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How do you store renewable energy so it’s there when you need it, even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Giant batteries designed for the electrical grid — called flow batteries, which store electricity in tanks of liquid electrolyte — could be the answer, but so far utilities have yet to find a cost-effective battery that

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While smartphones have grown in size and power in recent years, similarly huge leaps in battery technology haven’t followed, leaving most smartphones struggling to get through a single day without needing to be plugged in at some point. However, Sony has announced that it is currently developing an entirely new kind of battery that could have a capacity 40 per cent higher than existing models.  As reported

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An edible battery that could power medical devices put inside the body to treat diseases has been created using the skin pigment melanin. The researchers said they were able to build a prototype battery that could power a tiny 5 milliWatt device for 18 hours, which would be enough to gradually release a vaccine or to sense changes to bacteria in

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Researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick have found that use of inductive charging, whilst highly convenient, risks depleting the life of mobile phones using typical LIBs (Lithium-ion batteries) Consumers and manufacturers have ramped up their interest in this convenient charging technology, abandoning fiddling with plugs and cables in a favour of just setting the phone directly on a

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Hope has been restored for the rechargeable lithium metal battery — a potential battery powerhouse relegated for decades to the laboratory by its short life expectancy and occasional fiery demise while its rechargeable sibling, the lithium-ion battery, now rakes in more than $30 billion a year. A new coating could make lightweight lithium metal batteries safe and long lasting, a

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Tesla has reportedly signed a battery supply deal with LG Chem for Gigafactory 3 in China. It would be Tesla’s first deal to supply battery cells for its electric vehicles with a company other than Panasonic. At first, CEO Elon Musk said that all of Tesla’s new factories, including Gigafactory 3 in China, will include the production of both battery

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Large anions with long tails (blue) in ionic liquids can make them self-assemble into sandwich-like bilayer structures on electrode surfaces. Ionic liquids with such structures have much improved energy storage capabilities. Image: Xianwen Mao, MIT Novel class of “ionic liquids” may store more energy than conventional electrolytes — with less risk of catching fire. Supercapacitors, electrical devices that store and

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Two short years ago, Tesla pieced together the world’s largest battery for the state of South Australia, and with great effect. The company is continuing its moves in this space with a massive new battery dubbed the Megapack, of which it says enough units can be linked together to take energy storage into the giga-scale realm. The 129-MWh facility Tesla built for

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Metal-air batteries are one of the lightest and most compact types of batteries available, but they can have a major limitation: When not in use, they degrade quickly, as corrosion eats away at their metal electrodes. Now, MIT researchers have found a way to substantially reduce that corrosion, making it possible for such batteries to have much longer shelf lives.

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A high-speed accident involving a Model 3 crashing into a pole recently provided an impressive look at the fire-resistant capabilities of Tesla’s batteries. Despite major damage to the vehicle and two of the battery modules being breached from the violent impact, none of the Model 3’s 2170 cells burst into flame.  Insights from the Model 3 crash were shared recently

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