Smaller And More Efficient Nuclear Battery Created

"As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that when properly harvested can create an electrical current."

Cool. Plus these nuclear batteries hold a million times more charge than regular batteries. Hopefully this will lead to more efficient batteries to store renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) that is only created at certain times of the day. If we want to reduce our consumption of coal to meet our base load electricity needs then one of the things we have to do is figure out an efficient storage mechanism to store the renewable energy that was created at peak solar and wind times. There are two good articles if you want to read more about this technology, one at the BBC and one at Science Daily.

University of Miami Physicist Develops Battery Using New Source of Energy

Synchronicity lurks in the battery world? Another battery story, but different from the one I posted on Wednesday. This one happens to be about storing energy with magnets instead of with the chemical reactions in a typical battery (think lead-acid). Really interesting invention.

U.S. Engineers Find Way to Build a Better Battery

Update: more scientific candy here at MIT's Technology Review.

Wow. Researchers have figured out a way to charge a cell phone lithium battery in seconds. How exciting and how unbelievable. Just think of all the applications that this technology can be used for. Check out the article for the scientific goodies.

NREL, A123Systems Join on Battery Research

This will be a great combination - the very capable research abilities of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the cash-infused private manufacturing company, A123Systems. If we are going to switch over to hybrid cars in the coming years we are going to have to create batteries that can hold more charge for longer periods of time.