Google Battles For Better Batteries 44
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that Google's X research lab has joined the quest for better batteries. The company has at least 20 projects that depend on batteries, from Google Glass to self-driving cars and drones. Thus, it makes sense for them to try developing new battery technology. "At Google, Dr. Bhardwaj's group is trying to advance current lithium-ion technology and the cutting-edge solid-state batteries for consumer devices. ... In a February presentation to an industry conference, Dr. Bhardwaj described how solid-state, thin-film batteries could be used in smartphones and other mobile devices that are thinner, bendable, wearable and even implantable in the human body. ... For the contact lens, the technology is safer because it doesn't use flammable electrolyte liquid, Dr. Bhardwaj's presentation explained."
Betty (Score:3, Funny)
Betty bought a bitty battery
But the bitty battery Betty bought was bogus
So Betty backed a better bitty battery
Re: (Score:2)
Balderdash!
Re:Betty (Score:5, Funny)
Cecil sells c cells down by the seashore.
The more the better-er (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt it would happen for a variety of reasons, but I'd love to see Google find a way to work with Tesla on this.
not just them (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus, it makes sense for them to try developing new battery technology
it makes sense for everyone to try to develop a better battery. societies are trying to and wants to switch from chemical power generation to solar generation which currently has the issue of needing costly batteries. if nothing else, it's a growth market.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing stopping people from switching to solar is themselves... its not even that expensive anymore relative to the cost of a new house.
4 Google staff members assigned to this project (Score:1, Insightful)
A breakthrough is certain!
Re: (Score:1)
what does the quantity of people have to do with it?
Is Google using trial and error - like Edison and his team for light bulb filaments?
For all we know, Google made someone academic researcher a real sweet offer and got him to move to Google. That's what I would do. If I needs a battery guy, I'd search the literature, find someone making a lot of progress in the direction I need, and throw money and equipment at him.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
nearly as certain as the project's discontinuance 6 months later.
Re: (Score:1)
While you joke. What I was reading a couple weeks ago they have ~2 years from the start of the project. Basically whip up some prototypes and are they promising if so then continue after 2. If not kill or spin it out.
Not a bad way to work. Instead of flushing more money and more importantly time down the drain on something you can not get to work.
Re: (Score:1)
LENS (Score:1)
"I have astigmatism in my eye, do you have the same problem? Yeah, it's when your eye goes screwy. My Optometrist said it was from years of doing stand-up comedy staring into the lights. Said he could fix it with laser surgery. I said what are you going to do, he said: 'I'm going to shine this light in your eyes."
Does anybody realize (Score:1)
Re:Does anybody realize (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Does anybody realize (Score:5, Informative)
* Batteries have far lower energy density than gasoline (and even most explosives).
* Batteries have a maximum discharge rate, which means they can't release all their energy instantaneously under practical conditions. In other words, instead of detonating like a firecracker, they tend to just spray fire and sparks for a few minutes like a fountain [youtube.com].
* "Real" explosives are not hard to acquire or manufacture, and bags of fertilizer and cans of fuel oil cost far less than an equivalent mass of Li-Ion batteries.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
https://xkcd.com/651/ [xkcd.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
apparently you don't realize gasoline burns, and desiel is fairly easily turned into a giant bomb as well.
Sources of stored energy are bombs. Every single one. The difference is if you can pull that energy out over time or only all at once.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Or, not use Android (Score:2, Troll)
When I see the battery lifetime of my old Nokia phone, or recent iPhones, I notice the obvious problem is Android. I am lucky if my Nexus 4 isn't drained empty after 24 hours. Google can achieve "better batteries" (at least for their phones) by developing a new OS.
Re: (Score:2)
By trial and errors, you may find that it's only one or two apps that occupy the most resources. I susp
Re: (Score:2)
I entended my phone's battery life, and its speed and responsiveness, by uninstalling or disabling all (almost) the apps that have background processes always in execution. See under Settings -> Applications -> Running. You should really invest some time for finding alternative apps that don't rely on background processes for ads and the like, or recognize you don't need them installed all the time.
By trial and errors, you may find that it's only one or two apps that occupy the most resources. I suspect some programmers don't really know what "background" means. For me it totally was a weather app, shipping with the phone.
Most people who have large battery drainage on their cell phones have processes running the background. A lot of people do not know how to close browser pages and apps (i.e. swiping them off the screen).
Re: (Score:2)
They are going at it wrong (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why?
Since when is Google primarily a power utility?
What Google products (other than datacenters, which it builds where power is already available) would benefit from gen IV reactors? Hint: you're never going to get a phone with a thorium reactor built into it.
I'm certainly not against development of smaller reactors - lead-cooled fast reactors have a lot of promise for powering remote areas, for instance - but why would it make sense for Google to invest in them rather than technology that directly impacts
Unavoidable alliteration (Score:2)
Bonaparte built batteries [wikipedia.org] for better battles!
I'm going to go lie down now, that was bad.
Welcome change from Battery Breakthrough comments (Score:2)
I breathed a bit of relief that this wasn't another "battery breakthrough" story.
For the last 4-5 years it seems every popular news outlet is excited to announce battery breakthroughs. But for every breakthrough for instant charging for example they don't explain that the battery is 100x larger in size or 100x heavier or whatever. And similarly, when the battery holds 100x the energy, they don't explain the other downsides that impact its practical application. I mean, a capacitor "charges" quickly (and can
Re: (Score:2)
Batteries did get a whole lot better in the past decade. It's just that we do so much more with them that the drain on them more then matches the capacity gain we got. Don't blame the battery manufacturer, blame the public who wants 7" screens and oct core 4 Ghz processors on their phones.