Batteries | Grist

Quest for Storage -- "Holy Grail" of New Energy Economy -- Nears Goal

Enabling wind, sun to be our main power supplies 5
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
As the world meets this December to set plans to halt global warming, it is expected America and other industrial nations will commit to a daunting task: reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2050. In just 40 years, a complete revolution in how we use and supply our power must happen, or the world will face catastrophic effects of runaway climate changes.

As a new power plant typically lasts 40-50 years, many scientists are now arguing we must simply stop building new power systems that use significant amounts of fossil fuels. They argue we must move to a high reliance on the wind and the sun for our electricity.
A WALK THROUGH THE WEEK'S CLIMATE NEWS

The Climate Post: Grid, for lack of a better word, is good 3
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
GM's "230 mpg" Volt, smart grid, Cash for Clunkers, and feeling grateful to our oceans: the latest in climate news.
Clarifying my position on lithium ion batteries

The limits of today’s electric car technology 18
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
We will likely ship a billion new cars worldwide in the next 15 or so years. The key question is not whether hybrid or EV cars/batteries will be successful financially (they probably will), but rather what it will take to get 80% of these billion cars to be low-carbon cars.
Please lord, don't let it be another Segway

EEStor CEO says game-changing energy storage device coming by 2010 30
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
If the Texas company EEStor is running a scam, it's a frakking brilliant one. For years the otherwise tight-lipped outfit has been promising a capacitor that can quickly charge, quickly discharge, and hold enormous amounts of energy. Now there's a leaked interview with EEStor CEO Dick Weir in which he claims that he'll have a pre-production prototype done by the end of the year.
Get the lead out, chapter 3

EPA to review 2008 Bush action on lead emissions 1
Posted 4 months ago
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has decided she'll take another look at monitoring of car battery recyclers, concrete kilns and power plants that spew dangerous lead emissions.
Lithium: Are “blood batteries” next? 3
Posted 4 months ago
The lithium story and the complex social, economic, and political disputes it could engender in Bolivia should flag for us an important consideration in the fight against climate change: trying to do right by climate change and energy security might trigger unforeseen conflicts.
Big Blue's electric green dreams

IBM places big bet on lithium-air batteries 3
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
IBM has been recycling and repurposing a panoply of technologies to create a portfolio of environmental services -- everything from a traffic congestion pricing system in Stockholm to a smart water and electricity grid for Malta. Now Big Blue has its eye set on achieving a big leap forward in battery technology.
MSM Follies

Steven Chu doesn’t talk in sound bites 0
Posted 7 months ago
Why did The Washington Post, which has on staff two serious experts on energy and environmental policy (Juliet Eilperin and Steve Mufson), send their expert for what passes as celebrity in Washington to interview a Nobel Prize winner who's trying to save the human race!?!?
Outgreening your neighbor

Competition for greenest car heats up 2
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Ask Umbra’s video advice on battery recycling 0
Posted 8 months ago