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Next gen battery technology


BlackM

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Commercialization of most next-gen battery technologies is probably still far away... IBM has done lots of work with Lithium-Air, and estimated that it could be available within 5-15 years, zinc-air could be closer. Theoretical energy density of current Li-Ions is something like 400-500Wh/kg, current practical around 100-265Wh/kg. Zinc-air has theoretical value of 1370Wh/kg, practical around 470Wh/kg. Lithium-air has >11000Wh/kg theoretical density, but of course in practice it will likely be much smaller. Then there's more exotic stuff like thorium-based batteries, but that's basically a small nuclear device, maybe not the best idea to stick one into a vehicle that's bound to crash once in a while ;) 

Hadn't even heard of solid-state lithium, have to look that up.

 

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The 'nano-yolk' batteries seem quite promising for solid state lithium batteries -- especially since it seems they should be cheap and easy to produce...

http://news.mit.edu/2015/yolks-and-shells-improve-rechargeable-batteries-0805

but then, it seems these kind of things are discovered all the time in battery land with very little to show for it lol B)

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As I also mentioned in another similar post, the best proof point is that Tesla decided to bet on existing tech for its Gigafactory that will reach full scale only in 2020. While not all the Gigafactory money is Tesla's (Panasonic is the main investor), Tesla's bet is nonetheless big. I trust the geniuses at Testla/SpaceX to know what makes for reliable consumer tech that can be scaled to the volumes we need (and cost) for consumer electronics and consumer devices

One thing is to announce a discovery, another to have a commercial product that safely stands to the abuses that these devices go thru. And then to hit a price point where it's convenient to switch from current Li-Ion to something else (i.e. if you are designing satellites or medical equipment, you can use better battery chemistry)

Don't expect any of the new chemistry to reach a unicycle near you for at least 5 years. The good news is that we can keep counting on small battery improvements along the historical rate, and better electronics and designs

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So I've been searching around for upcoming battery technology and how far away from being released said technology is. And, basically I'm drawing a blank. There's very little information out there from potential manufacturers, most technologies including solid state lithium is being described as upcoming even though there apparently is solid state lithium ion cars driving around right now. Zinc/Air, Aluminum/Air and Lithium/Air batteries all seem to somehow be on the way and offer huuuuuge benefits in terms of capacity and durability but they seem awfully far off.

 

And in all of this I can't make out anything on account of how far away these kinds of batteries are from general consumers rather then only being available to certain manufacturers like select car manufacturers and phone/laptop makers.

 

Anyone here got a better grasp on this and any solid idea of when we can expect better EUC batteries?

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