Imagine no longer having to pop out to the shop for new batteries, but instead being able to print up a few on your home printer.
If we’re not there yet, we’re certainly closer: researchers in Germany have developed a new battery that’s thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram and can be produced cost-effectively through a printing process.
They compare the revolutionary aspect of the process to today’s online banking capabilities: where you once had to race to the bank for every money transfer and every bank statement, you can now easily conduct transactions from home using your PC.
The new printable battery was developed by a research team led by Reinhard Baumann of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz, together with colleagues from TU Chemnitz and Menippos GmbH.
“Our goal is to be able to mass produce the batteries at a price of single-digit cent range each,” said Andreas Willert, group manager at ENAS.
The characteristics of the battery differ significantly from those of conventional batteries. The printable version weighs less than one gram on the scales, is not even one millimeter thick and can therefore be integrated into bank cards, for example. The battery contains no mercury and is in this respect environmentally friendly. Its voltage is 1.5 V, which lies within the normal range. By placing several batteries in a row, voltages of 3 V, 4.5 V and 6 V can also be achieved.
The new type of battery is composed of different layers: a zinc anode and a manganese cathode, among others. Zinc and manganese react with one another and produce electricity. However, the anode and the cathode layer dissipate gradually during this chemical process. Therefore, the battery is best suitable for applications which have a limited life span or a limited power requirement, for instance greeting cards.
The batteries are printed using a silk-screen printing method similar to that used for t-shirts and signs. A kind of rubber lip presses the printing paste through a screen onto the substrate. A template covers the areas that are not to be printed on. Through this process it is possible to apply comparatively large quantities of printing paste, and the individual layers are slightly thicker than a hair.
The researchers have already produced the batteries on a laboratory scale. At the end of this year, the first products could possibly be finished.
Utility networks in the UK — including those for electricity and water — remain far too vulnerable to disruption and failure, according to a new inquiry released by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
The inquiry, “The State of the Nation: Defending Critical Infrastructure,” is based upon oral and written evidence from over 70 sources, including UK infrastructure asset owners, regulators, agencies and service providers. It concludes that, despite some steps taken by the Government to improve resilience, work remains piecemeal and there are still far too many gaps in the UK’s infrastructure defence system, leaving the nation vulnerable to crises.
“When the Atomic Weapons Establishment site at Burghfield flooded back in 2007, all radiation detection alarms were disabled,” said Alan Stilwell, leader of the ICE inquiry. “It was only down to luck that the flood waters didn’t lead to the spread of radioactive material that could have affected thousands of people and left the area near the factory uninhabitable for centuries.”
He continued, “In the same year, 350,000 people were left without water for 17 days when the Mythe water treatment works flooded. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people were hit by electricity blackouts when the Sizewell B nuclear reactor and Longannet coal-fire power station unexpectedly broke down within minutes of each other.
“We should be under no illusions — there are dangerous weaknesses in our critical infrastructure and utilities networks that need to be addressed,” Stilwell said.
The ICE inquiry identifies the main threats to the UK’s infrastructure networks as system failure (through underinvestment and neglect), climate change and terrorism. It finds that, whilst efforts are made through the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to reduce vulnerabilities to terrorism and other national security threats, the threats from climate change are only just beginning to be considered and the threats from system failure are barely focussed on at all.
The report states that a lack of specific delivery bodies for all threats and an inadequate regulatory remit — which focuses almost exclusively on consumer prices and does not enforce resilience measures and promote reserve capacity — has resulted in many utility companies failing to adequately protect national assets.
Coupled with the total absence of a single point of authority providing an overview of the whole resilience situation and taking into account the interdependent nature of our infrastructure network, the situation leaves the entire system vulnerable to disruption, the inquiry concludes.
“We need to recognise that the UK’s infrastructure assets form an interdependent network, in which a single failure can cascade across the network rendering otherwise unaffected sectors inoperable,” Stilwell said. “Put simply, a water treatment plant cannot function without electricity and an electricity production plant cannot function without water.
