It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => Science, Technology, & Medicine => Topic started by: trapeze on April 07, 2014, 08:52:19 AM
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This story reminds me of past claims of breakthroughs in "cold fusion" which is to say that I am highly skeptical but, as usual, willing to take a "wait and see" attitude, too.
I have always said that we would know when battery tech has arrived when you can charge a phone in five minutes and and use it for a week. This company (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/07/charge-your-phone-in-30-seconds-new-start-up-says-it-can/?intcmp=features) claims to have solved one half of that challenge by developing charging technology that can get it done in 30 seconds.
StoreDot Ltd., a Tel-Aviv based start-up, says it hopes to at least make the charging process faster–unveiling Monday a prototype charger that promises to take you battery from a tiny sliver of red to 100%, all in about 30 seconds.
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I have always said that we would know when battery tech has arrived when you can charge a phone in five minutes and and use it for a week. This company (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/07/charge-your-phone-in-30-seconds-new-start-up-says-it-can/?intcmp=features) claims to have solved one half of that challenge by developing charging technology that can get it done in 30 seconds.
It looks like its literally a new kind of battery (http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/11/13/biological-semiconductors-could-transform-tech-industry/) which explains why in the video, it looks like there is a brick attached to the phone. I don't think its a charger for standard batteries - I think its a charger for their bio-battery, which may very well be an advance ( using peptide Quantum dots) - but its not obvious to me that there isn't a weight/form factor problem.
The original batteries Edison used were Nickel-Iron and are STILL operable, and in many ways are superior to the Lead-Acid variety (charge times can be faster etc) . . But they are HUGE and very heavy. They don't even make them in the US anymore, and at the time I was buying my Solar gear there were no suppliers. ( this prompted another check and there is one now.. but I will post that elsewhere)
Point is, charge per size and weight and efficiency of charging are actually the key factors in battery tech. If you can change a battery in 30 seconds, but it requires putting in 200X the energy it the battery actually stores, is that a good deal? If a Battery charges in 30 seconds, and is 100% efficient ( stores all of the energy you put in it) but its the size of a modern McMansion, its applications are limited to large industry ( where it would still be a huge boon that would actually make large scale wind and solar viable...)