INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
‟
Ceto was the ancient Greek goddess of sea monsters , and Carnegie ’ s particular monsters are buoys that resemble giant macaroons . They float a metre or two below the ocean ’ s surface , bobbing up and down in the swell and generating electricity as they do so .
In order to have a breakthrough in battery technology , for example , one which can allow a smartphone to last say , a whole week without recharging , it would require new chemistry and may be even a new form factor that ’ s radically different from today ’ s lithium-ion versions .
However , the big three battery producers of the world : Samsung , LG and Panasonic are not as interested in new technologies as they are in making gradual improvements to the existing lithium-ion battery .
Even someone as forward thinking and adventurous as Tesla ’ s Elon Musk is banking on improvements to lithium-ion to power his electric cars .
Lithium-ion battery capacity has continually been growing over the years , although at a very slow pace – around five per cent a year . As long as it continues to grow , big companies are not going to take a chance with new , unproven technology . At some point though , radical changes will be needed as lithium-ion can be tweaked only so much . There ’ ll come a time when it cannot be improved any further .
Given that so many important products in the future will require cheap and longer-lasting batteries , it is almost certain a new technology will eventually replace the lithium-ion battery . But there will be a long gestation period before that happens .
When lithium-ion battery came along in the early 1990s , it facilitated the emergence of the smartphone and other portable electronic devices , which really changed our world . It has served its purpose and now something better needs to come along for progress in so many industries to continue .
When a next-generation battery – much cheaper and far longer-longer lasting – finally arrives one day , it ’ ll transform the way we communicate , work , travel and play . It might take
10 years or more before that happens . But when it does , it ’ s no exaggeration to say that it ’ ll be one of the most transformative technological changes of our time .
Renewable energy looks swell – The Economist
Carnegie Wave Energy , in Perth , has been working since 1999 on what its calls CETO technology . Ceto was the ancient Greek goddess of sea monsters , and Carnegie ’ s particular monsters are buoys that resemble giant macaroons . They float a metre or two below the ocean ’ s surface , bobbing up and down in the swell and generating electricity as they do so . The current version , CETO 5 , has a capacity of 240 kW per buoy . Three of the beasts are now tethered to the sea bed 3km from HMAS Stirling , on Garden Island . They also help to run a desalination plant on the base , for fresh water is a valuable commodity in Western Australia ’ s arid climate .
The buoys themselves are 11 metres across , made of steel and filled with a mixture of seawater and foam to give them a density slightly below that of water , so that they float . Being submarine means that , unlike previous attempts to extract power from waves , they are not subject to storms and the constant battering that life at the interface between sea and air brings .
Carnegie also has its sights on markets farther afield . Military bases around the world need secure supplies of energy and water . Wave energy is attractive to island countries like the Maldives that must , at the moment , import fossil fuel at some expense . Whether submarine wave power of this sort will ever become truly main stream is moot . But Carnegie is showing that , in appropriate circumstances , it could indeed have the wind behind it .
32 VOL 75 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2018