Batteries

IDTechEx analysts have long warned that the leading lithium-ion battery manufacturers have been taking risks in their headlong redesigns to obtain higher energy and power density, lower cost per kWh and ironically better safety, for example from less-flammable and non-flammable electrolytes.

New Zealand leads the world in zero emission renewable grid electricity now at 85%. With a nice balance between geothermal, hydroelectric, unusually continuous wind power and some solar, the country has less intermittency of green power than most.

Battery elimination, indeed elimination of all energy storage, is moving to even higher power, from electronics to electrical engineering

Let us be more ambitious and look at elimination of all energy storage.

This article works through the issues facing the development of thermoelectric harvesting, including high power, modular thermoelectric technology and turnkey thermoelectric generators.

IDTechEx forecasts no let up in the growth of the global lithium-ion battery market even in 2027. These batteries are now steadily replacing lead acid in its last strongholds such as mobility vehicles for the disabled, fork lift trucks, golf carts and cars though there is a long way to go in each case.

Eliminating batteries is key says IDTechEx Research in the new report Battery Elimination in Electronics and Electrical Engineering 2018-2028. They have serious limitations of cost, weight, space, toxicity, flammability, explosions, energy density, power density, leakage current, reliability, maintenance and/ or life.

Redox flow batteries are an energy storage technology initially developed by NASA in the 70's for space applications. After several years of intensive R&D, in 2006, several key patents on the technology expired, opening up the arena to companies all around the world.

In 2016, Li-ion batteries celebrated their silver jubilee, i.e. they have been on the market, virtually unchanged, for the last 25 years. While this anniversary marks and underscores their worldwide success and diffusion in consumer electronics and, more recently, electric vehicles, the underlying technology begins to show its limitations in terms of safety, performance, form factor, and cost.

The South Korean giant Samsung just got itself into dire straits as the story behind the reported battery fires related to the Galaxy Note 7 unfolds even further. As of September, 92 accidents have been reported in the US alone.