When Federal Aviation Administration officials grounded Boeing’s fleet of 787 Dreamliner commercial jets last week due to unexplained battery fires, one of President Obama’s favorite green energy technologies got another black eye.
Technologists and safety experts had long warned of problems with the lithium ion battery when in 2009 the president began betting billions of tax dollars that it should be the green power of choice for cars, trucks, and even aircraft.
Just three years before that, a UPS cargo plane made an emergency landing when a shipment of lithium ion batteries it was carrying caught fire. The plane landed safely but was destroyed by the ensuing conflagration.
Small lithium ion batteries are widely used in consumer electronics, but powering vehicles like a car or an aircraft is a much greater challenge. The 787, for example, has to generate 1.5 megawatts of electrical power, enough to light up several hundred homes.
Boeing and the FAA said the 787 will not fly again until the battery fires are explained and fixed. There have been a total of four reported fires, including one during 2010 pre-delivery flight, according to Scientific American.
Read More at washingtonexaminer.com . By Richard Pollock.
Photo Credit: Stephen De Vight (Creative Commons)
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Yep, Lithium Ion batteries may have the power density over other types of batteries, but, you never heard of batteries catching fire of exploding before the appearance of Li. I can’t imagine being in a auto accident and trapped while your batteries catch on fire one by one. Until the technology is perfected and made safe we should not push so hard towards “green energy”.
Why does a man who has never invented any thing but lies…and who wants this or that for the country when he has already failed at some of this suggestions… demand and will get… what he wants regardless of the failures…. Why do we even allow DISCUSSIONS of it much less put it into action…. Obama is in his late 40′s… he’s not dry behind the ears yet…. he does not have the knowledgenor wisdom it takes to know what will work other than the people he wants it to work FROM.. who are the contributors of his campaign. He knows where his money is coming from … So one disaster knows the disaster of another … He doesnt care how much money its costing the people of this country.. I wonder how if he would be as generous with HIS OWN money to such unproven adventures… Man alive.. that would be the laugh of the century…