Wood Nanobattery Could Be Green Option For Large-Scale Energy Storage

cylonlover writes "Li-ion batteries may be ok for your smartphone, but when it comes to large-scale energy storage, the priorities suddenly shift from compactness and cycling performance (at which Li-ion batteries excel) to low cost and environmental feasibility (in which Li-ion batteries still have much room for improvement). A new 'wood battery' could allow the emerging sodium-ion battery technology to fit the bill as a long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery for large-scale energy storage."

Re:thing of the past

[CanHasDIY]

FTR, use of the phrase "[object X] is/are (a) thing(s) of the past" kind of implies that the replacement technology is already here and adopted en masse...

That said, I'm not seeing a whole lot of graphene supercaps for sale on Amazon these days; hopefully soon.

Re:thing of the past

[CastrTroy]

I think that charging of batteries is mostly limited by the plug that it's connected to. Looking at cars like the Tesla, the reason they take so long to charge is because you have to hook it up to a really big power source to get all that energy in such a short period of time. You could have a capacitor that slowly charged off the mains so that when you wanted to refill your car it had all the energy needed, but there would still need to be some way to connect the two capacitors.

Re:thing of the past

[sjames]

'All' we have to do is increase their energy density by a factor of 10, get rid of leakage, and come up with a giood way to keep them from discharging all at once without exploding or degrading their performance too badly.

They may well get there one day, but not today.