Integrated Battery Technologies

That pie is out there but nobody knows yet if it will one day be a dessert or a slap stick pie in the face. (Enough with the stretched metaphors.)

Battery development research continues today. Additionally improvements in solar cell design keeps happening, too. Will this research and growth eventually reach the "holy grail" (oops, that's another metaphor) of at least rural energy self sufficiency, I hope so. I don't expect it to happen in my lifetime but I've already seen things I never thought would happen.

As you thought I too had the opinion that battery is the "weakest link " in battery trucks and cars and the bottle neck for wide spread use of electric cars due to the huge recurring expense for replacement of battery. After seeing the demonstration of All Electric car made by Tesla in a show room at Livingston Mall (NJ) and the claim they made of the life of battery, minimum time required for charging and replacement I was forced to change my mind and forced make search in Google and found following results and was really surprised to know the latest development in battery manufacture.
The Tesla claim goes like this:- "Tesla's Model S is expensive (it ranges from $70,000 to over $100,000), but its range is 265 miles, With in a few years, Tesla hopes to produce much more affordable vehicles-including one that costs $30,000 to $35,000-with a range similar to that of the Model S. Tesla also wants to make electric cars more practical by building a nationwide network of charging stations that can deliver 200 miles of charge in about half an hour-compared to several hours to charge an electric car at an ordinary station today."
Another search result is given .
" It was said with 300miles range package, Model S is equipped with Panasonic NCR18650A which is a minimum 2.9AH lithium-ion battery. But Panasonic promised two different versions of this 18650A. Both versions will in-cooperate better production/construction of the battery without significant changes in the chemistry of the batteries. This will lead to a higher energy-density-to-volume but energy-density-to-weight will remain the same. The new battery, which is supposed to come out in March 2013, will have phenomenal 735wh/L. So will Model S be re-modeled with the new battery once they are available?"
another link interested me was.
http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-data/pdf2/ACA4000/ACA4000CE254.pdf

Many cities in NJ USA we can find wide spread use of solar panel on the LT distribution poles and on roof tops of commercial buildings and residential buildings. In India the life of solar lights were having a short life due to the battery and had to replace them. Here I was told that the battery used here have long life. This link also interested me.
http://www.solar-electric.com/battery-types-for-solar-electric-systems.html
So let us hope for a better future for the Batteries and change our views on batteries. .

Rajiva - Hello! do you plan to build the "salt cell" batteries yourself or to buy them?

Jetsons? no. but yes a lot of research is being done on solar and hydrogen (using solar to crack water molecules and separate hydrogen from oxygen and use those as fuel in fuel cells, so a hydrogen( or electric) powered vehicle just might be in your future that you fuel up from home out of your own supply......just not yet.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/23097/Batteries-That-Can-Be-a-Game-Changer-For-the-Grid

The development of Zinc Anode battery at campus of City College of NY is welcome event. In case if they can successfully produce for commercial use as they are planning and if successful it will be a new chapter for battery production. The life of batteries will be enhanced and cost will come down drastically. This will result in low cost rechargable battery for all purpose. (It has been an informative link).

The following links are also good.

http://urbanelectricpower.com/technology/

http://www.windpowerengineering.com/policy/environmental/100-kw-zinc-anode-battery-good-for-over-5000-deep-discharges/

Go nuclear......mini-scale.....

http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/kube/kubex15.asp

steam turbine generator sold separately?

And how long is the waste radio-active after said 50 years. It's too easy to say nuclear is 'clean' energy. P'raps we can put ALL the waste over in Fukushima.

I thought Edison batteries were the cheapest per KWH of storage. Non-toxic, and reliable, tough enough to use for fork lifts and machinery that gets knocked around a lot. Not many battery technologies can claim to be non-toxic! (Think that is not a consideration, just try to get a battery factory to pass the EPA test in YOUR area! No wonder battery companies are moving their jobs overseas! You have to pay an unsustainable subsidy to open a battery making plant in the US!) According to that first link, Nickel Iron Edison Batteries are being re-visited as possibly being more suitable for wind power applications than pretty much anything else. I think their tolerance for variable electrolyte concentrations is also pretty handy, I have seen them arrive in my battery shop with half their electrolyte boiled out, and still perform like troopers on the load bank.

I said "cheapest", not "lightest", or "most efficient". And certainly not "high tech sexy" like lithium ion stuff, but OTOH, they don't use rare earths found only in China, and they have a very good track record.

I would lobby to get Mallory to make Edison batteries again. In fact, I think I will write a letter and ask them if they could somehow get the crazy subsidies that the Lithium-Ion factories are getting.

Having worked on flooded lead acid, sealed lead acid and sealed lithium as both primary (off grid) or emergency load supply in grid interactive solar PV systems (on grid), we've come a long way. We are now installing a large (400KWH) nickel iron flooded system that uses KOH as electrolyte.

Flooded lead acid is still generally the cheapest, especially if you have maintenance on site, and enough capital to size properly, but unsuitable for systems that don't get regular service and maintenance.

Nickel iron has even less power density than lead acid, although life span is reported to be up to 40 years, with no degradation from overly discharging cells. They are very heavy and bulky (read not suitable for transportation, except maybe in a submarine, which is where they were developed) Comparing costs among these technologies is difficult, because they all have very distinct operating characteristics, and your application may be able to assign more value than another application.