Seagull Snark)
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To: BobL
Might as well, since the Left won’t let us manufacture jack in this country.

You can make batteries in the USA but they are slightly more expensive per battery. Of course, those buying the car don't see the "savings" the maker of the car gets buy exploiting child and slave labor to make the in China.

11 posted on 08/04/2022 6:03:34 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: BobL

We have to stop circumventing US labor market. That is unless you want full blown Marxism either home grown or by invasion.


12 posted on 08/04/2022 6:05:00 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: BobL

We have to stop circumventing US labor market. That is unless you want full blown Marxism either home grown or by invasion.


13 posted on 08/04/2022 6:05:35 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Rummyfan

Hunter Biden connections?


14 posted on 08/04/2022 6:11:23 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: Rummyfan

Frustrating story.


15 posted on 08/04/2022 6:12:53 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Rummyfan

It looks like there are a number of companies producing vanadium flow batteries. Most likely a company has to have its own patent portfolio to cross-license with other holders, or it has to wait for key patents to expire.

Largo Resources Launches Largo Clean Energy; Creating a Leading, Vertically Integrated and Sustainable Renewable Energy Storage Provider

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largo-resources-launches-largo-clean-energy-creating-a-leading-vertically-integrated-and-sustainable-renewable-energy-storage-provider-301188398.html


16 posted on 08/04/2022 6:17:26 AM PDT by FarCenter
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To: Red Badger

This story is similar to the old stories in the 1970s about the 100 mpg carburator that the oil companies bought to keep the consumption of gasoline high.

The evil Chinese were given this battery technology?
These batteries would have been able to be produced on a large scale and would have been able to power a typical home?

Color me skeptical. Anything that sounds too good to be true, is usually not. I call BS.


17 posted on 08/04/2022 6:25:54 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Rummyfan

Maybe this event made Hunter rich.


18 posted on 08/04/2022 6:25:56 AM PDT by chopperk
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To: woodbutcher1963

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery


19 posted on 08/04/2022 6:32:03 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: PIF

And the penalty for this treason is....?


20 posted on 08/04/2022 6:39:51 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie ( )
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