Could you imagine owning a laptop or a cellphone that had a battery life of 30-years (without recharging)? Such a technology could render chargers extinct because it is much more likely that the battery will outlast the product itself. The betavoltaic batteries promise to do just that, and no they are not outrageously enormous. Pictured to the right is what one of them would looks like when placed next to a cellphone.
So how do they work? The betavoltaic batteries are made from semiconductor materials, and uses radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material begins to decay the beta particles that are released are turned into electrical energy that can be used to power laptops, cellphones, or pretty much any device. There is no heat involved with process so you don’t have to worry about your lap burning up from the computer sitting on it. In fact they don’t even get as warm as traditional Lithium-Ion batteries.
Who in their right mind would put a mini nuclear power plant on their lap? Actually betavoltaic batteries don’t use fission, fusion, or chemical processes for the decay to take place, and therefore produce no hazardous waste. When they run out of power they are completely non-toxic and inert, so disposal won’t be a problem.
Apparently these things are expected to be available to the public in the next 2 or 3 years, but what kind of price will you have to pay for such a technology? They could probably charge thousands for a single laptop battery, and it would be worth it given the rising cost of electricity.
Betavoltaic Homepage (the site is currently down, so here is a mirror)
More information on how betavoltaic power works
[via Laptoping]
Thanks to Storytellerofscifi for the heads up!
Incredibly cool! It’ll be interesting to see how quickly they catch on. If it’s relatively high, and they are relatively inexpensive to make, maybe the price won’t be too high for too long.
Laptop battery power (and other devices) is the single-most limiting factor holding us back in the tech race.
I’m sure there will be some competition as well that will help drop the the price. I never thought I’d see the day where laptops were under $1000, and now you can get them regularly under $500.
That is definitely true. The powerfulness of devices are extremely limited right now because of how fast they already drain batteries. Barely anyone wants a powerful laptop because it will only get an hour of battery life.