Solar Cells May Supplement Smartphone Batteries

Solar cells under development by a Silicon Valley start-up, Alta Devices, could give smartphone batteries a boost of as much as 80 percent of a batterys power. The company uses hybrid gallium arsenide solar cells, which are better at capturing energy than silicon solar cells.

 Read the full story at The New York Times

New Nissan charger makes juicing electric cars quicker, easier for drivers

How did they discover the 10 minute electric car charge breakthrough? They was discovered that by changing the electrode inside a capacitor from carbon to tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide, the ability to retain power is improved, taking all of just ten minutes to juice up a particular battery with no significant effect on storage capacity or voltage.

New Nissan charger makes juicing electric cars quicker, easier for drivers

Automakers Hope to Make Money on Used EV Batteries - Technology Review

"At $10,000 a piece, electric-car batteries are too expensive to throw out or recycle into scrap materials. And even after a decade of use, when they can't perform well enough to meet the vehicle's demands, they could still be valuable for other uses. Nissan and GM have both recently announced ways they might make some money from them.

Many issues remain unresolved, not the least of which is whether the automakers would need to buy back the batteries from car owners, or whether dealers would simply lease the battery rather than sell it, which would allow the car company to reclaim it for secondary uses later on."

Automakers Hope to Make Money on Used EV Batteries - Technology Review