Printed batteries to be rolling out before year's end

Some German researchers have conjured up a kind of battery that’s less than a millimeter thin and is made by the reactive layers onto each other like a silk screen. But the most surprising bit is that they’re planning on making them on a commercial scale within six months.

Usually with cool technologies like this, it’s all being done in one guy’s lab at University of BFE, and they’ve got to get grants, talk with manufacturers, and all that stuff. But apparently this Fraunhofer team is on the fast track and they’re planning on getting these batteries rolled out, so to speak, before 2010.

The applications are limited because one battery can only produce 1.5V, but a series of those could easily power an e-book without a backlight or be woven into clothing for whatever purpose you can think of. And maybe mobile phones will get even thinner!