Principal investigator: Liang Du, Xiaonan Lu

University: Temple University

Industry partners: EnerSys

Temple University, in collaboration with EnerSys, the global leader in stored energy solutions and industrial battery manufacturing (with its global headquarter and R&D centers in Reading, PA, proposes to develop next-generation energy storage technologies in PA that are:

  • Intelligent: We propose to design three layers of intelligent energy management apparatus for stand-alone energy storage units to seamlessly switch between grid-connected and stand-alone modes.
  • Networkable: We propose to design a multi-level, Internet of Things (IoT) architecture to interconnect energy storage units with different characteristics and capacities to boost their aggregate performance.
  • Versatile: We propose to investigate hybrid energy storage systems consisting of various existing energy storage technologies to achieve flexible configurations and dynamic reconfigurations.

As a major manufacturer in PA, whose global headquarters are in Reading, PA, EnerSys strongly supports PA manufacturing. Out of its over 30 global manufacturing sites, EnerSys announced in August 2018 that it plans to invest $6.4 million to enhance capabilities at two of its U.S. manufacturing facilities due to fast growth in advanced energy storage systems, including one at Horsham, PA. This project will suppor innovations in a major manufacturer in PA by promoting ongoing collaboration between Temple and EnerSys R&D at Reading, PA to develop next-generation energy storage technologies and support EnerSys’ technological competition with other manufacturers outside PA. Furthermore, this project will potentially create more manufacturing jobs in PA as it will further create a synergy between Temple University, EnerSys R&D Team at Reading, and EnerSys manufacturing facility at Horsham, and potentially move more manufacturing jobs from outside the state to PA if EnerSys has strong technology support locally in PA.