Ne plus ultra

That is the attention grabbing title of a fascinating story in the February 2, 2008 Economist. 

In the current tsunami of writing on clean technology, green technology and in particular electricity generated from renewable sources, there is a serious gap:  the problem of storing electricity, or put the other way around providing a continuous flow of electricity as it is needed.  This problem is inherent in the most talked about alternatives such as solar and wind power.  It is one that requires as much innovation as does novel (i.e. non-fossil fuel based) generation.  Electricity storage is likewise the technological key to truly effective electric powered vehicles, in terms of endurance and speed.

The Economist article provides a good look at one innovation in storage:  a well-known technology, capacitors, have the potential to change the nature of the search for a better battery.  A capacitor stores energy as static charges on positive and negative electrodes separated by an insulator, whereas a battery works by having two chemical electrodes separated by an electrolyte (“battery acid”).  Capacitors charge and discharge very rapidly.  Batteries are slower but have more endurance (except sometimes on a brutally cold Minnesota morning).  The innovations at work and being demonstrated have to do with basic capacitor technology, and specifically ways of increasing the effective surface area of the capacitor’s electrodes.  There is also innovation at work in combining capacitors and batteries.   There are likewise new technologies for the insulator in a capacitor.  Beyond that, new nanotechnologies have the potential to dramatically improve the effective surface area and therefore a capacitor’s storage.  Thus arises the idea of the “ultra capacitor” – and the title of the article. 

What’s fun about this is that it is innovation at its best:  finding ways to improve and use old technology in novel ways. 

But read the article.  It is a good reminder that innovation can be found in ordinary places by those who have the curiosity and the motivation to do so.