this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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Battery tech has still come a long way since say 10 years ago, even though the "next gen" stuff hasn't made it to scaled production. Looks like this is the beginning of scaled production, though.
Nah, see the battery density graph here. Batteries have made great progress already, and it's accelerating because suddenly there are trillions of dollars on the line for anyone that can make big strides in battery technology.
I'm not sure if we are looking at the same chart. The chart goes up to 500 Wh/kg, the same as this new Samsung battery as per the original article. It's may well be the same battery that gives the chart that value, but notice the years prior it gets higher and higher up to that value.
It might be 10 years away from being the mainstream battery but the battery technology that was 10 years away 9 years ago is almost here.
I was meaning how EVs created a consumer market for huge batteries where prior to that the biggest battery in your house might have been a power tool. But you're right, there was a premium market for emerging battery tech and it increases along a scale like anything else.
I mean, lithium cells were used for fringe use cases 20 years ago, now they are seemingly everywhere. The difference with this tech is that they know it's currently expensive, so are aiming for use cases where the added cost is justifed. Give it 5 years and the tech will more than likely become easier to produce, lowering costs. That and sodium batteries are probably going to dramatically lower cost for grid storage, which should make it easier to have consistent power delivery.
I read your argument as being that since we aren't quantum leaping ahead with technology, it's a bit of a wash with the pushes for future battery standards. But my point is that this battery update, while not being a 10x in performance, is more likely a 2x and will be viable to scale with pricing decreases as time progresses. I'm in the trucking sector, and one of the things I have noticed about transitioning to electric heavy duties is that a lot of the issues aren't completely on battery density, but rather that there isn't an infrastructure that can charge the batteries at high voltage without beefing up the power grid around stations. If you could instead give a cheap enough battery backup to create a buffer that fills up during lower use hours, then a lot more of the solutions for that could charge ev trucks quickly would make more sense (it's actually what has made the Tesla Semi have such good numbers). It's stuff like this that actually might push the transition, which has to happen, not waiting for next quantum leap.
There is a ~~solid state~~ sodium battery factory being built in Japan, I think, and one in America. (Yes, I mixed up my two battery technologies, a common problem in a stagnant field...) But yes, real life isn't a game, you can't immediately use new tech as soon as it becomes viable, and factories take time to build. That doesn't mean that advances haven't been constantly occurring, just like advances continued to occur with NiMH battery technology a decade after lithium was mainstream. Partly, no doubt, because factories are expensive, they take time to build, and companies like to maximize the profits from their investments.
As I mentioned in my other response, our battery capacity and longevity has increased by a factor of 10 in the last 30 years. Charging capacity has increased significantly, as well. And the only reason we don't have more powerful chargers is because we haven't needed them. It will certainly require a different configuration to charge twice as fast, probably with local power storage to reduce the burden on the electrical grid, but the only technical challenge is the power draw, and there are a number of ways to avoid that.
There may not be a revolutionary discovery, but we are nearing a tipping point where battery makes more sense for most disconnected power storage than anything else.
The cell phone I had 30 years ago had a battery pack that was about as big as my current cell phone and was 500 mAh. My current cell phone has a little battery tucked away in it that stores 4000 mAh, recharges about as fast, and can be recharged more before it loses a significant amount of its capacity. It also costs about 1% per mAh of the price of that battery from 30 years ago.
Just because you haven't bothered to investigate advances in battery technology doesn't mean significant advances haven't occurred.
Fossil fuels are currently the largest disconnected power storage by overall power used. You know, the thing cars use when they aren't EVs. You may have heard of diesel and gasoline generators, or oil-fueled ships.
As per the previous part of my comment that you quoted, my point was that incremental changes can accumulate to the point where at some point revolutionary changes can occur. We increased capacity and longevity by a factor of 10 over 30 years, have a new technology hitting mainstream, and another that could double power density in the next 5 to 10. Yet you seem skeptical that's possible, in spite of the decades of advances we already have made.
Now, if you're quibbling about the term power vs. energy, I can't really be bothered with it. If you aren't, what exactly do you think is the reason we use gasoline in vehicles than because it's a highly portable source of energy?
True, as far as big leaps go there hasn't mean anything since the introduction of lithium based batteries to the market.
Until now. This is it and they have production working. Safer than lithium. Longer lasting, quicker charging, should perform fine in extreme cold, more energy dense, and solid state.
The next big thing is finally here.
I know you're correct, since there are now solid state batteries on the market which outperform liquid-electrolyte LiPo batteries, but just stating "we're at the tipping point" without dropping any link as evidence makes your claim very unconvincing.
That guy on Undecided is a bit of a dunce. He never actually checked or tested in any way that the yoshino psu uses real solid state batteries. He just bought it from Amazon and it's advertised on Amazon as having them.
But they likely aren't solid state batteries in that psu he bought. He even admitted as much in a podcast just last week.
Other people have done teardowns on those yoshino batteries and have apparently found that they are not solid state. They still contain a liquid.
Here. I think he talks about it somewhere around 25 minutes in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aciA1dKz5iE
So we're still in a limbo period with nothing actually on the market.
A giant name like samsung and the auto makers they've teamed up with like Toyota aren't going to bullshit about the batteries being in production. There's no benefit to doing so. It's not like they're trying to raise investment capital.
Yes they have. Not from this article, though. Same for Toyota. They announced a 2027(likely) solid state battery EV months ago.
As for "samsung didn't claim this", they put the battery on display at the trade show in Seoul, and it's been reported by tons of outlets. Samsung has very clearly announced it.
feels a bit like fusion power
Battery tech is constantly having huge breakthroughs. They are just come in small steps.
I mean a smart phone is literally a battery powered computer. It's absolutely astounding compared to what we had 10/20 years ago.
Not really. They have massive breakthroughs that increase capacity and charging hugely.
People just seem to expect some world changing development constantly.
touché
Depends on how you define "constant". Battery prices have been falling year over year, no thanks to technological improvements.
If we're referring explicitly to Academia and R&D, then OP is correct. You're main point is that these huge breakthroughs haven't affected the market, but OP isn't arguing that.
You're both talking past each other.
Only thing I'm upset with is that we get more battery capacity, but not longer battery time. I want to clock my phone down to save power, but that's not allowed.
Yeah the more power phones have available the more manufacturers use.
It's why I miss replaceable batteries.
That made me think of the fairly low res picture of the menu screen from Mario Bros on the NES with the caption "this one image takes up more memory than the entirety of the Mario Bros game code.
Good lord...I remember getting a 1GB HDD and thinking "welp, never gonna use that up" then a few years later installing Diablo2 and seeing it was 1.1gb...
It's absolutely allowed.
It's not as good as previous versions but I am running stock android and I have wifi power saving and phone (background) power saving modes available. I just checked and the estimate of time until zero percent battery goes from 22 hours to 28 hours with the node that limits backup processes, and that is with 59% on the battery.
There was a power save mode on my old phone that made everything grey screen and stuff that was way better. I think I enabled it for a camping trip once and used like 20% battery in 3 days.
Most phones have some sort of "Ultra power saving" mode that gives a lot of battery life.
I always use the power saving mode, however my experience is that the battery time is almost the same irregardless of battery capacity (comparing arbitrarily över the years)
The difference is this is actually shipping to manufacturers.
Solid state batteries are already being produced at scale. It's happening.
The first news I've heard is Yoshino power selling solid state power banks. here's a video covering them.