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As the U.S. government Venture Capitalist-in-Chief (and President) Barack Obama and his Department of Energy investment guru (and Energy Secretary) Steven Chu pour other peoples’ money into their favorite “clean” technology schemes, private backers appear to be following them off the cliff, “as publicly traded battery makers watched their stocks tank and their businesses stumble,” according to a Dow Jones report late last month. According to a Dow Jones-owned industry tracker called VentureSource, private investors put $372.7 million into 14 battery deals over the first three quarters of 2011. Whether they would have transferred so much cash into the...

2011 saw huge advances in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources, and these advancements will continue into 2012. In fact 2012 could be the year that renewable energy sources start to seriously compete with traditional fossil fuels, at least that is the hope in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on dwindling oil stocks. However a major problem with renewable energy sources is that they can rarely provide consistent power levels, due to a myriad of factors outside of human control. Eric Wesoff, an industry analyst with Greentech Media, explains that, “A wind farm only works...

Public Shut Out of Presidential Appearance in Holland on Thursday Tuesday, August 09, 2011 5 a.m. EDT HOLLAND, MI (WHTC News) - The White House says that there will be no general public appearances for President Obama when he arrives in Holland on Thursday afternoon to tour the JCI-Saft lithium-ion battery-making plant on 48th Street. He is expected to promote new technologies towards his auto fuel standards goals. JCI had received a 299 million-dollar federal grant to refurbish the former Meadowbrook facility. It’s the second trip to Holland in 13 months for Mr. Obama; he spoke at the groundbreaking of...

Energy-harvesting windows are a step closer with the development of a transparent lithium ion battery, created by US researchers at Stanford University. The electrodes are confined to a grid 35µm wide, making them too narrow to be perceived by the naked eye.The electrodes pose the biggest challenge to transparent lithium ion batteries, as both anode and cathode materials are typically opaque. Yi Cui's team solved this problem by making them very thin. They set the electrode materials into a grid of trenches in clear polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). By stacking and aligning the grids with additional layers of electrodes, it is possible...

FLINT, Michigan — A federal bill expected to be introduced next week would create research and development grants to build advanced batteries like the one powering the Chevy Volt. The bill would also push for domestic production of lithium for batteries, said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who discussed the planned legislation during a stop at a Flint business on Friday. “We don’t want to go from foreign oil dependency to foreign lithium dependency or foreign advanced battery dependency,” Stabenow said. “This is about doing it here.” Stabenow said she plans to introduce the Battery Innovation Act this week. The...

One of Barack Obama's favorite fantasies is that Americans will soon abandon their SUVs and pick-ups in favor of battery operated cars. Implementing energy policies to "boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" is part of his overall plan to force us to go green. The supposed upside is the standard line of worshippers of the green god – reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a cleaner environment. But, like so much of the hope-and-change agenda, the electric car idea isn't off to a very good start, and new research finds it may not be so green after all either.Obama...

To speed along the success of the electric car, improvements in battery chemistry will matter as much as the price of oil. Batteries are now "part of the clean-tech boom, with all the dewy and righteous credibility of thin-film solar and offshore windmills," Seth Fletcher asserts in Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy. Righteous? Surely. Credible? Maybe. As Mr. Fletcher tells it, the history of batteries over the past 100 years is basically a series of failed efforts to power automobiles, with a recent fruitful detour into electronic gear. For a century we have been trying,...

ELECTRONICS made a huge leap forward when the delicate and temperamental vacuum tube was replaced by the robust, reliable transistor. That change led to the now ubiquitous silicon chip. As a consequence, electronic devices have become vastly more powerful and, at the same time, have shrunk in both size and cost. Some people believe that a similar change would happen if rechargeable batteries could likewise be made into thin, solid devices. Researchers are working on various ways to do this and now one of these efforts is coming to fruition. That promises smaller, cheaper, more powerful batteries for consumer electronics...