“What is needed most of all is a single point of authority for infrastructure resilience — be it a Resilience Tsar, a new body or an existing body with expanded remit — which has responsibility for coordinating the work of the numerous agencies currently dealing with individual sectors and threats and promotes this essential concept of interdependency,” he continued. “We must also expand the remit of sector regulators such as Ofgem and Ofwat so they are not just focussing on consumer prices, but ensuring asset owners properly prepare for emergencies.”
Stilwell concluded, “Well defended critical infrastructure is central to the security and stability of the nation. We must work now to fortify our networks, or pay the economic, social and environmental price in the future.”
Mark Johnson of the energy and climate change consultancy AEA Group is scheduled to speak at Kyocera Mita’s Green Card Seminar next month.
The daylong event, scheduled for 9 July, will be held at 100 Longwater Avenue, Green Park. Registration is available online at Kyocera’s Green Card Network, an environmental information network.
Johnson, a principal consultant with AEA, manages AEA’s support to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and has delivered other emissions trading policy projects covering the spectrum from the EUETS to personal carbon trading. He also leads carbon management projects as part of the Carbon Trust programme.
Other speakers set to attend the Green Card Conference include Tracey Rawling Church of Kyocera, Henry Garthwaite of The Carbon Trust and Dan Illett of Greenbang.
Due to popular demand, the seminar has also been extended into the afternoon for a private screening of The Age of Stupid. A 90-minute film about climate change, The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at archival footage from 2007 and asking, “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”
Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:
European researchers have developed novel concept devices using ferromagnetic semiconductors. Spintronic devices have created enormous advances in microelectronics, leading to faster, instant-on start times and orders-of-magnitude increases in data storage capacity;
Infrared thermography has numerous, varied applications in the following fields: fire prevention, the detection of energy leaks, coastal and border security, and medicine;
AZTI-Tecnalia, the Basque technological centre specialising in marine and food research, has developed a system for monitoring the coast in order to observe and monitor maritime processes along our coastline;
Human security is under threat from desertification, land degradation and drought. Combating this threat requires an integrated international response, which is why the theme for this year’s World Day to Combat Desertification is “Conserving land and water = Securing our common future”.
Hints that transport will be targeted by the new Commission in its next stage of reducing greenhouse gases have been dropped by three leading officials, the European Federation for Transport and Environment reports;
A group of wildlife enthusiasts from the npower graduate scheme has been giving Welsh beaches a boost in time for the British summer, donning their wellies to clean up the coastline in the Vale of Glamorgan;
The first industrial-scale facility to use a new Bayer technology to treat waste air has been started up at Europe’s largest lead manufacturer, Berzelius Stolberg GmbH in North Rhine-Westphalia;
New environmental challenges will test European refiners’ flexibility and resources, according to the Oil & Gas Journal;
The first industrial-scale facility to use a new Bayer technology to treat waste air has been started up at Europe’s largest lead manufacturer, Berzelius Stolberg GmbH in North Rhine-Westphalia;
ERTICO-ITS Europe, a public-private partnership organisation of Intelligent Transportation Systems stakeholders across Europe, recently held its General Assembly and a series of high level ITS workshops in the Château du Lac, Genval, Belgium;
Solar Power Inc. has executed a two-megawatt supply agreement with Bayer and Raach, a German solar installation company serving the residential and commercial market segments throughout Germany and Southern Europe;
Looking to catch up on all the headlines now that the work week’s back in swing? Here’s Greenbang’s daily roundup of cleantech news and developments:
England’s first large-scale development to be built to Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, has been given the green light to move ahead. Barratt Developments Plc and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have received planning permission to build 195 zero carbon homes as part of the Hanham Hall “eco village” in South Gloucestershire;
New proposals to help deliver ambitious zero waste targets were recently highlighted in the Scottish Parliament;
More than £200 million of contracts will be placed with businesses in Scotland for the development of the Clyde wind farm, Scottish officials announced;
This summer, scientists from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University are joining a group of artists on an expedition to the Andes in Peru. The expedition, part of the Cape Farewell project, will visit shrinking glaciers, cloud forests, lower forests, areas of deforestation and the Amazon;
The June UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn (PDF) concluded Friday with progress on draft negotiating texts, reflecting governments’ proposals on how to step up international climate change action;
US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has announced an agreement with the FutureGen Alliance that advances the construction of the first commercial-scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the US in Mattoon, Illinois. The project had previously died an ignominious death under the Bush administration;
Figures out today show that consumers are helping to boost the car industry under the Government’s scrappage scheme. Over 60,000 orders have now been taken by manufacturers since the subsidy of £2,000 was announced in the Budget to scrap vehicles of 10-years-old or more.
