Gizmodo: lithium

Panasonic Home Lithium Storage Battery Can Power Your House For a Week

Sean Fallon — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:58:00 EST

After officially taking over Sanyo earlier this week, Panasonic is hitting the ground running with a joint venture aimed at developing a powerful lithium-ion storage battery than could store enough juice to power an average [Japanese] home for a week.

The battery will also include a system that will allow users to monitor their electricity usage through their televisions. Seems like a viable alternative to solar batteries and fuel cells, but I'm curious to know how a week of powering a Japanese home equates to powering a typical American home. Either way, the technology won't be available until sometime in 2011. [Physorg]

Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHybrid: First Planned HEV With Li-Ion Battery

Haroon Malik — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:00:00 EST

Sure, we have heard word of lithium ion batteries being possibly implemented in a Prius before, but Mercedes-Benz is going beyond concept speculation with its S400 BlueHybrid, which promises Li-ion HEV action to be hitting the production lines by 2009. At present, that makes the S400 BlueHybrid the first Li-ion HEV with a set mass-production time frame.

Current hybrid vehicles use nickel-metal hydride batteries, but the lithium-ion alternatives are known to offer greater efficiency, as well as a better overall weight-to-power ratio. The problem with integrating the Li-ion technology was in securing their stability—they became far too hot to be a viable option in a hybrid vehicle. Fortunately, Mercedes-Benz has 25 patents it is confident solves the dilemma of battery overheating, whether they stay on target for 2009 is another matter, but we certainly wouldn't doubt them. (N.B. The model pictured is the standard petrol engine S400. Images of the BlueHybrid have not been released as yet.)[CNET]

Rumor Smashed: The FAA Isn't Banning Laptop Batteries

Adam Frucci — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:36:05 EST

The Associate Press just reported that the FAA is now banning all Lithium batteries, meaning you can't travel with extra batteries for your laptop or digital camera. Outrage of outrages! The problem is, they're wrong. The FAA is now banning Lithium Metal batteries; the Lithium Ions that power a good chunk of your gadget collection is still A-OK as long as you take them on board in your carry-on and not in checked luggage. You probably don't have many big, non-rechargeable Li-Metal batteries kicking around, and if you do I doubt you're all that worried about traveling with them. Now that that's settled, let's move on with our lives, shall we? [Boing Boing and NY Times]

Scientists Make Li-ion Batteries Last Twice as Long in Lab Tests

Jason Chen — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:20:22 EDT

Just when everyone thought non-fuel cell battery technology was stagnant, scientists at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory found a way to increase battery life by up to twice as much. Sparing you to boring technical details, essentially what they did was find a new composite structure material to place inside batteries, giving the charge-store capacity a 250 mAh/g, which is about twice as much as what you're using now.

So, not only will this improve battery life in your laptops, it'll bulk up a bunch of consumer electronics and hybrid vehicles as well. Score one for scientists. And score another for that horrible Photoshop. – Jason Chen

Scientists double the capacity of rechargeable lithium batteries [TGDaily via Slashgear]