Breakthrough by MIT in Batteries

[Mangosteen]

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Ene...akthrough.html

Great for consumers. Bad news for oil business.

Good thing we need Oil for many other uses but if the batteries cost twenty percent of the cost of current ones those electric vehicles are pretty well going to have a huge impact on the way people move around. Electric pick me up trucks next?

Toyota? Honda? Are they going to replace the Diesels ? Torque?

[NCC]

That design doesn't appear to be portable. I think it would be better suited to large permanent applications such as power grids.

[greendrake]

Originally Posted by NCC

That design doesn't appear to be portable. I think it would be better suited to large permanent applications such as power grids.

The article states that it can be tailored to any size

[Map Maker]

Everything has a finite lifetime.

Pretty soon electric cars will surpass gas engines.
Just like carburators. They couldnt make them any more efficient so all the great mnds moved to fuel injection.
I hated getting rid of my carburator engine at the time, but no way i would go back.
Batteries will continue to get smaller, lighter and more efficient.

I look forward to it. Alberta has enough useable land base for solar power. We will always be an energy leader.

[EZM]

It's going to take some time to commercialise the technology and apply it to the intended applications.

Through history we are going to be developing and upgrading new technologies - this is just another step in the journey.

If it means a lower cost, reliable and cleaner source of energy that's good news.

What happens to the corporations that pedal older, more expensive and "dirtier" technology isn't going to be hard to predict.

Let's see what really happens as a result of this breakthrough. Whatever happens will happen.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Map Maker only problem with Alberta and Solar is in winter when you need most energy the sun does not get up over the snow drifts or trees to provide reliable solar power.

[dmcbride]

Would the new battery freeze?

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

I look forward to it. Alberta has enough useable land base for solar power. We will always be an energy leader.

Quick question - is it justifiable to destroy nature to set up a sea of panels that supposedly save nature?

[SlimChance]

Originally Posted by Newview01

Quick question - is it justifiable to destroy nature to set up a sea of panels that supposedly save nature?

It's a question of relative impact. There's never going to be a situation where power generation doesn't affect nature.

If the overall impact is going to be less with the sea of panels, then yes. Otherwise, no.

Solar also does have the unique potential to be placed in already developed areas - rooftops, etc. - as a means of minimizimg land use.

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by Newview01

Quick question - is it justifiable to destroy nature to set up a sea of panels that supposedly save nature?

Good point, but I think it's only a matter of time before the surface of every building, automobile, structure, etc. is actually a solar panel, gathering energy.

[Map Maker]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

Map Maker only problem with Alberta and Solar is in winter when you need most energy the sun does not get up over the snow drifts or trees to provide reliable solar power.

Summer is the most use of electricity with a/C. Alberta Heating will always be nat gas. They need the gas flowing to get feed stock.

Newview, if a farmer can rent out his land for more money for a solar array, more power to him.
How is that destructive?

We just have to stop all the government subsidies so everything goes to a natural equilibrium.

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

We just have to stop all the government subsidies so everything goes to a natural equilibrium.

So let the market decide? Get rid of all the taxes, including carbon tax, on gas and oil? Woo Hoo!

[Scott h]

Originally Posted by Newview01

Quick question - is it justifiable to destroy nature to set up a sea of panels that supposedly save nature?

Actually all the solar installations I saw in Europe were being used for grazing.

[markg]

This seems like a great step forward. I am convinced that wind and solar are not the future though. We can come up with better. There has to be some form of nuclear we can use. The energy "density" is so much higher than chemical reactions.

[The Elkster]

I'll get excited when they actually start to commercially producing said battery on any kind of scale. In the past 5 years how much progress have been made on actual commercial batteries? How many tech breakthroughs get touted in headlines when at the research stage and then crickets. If it works great but call me skeptical until its actually proven on a practical scale. Also, people have a severe lack of understanding of the scale of battery storage we need to handle the intermittency of wind and solar. Storing multiple days of electricity for a whole city is no small task. Its going to be a long long time before we see any meaningful impact from batteries smoothing intermittency.

[NCC]

As Phil Edmonston said, there are three types of liars. Liars, damn liars, and battery engineers.

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

Good point, but I think it's only a matter of time before the surface of every building, automobile, structure, etc. is actually a solar panel, gathering energy.

I am fine with that, just not taking pieces of nature and turning them into solar farms.

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by Scott h

Actually all the solar installations I saw in Europe were being used for grazing.

Interesting.

[barsik]

here is another game changer for electric vehicles
https://futurism.com/a-new-electric-...ust-6-minutes/

[260 Rem]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

Good point, but I think it's only a matter of time before the surface of every building, automobile, structure, etc. is actually a solar panel, gathering energy.

Hey Oki, take a drive over to Drake Landing right there in Okotoks and post a pic of a real life solar community. Panels on every roof. Google it up guys, has been happening for years.

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

Hey Oki, take a drive over to Drake Landing right there in Okotoks and post a pic of a real life solar community. Panels on every roof. Google it up guys, has been happening for years.

I've seen it. We all paid for it.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

Hey Oki, take a drive over to Drake Landing right there in Okotoks and post a pic of a real life solar community. Panels on every roof. Google it up guys, has been happening for years.

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

I've seen it. We all paid for it.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by markg

This seems like a great step forward. I am convinced that wind and solar are not the future though. We can come up with better. There has to be some form of nuclear we can use. The energy "density" is so much higher than chemical reactions.

Nuclear energy is already in use throughout the world and currently produces 20% of all the energy in North America which ends up being about 2/3rds of all the "clean energy" produced.

Nuclear energy's limits are "portability" - you can run smaller independent sources of energy for cars and homes with your own wind/solar array - but nuclear, due to the major infrastructure (and potential danger of "doing it wrong") will remain a source for only major infrastructure grids.

[surhuntsalot]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

Pretty soon electric cars will surpass gas engines..

If that’s true, and electric cars are the way of the future, then why didn’t I see a Prius in “Mad Max : Fury Road”?

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by surhuntsalot

If that’s true, and electric cars are the way of the future, then why didn’t I see a Prius in “Mad Max : Fury Road”?

Because the guys with the Prius' and portable solar panels weren't concerned with fuel trucks. They had it made in the shade in the apocalypse.

[ACM]

if we switched 20% of our cars to electric tomorrow that would require a 45% increase in electricity to power them. That's only 20% and at 50% we would have to double our existing generation capacity just to power the vehicles with nothing for heat cooling etc. The logistics are massive and unworkable until we get a quantum leap in ecar quality and battery capacity. If you are reading this post chances are in excess of 96% that you will be taken to your final resting place in a fossil fueled vehicle.

[Newview01]

Originally Posted by ACM

if we switched 20% of our cars to electric tomorrow that would require a 45% increase in electricity to power them. That's only 20% and at 50% we would have to double our existing generation capacity just to power the vehicles with nothing for heat cooling etc. The logistics are massive and unworkable until we get a quantum leap in ecar quality and battery capacity. If you are reading this post chances are in excess of 96% that you will be taken to your final resting place in a fossil fueled vehicle.

And where will a 100% increase in generation capacity come from? It is windy today, but won't be forever....

[260 Rem]

Steady boys, the light at the end of the tunnel is on a train (battery powered with a solar charge).

[Scott h]

Originally Posted by Newview01

And where will a 100% increase in generation capacity come from? It is windy today, but won't be forever....

Wind generation and a vastly improved electrical grid. It may not be windy in Lethbridge but it probably is in Saskatchewan or BC