GREAT READS

Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy

Seth Fletcher.

What do a "smart phone", an iPad, an eReader, a laptop, and the Chevy Volt have in common? You guessed it--they all use lithium-ion batteries. (You did guess it, right?) Batteries have been around for more than 200 years, but it was the invention of the lithium battery that made the new hand-held technology and electric cars truly feasible.

So, what's so special about lithium-ion batteries? Author Sean Fletcher explains it all in his new, very readable book, Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy. Fletcher, the senior editor at Popular Science magazine, provides a great story as he explains the past, present, and cutting-edge future of this excellent source of energy, and its impact on so many aspects of our lives.

In the first chapter of Bottled Lightning, Fletcher starts us off with an account of the struggles of early scientists to understand and capture this new thing called electricity. Even though the scientists on both sides of the Atlantic slowly came to understand more and more about electricity during earlier centuries, it wasn't until March 20, 1880, that Alessandro Volta-a professor of physics at an Italian university-created the first battery. After that discovery, the pace of invention sped along faster and faster.

Fletcher charges ahead in the next chapter to the trials and tribulations, hopes and false starts of the electric car and the lithium rechargeable battery. He tells all sides of the tale-the good, the bad, and the ugly. The oil shortages of the 1970s made electric cars a top priority, and the search for an improved battery accelerated. Ultimately, though, oil, and thus gasoline, became cheap again, and much of the work on electric cars and battery improvement was halted, to the detriment of future drivers paying a fortune at the pump after Hurricane Katrina.

After making it clear to the reader why the lithium battery is so important to our economy, Fletcher takes us on his journeys to the various parts of the world where lithium is readily available. If we do manage to wean ourselves away from oil, will we be held hostage by those countries that have the lithium instead? Fletcher addresses this issue pretty thoroughly.

In the final chapter of the book, which is entitled "The Goal," Fletcher describes the incredible research going on right now in the USA. Scientists and students all over the country are working on visionary ideas that would finally eliminate the need for gasoline to power our cars. Nano technologies may play an important role. And imagine the possibilities if batteries could use paper or air in place of major components. Truly the sky is the limit, and this chapter in particular made me not just hopeful, but optimistic about the future of energy, and America's role in expanding it. The race is on!

If you like this book you might also enjoy Jill Jonnes' detailed and wonderfully written story of the Gilded Age titans of electricity in her book "Empires of Light." The nonfiction DVD "Who Killed the Electric Car" is also pertinent. (In fact, since this DVD is referenced by Fletcher in "Bottled Lightning," I recommend watching it before you read this book.) Cecil County Public Library also has many books on alternative energies, including several do-it-yourself titles.

Recommended by Angela Prandini

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