New Batteries are on the horizon!
Technology has so changed and is advancing at a rapid pace, but we're still attached to aged battery technology. The now common-place lithium-ion batteries have obvious limitations and big technology companies are investing into battery development. Check out some new ideas in energy for our devices:

Lithium-air breathing batteries
Lithium-air means using oxygen as the oxidiser, rather than a material. The result is batteries that can be a fifth of the price and a fifth as light as lithium-ion, plus they could make phones and cars last five times longer.

The new discovering was made at Dallas University and should help push developments in lithium-air forward. Of course, like a all research, this could still be five to ten years away from becoming a reality.

More at: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/130380-future-batteries-coming-soon-charge-in-seconds-last-months-and-power-over-the-air

“How much will it cost to power my XX,XXX square foot house?”

“How many solar panels do I need to eliminate my electric bill?”

These are the type of questions people will ask when they are contemplating installing a Solar system. Of course there are many things to consider when designing a system for your own home. Once you have looked over your wattage use from information provided in a previous post you can begin to think about your solar panels. First of all, where do you live? Your ability to use the sun for power will depend on high much sun you get annually. You can look at a chart which describes the amount of sunlight that you will get depending on the area of the country or world that you live. Here is a chart for the United States.

Another thing you will need to consider is the angle of the sun where you live and how your roof is configured. Most solar panels are mounted on the roof although you don't have to put them there. It's more expensive to mount the panels on a separate frame but this facilitates the ability to adjust the panels according to the sun's path, providing power for a longer period of time.

So as the planning continues for a home solar array you will start with these ideas first.

1. Calculate your home wattage use

2. Learn about the sunlight hours in your local area and how the sun tracks through the sky

3. See how your home or yard area can be used to capture sunlight for maximum power input

Once you have considered these questions it will be time to start figuring the type and amount of panels you will need to provide additional power for your home.

No One Saw Tesla's Solar Roof Coming

Elon Musk is a true visionary with his dreams of Electric Cars, space exploration and now Solar Roofs that are indistinguishable from ordinary roofs. In this article from Bloomberg news we see roof shingles made of textured glass that allow light to pass through onto a flat solar cell. Brilliant!

Bloomberg Technology

It’s official: After Tesla shareholders approved the acquisition of SolarCity, the new company is now an unequivocal sun-to-vehicle energy firm. And Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk didn’t take long to make his first big announcement as head of this new enterprise. 

Minutes after shareholders approved the deal—about 85 percent of them voted yes—Musk told the crowd that he had just returned from a meeting with his new solar engineering team. Tesla’s new solar roof product, he proclaimed, will actually cost less to manufacture and install than a traditional roof—even before savings from the power bill. “Electricity,” Musk said, “is just a bonus.”

If Musk’s claims prove true, this could be a real turning point in the evolution of solar power. The rooftop shingles he unveiled just a few weeks ago are something to behold: They’re made of textured glass and are virtually indistinguishable from high-end roofing products. They also transform light into power for your home and your electric car. 

Read more at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/musk-says-tesla-s-solar-shingles-will-cost-less-than-a-dumb-roof

Battery Storage for Alternative Energy

Alternative Energy relies heavily upon batteries for energy storage and there is a major interest in developing more cost and energy efficient batteries for power use. This article from R&D magazine describes a different type of battery process.




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New battery helps breaks barriers for low-cost energy storage 


University of Southern California-led team develops a battery that could help California transition to renewable energy sources A team of researchers has developed a cheap, rechargeable and eco-friendly battery that could be used to store energy at solar power plants for a rainy day. Led by Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the team developed an air-breathing battery that uses the chemical energy generated by the oxidation of iron plates that are exposed to the oxygen in the air—a process similar to rusting. "Iron is cheap and air is free," Narayan said. "It's the future." Details about the battery will be published July 20 in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. As currently developed, Narayan's batteries have the capacity to store between eight and 24 hours' worth of energy. His patent is pending, and both the federal government and California utilities have expressed interest in the project. Iron-air batteries have been around for decades—they saw a surge in interest during the 1970s energy crisis, but suffered from a crippling problem: a competing chemical reaction of hydrogen generation that takes place inside the battery (known as hydrolysis) sucked away about 50 percent of the battery's energy, making it too inefficient to be useful.

Narayan and his team managed to reduce the energy
loss down to 4%—making iron-air batteries that are about 10 times more efficient than their predecessors. The team did it by adding very small amount of bismuth sulfide into the battery. Bismuth (which happens to be part of the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol and helps give the pink remedy its name) shuts down the wasteful hydrogen generation. Adding lead or mercury might also have worked to improve the battery's efficiency, but wouldn't have been as safe, Narayan said. "A very small amount of bismuth sulfide doesn't compromise on the promise of an eco-friendly battery that we started with," he said.

More at:http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/08/Energy-Chemistry-Electricity-New-battery-helps-breaks-barriers-for-low-cost-energy-storage/

This team focused on using a method of energy storage that is safe and eco-friendly. Alternative Energy methods will rely heavily on new methods of storing the energy they produce. As we move into times of increasing energy use, our power needs will be closely tied to our ability to store power.