Electric vehicles will play a major role in driving the nation’s economy, says Scientific Adviser G. Satheesh Reddy

‘In the last one decade, enormous changes have come in battery technology with their size becoming smaller and duration going up’

Scientific Adviser G. Satheesh Reddy speaking at the inaugural session of the two day national seminar at the NSTL in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGMENT

Electrochemical energy conversion and storage have become important contributors to economy and electric vehicles (EVs) will play a major role in driving the nation’s economy in view of their large volumes of consumption, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister G. Satheesh Reddy has said.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural of a two-day national seminar on “Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage-2022”, which began at the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) here on Wednesday.

The second major consumption of batteries would be drones, as a vast majority of them use battery power. In the last one decade. enormous changes have come in battery technology with their size becoming smaller and duration going up. He said that the government was thinking of advanced batteries in India.

Mr. Reddy said that Niti Aayog has recommended the use of battery technologies for both defence and civilian applications. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) were already developing batteries for use in satellite launch vehicles, missiles and torpedoes, which have short life. They were now in the process of developing batteries for long duration use.

He said that core technologies have to be made in the country at an affordable cost. Lithium-ion technology has emerged in a big way in the world and India was still trying to catch up. He underlined the importance of material research to find out the availability of materials like cathode, anode and electrolytes, which go into the making of batteries. This should be done even before battery management technologies were developed. Similarly, viability and manufacturing capability were also important.

On the need to continue research, Mr. Reddy said that a lot of work was being done on sodium (Na) ion, magnesium ion and Li sulphur as alternatives to Li ion. Referring to the theme of the conference, he said that this was one of the technologies for India to become ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India). He hoped that the conference comes out with clear-cut strategies to achieve the dream of the Prime Minister.

Director General of Naval Systems and Materials(NS&M) Bh.V.S. Narayana Murthy spoke on the role of high energy batteries in the development of missiles, torpedoes and underwater vehicles

Vijayamohan K. Pillai of IISER, Tirupati, gave the keynote address on “Imminent EV revolution in India – Problems and Challenges.”

NSTL Director Y. Sreenivas Rao and Technology Director A. Srinivasa Kumar spoke.

Earlier, T.V.S.L. Satyavani, Scientist-F, welcomed the gathering.

Director General Naval Armaments from Integrated Headquarters (Navy), New Delhi K.S.C. Iyer, Senior Scientists P.V.S. Ganesh Kumar, B.V.S.S. Krishna Kumar, Manu Korulla, R. Srihari and Abraham Varghese were present.