<p>I counted my blessings. The situation could have been worse, I realized: My fellow commuters and I could have been trying to make it home in electric cars, like the ones President Obama is constantly promoting, most recently in his State of the Union address.</p>

New Nanoengineered Batteries Developed at Rensselaer Exhibit Remarkable Power Density, Charging More Than 40 Times Faster Than Today’s Lithium-ion BatteriesAn entirely new type of nanomaterial developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could enable the next generation of high-power rechargeable lithium (Li)-ion batteries for electric automobiles, as well as batteries for laptop computers, mobile phones, and other portable devices. The new material, dubbed a “nanoscoop” because its shape resembles a cone with a scoop of ice cream on top, can withstand extremely high rates of charge and discharge that would cause conventional electrodes used in today’s Li-ion batteries to rapidly deteriorate and...

Well, it's not enough that I have to put up with ongoing computer problems, now my radio is messed up. Several years ago I purchased a Sangean portable battery-operated radio from The Short Wave Store. It's one of those radios where the batteries are the primary power source (the AC adapter had to be purchased separately and is very large, heavy, and unwieldy). Unfortunately, for whatever reason, batteries no longer work in it. Now let's be absolutely clear about this: it's not the batteries themselves. Not only are they only three months old (and they're Energizer lithiums at that), but...

Richard Gilbert is a Toronto-based consultant who focuses on energy and transportation. His latest book is Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil, written with Anthony Perl. My last post suggested that two types of transportation fuel could replace oil products. One kind – including natural gas and biofuels – could be used in versions of the internal combustion engines (ICEs) that today provide propulsion for almost all road vehicles. The other alternative fuel – electricity – would require a switch to electric motors (EMs) for propulsion. I concluded that electricity is the best alternative, especially where there is...

Unlike Other Devices, Power Packs May Not Enjoy Major Economies of Scale The push to get electric cars on the road is backed by governments and auto makers around the world, but they face a big hurdle: the stubbornly high cost of the giant battery packs, which can account for more than half the cost of an electric vehicle. Both the industry and government are betting that a quick takeoff in electric-car sales will drive down the battery prices. But a number of scientists and automotive engineers believe cost reductions will be hard to come by. Unlike with tires or...

SNIPPET: "BANGKOK – SNIPPET: "Police said a charred body recovered from the badly damaged building in Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, probably is Samai Wongsuwan..." SNIPPET: ""There is a high probability that this is a bomb-making accident," said Nonthaburi police chief Maj. Gen. Supakit Srichantranon. He said police found bomb-making materials in the apartment, including fertilizer contained in fire extinguishers, electrical circuit boards and high-voltage batteries. Supakit said Samai was a suspect in the blast and in a bombing in the northern city of Chiang Mai. National police chief Gen. Wichean Potephosree told reporters the materials found at the...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama celebrated the opening of an advanced battery plant in Michigan on Monday as a critical boost for hybrid and electric cars — and a success for his administration's economic stimulus program. But even as mass-produced advanced batteries start rolling off assembly lines, costs are high for consumers, and hurdles remain. "This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America, an industry that's going to be central to the next generation of cars," Obama said Monday in a phone call broadcast at the opening of A123 Systems Inc.'s lithium ion battery plant in...

If optimized, this new technology could fully charge consumer electronic devices almost instantaneously.Drawing on the layered design of tear-inducing onions, scientists have created a new super capacitor that is powerful enough -- and cheap enough -- to replace the larger, heavier capacitors used in consumer electronics such as computers and cells phones. If commercialized, the new super capacitor could be fully charged in a second and, coupled to a normal battery, provide enough energy to power a cell phone for weeks or a laptop battery for days. "If you open any computer, you will see a lot of these...

After driving the new Scion tC in San Diego all day, I got back on the Amtrak Surfliner at 3 p.m. and headed north to Los Angeles, the laptop plugged in to a convenient 120-volt, three-pronged outlet and me typing the whole way. Again, I could look out the window and see, in addition to a one- to two-foot west swell at Trestles, traffic slowly crawling along on Interstate 5. I was glad not to be in a car. Is there anyone who loves driving in stop and go traffic for 128 miles? (One guy said that because I took...

