Batteries symbolize our love affair with convenience. They liberate us from wires by juicing up our smartphones, laptops and cars. With gadgets fully charged, we can go anywhere, do anything. One hundred percent power feels secure.
But when the charge runs dry, we’re screwed.
The good news? Engineers are trying to create the perfect battery. It is efficient and safe, and it packs a lot of oomph using little space. It’s made from abundant, cheap and nontoxic materials. It maintains a charge over thousands of recharges. It can store energy generated by wind turbines and solar cells.
But significant hurdles remain in this quest, and the outcome will determine our electronic future. Without better batteries, tomorrow’s doodads or dreams of using alternative energy will remain points of endless frustration. Or maybe frustration is inherent. In 1883, Thomas Edison warned that chasing the perfect battery is a fool’s journey: “a catchpenny, a sensation, a mechanism for swindling the public by stock companies,” he wrote. Working on the latest, greatest battery brings out a man’s “latent capacity for lying.”
Sensation or game changer? Here’s your guide to the perfect battery.
