The next best battery?

rando

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Messages
1,638
Location
Colorado
It seems that there is finally a wholesale shift in the energy storage world from lead-acid to the various lithium batteries, including in our tiny corner of the market - energy storage for boats and campers. Now that this shift is fully underway, I am wondering what the next great advance will be? This is of interest to our lot both in terms of energy storage for off grid camping and on a much bigger scale, energy storage for EVs.

Some of the current front runners are:
Solid State Lithium Metal Batteries these use much of the same technology as current lithium batteries, but would enable a full charge in 10-20 minutes (great for EVs) and last 10,000 cycles (great for EVs and FWCs). Seems like these are still a few years out.

Aluminium Ion Batteries also somewhat similar to lithium ion, but using aluminium instead. These can charge even faster, with a full charge in a minute or two as well as having a higher energy density and lifespan than lithium ion. Another benefit is that alumuinium is cheaper and far more abundant than lithium. These would be great for both EVs and FWCs but are still some years out.

Iron Air Batteries These are in interesting concept - the performance of these is actually lower than lithium-ion in many respects, but the ingredients (iron and oxygen) are so cheap, abundant and safe that these could be built on a massive scale for large scale energy storage. These should be in production and use in the next year or two. Not a great solution for EVs or FWCs as they are heavy and bulky but a great solution to storing solar/wind energy at a power grid scale.

What else is out there that we should be looking at? What is the next great idea for the early adopters?
 
The General Motors/LG Chem Ultium batteries look interesting. Nickel manganese cobalt aluminum.Can switch from two 400v packs in parallel to an 800v serial configuration to increase charging rate. Battery life said to exceed the life of the rest of the vehicle.

Paul
 
The Alum Ion Battery looks extremely interesting. After quickly reading the article link, & as noted above, the recharge rate is stunning. The impact on a solar panel array? What kind of solar controller will be designed for such a Battery? Wild stuff. Inherent voltage parameters?
 

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV Life Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom