A new portable electrochemical battery developed at Haifa's Technion-Israel Institute of Technology offers users thousands of hours of power for their hearing aids, sensors and, eventually, cellphones, laptop computers and even electric cars. The battery, developed by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Technion's materials engineering department, is based on silicon as a fuel that reverts to its original sand.

The new invention is not rechargeable and ranges from one square centimeter to several square centimeters. "Think of an electric car battery made from silicon that will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again," suggested Ein-Eli. "This would take about 10 years more and be revolutionary. It could be used in any portable electronic device or be integrated with solar or wind power as well as electric energy."