Over the last two years I've patiently analyzed the evolving price and performance forecasts of electric vehicle advocates and lithium-ion battery developers. In the process I've shown them to be possible, but unlikely, and interdependent to the point where a single flawed assumption can level the entire house of cards. I've also puzzled over the broader question of why supposedly reasonable businessmen would encourage market expectations that are so aggressive that the probability of delays, cost overruns, performance shortfalls and other predictable failures approaches certainty. Everyone knows that the stock market reacts badly to disappointment, so I've never been able...

Heads up Michigan Freepers. Why President Obama is betting big on battery plants in Michigan, Updated: Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 11:57 AM Rick Haglund . HOLLAND -- Michigan might seem to be the last place a beleaguered president looking for a positive economic bounce would visit. After all, the state is known for having the worst-performing economy in the U.S. during the past decade. And although Michigan no longer is tagged with the highest unemployment rate in the nation -- Nevada now holds that distinction -- joblessness here still stands at an unacceptable 13.6 percent. But President Barack Obama will...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- U.S. authorities have charged a man with attempting to board a flight from Puerto Rico with weapons including a stun gun, a switchblade knife and four box cutters. ~ snip ~ Pol was scheduled to take a JetBlue flight to Boston when he was arrested on Monday. In addition to the knives agents found pepper spray and a flight simulator program in his luggage.

Note: Video and photos included at link. Photos reveal inside look at East Austin tunnel home by NOELLE NEWTON / KVUE News Posted on May 18, 2010 at 5:34 PM Updated today at 6:14 PM SNIPPET: "The City of Austin Tuesday released photos of the web of tunnels a man dug underneath his East Austin home. Under the yellow home are three stories of tunnels. For at least two years, neighbors suspected owner Jose Del Rio was up to something strange, but had no idea just how busy he'd been." SNIPPET: "On Tuesday, the city released pictures from below taken...

Pakistani officers arrested a man at Karachi airport after batteries and an electrical circuit were found in his shoes as he tried to board a plane for the Middle East, an official said. The 30-year-old civil engineer allegedly told interrogators he came from Pakistan's northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Taliban and Islamist militants have a presence, and had been scheduled to travel to Muscat by Thai Airways. Mohammad Munir, Airport Security Force spokesman, said the bearded man, whom he named as Faiz Mohammad, was arrested when a scanner sounded an alarm. The suspect was not found in possession of explosives,...

[...] PT Barnum would have been proud. While hype-masters loudly proclaim that plug in cars will save the planet by slashing oil consumption and CO2 emissions, the numbers tell a different story; that plug-ins are all sizzle and no steak. The result is the industrial equivalent of a snipe hunt, a wild goose chase based on flawed assumptions. Let me explain how I reached this conclusion. On December 31, 2009 Forbes published an opinion piece titled System Overload that questioned whether the battery industry was overbuilding global manufacturing capacity. The third paragraph noted: “By 2015 the new factories will have...

The Ministry of Railways gave the go-ahead on March 13 for a high-speed magnetic levitation railway project, or maglev for short, which would traverse a distance of nearly 200 kilometers between Shanghai and Hangzhou, including a branch line already in existence in Shanghai. Detailed research on the project is underway, said Zheng Jian, chief designer of the Ministry of Railways. As of now, this is the only maglev railway line in China's medium and long-term railway development plan. "As the extension of the maglev line connecting Pudong Airport with Shanghai's downtown area, the Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line will promote the integration...

Cellular phone giant Nokia has filed for a patent for a self-regenerating phone battery, or in their own words, a “piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester”. The patent essentially involves a battery that’s “contained within a first frame that is coupled to a second frame by one or more piezoelectric elements.” Similar to the concept of kinetic powered watches, which use motion to charge their batteries, Nokia’s technology proposes generating energy by kinetic movement. Nokia plans to use this energy “to at least partially recharge the device battery”.

[...] In other words it is very likely that the $68 million in ARRA battery manufacturing grants that went to lead-carbon battery manufacturers will generate greater gasoline savings and C02 emission reductions than the $1.2 billion in ARRA grants that went to lithium-ion battery companies. This is not a question of faith. The numbers cannot lie and the magnitude of the differences is too big to ignore. If you really want to make a difference, you take the baby steps and harvest the low-hanging fruit first. Nobody with a spreadsheet and a rudimentary understanding of mathematics can honestly argue that...

