Sustainable Design Update

Silicon “Whiskers” Make Batteries More Efficient

Two trends in Renewable Energy show promise for a solar powered future. First is the game changing technology now in production at Nanosolar. The Nanosolar process doesn’t use expensive silicon wafers rather it “paints” photovoltaic material onto aluminum foil. This process is much cheaper than current practices. The cost of solar cells is expected to drop by 50% or more over the next few years as Nanosolar ramps up production. (note Nanosolar has already shipped product)

The second trend is the efficiency of batteries. New Lithium Ion batteries using a unique newly engineered anode are expected to store 10 times more energy than their current counterparts.

While each of these developments is exciting, together they can create a solar powered future where solar cells cost less to use than burning coal. You can make your own power at home and “fuel” your lithium ion powered car right from your roof!

With solar cells becoming much less expensive, we will be seeing everything – buildings, cars, computers and clothes covered in solar cells powering communication and transportation everywhere.

From Treehugger:

The latest breakthrough in lithium ion battery technology may not sound all that impressive. After all, we’re just talking about some modifications to the battery’s anode – a set of silicon whisker-like wires – hardly anything earthshattering. Yet, if you believe the claims of Stanford materials scientist Yi Cui, this modification could allow batteries to store up to 10 times the charge of conventional rechargeables – enough juice to power a laptop for almost 2 full days.

Anodes in lithium ion batteries have traditionally been made up of layers of carbon atoms (graphite), 6 of which hold onto each individual lithium ion; lithium ions provide the power for a device by unloading the extra electrons they grabbed during the charging process. Because each silicon atom is capable of holding 4 lithium ions, it’s long been thought that silicon would work much better than carbon in extending batteries’ longevity.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.