"An abandoned mine in #Finland is set to be transformed into a giant #battery to store renewable energy during periods of excess production.
The disused mine will be fitted with a #GravityBattery, which uses excess energy from renewable sources like solar and wind in order to lift a heavy weight. During periods of low production, the weight is released and used to power a turbine as it drops."
We skated easily through 16+ hours of the SF Bay Area power outages thanks to 2 new Tesla Powerwall batteries. Here's what we experienced, including a software glitch that freaked me out just as the outage hit. I started nervous about capacity & usage but mellowed out.
"The #laptop's #battery has a 60-Wh capacity, (....). Even so, its runtimes are still very good (...). In our #video test, we noted about 10-hour runtimes." - Notebookcheck
Big wind-triggered power outages in SF Bay Area hit our house. Months-long Tesla Powerwall installation process finished 2 weeks ago, just in time! Alarming blip: for 20 minutes, Tesla app said battery is "critically low." Now fixed and 24+ hours of power (I still unplugged stuff). See screenshots for details.
An innovative bio-electrochemical #fuel cell, discovered by University of California, Los Angeles, that can harness the metabolic processes of microbes in dirt to generate renewable, perpetual electricity to power small devices. It shows promise and potential to be an "eternal" power source with more research and development.
"In 2022 #Hawaii hit upon an innovative plan to make up for the shutdown of its last coal plant. State regulators created the Battery Bonus program, which subsidized households to add rooftop #solar and #battery storage.
In exchange, the household feeds electricity back into the grid for two hours sometime between 6 and 8:30 pm, when the sun has gone down and Hawaii needs power."
"#Battery demand is growing exponentially, driven by a domino effect of adoption that cascades from country to country and from sector to sector. This battery #DominoEffect is set to enable the rapid phaseout of half of global fossil fuel demand and be instrumental in abating transport and power emissions. This is the conclusion of RMI’s recently published report X-Change: Batteries."
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US National Waste and Recycling Association study alerts for rising lithium-batteries fire risk:
-5,000 fires a year in recycling facilities
-Increase of 40% in catastrophic fires in the last five years
-Li-ion batteries are the leading cause
-Driving insurance premiums from 20 c for each $100 up to $10 for each $100 of insured property
-Fire data collection is sketchy; numbers can be higher
“Betavolt #atomic#energy batteries can meet the needs of long-lasting #power supply in multiple scenarios, such as #aerospace, #AI equipment, #medical equipment, #microprocessors, advanced #sensors, small drones and micro-robots,” the firm said in a press release.
Supertoys last all summer long! But batteries do not. The last set of rechargeable batteries I had leaked everywhere, and I could never find the right charging lead for the gizmo which pumped power into them. So let's cut out the middle-man and plug a USB-C cable straight into our batteries! What? These were the […]
Supertoys last all summer long! But batteries do not. The last set of rechargeable batteries I had leaked everywhere, and I could never find the right charging lead for the gizmo which pumped power into them.
So let's cut out the middle-man and plug a USB-C cable straight into our batteries!
These were the cheapest AA batteries I could find which took USB-C. £16 including delivery, for 4 batteries and a mutant cable. Regular AA batteries are about a quid each, or 50p if you buy in bulk. So these only have to last 8 times as long as a normal battery to be worth it.
I don't have the tools (or the patience) to properly evaluate their capacity. All I know is... They work. I shoved them in my gadgets and they provided enough power. If they drain a bit quickly, I'll shove in one of the hundreds of USB-C cables I've got laying about the place. The batteries get slightly warm while charging, but they don't emit any noise or magic smoke.
So, they probably lie about their capacity and they're a good deal more expensive than regular batteries. But they're quick and easy to recharge, and they create less waste.
You can probably find them on AliExpress, or in your local equivalent, at a cheaper price.
One day, in the glorious future, every device will charge via USB-C. Until then, these are a nifty way to retrofit old gadgets.