Your optimism is refreshing. What is your vision for power storage? What will replace the lithium battery? I have read about very ingenious ideas of power storage, but as with wind power and your other examples of bigger is better, they seem to be focused on the large size spectrum rather than hand-held devices. Enjoyable post. You didn't deviate from the topic as you sometimes do.
Thanks John. I think the LiFePO4 will be the last of the lithium batteries and a newer chemistry will make sense. My flagpole had LiFePO4 and was amazing! The newest car batteries use them. I think there are now over 20000 people with Tesla Power walls and they collectively can operate like a medium sized powerplant. There's an enormous stored hydro project the Swiss just completed. Scale is amazing.
My concern is the limited availability of Lithium, especially if you take China's supply out of the equation. I am a big fan of bringing all essential products back to the USA from lithium to pharmaceuticals. I find it interesting that you bring up the "enormous stored hydro project," when your topic was bigger is not always better.
That is a good point. Stored hydro which the Dutch have been practicing for hundreds of years is interesting and does not incur the siting complexity that traditional hydroelectric dams do. While it would be a different topic altogether with my commitment to 8 minute read times, Lithium based batteries are very much near their flattened hockey stick as they have been going for a while. In a LiO2 battery, lithium is about 17% of the battery. In a LiFePO4 battery, lithium is about 4.5% of the battery. On the basis of the preciousness of lithium, such a battery requires 1/4 of the lithium which helps the material access problem. This will undoubtedly fuel the next big leap in electric cars and home based storage systems like the Tesla Powerwall. Lead acid to Nickel Metal Hydride to Lithium have each run their course I think. There are enough new promising battery chemistries on the horizon to provide healthy competition to the lithium based systems.
Your optimism is refreshing. What is your vision for power storage? What will replace the lithium battery? I have read about very ingenious ideas of power storage, but as with wind power and your other examples of bigger is better, they seem to be focused on the large size spectrum rather than hand-held devices. Enjoyable post. You didn't deviate from the topic as you sometimes do.
Thanks John. I think the LiFePO4 will be the last of the lithium batteries and a newer chemistry will make sense. My flagpole had LiFePO4 and was amazing! The newest car batteries use them. I think there are now over 20000 people with Tesla Power walls and they collectively can operate like a medium sized powerplant. There's an enormous stored hydro project the Swiss just completed. Scale is amazing.
My concern is the limited availability of Lithium, especially if you take China's supply out of the equation. I am a big fan of bringing all essential products back to the USA from lithium to pharmaceuticals. I find it interesting that you bring up the "enormous stored hydro project," when your topic was bigger is not always better.
That is a good point. Stored hydro which the Dutch have been practicing for hundreds of years is interesting and does not incur the siting complexity that traditional hydroelectric dams do. While it would be a different topic altogether with my commitment to 8 minute read times, Lithium based batteries are very much near their flattened hockey stick as they have been going for a while. In a LiO2 battery, lithium is about 17% of the battery. In a LiFePO4 battery, lithium is about 4.5% of the battery. On the basis of the preciousness of lithium, such a battery requires 1/4 of the lithium which helps the material access problem. This will undoubtedly fuel the next big leap in electric cars and home based storage systems like the Tesla Powerwall. Lead acid to Nickel Metal Hydride to Lithium have each run their course I think. There are enough new promising battery chemistries on the horizon to provide healthy competition to the lithium based systems.