Batteries. Who knew?
April 3, 2026
Digby's Hullabaloo
Not Donald Trump Paul Krugman this morning offers some TGIF news. Batteries work and are getting cheaper. Drastically so: In engineering school I heard one professor casually mention to another that students were not considering power density in their mechanical designs. I never heard another word about it in any class. But Krugman references it: Second, battery performance has soared as prices have plunged.
Crucially, there has been a huge increase in batteries’ volumetric energy density: the amount of electricity that can be stored in a given space. Until a few years ago the energy density of gasoline gave internal combustion a huge advantage over electric vehicles. But no longer. For any geeks out there, follow the link in the paragraph above. While Trump fiddles in Iran, he’s burning more fossil fuels at home while surrendering the renewables market to China. (So much winning.) But he cannot stop the renewables future, Krugman writes. Nor the arrival of the Grim Reaper.
Digby's Hullabaloo
Coverage and analysis from United States of America. All insights are generated by our AI narrative analysis engine.