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You may have a "green" car, but it could be causing black rain in China from the graphite mined and used in its lithium ion battery. Two academics at Toronto's York University, Carla Lipsig-Mumme and Caleb Goods, applaud many of the new advances in green technology in recent years, but at the same time warn that those very technologies may come with a host of environmental issues. The pair issue a caution about “superindustrialization” in which the answer to climate change is a matter of “technological adjustment.” In an article recently published in The Conversation and picked up by the...

The age of electrification across the transportation sector, the solar panel revolution, and Tesla’s battery gigafactory are igniting a battle for the cheapest battery. That will transform lithium into a boom-time mineral and the hottest commodity on the energy investor’s radar. It has been easy to take lithium for granted. This wonder mineral is the backbone of our everyday lives, popping up in everything from the glass in our windows to our mountains of electronics. And while investors have long appreciated the steady rise in demand for this preferred mineral, the number of new applications continues to multiply. Smart phones,...

A team of researches affiliated with Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology, along with colleagues from other institutions in Korea has found a way to greatly extend lithium-ion battery life. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the team describes their new technique and the results they achieved using it. Consumers want their phone batteries to last longer—that is no secret, and battery life has been extended, but mostly due to improved efficiency of the electronics that depend on it. Researchers at phone companies and elsewhere have been working hard to find a way to get more power out...

Engineers at the University of Maryland have created a battery that is made entirely out of one material, which can both move electricity and store it. "To my knowledge, there has never been any similar work reported," said Dr. Kang Xu of the Army Research Laboratory, a researcher only peripherally related to the study. "It could lead to revolutionary progress in area of solid state batteries." Envision an Oreo cookie. Most batteries have at either end a layer of material for the electrodes like the chocolate cookies to help move ions though the creamy frosting – the electrolyte. Chunsheng Wang,...

The race is on around the world as scientists strive to develop a new generation of batteries that can perform beyond the limits of the current lithium-ion based battery. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have taken a significant step toward the development of a battery that could outperform the lithium-ion technology used in electric cars such as the Chevy Volt. They have shown they can replace the lithium ions, each of which carries a single positive charge, with magnesium ions, which have a plus-two charge, in battery-like chemical reactions, using an electrode with a structure like those...

Aluminium ions are stored between layers of graphite when the battery is charged A new rival to the lithium-ion battery has been created that charges in under a minute and still performs almost perfectly after being recharged thousands of times. The new battery is based on aluminium instead of lithium, which should make it both cheaper and safer than their lithium-ion competitors. The U.S. team behind the aluminium-ion battery say that the technology could find its way into the home, help store renewable energy for the power grid and even power vehicles. The aluminium-ion battery is conceptually similar to the...

LAS VEGAS — Proponents of a ballot measure that would remove a mining-tax cap from the Nevada constitution said the industry has a sweetheart deal that keeps it from paying its fair share, while opponents said the measure is the first step toward raising taxes and discouraging mining companies from doing business in the state. The remarks came during a debate on Question 2 that was scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Thursday on Vegas PBS. Passing the measure would repeal a 150-year-old constitutional provision that applies a 5 percent cap to taxes on the net proceeds of minerals and...

It’s official: Tesla Motors has broken ground on a stretch of land outside Reno that could serve as the site for its forthcoming $5 billion battery factory. But not so fast: they’re not the only one in the mix. In a letter to shareholders, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was careful in saying the Reno site “could potentially be” the location for the Gigafactory, expected to create 6,500 jobs. “Consistent with out strategy to identify and break ground on multiple sites, we continue to evaluate other locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas,” Musk wrote. The news followed weeks of...

Let’s not get crazy. Let’s not take the NBA’s rather surprising and (cautiously) encouraging smackdown of racist billionaire team owner Donald Sterling – a member, mind you, of the most inbred, powerfully entrenched clubs in history, humans who’ve quite literally gotten away with murder since the dawn of American capitalism (hi, Koch Brothers) as anything other than what it likely is – as rare as an abortion clinic in Texas, as precious as a good book in Idaho.

To convey some sense of the audacity of Tesla's Elon Musk and his plans, consider that the sale of all-electric vehicles in the U.S. reached a high of 100,000 in 2013 — but that's still less than 1 percent of all cars sold. Enter Tesla's GigaFactory, aiming by 2020 for annual production of 500,000 lithium-ion battery packs. Under one roof — a very large one, at 10 million square feet — Tesla will “manage everything from processing raw materials to the assembly of the batteries.” All of which begs the question: Where is all that lithium going to come from?...

