cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/16261249
Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production
70 Wh/Kg is indeed very low density comparing with today’s li-ion 300 Wh/kg.
Yeah but for many low-power applications, it’s a damn cool development. Like I have a bluetooth keyboard and a few controllers that could eaisly fit a battery 3x-4x the current size inside no problem, so there’s no need to waste lithium on that.
Still great for grid storage. Save the higher density stuff for cars, trucks, and space.
At 1000 times the abundancy, it is already 233 times better for stationary applications than lithium ion, no?
Does this abundance imply 1000x cheaper storage costs?
Probably more like x times more profit if we cant get competition going
That’s pretty good for early production and I’m sure that will improve over time.
LiPo batteries are the more comparable type and are in the 140-200 Wh/kg range. For version 1.0, that’s not a bad number.
The problem with advancing these batteries is the barrier to entry. Very few are willing to invest in advancing lithium free batteries when li-ion batteries are inexpensive and have been improving. There needs to be a minimum advancement before people are willing to adopt the new technology and get it up to and beyond where we currently are. Hopefully I explained that in an understandable way lol.
So what’s the deal, are they better, stronger, faster? Or take a hit for the cost/environment?
Potentially cheaper and uses more abundant materials than lithium ion, but not as energy dense, so not ready yet for automotive purposes. They have a much higher cycle life and faster charge/discharge rates, though, so good potential for applications that don’t need to move like data center power backups.
My first goto would be a cellphone battery. Having a cellphone battery lasting months longer than what I had to deal with on my old phone. I welcome this.
Its not as energy dense, overall battery life will be worse. The battery won’t degrade as fast overtime, so the battery will keep more total capacity over the years, as compared to a lithium ion battery that would have noticeably less battery after a few years of use.
From my limited understanding of the technology, sodium is more common and easier to obtain than lithium, and is less damaging to the environment to mine.
May not pack the same energy density though, but it’s a tech still in the works…
The linked article consists of the answers to your question. Nothing else written there.
There’s not enough known lithium deposits in the world to make the batteries needed to decarbonize transportation and provide the energy storage needed for a fully renewable grid. That is not true of sodium, which is cheap and abundant.
At the current energy density, they’re more suitable for stationary storage. But we need a lot of that, so that’s a win. Sodium is cheap and abundant, so those cells should be a lot cheaper to produce.
if we’re all driving around in a short bus theres plenty of room for this density of battery.
