Russian scientists invent a battery that can capture energy from the sun,

Russian scientists have invented a battery that can capture energy not only from the sun, but also from the stars, the head of a research institute at the Dubna Nuclear Institute, near Moscow, said.

"The scientists have successfully created a new substance," Valentin Samoilov announced, "thanks to which this battery can work on earth, independently of meteorological conditions, using solar and stellar energy.
www.physorg.com...

Can anyone validate the authenticity of this story? It sounds pretty out there.

I don't doubt it's validity one bit. Russian material sciences are as good as or better than any other. A working engineering sample can't be far off if the story is true... cheaper than solar? That'd be welcome as sat-grade solar-cells are getting expensive and harder to come by and require storage batteries too. Sounds good.

Thanx for the interesting post,

Victor K.

NASA's has had special power generating materials too... theirs is a thermal gradient unicouple generator, here's a PDF link to the DARPA - JPL research presentation from about 2002... the material class has a funky name "Skutterudites" pretty much old news tho', NASA TV has a feature on it from time to time with Dr. Sakamoto (really talented multi-disciplined scientist) pointing out the aerogel insulator material currently being considered. His latest stuff about "jumping" damaged spinal cord sections is exciting too.

Thanx,

Victor K.

[edit on 31-5-2006 by V Kaminski]