Comments on: Matrix recharged http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/matrix-recharged.html Science Blog from Freelance Science Writer David Bradley Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:25:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: James Aach http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/matrix-recharged.html/comment-page-1#comment-101348 James Aach Tue, 15 May 2007 17:07:29 +0000 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/matrix-recharged.html#comment-101348 I believe you are dead-on accurate in saying one of the biggest issues in energy production is energy storage - particularly electricity. The fact that it is very, very difficult and expensive to store electricity in large quantities is something that restricts energy choices at all levels. It also makes electricity fundamentally different than almost every other commodity - a fact often overlooked. Were electric energy storage to become as easy as say, water storage is on both the micro and macro levels, renewable energies and their intermittent output would prove far more practical as bulk producers - the kind which are needed for large urban areas. I believe you are dead-on accurate in saying one of the biggest issues in energy production is energy storage – particularly electricity. The fact that it is very, very difficult and expensive to store electricity in large quantities is something that restricts energy choices at all levels. It also makes electricity fundamentally different than almost every other commodity – a fact often overlooked. Were electric energy storage to become as easy as say, water storage is on both the micro and macro levels, renewable energies and their intermittent output would prove far more practical as bulk producers – the kind which are needed for large urban areas.

]]> By: DV82XL http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/matrix-recharged.html/comment-page-1#comment-101332 DV82XL Tue, 15 May 2007 16:02:42 +0000 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/matrix-recharged.html#comment-101332 Great set of articles David Supercaps are the great dark horse innovation of the times with the potential to radically change all the rules in a number of electrical power domains. I recall some forty odd years ago being set an exercise in a physics class to calculate the size of a one farad capacitor. As I recall, based on the wax and foil design we were working with, it worked out to be about the size of a railroad tanker car - now they're the size of a 'D' battery. Which brings us to the second topic on transportation fuels; Supercaps may well be the final answer to this issue as well, if they continue to develop at the same pace they have been. Great power-to-weight numbers, fast charge times, and superb cycle-lives would be a godsend to this market. Finally, again we see that the clockmaker is the real pioneer of the future. It’s easy to take this branch of engineering for granted; that is until you realize how much of our technology depends on accurately subdividing and measuring time. Great set of articles David

Supercaps are the great dark horse innovation of the times with the potential to radically change all the rules in a number of electrical power domains. I recall some forty odd years ago being set an exercise in a physics class to calculate the size of a one farad capacitor. As I recall, based on the wax and foil design we were working with, it worked out to be about the size of a railroad tanker car – now they’re the size of a ‘D’ battery.

Which brings us to the second topic on transportation fuels; Supercaps may well be the final answer to this issue as well, if they continue to develop at the same pace they have been. Great power-to-weight numbers, fast charge times, and superb cycle-lives would be a godsend to this market.

Finally, again we see that the clockmaker is the real pioneer of the future. It’s easy to take this branch of engineering for granted; that is until you realize how much of our technology depends on accurately subdividing and measuring time.

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