Researchers have demonstrated a penny-sized "nuclear battery" that produces energy from the decay of radioisotopes.As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that when properly harvested can create an electrical current. Nuclear batteries have been in use for military and aerospace applications, but are typically far larger. The University of Missouri team says that the batteries hold a million times as much charge as standard batteries.

Algae, paper and salt-water are the key components of thin and flexible new batteries, report Swedish researchers. Cellulose obtained from the bright green Cladophora algae proved to be key to the project, as it boasts a unique nanostructure with a high surface area. Although the batteries have lower voltage and power density than conventional batteries, their low cost and flexibility hold great promise for applications where metal-based batteries are impractical. The research is the product of a collaboration between two teams at Uppsala University in Sweden: Maria Strømme's group, who identified the potential of the algal cellulose, and Leif Nyholm's group, who...

Enlarge ImageHybrid power. Carbon nanofibers (left) are coated with silicon (right) using a process known as chemical vapor deposition, making for light electrodes that store more energy. Credit: Li-Feng Cul et al., Nano Letters (2009) With $27 billion a year in sales, lithium-ion batteries already dominate the market for rechargeables. But there's always pressure to do better. Now researchers report that they've come up with a way to use nanotechnology to either significantly increase the energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries or reduce their weight while maintaining their current energy content. The new work could lead to everything from...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

UYUNI, Bolivia: In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: almost half of the world's lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found here in Bolivia - a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily. Japanese and European companies are busily trying to strike deals to tap the resource, but a nationalist sentiment is building quickly in the government of President Evo Morales, an ardent critic of the United States who has already...

Companies, States Vie for $2.4 Billion in Funding Aimed at Turning U.S. Into Top Maker of Fuel Cells for Electric Cars The Obama administration has set off a gold rush to power new environmentally friendly cars. In one of the government's biggest efforts at shaping industrial policy, the Energy Department has been soliciting applications for $2.4 billion in funding aimed at turning the U.S. into a battery-manufacturing powerhouse. At the deadline last week, the department said it had received 165 applications. Companies vying for the federal money include General Motors Corp., Dow Chemical Co., Johnson Controls Inc. and A123 Systems,...

The lithium ion batteries used in laptops and cellphones, and tipped for future use in electric cars, are approaching their technological limits. But chemists in the UK say that there's a way to break through the looming energy capacity barrier – let the batteries "breathe" oxygen from the air. A standard lithium ion battery contains a negative electrode of graphite, a positive electrode of lithium cobalt oxide, and a lithium salt-containing electrolyte. Lithium ions shuttle between the two electrodes during charging and discharging, sending electrons around the external circuit to power a gadget in the process. The problem with that...

Isaac Martin pointed out in yesterday ’s American Thinker some of the problems with the new technology behind the proposed switch to electric cars -- there are many other issues as well. A few of a multitude of problems are the high cost of the batteries, $25,000.00 for the Tesla’s (6,831 batteries) pack, the pollution problem of replacing and disposing the packs, and the relatively short life span of the batteries. (For example, the life of a lithium ion cell phone battery seems to be about a year and a half. Finding exact information on the actual useful battery life...

Two researchers have developed battery cells that can charge up in less time than it takes to read the first two sentences of this article. The work could eventually produce ultra-fast power packs for everything from laptop computers to electric vehicles. Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have found a way to get a common lithium compound to release and take up lithium ions in a matter of seconds. The compound, which is already used in the electrodes of some commercial lithium-ion batteries, might lead to laptop batteries capable of charging themselves in...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Now a start-up called ZPower says it's come up with a battery technology breakthrough which it claims will result in 40 percent longer laptop life than lithium-ion on a single charge. The company says it has struck a deal with "one of the major" PC makers to use its silver-zinc batteries in a notebook line slated for 2009. The CEO, Ross Dueber, declined to get more specific than that. Commercial lithium-ion batteries have been around since 1991, courtesy of Sony and an upgrade would be very welcome.

