One thought on “No Rare Earths. No Lithium. New Battery Tech has Promise”
I am a big fan of alternate battery technologies and know that China has been working on alternatives based upon nickel, sodium, and iron. Inspecting the periodic table of the elements reveals that lithium is quite a bit lighter than than other elements which means that lithium is preferred in applications involving EVs (at least the frequent start-stop-start variety). Now if the application is stationary (as in storing energy from solar and wind farms) then the weight of heavier batteries is of little concern (other than the initial cost to ship)
I am a big fan of alternate battery technologies and know that China has been working on alternatives based upon nickel, sodium, and iron. Inspecting the periodic table of the elements reveals that lithium is quite a bit lighter than than other elements which means that lithium is preferred in applications involving EVs (at least the frequent start-stop-start variety). Now if the application is stationary (as in storing energy from solar and wind farms) then the weight of heavier batteries is of little concern (other than the initial cost to ship)