Boston Globe, Economist, Reuters, Register etc: A new lithium battery that’s even better than the old one that car makers sure hope works without exploding
In Nature magazine engineers at MIT report they think they have a better way to make lightweight, high-power lithium ion batteries that charge up extremely fast and deliver their energy with higher power too. If so, that’s good news. These are the same general category as those that made news a few years ago for making a few laptop computers to explode - and are making their way to market, slowly, for long range electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
At PCWorld, Brennon Slattery writes - and says in the hed too - that we may see versions that recharge in three seconds. Well, okay. That is a jolt for sure. Hmmm. But if you try that with a car’s load of energy you’ll melt or maybe blow to smithereens any extension cord now to be found lying around any house The Tracker has ever been in. The local grid would likely collapse before one’s three energizing seconds were up. Maybe we’ll all get thick power lines of superconducting niobium to feed tomorrow’s electro-cars. Be sure to wear a rubber suit when topping up for a trip.
Almost everybody else tells the story pretty much the same way so maybe it’s true. Take a look below at the story from the Register however. Maybe it’s not.
- Reuters - Julie Steenhuysen - Engineers find way to build a better battery ; Could be available in three years, it says here. The associated wiring, a battery man tells her, will need to be beefed up.
- Boston Globe - Clifford Atiyeh : MIT fast-charge batteries excite promise of quicker EVs ;
- Times (UK) Mark Henderson : Breakthrough battery can charge up in seconds ;
- Technology Review - Kevin Bullis : Ultra-High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries ; Could run quick cars - or laser weapons, it says here.
- Register (UK) - Lewis Page: Superfast-charging batteries? Whoa there, MIT ; After composing the above opening remarks, The Tracker was relieved to come across this one. Page isn’t buying the proffered line. Melted wiring, etc. Plus, he reports, similar theoretical performance is already claimed for others in the lithium family of batteries - such as li-titanate ones. “All in all,” he writes, this is not “worthy of the attention it’s getting.”
Grist for the Mill: MIT Press Release ;
Pic: This is the material that MIT engineers say is the key ;
Other Battery News: A concept for immense, efficient batteries that could store enough solar energy for a city’s worth of overnight power? The Tracker found it fascinating after it came in the mail the other day. Technology Review - Kevin Bullis: Liquid Battery ;
-CP