batteries

Firefly revamps the lead acid battery

An injection of graphite foam is giving new life to the venerable lead acid battery, according to Firefly Energy.

The Peoria, Ill.-based company has come up with a way to coat the membrane, a fan-like lead lattice that allows the battery to generate electrons, with graphite foam. This change results in a more efficient battery that can extract more electricity from the electrolyte, release more electricity per charge, and endure more charging cycles. The battery also will last longer. The foam gives the membrane a larger surface area for reactions.

Firefly's Oasis batteries are designed for long-haul trucks. … Read more

Battery leases make comeback; electric car conspiracy fans take note

There are a lot of people who are convinced that established automakers and oil companies, along with some support from dealers, conspired together to kill electric cars back in the '90s.

One of the most repeated points they try to make is that General Motors only leased its EV1 electric car to consumers. The theory is that the lease existed so that GM could pull them back, in case people really liked the cars.

Ironically, two electric car start-ups are also going to put out their cars under leasing plans. Shai Agassi, a former SAP executive, has finally released some … Read more

Sanyo cell phone takes AA batteries

When was the last time a cell phone came to market with standard alkaline batteries? Sanyo has a new phone for Japanese consumers that not only bucks trends in power sources but also in appearance, with a cylindrical canister design that sports braille-like keys.

Dressed in that signature Cupertino white we all love, this is one phone that knuckles down to barebone basics to wring the most charge out of a single AA Sanyo Eneloop battery, according to Japan Today. So no 3G, no camera, no MP3 player, no SMS and not even an LCD screen (gasp!). All those sacrifices … Read more

Power outages on MacBook Pros

MacBook Pro owners are apparently having trouble supplying power to their computers both from the battery and from the wall.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is getting ready to introduce new 85-watt MagSafe adapters for MacBook Pros following a litany of complaints about fraying cables on the adapters. When they were first introduced, most customers liked the idea of flexible cables that would detach from the computer if subjected to excessive stress, preventing your nice laptop from flying across the floor of the coffee shop when somebody trips over the cord.

However, the flexibility of the power cable has caused … Read more

New Duracells: Pre-charged rechargeables

It's good to see battery manufacturers improving their cells for use with today's more energy-needy gadgets. Following in Sanyo's Eneloop footsteps is the Duracell bunny. Yes, the original hare which predates Energizer's fluffy pink one.

And the former has even more reason to beat its own bass drum. It now offers (for a premium, mind you) pre-charged NiMH batteries. That's good news for gadget owners because it means you no longer have to tether those rechargeables overnight to the mains to season them first. Now you just pop them in straightaway to use.

Plus these … Read more

Ecotality buys Innergy for mobile-solar and battery technology

What the clean-energy industry needs more of is profitable companies and fewer science experiments.

So says Jonathan Read, the CEO of Ecotality, which announced on Thursday that its has signed an agreement to buy Innergy Power. The price was $3 million, Read said.

San Diego-based Innergy makes solar panels and batteries for mobile applications, such as solar-powered phones, remote surveillance cameras or off-grid lighting. It also manufactures sealed lead acid batteries that can be combined with small solar panels.

The acquisition is part of Ecotality's plan to "roll up" different clean-electricity companies into a diversified and profitable … Read more

Here comes the flow battery

DAVIS, Calif.--What is a flow battery? It's a battery with tanks of electrolytes that effectively lets the battery store more energy than normal batteries. The electrolyte flows or circulates through the system. The larger the tanks, the more electricity it can store.

"They are cheaply made out of plastic. They are low maintenance," said Rick Winter, an executive at Deeya Energy, which makes flow batteries. The company has been busy this summer setting up manufacturing facilities in India, CEO Saroj Sahu told News.com a few weeks ago.

Flow batteries won't appear in watches or … Read more

OLPC battery life--an update

After my Monday-morning blog post reporting on some preliminary battery-life testing for the XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project, I was contacted by Jim Gettys, vice president software for OLPC.

This early testing showed that the current Beta 4 development systems achieve only a little over 5 hours of operation from a… Read more

OLPC battery life: What's the real story?

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes reran a segment on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project originally broadcast in May. I missed it the first time and never got around to watching it online (in Windows video format here, for example; there's a full transcript on olpctalks.com).

Hearing OLPC representative Walter Bender repeat the claim of "10 or 12 hours" of battery life "with heavy use" reminded me of… Read more

Running a battery on sugar

A number of companies are trying to figure out ways to make cellulosic ethanol by breaking down sugar with microbes and enzymes. Sony has used similar principles to build a battery.

In short, the anode of the battery consists of enzymes--a protein that speeds up chemical reactions in living organisms--which digest sugar while the cathode that breaks down oxygen. The two are connected by a membrane. The anodie extracts electrons and hydrogen. The hydrogen migrates through a membrane to the cathode side and makes water with the oxygen. Those loose electrons go to power your MP3 player or phone.

Test … Read more