this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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Oohhh, experimental groundbreaking paradigm shifting revolutionary battery design article #3646263859!
Let's see if this one isn't total bullshit like the 3646263841 ones before it!
Seriously this is getting ridiculous, I've seen these some literally 40 years ago, 99.99% is bullshit, and now I'm seeing literally over 5 new articles per week.
ITS BULLSHIT.
Call me when there is an actual battery based off peer reviewed research that has been successfully tested in production systems by at least 5 major companies. Until then, BULLSHIT.
While everybody was busy writing bullshit hype articles, we actually got a real revolution with the sodium-ion battery, which you can buy today. It won't replace Li-ion in terms of energy density, but it's much more robust, cheap, handles low temperatures, deep discharge and much more charge cycles, making it ideal for off-grid-storage.
I really wish we had tech news that just reports on stuff that's tested and available for purchase. Things do actually keep improving, but it's completely drowned out in all the other hype.
And then people bitch because That news outlet only reports on decades old advancements. It astounds me that supposed innovation focused people are so short sited and the community just laps up all your shit like a bunch of hogs chasing their last meal. Get a grip and go fuck yourselves, the whole lot of ya.
And it's more ethical and environmentally friendlier than Lithium-Ion, right?
Norway has just started a deep sea excavation for cobalt and copper which as I understand (I'm clueless) can be omitted from sodium-ion batteries. The excavation is roughly of the size of equador and will take place in an area that may contain previously unknown lifeforms and critically endangered eco-system.
A paragraph of an article seems to show their non-chalance regarding the ecosystem impacts and unknown side-effects:
"The Norwegian government recognizes that it can’t be sure any mining would be sustainable—it’s not been able to determine the likely environmental impact of extracting minerals in its waters, nor exactly what minerals are there to be found. “We do not currently have the knowledge needed to extract minerals from the seabed in the manner required,” says Næss."
These are the guys whose grid runs on 99% hydropower but they keep drilling for fossile fuels and now rare earths to export them and in addition are still hunting whales.
So to summarise: I'm very happy that there seems to be an eco friendly battery where its main component is the overambundantly availabe sodium. And the short wikipedia entry seems to reflect, that it's a more simple tech.
The amount of metallic sodium we need for these purposes dwarfs compared to what we're using directly as NaCl, that is, table salt, not just in food but primarily industrial processes. Which again dwarfs compared to what we have available (vaguely gestures at the oceans). Sixth most abundant element in the earth's crust and conveniently most of it is in the form of huge contiguous dried-up oceans buried somewhere.
Thinking of it should become standard practice to actually use the salt that's accumulated when desalinating to get drinking water, lots of issues with locally increasing the salt level in the ocean even though on a large scale the change in salinity is absolutely negligible.
That was kind of my point.
I'm sure every now and then we get something great but pretty much all large tech content providers have fallen to pointless screaming fluff bullshit articles, every. single. day.
Actually, make that all content providers. Tech or not doesn't matter.
Where can I buy a sodium-ion battery?
Straight from Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress and Co. All still early days, but things are ramping up.
Here's the section for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
Companies around the world have been working to develop commercially viable sodium-ion batteries. A 2-hour 5MW/10MWh grid battery was installed in China in 2023.^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^'optout'.^ ^article^ ^|^ ^about^
https://m.alibaba.com/trade/search?SearchText=sodium_ion_battery
Almost spent 20 seconds on Google. I'm exhausted
You should ice your hands bro. We need you back in top form.
The main problem is just that getting a product from a one-off in a lab to a cost-competitive mass-market product is hard and can take a lot of time, to say the least.
For example, Don Sadoway initially published about a molten metal battery in 2009. He gave a Ted talk in 2012. They've run into assorted setbacks along the way and are apparently just starting to deploy the first commercial test systems this year.
It's less that these breakthroughs are bullshit, and more that commercializing these things is hard. The articles about the breakthroughs are often bullshit, though, or at least way too rosy.
I wonder if novelty products can be made with the one-off batteries. Imagine a $3000 flagship phone but it had 3x the battery capacity of the normal flagship phone while having the same weight and volume. I'd bet some people would pay for that.
A few years ago I completely checked out of all the future tech hype. A million videos and articles about the next big thing and nothing ever comes to fruition.
Fuck future tech news, accept current news, praise analytical news based on historic data.
so there were 17 (18 if this one is good as well) successful designs, good to know.
Ladies and gentlemen we got him
its all about getting your masters thesis and 🎓
it's more of continuing series of AI hype
The article says they were searching for new solid electrolytes... which are meant to be incredibly thin, so they contribute a negligible amount to the total lithium need. It's far more important to look for ones with a high conductivity to compete with liquid electrolytes.