Ambri, a startup founded by MIT researchers, is developing liquid-metal batteries that can store power for less than $500 a kilowatt-hour – less than a third the cost of other battery technologies. Liquid-metal sounds fancy, but apparently the materials used are abundant and easily obtainable. (The researchers won't say exactly what the metals are.) The technology promises … [Read more...]
Battery 101 – how do batteries work?
Creating and storing energy go hand-in-hand. If you’re interested in generating your own electricity, you should have a working knowledge of how batteries work. The definition of a battery What is a battery? The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but fortunately for us, it can be transformed. We can’t store electricity, but we … [Read more...]