Resources and Reflections

In our continuing effort to provide our readers with access to ongoing scientific advances in green energy related technologies, the following is a compilation of reports regarding recent developments specifically in battery-related technologies. Cheaper, more reliable, higher power density, novel materials and new markets are the forces driving research now and there’s a LOT going on.

Batteries are particularly relevant to green energy as a replacement for more carbon-intensive power storage technologies like hydrocarbon fuels. Whether you believe the sky is blue or green, it is what it is, whether you believe global warming is real or not, it is what it is, and it is having and will continue to have increasingly profound impacts on every person on the planet until we finally kick our collective smoking habit; fossil fuels. This small summary of research and development clearly shows that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it may not be all that far away.

Where your gas tank is now, in five or ten years there will be something like this.

Panasonic Develops High Energy Lithium-ion Battery Module with High Reliability

Panasonic Corp. has developed a 1.5 kWh battery module from 18650-type (18 mm in diameter x 65 mm in length) lithium-ion battery cells, which are widely used in laptop computers, to provide energy storage …

Follow the money.

Panasonic, Sanyo win EU takeover approval

(AP) — Panasonic Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. must sell off a European plant that makes batteries to win EU antitrust approval for the $9 billion deal creating one of the world’s biggest electronics makers, the EU said …

Watch out for explosions, as above, tech can come back to bite you in the ass.

EU warns it will recall iPhones if labs show faulty

The European Union’s consumer czar warned on Monday that iPhones would be taken off the market if national authorities find manufacturing faults lie behind mystery screen explosions.

Here’s an “emergent application”, one that is the consequence of unanticipated synergies between seemingly unrelated parts.

Power grid chief touts electric-car payback

U.S. power grid chief Jon Wellinghoff is touting the long-term cost savings of electric cars, saying the vehicles could earn $1,500 a year in paybacks for their owners when their batteries are connected to the power grid.

Buy stock in Lithium.

Li-Air: Argonne opens new chapter in battery research (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) — Argonne National Laboratory has engaged in battery research and development for more than 40 years. More than 10 years ago the research facility made a strategic decision to expand its research of Lithium-ion …

And nano-tubes.

Increasing Electric Car Battery Performance

(PhysOrg.com) — Researchers have found that by replacing conventional graphite electrodes with silicon nanotube electrodes, lithium-ion batteries can store 10 times more charge.

Its a little ironic that as carbon in the atmosphere, at the macro-scale is an ever increasing problem, carbon at the nano-scale, nano-tubes, Bucky balls, graphene seem more and more likely to play a crucial role in dragging us out of this mess. As above, so below, but opposite. Hmmm. Even the greatest cynic would have a hard time believing that we’re completely screwed after reviewing the very brief summary above. What’s lacking is not technology, it’s  vested interests, lack of consensus and political will and pure old psychic inertia; change is hard. But change is sometimes hard to think about than it is to accomplish. To quote the Ghost busters “We have the tools, we have the technology…”

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