Tue
Sep 4 2007
09:45 am
Revolutionary breakthrough battery technology?
By: R. Neal

A secretive Austin Texas company claims to have invented a solid state battery that will make current electro-chemical batteries and the internal combustion engine obsolete. Skeptics say it is beyond any known technology and compared it to "alchemy."

According to the AP article, batteries based on EEStor's ultracapacitor technology would enable you to plug in your electric car for five minutes and drive 500 miles on the charge. It could also be used to store power from solar panels and for "flash" charging of devices such as laptops and cellphones.

A small electric car company, ZENN Motors, has licensed the technology and expects to use it in a short-range, low-speed vehicle later this year.

On the web:

• EEStor Wikipedia

• EEStor Patent 7,033,406

• ZENN Motor Company

Topics:
Brian A.'s picture

Interesting.

Submitted by Brian A. on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 10:17am.

. . . but filed in the believe-it-when-I see it folder.

Still waiting to see fusion, too.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

WhitesCreek's picture

I think this has more cred.

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 10:46am.

It's not fusion we need to see, it's controlled fusion that we can use in a sane manner.

Capacitive storage is all too common but is difficult to carry safely in large power amounts. I've been following the carbon nanotube coated dialectrics for some time now. There could be some serious potential here.

One thing I disagree with is the claim that it's non-polluting. Of course it is, just not at the end use point. I know of no electric generating method that is non-polluting.

(And before someone says hydropower, tell me how the 54 miles of riparian environment along the Tenessee river wasn't destroyed in making Watts Bar lake?)

R. Neal's picture

Battery technology

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 10:53am.

Battery technology breakthroughs will make solar PV more practical.

It would be most practical in a distributed model, thought, like on top of everyone's house, as opposed to the centralized model used by TVA, et. al.

Which may be one reason for the lack of investment and R&D in solar PV and batteries. It threatens the status quo.

(I saw an article somewhere that said solar panels on top of 1.6 million homes in Australia generating hydrogen would provide all the country's energy needs.)

Factchecker's picture

Skeptical

Submitted by Factchecker on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 12:47pm.

There was a local article about that, but I forgot to read it. I guess I was too skeptical when I scanned the part about a 5 minute charge. Check my math on this, but let's assume it draws 50 amps @ 220 volts, which is just about the most a residential breaker panel can handle. That's about 11,000 watts. 5 minutes of this would be about 916 watt-hrs or less than 1kWh. That's not very much energy. The Tesla battery has a 53kWh energy rating and is said to have a range of 200 miles.

What gives?

This might be a battery technology to watch, though.

cafkia's picture

I won't bother checking your

Submitted by cafkia on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 2:46pm.

I won't bother checking your math cuz it doesn't matter. When they say "plug in" they aren't talking about a standard socket at home. Assuming regular capacitor rules apply, what they are saying is that they can take the charge from as large, or as small, of a pipe as you are hooked up to. The capacitor is NOT the limiting factor. A battery determines the current flow in a simple charging circuit. In a capacitive charging circuit, you design for a specific current flow and the capacitor does not affect the flow past the design stage (assuming one designs correctly and nothing blows up).

If this is on the up and up, things will change. Solar will indeed be all the rage. You will see cars with solar panel roofs and hoods and trunk lids and folks fighting for the exterior exposure spots in parking garages. There is plenty of reason for energy companies to be afraid. They will have to come up with whole new ways to rip us off. I suppose they will simply purchase the entire solar PV industry and keep us bent over the barrel with our shorts down for another decade or two.

CAFKIA

----------------------------------------------------------- 

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

redmondkr's picture

Didn't we discuss a similar

Submitted by redmondkr on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 2:52pm.

Didn't we discuss a similar breakthrough just a short time ago?


Visit us at

Wearybottom Associates

Factchecker's picture

Heh!

Submitted by Factchecker on Tue, 2007/09/04 - 5:53pm.

Good one, RKR!!

OK, special charging stations then. Still, ultracaps are probably better suited to short bursts of energy that can get you off the line like a big engine would or up a short steep hill and then recharge from braking. That would be a fine app. for ultracaps.

After I posted above, I found the treehugger thread and the comments there aren't very optimistic about it either, to put it mildly.

But hey, I'm good with whatever emerges that works.

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