Researchers at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, along with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used 3-D printers to create the world's smallest battery. These batteries could easily become the new power source for micro and nano-electronics. Imagine radio trackers on insects, or centimeter sized robots that could perform surgery. While the technology of the battery has been around for a long time, this new application for the amazing world of 3-D printing opens up a whole new array of possibilities in the engineering world. Now the problem won't just be to find the batteries that aren't dead, it will be to find the batteries! Way Cool! And as long as we are talking about the world's smallest battery... I suppose we should say something about the world's largest battery (complex). This football field sized battery array from China can store 36 Megawatts of electricity and cost some $500 million dollars. It's goal is to store electricity from the solar and wind power-generating facilities and be able to make it available as needed. So it could store enough electricity to power 20,000 homes for 1 day here in Maine. While this is still an expensive solution, we can expect, as with all technologies, that the price will likely come down as the systems become more standardized, rather than one-of-a-kind constructions.
1 Comment
9/22/2013 06:25:29 pm
I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Looking forward to another great blog. Good luck to the author! all the best.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
December 2015 September 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 August 2011 July 2011 |