How to make sustainable batteries that won’t wreck the planet

The batteries we need to power the transition to 100-per-cent renewable electricity require rare metals, and that means destructive mining – but researchers are working on alternatives Technology 2 March 2022 By Katharine Sanderson Graham Carter If we are going to stop burning fossil fuels, it is critical that we have access to electricity from … Read more

Scientists Unveil Extremely Small Battery For The Smallest Computers in The World

There was a time, not so long ago, when computers were so large, they occupied entire rooms. Today, some processing units can come as small as a few specks of dust. Even next to a grain of rice, these stacks of micrometer-sized chips look infinitesimal.    Shrinking computer batteries to fit that size, however, has proved … Read more

New Charging Technique Puts Crumbling Batteries Back Together

For electric cars to run as long as possible between charges, their batteries need to pack a punch. One option would be lithium-metal batteries, which have a key component made of this energy-dense element. This gives them greater storage capacity than widely used lithium-ion batteries, in which the same component is made from graphite. Although … Read more

Recycled Lithium-Ion Batteries Can Perform Better Than New Ones

Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of nearly every electric vehicle, laptop and smartphone, and they are essential to storing renewable energy in the face of the climate emergency. But all of the world’s current mining operations cannot extract enough lithium and other key minerals to meet skyrocketing demand for these batteries. Establishing new mines … Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: The weird and wonderful rivals to batteries

By Adam Vaughan Using a crane to lift weights and then release them to generate energy later is one novel approach being tried for energy storage. Energy Vault This is Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science and technology around the world. To receive … Read more