Stanford researchers may have hit a major technological homerun. They've developed nanowires made of silicon that can store lithium ions with ten times the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/...
This could be the HUGE BREAKTHROUGH that battery buffs have awaited, because it makes possible purely electric cars. Silicon and lithium are plentiful, lightweight and cheap, so this new technology could drastically reduce the size, weight and cost of battery packs for electric vehicles, as well as every other device that uses batteries.
I spoke to my father about this news, trying as best I could to translate the technical stuff into consumer terms.
Today's cars run on gasoline, with the exception of a few hybrids and the all-electric Tesla Roadster. These niche cars run on gas + batteries or on batteries alone. The main technological hurdle for all-electric vehicles has been energy density: Batteries don't store enough energy to push a car-sized object far enough for extended trips, plus they recharge too slowly for convenience.
That started to change with the advent of hybrid cars like Toyota's Prius, whose gas engine recharges the battery pack continuously while you drive. Then came high-capacity, rapid-charging Lithium-Ion batteries, which are the kind used in Tesla's car. Unfortunately the cost of the Roadster is quite high (over $100,000), and it still suffers from a fairly short range of about 240 miles, even if driven gently.
Then there's weight and charge time. Even the relatively efficient Li-Ion batteries in the Tesla Roadster weigh almost a third of the car's 2400 pound total weight, and the time for a full recharge is three and a half hours.
But just imagine what a full extra magnitude of battery capacity does to that equation. Suddenly, from a battery pack that would weigh around 150 pounds (same as a gas tank!) you could get 500-mile range or better. After you've driven 500 miles your body will want to rest at least a few hours, so the battery recharge time ceases to be a realistic issue. The extra weight savings also means that the whole car would be lighter and even quicker to highway speed.
Standford's ten-times extra capacity also makes entirely new things possible, like electric airplanes, ships, hovercraft, helicopters, etc. It could make the internal combustion engine completely obsolete. And here's the kicker: This technology could be available in just a couple years, because all the elements - silicon, lithium, etc. - are fairly well understood already.
The big losers in this race would be Detroit and Big Oil. Therefore, look for them to try stopping this amazing new invention from ever hitting the market.