Search for the Super Battery

Batteries are a routine feature of modern life taken for granted—except when they no longer work, or are "not included." But batteries are now more important than ever, used in smart phones, calculators, and electric automobiles, and are increasingly held out as one of our best hopes to cut fossil fuels and reverse climate change. Filmmaker Daniel McCabe's PBS-aired NOVA documentary, hosted by gadget guru and science popularizer David Pogue, describes the race to build a safer, more efficient super battery that could store more energy for less cost. As Pogue and car enthusiast and comedian Jay Leno note, early cars were originally powered by batteries, which was fine in cities like Manhattan, where there many charging stations, but not so good in the nation's far-flung rural areas (even today, concern over "range availability"—i.e., how many miles you can drive between charges—has limited electric car sales). Pogue gives the basics on how batteries work, including newer lithium ion batteries (famous for the possibility of smart phones catching on fire in people's pants pockets). Pogue notes that building a more efficient battery requires cleaning up the power grid—regulating the constant, complicated dance of power generation vs. demand—and towards this end he explores new ways of storing energy, including time-shifting on wind farms, multilevel hydro reservoirs, and a recent innovation known as a "flow battery" (most likely our energy future will consist of a mix of all these technologies). Only time will tell, but energy storage will certainly be playing an ever larger role in our future. Likely to appeal to science buffs, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)