I'm not up ramping, I've said things before on both sides of the argument.
However, where I do take issue is in the case of technology is 'moving fast'. In the 1980s Goodenough had the brainchild idea of a LI-cobalt oxide battery, 25yrs later and the climate change crisis has forged concern about the damage greenhouse gasses are doing globally.
Yet still the Oil & Gas industry, ICE car manufacturers and their fellow travelling politicians are doing their best to stymie the renewable sector. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on misinformation and dis-information in order to earn multiple billions by their product sales. Who would have thought anybody could come up with the term 'clean coal' or come into parliament with a lump of coal.
Thus, really has the renewable sector been advancing as quickly as it could. I do not believe so and will have to fight tooth and nail against these vested interests.
However, given my view above, yes battery tech has moved a long way in recent years but doubt as quickly as you may think. Take the old 12volt car battery in ICEs, it's still there. Try buying rechargeable Li-ion double AAs or AAAs as I did yesterday, had to settle for Ni-cad.
Zinc -flow batteries (yes has some advantages over Li but very big, heavy and cumbersome) main area of use is power stations and other large concerns.
Braga and Goodenough have managed to dumbfound electrochemists worldwide by inventing a solid-state battery (one in which both the electrolyte and electrodes are solid) with an electrolyte of glass and both the anode and cathode composed of graphite. Although solid-state batteries are considered safer
than most LIBs, and may have the potential for higher energy density,
to date issues of cost andlifecycle have proved problematic with this type of technology.Most of the battery products on or coming onto the market have Li content:
View attachment 1783019And: in the case of TSLA, Elon Musk who is known for being abreast of technology is adopting NCA tech which contains lithium in the materials.
View attachment 1783028Lithium is the dominant metal because of its molecular weight of 6.9, a small mass that packs a lot of atoms, its charge carried by the li-ions.
Others talk of Hydrogen as a source of energy/power, that however takes a lot of energy to crack the H2O to produce the hydrogen.
From my point of view and my readings show that Li metal has decades for the future to innovate a cost effective alternative -- unless their is some new disruptive technology that is currently not on the horizon.
IMO
NPJ
cheers
(20min delay)