Latest sodium ion battery developments

[nzoomed]

Sodium ion batteries are getting better and more companies building them.
Will be a good option for home energy storage very soon once the cost comes down.

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All manner of minerals are being lined up as the next new battery chemistry. Just a matter of time, and research investment, before a viable competitor to Lithium crosses the line.

[nzoomed]

I think that overall Lithium still comes up on top, but there are other types of chemistry that have higher density but poor performance or number of cycles.
CATL have a hybrid battery that is supposed to perform as good as Lithium with the added benefits of sodium.
Already we are seeing rapid improvements in energy density with each generation with lithium iron phosphate, and will likely get to the point it can be used in our laptops and phones too and cobalt will get phased out.
I think AI modeling is also helping in the field of chemistry too nowadays.

[harm_less]

Even between different Li-Ion based batteries there are significant pros and cons in terms of energy density, cost, safety, durability, etc. It's all about trade offs and what compromises sit best for their intended use model.

[nzoomed]

Yes that's right, that's why we see chemistry that favors energy density in our mobile devices over longevity.
I'm noticing that battery life has improved in more recent models, but I put most of that down to the battery management on the phones rather than the battery itself.

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Some great commentary from this panel on battery tech advances

[nzoomed]

Yes ive been following him, for a bit now.
Looks like BYD and especially CATL have introduced some batteries that can charge in as little as 5 mins.
Biggest issue i see going forward is now delivering such high amounts of energy on the power grid to charge such a car.
The power grid will need to have some massive upgrades, especially around substations and transformers etc to handle these heavy loads.
I think we will likely see a separate lot of power distribution among the main centres dedicated to distributing power solely for fast chargers.

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The whole electricity network is inceasingly not fit for purpose. No only the supply demands being placed on it by electrification of so much of our daily usage, and not only EV charging. The push for induction cooking over gas, heat pumps over other heating systems and ever growing home appliance s (e.g. plasma TVs, communications centres).

From the other direction there is the growing number of household PV installations. The grid infrastructure that they're connected to was designed and built to have electricity introduced from one end and consumed by customers along their length but as those connected are now feeding current into that same infrastructure (essentially back feeding the grid) it places demands on that infrastructure that is was never intended to cope with. That is to a large extent what the current rollout of lines company charge rises.

The genretailers and lines companies now find themselves between a rock and a hard place as solar component prices reduce in price and the economics of distributed generation work in the customers favour. If the grid charges (both per kWh and daily fixed) rise too far it becomes increasingly viable for those with solar generation and battery storage to go off grid and cut tied with the national grid altogether. The immenent introduction of V2G technology where EVs can fill the roll of home supply from their battery will further accelerate the transition towards electricity independence.