CMU professor’s battery could help make renewables more affordable

The falling price of renewable energy systems, such as solar panels, bodes well for consumers, the environment and manufacturers, said Jay Whitacre, founder of a hybrid battery company in Lawrenceville. A professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Whitacre founded Aquion Energy Inc., which makes and sells the Aqueous Hybrid Ion battery, an environmentally-friendly and cost-efficient energy storage system that was developed in Whitacre’s labs at CMU in 2008.