The Future Battery

How much has the battery improved during the last 150 years? Compared to other advancements, the progress has only been moderate. A battery holds relatively little power, is bulky, heavy, and has a short life span. Battery power is also very expensive which is why electic cars have been so expensive while lithium-ion car battery research scrambled to meat the expectations of drivers. The smaller the battery, the higher the cost-per-watt becomes. Yet humanity depends on the battery as an important portable power source.

The speed at which portability and mobility is advancing hinges much on the battery. So important is this energy source that engineers design handheld devices around the battery, rather than the other way around. With each incremental improvement of the battery, the doors swing open for new products and enhanced applications. It is the virtue of the battery that provides us with the freedom of being disconnected from home and office. The better the battery gets, the greater our mobility and freedom will become.

The improved runtime of new portable devices is not credited to higher energy-dense batteries alone. Much improvement has been made in reducing the power consumption of portable devices. Some of these advancements are, however, counteracted with the demand for faster processing time of laptop computers and quicker data transmission of cellular phones.

The electric vehicle has failed to become the accepted mode of transportation because of the battery. Short distances between recharging and a limited service life of the battery are to blame. Consumers demand a battery that will last for the life of the vehicle but battery manufactures are hesitant to provide the mandatory 8 to 10-year warranty.

Gordon Moore made his famous observation in 1965 when he predicted that the growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit would double every two years. Through Intel's relentless technological advances, Moore's Law has been maintained and is being carried into the 21st century. Such advances would shrink a heavy-duty car battery to size of a coin, had this been possible for batteries.

Battery research is proceeding at a steady pace. The average annual gain in capacity is typically 6%. In comparison, microelectronics has done much better.  All of this means better quality and lower priced car batteries.