<p>One of the Big Ideas that's gotten a boost from the recent oil price shock is the notion that the energy for transportation should come from the electric grid, not an oil well in the Middle East.</p> <p>A number of big, established car makers have announced plans to produce cars that will pull from the electric grid all or part of the energy needed to make them go. They join a flock of upstart companies, such as Tesla Motors, trying to prosper by defining a new generation of mobility technology starting with a blank sheet of paper - or rather a blank video display screen.</p>

Electrical-energy-storage unit (EESU) utilizing ceramic and integrated-circuit technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries IS THIS A HOAX? IS THIS FOR REAL?

Lithium-ion batteries are both a blessing and a curse when it comes to mobile electronics The topic of exploding lithium-ion batteries has been debated to death in the wake of massive battery recalls over the last couple of years. Amidst the deft public relations maneuvering and finger-pointing, however, the question as to why they explode in the first place is still shrouded in mystery for many. The most important thing to understand here is that lithium-ion technology is considerably more volatile compared to other forms of rechargeable battery technologies. Defects in the insulating membrane can result in a mini-explosion that...

The Transportation Security Administration says terrorists' latest tactics to bypass airport security include hiding explosive materials in common items such as watches, electric toothbrushes and braces. (ABC)

YOUR WORLD increasingly runs on lithium-ion batteries. Chances are good that your phone, laptop, camera, portable music and video players, radios, and game consoles keep going only as long as there are lithium ions churning around inside them. Lithium-ion batteries are getting into your power tools. Soon they’ll even be in your car. So it’s a shame that after nearly four decades of intensive development, lithium-ion batteries still leave plenty to be desired. They fade fast—although their energy capacity starts out higher than that of any other kind of mass-market battery, it can drop more than 25 ­percent per year...

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - Flying well-equipped for business and pleasure gets a bit more complicated on Jan. 1, as the U.S. Transportation Department bars travelers from packing loose lithium batteries in checked luggage. The move is designed to help minimize the risk that such batteries could overheat and catch fire on board, the agency's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a statement on Friday. The new rules say travelers can bring a laptop computer, digital camera, cellphone and other equipment on board or in checked luggage if their lithium batteries are installed in the items. And flyers can...

WASHINGTON - To help reduce the risk of fires, air travelers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning Jan. 1, the Transportation Department said Friday. Passengers can still check baggage with lithium batteries if they are installed in electronic devices, such as cameras, cell phones and laptop computers. If packed in plastic bags, batteries may be in carryon baggage. The limit is two batteries per passenger. The ban affects shipments of non-rechargeable lithium batteries, such as those made by Energizer Holdings Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co.'s Duracell brand. "Doing something as simple...

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. "It's not a small improvement," Cui said. "It's a revolutionary development." The breakthrough is described in a paper, "High-performance lithium...

PHOENIX (AP) - A smoking suitcase was spotted Tuesday in the cargo area at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, airport officials said. The suitcase was in the cargo hold of a US Airways plane headed to San Antonio when it started emitting smoke, said Claire Simeone, an airport spokeswoman. The plane was moved to a less busy area while authorities investigated the suitcase on the tarmac. -snip- The Phoenix Fire Department called in a hazard materials team and the owner of the suitcase is being questioned by police, Rodriguez said.

Poultney, VT - Imagine collecting a paycheck from your utility company each month simply for plugging your electric vehicle into the power grid and making it available to supply or download power. "There's a whole new way to look at energy supply and distribution, and our love affair with cars," said Dr. Steven Letendre, professor of management and environmental studies at Green Mountain College. "In the not-so-distant future, electric cars should be viewed both as environmentally-friendly suppliers of services to the power grid and as sources of income for owners." An article written by Dr. Letendre and Dr. Willett Kempton...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 — American Electric Power, a coal-burning utility company that is looking for ways to connect more wind power to its grid, plans to announce on Tuesday that it will install huge banks of high-technology batteries. The batteries are costly and their use at such a big scale has not been demonstrated, but they may be an essential complement to renewable power, experts say. “We’re looking at what we believe the grid of the future is going to be,” said Carl L. English, president of A.E.P. “We’re going to need a significant amount of storage if for no...