Malaysian Airlines today confirmed that flight MH370 had been carrying highly flammable lithium-ion batteries in its cargo hold, re-igniting speculation that a fire may have caused its disappearance. The admission by CEO Ahmad Jauhari comes four days after he denied the aircraft was carrying any dangerous items and nearly two weeks after the plane went missing. He said the authorities were investigating the cargo, but did not regard the batteries as hazardous - despite the law dictating they are classed as such - because they were packaged according to safety regulations.

Yesterday, a Model S collided with a large metallic object in the middle of the road, causing significant damage to the vehicle. The car’s alert system signaled a problem and instructed the driver to pull over safely, which he did. No one was injured, and the sole occupant had sufficient time to exit the vehicle safely and call the authorities.Subsequently, a fire caused by the substantial damage sustained during the collision was contained to the front of the vehicle thanks to the design and construction of the vehicle and battery pack. All indications are that the fire never entered the...

Airbus said it is dropping plans to use lithium-ion batteries on its new A350 airplane, under development, in the wake of problems with the batteries on Chicago-based Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The Boeing Co. rival said, while it believes the battery architecture it has been developing and qualifying for is robust and safe, it will instead use nickel cadmium main batteries, which have a proven track record. “Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of program execution and A350 reliability, Airbus said in a statement. The entire fleet of 50 Boeing 787s was grounded by...

The European Central Bank has opened the door to emergency support for the Spanish and Italian bond markets, setting off a blistering rally on bourses across the world. Picking codewords instantly understood by traders, Mr Draghi said the violent spike in bond yields in recent days was hampering "the functioning of the monetary policy transmission channels" - the exact expression used to jusfify each of the ECB's previous market interventions. Yields on Spanish two-year debt plunged 72 basis points to 5.47pc in barely an hour, with comparable moves on Italian debt - easing the pressure before a string of debt...

A team of Stanford and Canadian Light Source researchers have developed an ultrafast rechargeable battery from non-toxic materials. This new rechargeable battery uses nanostructures to update a century-old idea: the nickel-iron bat-tery. Those early batteries, developed by Thomas Edison in 1901 to power electric cars, have been out of favour for a while. In addition to taking a long time to recharge, they just weren’t as powerful as other sources. There are, however, compelling reasons to improve the batteries’ efficiency. “Nickel-iron batteries are attractive because they are cheap and, relative to other battery materials like lithium, they are not very...

For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless. Now a team led by materials scientist Yi Cui of Stanford and SLAC has found a solution: a cleverly designed double-walled nanostructure that lasts more than 6,000 cycles, far more than needed by electric vehicles or mobile electronics. “This is a very exciting development toward our goal of creating smaller, lighter and longer-lasting batteries...

Envia has figured out how “to improve energy density at the anode and cathode and store more lithium.” In short, he claims to have doubled energy density and halved the cost of lithium-ion batteries. And he says that his breakthrough isn’t theoretical—packs are already built on an automotive scale and are being tested by automakers around the world. It’s impossible to verify all that, and Kapadia won’t tell me which automakers he’s working with, though GM is presumably one of them. Specifically, Envia says it has reached an energy density of 400-watt-hours per kilogram in auto-grade lithium-ion cells, and achieved...

National Popular Vote is good for conservatives, the GOP, and public policy. Period. Having been active in support of the initiative for over a year now, I have met and talked to hundreds of conservative leaders, activists, and elected officials. I have found most of those who reflexively oppose it do so because they think it is a process to amend the Constitution, don’t understand how it works or how it would affect outcomes, or are convinced of some grand conspiracy to turn America into a permanent Democrat hegemony. The reality is the current system disenfranchises millions of conservatives from...

A Japanese research group has developed a solid state lithium battery that appears to perform just as well as conventional liquid lithium ion batteries. The group has published their results in Nature Materials and claim to have found a solid electrolyte that performs on a par with current liquid technology, and does so over a much broader temperature range and because it’s solid should be more compact as well as less sensitive to physical damage and fire hazard. Lithium ion batteries are currently used in a wide variety of consumer electronics (and electric vehicles) due to their energy density, re-chargeability...

DEER ISLE, Maine — Before May 17, Kacen Pedrucci was a normal 15-month-old boy. At his Deer Isle home, he was beginning to talk and was walking around happily, exploring his surroundings and putting things in his mouth as toddlers do. He always had a smile and a sweet disposition. One of his favorite books was The Lion King, which was a “talking book” — by pushing a button on the side of the page, jungle sounds could be heard. But for the last three months, Kacen has been at death’s door, in and out of doctors’ offices, emergency rooms...