The Breakthrough That Will Free You From Your Electric Company

This is the holy grail of energy to me. Batteries with super storage capacity are the one thing needed to make individual power generation off the grid a reality.

Right now, no matter how much energy you generate with solar panels, windmills, etc., you can't use it directly yourself. It can only go through the grid to your electric company, which then gives you credit on your electric bill. Some home energy producers in California and other sunny places have literally years of energy use credits banked with their electric companies.

That's because battery technology has never permitted long-term storage of energy from any source.

Until now.

TPM:

Scientists at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California announced last week that they’ve developed the initial technology for a battery with a lifespan of nearly 100-times that of a conventional lithium ion battery.

Using a nanoparticle of copper, copper hexacyanoferrate, the scientists developed a battery electrode that survived 40,000 cycles of charging and discharging, compared to 400 cycles for a lithium-ion electrode. Even after 40,000 charges, the battery still managed to retain 80-percent of its original charge capacity, according to Stanford.

The researchers believe their technology will provide an enormous boost to the wind and solar energy sectors, allowing far larger quantities of excess clean energy to be generated and stored for later usage than can be attained today.

“That is a breakthrough performance - a battery that will keep running for tens of thousands of cycles and never fail,” said Yi Cui, an associate professor at Stanford who worked on the project with colleague Robert Huggins and graduate student Colin Wessells, in a release from the university.

It's not ready for retail sale yet, but this is a huge step forward, and a huge Fuck You to the renewable energy deniers.