U.S. Patent Number 12,391,084 – Utility-scale Lithium-ion Battery Transporters
Every Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office publishes newly granted patents. This blog post is part of a weekly series in which I pick an interesting new patent that has Idaho connections and briefly describe it.
Inventors: Jonathan Edward Bellows (Waterbury, VT), Gregg Richard Noble (Saxtons River, VT), Alex David Perkins (North Ferrisburgh, VT), Lindsay Edward Gorrill (Coeur d’Alene, ID), Paul Brant Coombs (St. John’s, Canada), Nan Wu (St. John’s, Canada), Jason Jean Martin (Coeur d’Alene, ID), Mark Williams Hagedorn (North Plains, OR)
The power grid in Idaho and the rest of the country may not be ready for the future. As electric cars continue to increase in popularity, as power-hungry data centers continue to increase in numbers, and as industry generally continues to require more electrical power, it’s looking likely that the current infrastructure will be a limiting factor.
These inventors have come up with a creative solution: instead of moving electrons around the grid, let’s charge up a truckload of batteries in one location and transport the batteries to where power is needed. Energized batteries are mounted in racks, which are themselves anchored to an isolation platform working to dampen the external forces intrinsic to moving vehicles. In this manner, energy can be transported at a “utility-scale” to where it’s needed.
The idea reminds me of the old quote “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes hurtling down the highway.”