The search for better ways of storing electricity is hotting up

The article doesn't mention it, but HNers may be interested to know that a lot of the materials research behind batteries is done computationally. Numerical models are used to vet materials for desired properties, before having to physically test them.<p>The "Ceder Group" mentioned in the article has a cleverly-chosen name. While Dr. Ceder runs the group, its name also is an acronym for "<i>Computational</i> and Experimental Design of Emerging materials Research".

The article points out that gasoline has sioux times the energy density of current batteries, but doesn't also mention that internal combustion engines are only about half as energy efficient as electric motors. By the time batteries are five times more energy dense, they will outperform gasoline in cars.

"hotting up" hmm is this correct in British english? I swear I've never heard this in place of "heating up"

Yet another obscure Economist diagram! I really like the Economist -- indeed, I'm a subscriber -- but they do need someone like Tufte to give them advice on making decent understandable diagrams.

There's work at University of Nottingham in the UK on using bags of air under water to store energy as compressed air.<p><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=UkY2bmBUito" rel="nofollow">http://youtube.com/watch?v=UkY2bmBUito</a><p>Now why didn't I think of that? This might be perfect for storing coastal windpower.

<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_...</a><p>MIT prof. Donald Sadoway here explains his large scale cheap "battery" - capturing the output of whole power stations if you like.<p>But that's not why you should watch it. Watch it because it is far and away the best demonstration for why you need universities, tenure and opinionated professors.<p>If you aren't whooping at the end of the talk, you have not spent long enough in and around academia.<p>#oldskool

This is what I like about the world focusing more and more on renewable energy. You get more billions of dollars being invested in the technologies to make them better and cheaper, and you get more scientists focusing on the problems, and coming up with more and more unique ways to solve the problems.

I'm surprised they don't mention vanadium, with its 5 oxidation states. It's already used in commercially-available flow batteries for grid energy storage (<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-largest-vanadium-flow-battery-goes-online-in-usa-149083905.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-largest-vanad...</a>).

We can easily produce enough energy, it's storing enough for a month that is the issue !

The US prices listed on that diagram are at the pump (i.e. they include taxes). If that diagram is accurate, why isn't Europe, where typical pump prices reliably exceed $8/gallon, already running on hybrid cars?