Revving up the battery

If renewable energy is to play more than a token role in the overall energy supply, there is need for storage mechanisms which can store the energy when the sun is overhead or the wind blowing, and use this at a time when both are unavailable but demand is high. Example, night.

However the problem is that while batteries can store a large amount of energy per weight or volume, the charging and discharging process is slow. In ultracapacitors, it is the reverse.

Hence, a new battery material that recharges 100 times faster than the lithium-ion in your laptop as developed at MIT is news. The discovery could lead to cellphone-sized batteries that could be charged in 10 seconds.

The new battery material creates a "fast-lane" for ions to move around the lithium iron phosphate material. But it has its problems. Fast charging means running a large amount of current to the battery, which could reduce the battery's life through the heating.

However, the MIT data that considers 50 charge/recharge cycles shows no drop in capacity. Still, batteries yield lesser and lesser energy with time, an area where ultracapacitors have no such disadvantage. Nanotech based capacitors could solve the storage problem, it is hoped.

The problem with any energy device is that of commercial scaling and the associated cost. The MIT team is confrident in taking the new battery to market in 3 years.

Every new invention that helps optimizing energy availability have to be considered. But a question to be looked at is: is technology going to save the day? Or conservation and reduction of waste and consumption? Or both?