We have a love-hate relationship with them. We can’t imagine life without batteries but we’re rarely happy with them because they invariably need to be recharged or replaced at the worst possible moment.
There’s a reason that “damned” is the attributive adjective most commonly associated with the noun. The best summation I’ve ever heard came from a PhD electrochemist who said, “Batteries are a grudge purchase.”
My love-hate relationship with batteries runs deeper than most. From 2004 through 2007, I worked as legal counsel for and served as chairman of a public R&D stage battery company. Since 2013, I’ve been an officer and director of a private company that’s developing a unique hybrid drivetrain for heavy trucks and struggling to find a battery that can handle the drivetrain’s power profile.
Between the two battery-related jobs I blogged about investing in energy storage with less than gratifying results. My bearish predictions of likely business failure were usually right but my bullish predictions were frequently wrong. Energy storage is a very tough sector to forecast if you don’t have a flawless crystal ball.
Since my record as a stock picker is spotty at best and my goal in writing for InvestorIntel is to help serious investors understand the energy storage space, I’ll generally avoid the temptation to mention specific companies unless they’re particularly apt examples of an important point.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://investorintel.com/technology-metals-intel/understanding-advanced-batteries-and-energy-storage-part-2/