Not silent, at least not whilst there's a dirty great rotor blade having to be whipped through the air.

I'm not sure I'm looking forward to this ANL battery.

"They claim ... able to hold up to 50 per cent more energy."

"That ups the capacity by 20-30 per cent."

Energy storage is up 50% but capacity is only up 30% so presumably these new batteries are less efficient than the old ones. I hope that doesn't mean the extra energy is turned into heat. We know what happens to that!

And then:

"Battery capacity is also proportional to cell size ... not only offer higher capacities ... but also with a smaller-sized cell."

If capacity is proportional to cell size and your device now has a smaller-sized cell, you've just offset the benefit of 50% (or is that 30%) more capacity. Admittedly it means a smaller, lighter device, but with the same useless standby time as your old device.

lithnickelmangacoxide batteries anybody?

It was in the news a while back and still findable using Google News' search. Supposedly 10x the power density using already available manufacturing methods.

I hope this tech would find its way into mobiles, as I'd wish to enjoy a 17-day charge cycle for my mobile, or at least return to my 7-day cycle which I lost since I got this Blackberry... :(

Since the silicon nanowires give (alledgedly) 10x more capacity and are

a fix for the flammable carbon anodes in current cells, does this mean

that this 3x cathode performance would, if combined with the silicon

anode;

give 30x capacity

allow practical of use 30% of the 10x capacity of the nanowires?

True, electric vehicles are not the magic 'green card' they are treated as - any more than fuel cell, hydrogen, compressed air, etc.

However, as hybrid diesel-electric powertrains have shown, unlinking the power generation from the power usage can have dramatic effects, even when the power generation (engine+generator) must be carried on board. When you can put it in a building, generating many hundreds or thousands of times the power, it can be vastly more efficient. You can also replace the power station with greener technology in the future.

Just to comment, any thermodynamic cycle (IE what they use to generate electricity in a conventional power plant) is limited by Carnot Efficiency, which less than 40% in almost every case (combined cycle natural gas plants might get 60%, but are quite pricy.) Add to that transmission losses and electricity at the car-charging location is probably contains less than 30% of the energy that was originally burned. Plus charging batteries generally creates heat and means more energy lost.

And cars run on petrol, which releases much less carbon than coal does (And most of the world's power still comes from coal.)

So the solution to electric cars isn't just to make the batteries work better.

Li-Mag batteries have been popular in the Radio Controlled airplane circuit for the last couple of years. While these people may have found ways to improve the charge capacity, the bigger issue of the cell flaming out, especially during charging, was largely solved with the older Li-mag cells.

Not that a 20% performace boost isn't a welcome addition to the market place. I just hope their manufacureing partner is faster to market then the MIT flexible Li-pol battery, Liquid Optics cameras, non-volatile DRAM, or the host of other unobtanium based products that seem to dissappear after their makers announce they are available.

You forget petrol is a hydrocarbon, so there's also the n oxygen atoms and 2n hydrogen atoms to take into account.