Another New Battery Technology

fishhawk said:

I wish one of these "new battery technology" batteries actually made it to market. I can make a battery out of an orange, but that doesn't mean it would useful to run a car.

Click to expand...

It does. It just takes a while, long enough that people forget that it was ever one of those "new battery technology" ideas once. Lithium Ion batteries first got commercialized 20 years before the first Volt was sold, and was one of those "new experimental batteries" a decade before that.

Upper5Percent said:

http://blog.caranddriver.com/a-better-battery-a-survey-of-what-might-come-after-lithium-ion/

The following three technologies show the greatest potential:

• Reduction-Oxidation Flow
• Solid-State Lithium-Ion
• Metal-Air

Click to expand...

"Potential" depends on application. I can see redox flow being awesome in static installations but not so great for laptops.

Metal-Air are already really good for some things. Most hearing aid batteries use this already, and have for decades. The challenges are in RECHARGING the darned things. It can be done, but it's delicate and fussy at this point. They also store a lot of power for their weight, but can't dump it out fast.