Micro Black Hole Cellular Batteries: Physicists Explore the Potential of Cosmic Abyss As Ultimate Source of Energy

The search to generate more energy from less material while preventing the combustion of more fossil fuels than the Earth can handle has continued to spawn creative ideas. Nuclear fusion records are smashed, even if only by the tiniest margins and seconds at a time. On the other hand, solar panels are becoming increasingly efficient, and their installation is becoming more strategic to reap bigger gains.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ NASA/D. Berry)

Still, it remains challenging to determine how the generated energy can be stored and relinquished on demand across the electricity grid. As battery storage and manufacturing capacity trend upwards, their prices plummet.

Current Limitations of Lithium Batteries

As batteries are increasingly used in electronic devices, cars, and even for solar power storage at home, energy density becomes crucial. The commercialization of lithium-ion batteries has led to significant advancements in energy density.

Currently, the most efficient lithium batteries contain about 954,000 joules of energy per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of mass. This is roughly 22 times the energy from burning one kilogram of oil. Modern lithium batteries can store energy at a high density, corresponding to 42,000,000 joules per cubic meter.

Batteries are expected to play a vital role in promoting green technologies. However, despite the significant breakthroughs, we are still likely in the very early stages of battery energy density development.

Harnessing the Power of Black Holes

Theoretical scientists are particularly imaginative in projecting how innovations can take us years into the future. In a recent study, two physicists explored the limits of battery energy density based on Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Researchers Espen Gaarder Haug and Gianfranco Spavieri started with a strict interpretation of equations that describe perfectly round masses that do not rotate. These equations represent the behavior of ideal models of microscopic black holes formed in a tight space full of energy. Due to how these cosmic abyss interact, the entire system can act like a nuclear reactor, freeing energy stored in the bonds of particles to generate vast amounts of clean energy.

According to the researchers, these black holes should be charged and tiny, just one Planck mass each, since more massive black holes are less energy-dense than small ones. This is also required to allow their electromagnetic repulsion to offset the pull of gravity when bundled together into cells packed with similarly charged black holes. As a result, it would create a stable energy source that does not gobble itself up.

In theory, it is possible to bring together oppositely charged black holes one by one by leading them to merge into a single black hole that 'evaporates' rapidly into pure energy. The extracted energy would not come from within the black hole but just outside it, where gravity concentrates.

Haug and Spavieri estimate that a micro black hole battery weighing just one kilogram can provide enough energy for a family for generations. It is believed to have 470 million times the energy of the most efficient 200-kilogram lithium battery currently in existence.