Ford Motor Company and Dow Chemical Company before ERDA support began. Full-size cells have been tested. Some of the problems yet to be solved involve materials of construction, seals, and separator failure. Some work is being supported on advanced lead/acid batteries to evaluate their use until the high performance batteries under development are ready for utility systems. Work is planned on advanced room temperature batteries, supporting investigations of room temperature lithium/sulfur systems, zinc/chlorine systems, iron/air systems, zinc/manganese systems, zinc/air systems, and redox systems. Present indications are that these batteries will have a favorable cost factor and desirable performance characteristics. A national battery energy storage test (BEST) facility is being planned as a joint project with the Electric Power Research Institute. It will be located on a utility network and will serve as a national facility for testing control and conversion equipment, system interactions, and new batteries. The actual use and economics of large storage batteries for utilities remains to be established; however, the program will provide answers to these questions for at least one of the advanced battery systems under development within five years. Thus, a decision by the utilities to implement the concept could begin to have a small impact in the mid-1980's and a larger impact by 1990. b. Hydrogen (1) Applications and Goals Hydrogen is valuable as a fuel and as a chemical feedstock. The generation of hydrogen is equivalent to the storage of energy in chemical form. The generation of hydrogen by fossil, nuclear, solar, and geothermal techniques is being investigated. The hydrogen fuel so produced will be used ultimately to produce electrical energy from fuel cells or thermal energy from combustion. Hydrogen is used as a chemical feedstock largely for ammonia fertilizer production. The production of hydrogen by electric utilities can add to their operating flexibility. When delivered in parallel systems with electricity,
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