Things That Just Might Save Us: Friday Morning Edition

Thing One: Increasing battery charge capacity by a factor of ten:

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.

The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.

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The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels.

“Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly,” Cui said.

Thing Two: World’s first $1/watt solar panels sold, shipped:

After five years of product development – including aggressively pipelined science, research and development, manufacturing process development, product testing, manufacturing engineering and tool development, and factory construction – we now have shipped first product and received our first check of product revenue.

We are grateful to everyone who supported us through all these years and the many occasions where there appeared to be mile-high concrete walls in our path; the unusual intensity and creativity of our team deserves all the credit for achieving this major milestone today.

Why is $1 per watt such a big deal? Because that’s how much it costs to get power from coal-fired power plants. Suddenly, solar is now — at least with Nanosolar’s printed thin-film cells — on a par, cost-wise, with the most commonly-used power source in the world.

Combine this with the Stanford nanowire battery technology, and a whole new world of possibilities opens.