In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.Shift those paradigms...please! How good is the new battery?
The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.
It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America's antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.
Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.I find myself crossing fingers and toes that this is not mere hype.
In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.Shift those paradigms...please! How good is the new battery?
The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.
It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America's antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.
Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.I find myself crossing fingers and toes that this is not mere hype.
The stunning new interior comes straight out of a 1950s Las Vegas lounge (the classic part). The zombie stuff (i.e. the kitsch) is hilarious, and more nuanced than you'd expect from a bar named Donny Dirk's Zombie Den. In the corner, a small chainsaw sits inside a glass case that reads "In case of zombie attack, break glass." The bartenders all dress like Simon Pegg in "Shaun of the Dead" -- white button-up, red tie and blood stains. The friendly female servers wear long black gowns. Again: This is a classy zombie joint.Via Neat-O-Rama.
The stunning new interior comes straight out of a 1950s Las Vegas lounge (the classic part). The zombie stuff (i.e. the kitsch) is hilarious, and more nuanced than you'd expect from a bar named Donny Dirk's Zombie Den. In the corner, a small chainsaw sits inside a glass case that reads "In case of zombie attack, break glass." The bartenders all dress like Simon Pegg in "Shaun of the Dead" -- white button-up, red tie and blood stains. The friendly female servers wear long black gowns. Again: This is a classy zombie joint.Via Neat-O-Rama.
I've read books written or edited by C. and G. and T. and J. -- and will continue to do so, both because I enjoy their work and to do my part to make sure their greatness of spirit is supported.C. always says hello (and he gave me a really thoughtful gift for helping him out once) and smiles like he's genuinely glad to see me. I don't know him at all well, but he lights up a room when he comes into it. G. always treats me like one of the gang. I enjoy him and his partner enormously -- they're very different people, but both of them have an unbounded generosity of spirit and wicked senses of humor. We had to beg off on dinner with them at Anticipation, and that was a bummer. T. is scary bright, and just holding up my end of the conversation is...stretching. She is a warm, kind, thoughtful lady...with a rapier wit. While I don't know her well, it has been a pleasure to interact with her over...well, a lot of years. I've never worked with J. She doesn't know me from Adam, save for some brief conversation at Boskone this year. And yet, she kindly offered to pick up a chocolate croissant for me in Montreal when I asked where I might find a good one. (I declined gratefully; she already had too many demands on her time.)
I've read books written or edited by C. and G. and T. and J. -- and will continue to do so, both because I enjoy their work and to do my part to make sure their greatness of spirit is supported.C. always says hello (and he gave me a really thoughtful gift for helping him out once) and smiles like he's genuinely glad to see me. I don't know him at all well, but he lights up a room when he comes into it. G. always treats me like one of the gang. I enjoy him and his partner enormously -- they're very different people, but both of them have an unbounded generosity of spirit and wicked senses of humor. We had to beg off on dinner with them at Anticipation, and that was a bummer. T. is scary bright, and just holding up my end of the conversation is...stretching. She is a warm, kind, thoughtful lady...with a rapier wit. While I don't know her well, it has been a pleasure to interact with her over...well, a lot of years. I've never worked with J. She doesn't know me from Adam, save for some brief conversation at Boskone this year. And yet, she kindly offered to pick up a chocolate croissant for me in Montreal when I asked where I might find a good one. (I declined gratefully; she already had too many demands on her time.)
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