30 Year Continuous Battery

[Gil-galad]

Check it out, folks, scientists have created a battery that will last theoretically for 30 years continuously without having to be recharged. That's pretty ridiculous, no? It seems that it's intended mainly for use in laptops-- but imagine what a battery like this can do for gaming handhelds, and portable DVD players and such. Looks like it's expected to hit the market in about 3 years-- keep an eye out!

30 year batteries
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[Ikano]

I sort of commented this on irc but looking at it I wonder...how you'd turn the dang thing off...I mean...reading the description it sounds like the moment it's manufactured it's constantly giving off power already. What's to say the thing was sitting in a storage room for years emitting off most of it's energy until finally it reaches the store and you buy it?

Unless...the trigger for making it give off power is "shooting an electron at it" as the article says somewhere in the middle of it....but then that would need a "spark" of some sort to "shoot off" the initial electron to start it...


That still leaves the question of if and how to stop the thing/reactions and if it is stoppable it would need something to "shoot off the spark" again to restart the whole reaction process that would emit more energy

Hmm...I dunno....feels like too many questions are left unanswered =x
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[Gil-galad]

I suppose it doesn't really matter that much-- because if the battery life really is about 30 years, by the time it runs out of electricity the piece of electronics is probably out of date, anyways. So what does it matter if it's already been running for a couple months, or even years before it gets sold you. hehe.

Yeah, it's quite new, so a lot of questions are pretty unanswered, I suppose. We'll see how things progress when it is looking like it will become more marketable.
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[Ikano]

[retrospect.]

the fact of the matter is that the technology would more likely be developed for systems that wont be constantly upgraded like stations in alaska. something with that kind of longevity isnt practical for domestic/casual use, and really no one has any good use to warrant purchasing it.
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[Tullaryx]

While having a battery for a laptop that lasts 30-years I have a feeling most manufacturers of said laptops may balk at implementing such a wonder battery. This would cut into revenues generated from sale of back-up batteries and replacements. What I can see this wonder battery being used for is for military and commercial use at large engineering projects.

With the U.S. military's ground units being trained and issued very portable computers to take on the field having the need to constantly replace the battery in their systems would be alleviated by just having one that doesn't need replacing. The same could be said for large engineering projects in far off locations where the need to have portable computers for porjects managers is becoming more and more a necessity.

If the battery does get a retail release to the general public I am wondering how much each battery will cost.
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[Kikito]

This is a very interesting thing indeed! However, I too doubt this has any practical use in household laptops, since these days they go obsolete every five years or so. Still, since the US Air Force funded it, I'm sure they have use for such technology, as Tullaryx said.


And by the way, I think this topic should go on the Community thread, since it's not exactly a media related thread.

[kuwaizair]

I need one for my cameras. damn battery eatiing camera!
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Ninjar]

What now energizer bunny?

I wish I had one of those...given that my laptop won't last much longer than 30 minutes at a time without being plugged into the wall :\