Great comprehensive review of the state of battery tech from several different angles. Classic David Roberts - a very well briefed interviewer talks technical clean energy issues through with an expert with a focus on making the subject accessible to a wider audience.
I'm interested in storage for baseload electricity. L-ion works in that space but it may depend on getting down to the ridiculously low price that David spoke of toward the end of the discussion. Getting to 100% clean energy will require baseload storage, and there are a number of ways to get there Getting there fast and cheap is the trick. It's a discussion with a slightly different focus. This seemed to focus on transport. With the exception of air, we may have all the technology for a transportation solution, just at a lower price which will come with volume. Solar + Wind + Batteries + V2G/V2B + Demand Management on a smart grid. Can we get it done this decade? No? How much will we still need to accomplish and where? There are dark shadows behind these discussions.
My biggest takeaway: lithium is here to rule the roost and stay because it already handles production at mega scale, and no theoretically better technology (i.e. "in the lab") will be likely to scale up to be economically competitive.
I feel a lot smarter, but damn this was a bear.
Great comprehensive review of the state of battery tech from several different angles. Classic David Roberts - a very well briefed interviewer talks technical clean energy issues through with an expert with a focus on making the subject accessible to a wider audience.
One miss: hundreds of MWh of NCM811 have been deployed in the US since 2017 via Proterra in transit & school buses. https://twitter.com/TheTrustySteed/status/1180960181619974144?s=20
David, you can head up north and ride an Everett Transit bus that is in service now with NCM811.
I'm interested in storage for baseload electricity. L-ion works in that space but it may depend on getting down to the ridiculously low price that David spoke of toward the end of the discussion. Getting to 100% clean energy will require baseload storage, and there are a number of ways to get there Getting there fast and cheap is the trick. It's a discussion with a slightly different focus. This seemed to focus on transport. With the exception of air, we may have all the technology for a transportation solution, just at a lower price which will come with volume. Solar + Wind + Batteries + V2G/V2B + Demand Management on a smart grid. Can we get it done this decade? No? How much will we still need to accomplish and where? There are dark shadows behind these discussions.
My biggest takeaway: lithium is here to rule the roost and stay because it already handles production at mega scale, and no theoretically better technology (i.e. "in the lab") will be likely to scale up to be economically competitive.