Say good by to AA?

[swifty]

This might be the end to annoying laptop batteries.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=3547157&page=1

[Jimbuna]

I'm suprised the rights weren't bought by an oil company :hmm:

[August]

I like this reply to the article:

A couple of points to ponder:
1.) Assuming the vehicle can run at highway speeds ( averaging 50 MPH) on an average of 10 HP AND there are NO losses in charge, discharge and conversion of electrical energy, the energy required to move the vehicle is 7,460 Watts.
2) 500 miles at 50 MPH is 10 hours
3) The vehicle must store 74.6 KWH
4) 5 minutes is 1/12 of an hour
5) To put the charge into the vehicle in 5 minutes requires a 895.2 KW source.
6) A 1 MegaWatt source (assuming 89.5% efficiency) is one big source -- might I suggest that some filling stations with 15 (or more) pumps might need 16 MW just for "fill ups" on a busy day.
7.) The Auburndale Power Plant in Auburndale, FL is rated for 150 MW. This would run 9 fueling stations. Some of the geothermal plants in the USA (Like Bear Canyon in Middletown, CA) are rated below the capacity to run even one fueling station.
8.) Now comes the big problem, how do we move 1 MW to the vehicle for 5 minutes? 1 MW is 10,000 Amperes at 100 Volts (enough to service 100 houses), or 1,562.5 Amperes at 640 Volts. The biggest cable which is likely to be used is 4/0 which is rated at 400 Amperes. That means 2,500 Volts, which is not a trivial voltage, house current is 5% of that.Regardless of the vehicle's potential, the 5 minute recharge seems to be overly optimistic, in my not so humble opinion