Widespread adoption of electric vehicles could greatly reduce dependence on finite petroleum resources, reduce CO2 emissions and provide new scenarios for grid operation. Although new electric vehicles with advanced lithium ion batteries are being introduced, further breakthroughs in scalable energy storage, beyond current state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries, are necessary before the full benefits of vehicle electrification can be realized.

Motivated by these societal needs and by the tremendous potential for materials science and engineering to provide necessary advances, a consortium comprising IBM Research and five U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley, National Renewable, Pacific Northwest, Argonne, and Oak Ridge) will host a symposium June 5-7, 2012, at The Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California.

This is a unique forum focused on the future of energy storage technologies for transportation applications. The main themes of the symposium are (i) reviewing groundbreaking technical progress, (ii) exploring future directions and (iii) understanding critical challenges impeding progress. At the symposium, leading researchers and manufacturers will discuss critically necessary materials, diagnostics, scaling and manufacturing issues associated with better performing energy storage devices in an open-format dialogue. Through this discussion, organizers aim to accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and improve the safety of advanced, electrochemical energy storage concepts and systems “beyond lithium ion.”