The world’s longest sofa was built this weekend in Sykkylven, Norway. More than 800 metres long, seating 1500 persons, it is also the greenest sofa so far that got an environmental product declaration. In the future you can read on a tag that comes along with the price tag whether the sofa of your choice has a large environmental impact, or not;
Officials from Boeing, TenCate Advanced Composites BV, Stork Fokker and the University of Twente have signed an agreement to establish the Thermoplastic Composites Research Centre (TPRC) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands;
Australia’s greenest university building — the Bond University Mirvac School of Sustainable Development on the Gold Coast — has won the Sustainability in the Built Environment award at the 2009 EPA Sustainable Industries Awards;
The Swedish company EcoEnergy Scandinavia and the Ukrainian government today signed an agreement on constructing and operating waste incineration plants in the country. With state-of-the-art technology, these facilities will lead to large environmental advantages as well as a new cost efficient energy source for Ukraine;
A new report from Pike Research forecasts that, despite overcapacity and economic challenges, the combined biodiesel and ethanol markets will reach $247 billion in sales by 2020, up from just $76 billion in 2010;
Sterecycle Ltd, a UK waste recycling technology company, today announces a £200 million expansion programme that will create 300 new jobs while reducing Britain’s dependence on landfill for the disposal of domestic and commercial refuse;
Nearly 40 years after the first of its 210 nuclear tests, France is preparing to compensate people affected by the fallout. The move leaves the UK isolated in its policy of rejecting liability for illnesses suffered by test participants, the BBC reports;
Changes to the ocean caused by carbon dioxide emissions could lead to an “underwater catastrophe,” damaging wildlife, food production and livelihoods, the Telegraph reports.
Skipped a few headlines over the past 24 hours? Not to worry: Greenbang’s here with your daily dose of cleantech news you might have missed:
A statement calling for the transformation of the G8+5 nations’ energy strategies to help reduce climate change and improve energy security has been released by the national science academies of the G8 + 5 countries;
The Solar Electric Industries Association has recognized SolarCity® with an inaugural Industry Innovator Award for the company’s SolarLease™ financing option, which allows homeowners to put no money down on a new solar system and save money from day one on electricity costs;
The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognised as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to Sigurd Hofmann, the head of the discovering team. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element;
The Energy Technologies Institute has issued a new request for proposals within its “Micro DE” programme. The project will focus on “Distributed Energy and Energy Services Management: Application to Existing UK Residential Buildings.”
A 2007 cooling water leak at the Sizewell A nuclear power plant could have led to a dangerous radioactive leak had a plant contractor not decided to wash some laundry, leading him to discover a pool of water on the floor, the Guardian reports.
Up to 40,000 gallons of radioactive water had already leaked from the pond containing spent nuclear fuel before the leak was discovered, according to the HM Nuclear Installation Inspectorate’s report quoted in the Guardian article. Until that point, no alarms had gone off in the plant.
By the time the next safety patrol was scheduled — 10 hours from the time of discovery of the leak — the spent fuel rods in the pond could have been exposed to the air, risking a dangerous fire and off-site release of radioactivity.
Imagine no longer having to pop out to the shop for new batteries, but instead being able to print up a few on your home printer.
Utility networks in the UK — including those for electricity and water — remain 
Mark Johnson of the energy and climate change consultancy AEA Group is scheduled to speak at 
Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:
Trying to keep up with all the latest cleantech news and headlines? Here are some developments you might have missed:
A 2007 cooling water leak at the Sizewell A nuclear power plant could have led to a