NOVA

Developing news...

They're in the news, in your pocket...

Take a look at the hole in this guy's shorts...

And on your mind.

What's going wrong with our batteries?

Turn this phone off.

For the last few decades,

batteries have powered a revolution

in personal electronics,

changing our lives.

And now they're headed for our cars.

Are electric cars becoming a thing?

Yes, they are.

Even the grid...

Renewable energy means

that we need energy storage.

But are we already pushing their limits?

Anything which is able to release a lot of energy,

that is a potentially dangerous thing.

Or can they be better?

I'm not seeing any fireball.

We've got to work with people that want to introduce

the true next-generation battery.

There is definitely a race

who will invent the next big battery technology.

The deck's stacked against all of us,

but the rewards are so big.

Can we beat the odds

as we "Search for the Super Battery"?

Right now on NOVA.

The lowly battery.

We barely notice you when you work.

And we curse you when you don't.

You're the "no show," the "missing ingredient,"

"not included."

And when you die...

a piece of us dies as well.

Face it, battery, you have issues.

But cheer up, my humble friend.

Things may be changing.

Scientists all over the world

are in a race to make you better,

to make you powerful,

to make you cleaner,

to make you cheaper.

To make you into a super battery.

It won't be easy,

but the stakes are huge...

Warmer temperatures, more severe storms, higher sea levels.

What's causing all this climate change?

Scientists virtually all agree: burning fossil fuels...

the oil, gas, and coal

that have powered our civilization up to now.

The challenge is to make the switch

to other forms of energy, like renewables...

solar and wind...

and to trade our gasoline-burning vehicles

for greener electric ones.

But all of these are missing the same critical component:

the right energy storage, a battery.

Can science transform this Clark Kent of energy

into the super storage of tomorrow?

I'm David Pogue, and if that perfect future battery exists,

I'm going to find it.

Because you never know when you might need one.

All right,

castaway, deserted, nothing to survive with

but my wits.

Let's take inventory:

Luckily I have a knife.

Hmm, a phone charging cable...

and... yes! A phone!

This is going to be easy.

Hello, 9-1-1.

Oh, no.

No, no, no, no!

It's dead!

To make this phone work,

I need a portable source of electrical power.

I need a battery.

Hmm, what do I remember about batteries?

A battery always has a positive electrode,

a negative electrode,

with something called an electrolyte in between.

When there's an external connection

between the two sides, the battery starts working.

First, the negative side reacts with the electrolyte,

and electrons are set free.

As they travel through the circuit,

they do useful things like produce light.

When they reach the positive side,

the electrons are reabsorbed.

Chemical reactions,

where one material gives up electrons to another,

are common.

That's what happens when a fire burns.

Or rust forms.

Or even when you breathe.

So building a battery isn't that hard.

All you need are the right materials,

like the kind of stuff you might find on a beach.

The ingredients for a battery:

a negative electrode... an aluminum can.

A positive electrode...

in this case I've got some charcoal in my pants.

And finally, an electrolyte.

I have some fresh, organic seawater.

The good news is this aluminum can battery actually works.

And if I had a device that could measure the voltage,

I could show you.

The bad news is I need 50 of them.

All right, 50 cans, one battery, one dead phone.

This is the moment of truth.

It's charging!

Can I make a call on this thing?

9-1-1.

Hello?

Oh, I'm so happy to hear your voice.

Listen, I was on this cruise ship and I fell overboard.

I think somebody pushed me.

And now I'm on this desert island, I don't know where I am.

Can you...

Landmark?

Look for a landmark?

Oh.

Actually, never mind.

In truth, charging a smartphone from an aluminum-can battery

is really difficult.

My cheap low-power phone barely let me make one call.

But the point is making a bad battery is easy.

Making a good battery?

Well, that's hard.

And I've asked the experts.

I don't know if I would call it a super battery,

but to get to the next generation of battery,

it'd have to be higher energy density.

Energy density, which is how much energy you store

in a given volume.

What that means to the consumer

is that you might be able to run that device

for a longer period of time.

Optimistically speaking, we should be able to double

or triple the energy density in the next ten years.

Cost is another factor that is hugely important.

Cost is very important.

And at the same time be safe.

Safety.

Safety and cost, as you can see,

can play against each other

where you can make a very cheap battery

that can be very unsafe.

So those are just some of the ones

that we look at all the time.

And they're not easy things to deliver.

So that's a lot to ask of one battery.

But finding that battery for electric vehicles

may be critical to fighting climate change.

Burning fossil fuels, like gasoline,

emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat,

causing warmer temperatures and climate instability.

Transportation accounts for about a quarter

of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Cars and oil are linked very, very strongly.

Something like 67% of oil goes for gasoline

and 90-some percent of transportation fuel is gasoline.

The whole purpose of electric vehicles is to reduce

the amount of carbon footprint,

to reduce the amount of emissions.

Electric vehicles could be good for the environment.

But it's going to take a lot to pry the gasoline nozzle

from our hands.

The funny thing is, this isn't the first time

that electric batteries and gasoline have fought

to win our automotive hearts.

At the turn of the century, no one knew which technology,

electric or gas power,

would dominate the nascent car industry.

In fact, quiet electric-powered cars were a common sight

on the streets of New York.

To learn more, I pay a visit to one of the foremost experts.

Or at least one of the funniest: Jay Leno.

And he's got some insider info on the car of tomorrow.

I think this is the car of the future.

This is how we'll all be getting around: electric.

This is the car of the future?

Well, this is a 1909 Baker electric.

There's no pollution.

This was high-tech back in the day.

Talk about back to the future.

The 1909 Baker runs on energy stored in batteries.

Wow.

You have six batteries in front.

As with today's electric cars,

you could charge the batteries by plugging the car in.

I'm going to stop at exactly ten bucks.

In those days,

there were charging stations all over New York City.

Do you want to go for a ride and see what it's like?

Yeah! This runs?

You don't take it on... Of course it runs.