August 2011 Archives

In any future that runs on alternative energy, battery technology must play an important role. Batteries have to replace the gas tanks in cars, store the power from intermittent energy sources like wind and solar, and become increasingly efficient to deal with new generations of more powerful electronic devices. That's a lot of weight for the humble copper top to bear, but researchers are well on their way to tackling the problem.

At MIT, researchers have redesigned the lithium-oxygen battery to a point where it can compete in size and efficiency with the more popular lithium ion battery. The redesigned battery uses a carpet of carbon nanofibers to store lithium oxide molecules at a much greater density than in the solid electrode found in lithium ion batteries. The overall setup uses less material, weighs less, but retains more energy, making for better rechargeable batteries.

That isn't the only case where carbon nanoparticles could give batteries a boost. Scientists from the Chinese company Wuhe have found that the addition of porous carbon nanoparticles to conventional lithium ion batteries doubles the storage capacity and reduces the cost. Like MIT's nanofiber carpet, the carbon nanoparticles in the Wuhe batteries for a matrix that provides additional surface area for trapping and storing errant lithium ions.

And at Sandia National Labs, the Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory will undergo a $4.2 million renovation that will allow the facility to test the robustness of the larger batteries used in electric vehicles. Considering that this lab does a good deal of testing for private companies, this expansion could give a shot in the arm to stateside battery development by generating the data needed to make car batteries tough enough for the road.

Finding alternatives to fossil fuels remains an important goal of energy technology, but advances like these provide a good reminder that it is equally vital to figure out how to store that energy once cleaner production ramps up.

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Earlier this year, Germany announced that it would phase out nuclear power by 2020 in favor of renewable sources of energy. The announcement came at the right time; less than two months after the world had watched the failure of Japan's Fukushima plants. While the news of the Germany's vow to end nuclear power excited some, many wondered, what becomes of the spent plants? Here's one creative solution: turn it into an amusement park!

Germany's Wunderland Kalkar is one such project. Originally built in 1972, the plant was designed to output 327 megawatts of energy. However, safety concerns and accidents, such as the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, delayed and eventually ended operations. In 1991, the complex—whose area is about 80 soccer fields--was officially closed and remained unused until an investor purchased it and set up an amusement park.

Wunderland Kalkar's grounds offer 40 attractions that include a Ferris wheel and roller coaster. Making use of existing structure, a swing ride is mounted inside a cooling tower and a climbing wall is set up on the outside of the tower, giving the park's thousands of visitors each year a unique experience.

If Wunderland Kalkar is an indication, maybe there will be 17 nuclear-turned-amusement parks by 2020? Probably not, but it's a nice idea.