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THE INNOVATION AWARDS
Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz
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Batteries International reviews one of the highlights of recent BCI events — the innovation awards.
Turning the key to unlock a brighter battery future
One of the most talked about features of recent BCI meetings has been the Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz Innovation Award. This was set up in 2016, as a tribute to East Penn’s CEO following her untimely death in June 2014.
The award celebrates innovation in equipment, processes, services and products that advance the lead battery industry.
The range of innovations set up as candidates for the award has been startling.
Some have been as simple as a better design shape for a marine battery; others have embraced the latest technological advances in our understanding of the lead battery.
Some of the nominations have been breakthroughs in the laboratory but struggled to be commercialized. And yet others — think of advances in EFBs — have been quickly embraced as a new standard in an emerging marketplace that continues to grow exponentially.
But be they large or small, these innovations matter.
For the last decade a tonne of investment has been flung at developing better lithium batteries while lead research has been side-lined.
The revamp of the ALABC and its replacement by the Consortium for Battery Innovation is putting the lead battery back in the spotlight. Clear advances are on their way and credit must go to CBI to pulling it all together.
That said credit must also go to a generation of lead researchers that have remained in the background — think RSR, Hammond, East Penn, Daramic and many others — that continue to shape the lead battery industry.
The innovation awards have been listed by the overall winners each year and then alphabetically for simplicity’s sake.
