Of the many pillars that keep human civilization from collapsing upon itself and returning its members to the short, brutal existence of pre-industrial feudalism, hydrocarbons are surely one of the most important and problematic. Oil, natural gas, and coal all release, when burned, phenomenal, and here-to-for unequalled, amounts of energy, a sufficient portion of which we are able to capture and use to electrify our cities, power our planes, motorize our vehicles and charge our devices. Were these resources to suddenly vanish tomorrow, we would have no means of energizing our world, an ugly reality which alone is enough to catalyze fear within the hearts of optimists and pessimists alike. With so much riding on these non-renewable fossil fuels, it's no wonder then that research departments at universities and corporations the world over are searching for answers, alternatives that will help us keep the lights on when we've finally sucked our planet dry of its abundance. One of the most promising solutions to a cleaner world lies in building better batteries, a fascinating and complicated endeavor whose story is tackled here by Mr. Fletcher.
From the A cell to the GM Volt, from iron phosphate to lithium ion, Bottled Lightning captures the history of the battery and the promise of its future. After all, for as long as we've harnessed electricity, we've tried to store it, to save its immense potentiality for future use. But though the process for generating power is relatively straightforward, often requiring little more than a match to light a fire all-too-eager to burn, the process for locking that energy away for a rainy day has been infinitely more elusive. Giants of science as noteworthy as Edison have tried and failed, managing at best partial successes of complex chemistry that, because they cannot store enough electricity, cannot store it reliably enough, or cannot discharge it with sufficient speed, fail. Consequently, every day, our power plants generate obscene amounts of electricity that is necessarily wasted for want of a means by which to harbor it.
Enter the minds of the 21st century. Business leaders and scientists, politicians and environmentalists, are all looking to discover and capitalize on the battery breakthrough that will transform our civilization. For if we could find that perfect balance of chemistry that would allow for storage of immense amounts of energy, that could then be deployed at a moment's notice, we would have the key to solving not only the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, but the challenge of deep dependence on what are swiftly depleting non-renewable resources. The person who could crack this problem would not just be rich, he would be hailed a hero.
Though troubled by its overly Americanized view of the search for the breakthrough battery, Bottled Lightning is a brief but compelling examination of this most critical and simultaneously vexing problem. Mr. Fletcher successfully animates the characters in this interesting drama, highlighting the scientific rivalries, the political disputes and the commercial enterprises which have come to characterize this largely futile search. What's more, he details these confrontations alongside the science they are advocating, furnishing readers with a basic understanding of the underlying challenges that have so-far plagued this pursuit.
However, despite the informative nature of his account, Mr. Fletcher appears, at times, obsessed with novelties like the GM Volt which, while chapters in the battery's story, fall well short of the importance assigned to them here. The author seems enthralled with the slick publicity that surround such enterprises, ignoring the stark reality that these cars simply do not sell well on the open market. The work cries out to be 50 pages longer, to have Mr. Fletcher speak to the psychology that underpins the reluctance of the customer to buy what seem to be competently built vehicles.
This is interesting work populated by fascinating minds who offer hope for a solution to an existential problem. But the extent to which Mr. Fletcher seems limited by nationalism causes the account to feel, at times, unfocused, caught between the story of the battery and advocacy for electric cars. Compelling, but troubled. (3/5 Stars)
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