Nano wire batteries ten tmes the capicity of current battery technology.

[walker 0]

Hi all

New silicon nanowire battery technology will increase battery capacity by ten times the current models.

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v3/n1/full/nnano.2007.411.html

This is not the only improvement in battery technology that has appeared in last few month but it is one the easiest to implement and one of the largest step changes.

It will have effects on vehicles, home power generation as well as portable devices of all kinds.

Kind regards walker

[Tonci87 163]

This may be good, but I guess that those new batterys will be very expensive.

E cars are already very expensive because of the batterys they can't put in stuff that is even more expensive.

[droogs 1]

@Tonci87

They can and will. The main issue with the take up of electric cars with the public is not the cost but is their range. Although most ppl only average 200 - 300 miles per week in a car they still want the abiility to go greater distances when they want. Most of the current small to mid size family cars are capable of exceeding 500 miles on a single tank.

When you compare that to a range of 100 miles on average for electric cars, that is what puts ppl off. For instance if I wanted to go to the nearest IKEA I would have a round trip of over 350 miles, very doable in a petrol/diesel car in the same day but current electric (only) models mean I would have to arrange an overniight stay and a recharging point for the car.

Not very practical at all. So EV manufacturers will happily introduce new tech regardless of the expense in order to increase the appeal of their product.

Edited December 26, 2011 by droogs
spelling

[Tonci87 163]

@Tonci87

They can and will. The main issue with the take up of electric cars with the public is not the cost but is their range. Although most ppl only average 200 - 300 miles per week in a car they still want the abiility to go greater distances when they want. Most of the current small to mid size family cars are capable of exceeding 500 miles on a single tank.

When you compare that to a range of 100 miles on average for electric cars, that is what puts ppl off. For instance if I wanted to go to the nearest IKEA I would have a round trip of over 350 miles, very doable in a petrol/diesel car in the same day but current electric (only) models mean I would have to arrange an overniight stay and a recharging point for the car.

Not very practical at all. So EV manufacturers will happily introduce new tech regardless of the expense in order to increase the appeal of their product.

You may be wrong on that. I did some excessive research on that matter (for the college) and at least the german market clearly shows that people don´t buy theese cars because of the price. Many people would really like to have such a car because of the high fuel prices but simply can´t afford it/ don´t want to buy it because of much cheaper diesel cars.

[Flash Thunder 10]

That's very exciting mainly looking forward to improved batteries for longer laptop, tablet life, It sucks that my laptop only lasts about 2 hours on a charge.

Hope we can make some big steps in energy storage technology its been hindering us a lot.

[Dwarden 1125]

nice, but until i can buy it for same price ... it's just that ... nice

[Messiah 2]

@Tonci87

They can and will. The main issue with the take up of electric cars with the public is not the cost but is their range. Although most ppl only average 200 - 300 miles per week in a car they still want the abiility to go greater distances when they want. Most of the current small to mid size family cars are capable of exceeding 500 miles on a single tank.

When you compare that to a range of 100 miles on average for electric cars, that is what puts ppl off. For instance if I wanted to go to the nearest IKEA I would have a round trip of over 350 miles, very doable in a petrol/diesel car in the same day but current electric (only) models mean I would have to arrange an overniight stay and a recharging point for the car.

Not very practical at all. So EV manufacturers will happily introduce new tech regardless of the expense in order to increase the appeal of their product.

I think its rather the range coupled with the current 'recharge' times. If I had a traditional petrol/diesel driven vehicle that only had a 100 mile range, whilst its probably got a horrendous fuel efficiency, I know that every 30 miles I'll find a petrol station that will fill it up again in the space of a couple of minutes.

With electric vehicles, as it stands, I have to wait overnight to achieve the same thing. That's hardly very practical. Once they introduce these systems where they replace the entire battery at a 'recharge' point, it should help.

[walker 0]

Hi all

On the matter of this technologies application to vehicles. The solution is an international standard for size and shape of battery packs. This would then allow recharged battery packs to be the same from all customers to be recharged and stored at a gas station and simply dropped and raised from say a trolley jack platform for a market price. Something like the system for bottled gas. You just go to a recharge station and exchange your low charged battery for a recharged one.

In the past companies that have been the instigators of such standards have reaped vast rewards for doing so.

Kind regards walker

Edited December 27, 2011 by walker

[bestell 1]

that's definitely a thing to come: gas stations with standardized charging terminals. but the petroleum industry will try to delay it as it does with e-cars i guess.

__________________

Family Guy Online vs. Shadowrun Online

Edited September 5, 2012 by bestell

[walker 0]

Hi bestell

It is in the interest of the car companies though. At the moment the fossil fuel vehicle industry is a declining one, hence why so many car companies have gone out of business over the last 30 or so years, all the real money is in the tank. The car industry need something to revive it.

Being able to take the lucrative refueling industry from the big oil would massively improve their profitability and allow even a poorly performing car maker such as GM to reengineer them selves as the company that created the standard quick switch power pack for a bright new future. One of the key advantages will be that while the innards can change the outer shape is the thing to control. Imagine what the profits are on the patent for standardized shape of AA batteries would be.

Which ever company is first to market and rolling it out in independent recharge stations will be the one with the successfully patents, as well as the key player in the recharge market.

The secret in this industry will be to not be the Betamax but rather the VHS.

Kind regards walker

Edited January 3, 2012 by walker

[[aps]gnat 28]

Where Sea Containers were the best invention of the 20th Century, nano batteries could be the best invention of the 21st centry.

Sooooo many more things become possible when amply power is available in a small package.

Everyone talks about electric cars, but the BIG hurdle with "current" technology and the biggest (essential) user of roads ...... Trucks!

With batteries carrying 10x capacity, small electric trucks would be possible.

Big trucks ? .... not sure is thats doable with this new technology.

Unfortunately Big Oil controls many many more things than you want to believe ......

Until their control is deminished, these projects will be slow to take off.

The good news is the prices will fall, big time. Similar effect to the Chinese and other low cost producer coming into the PV cell market place ...... cost per m2 took a huge dive, globally. Unfortunately the middle men still try to keep the cream before it goes to the end user ....

[walker 0]

Hi all

As I said this is a ripe red cherry of a business; and the company that is first to market with a quick swap power pack design for cars will be the company that gets to pick that cherry and becomes the biggest in the world. As to the innards of that quick swappable pack whether it is nanowire, hydrogen fuel cell or dear old fashioned lithium fuel cell, makes no odds what so ever, it is control of the shell, that is the key to the big money.

By the way [APS]Gnat electric power works fine for large vehicles, it was piloted as a concept on buses.

It is the company that is first to market with a patented quick swap power plant design that will make the real money. Not just in the power pack shells which will be just as ubiquitous as AA batteries or, DVD Discs, or VHS cartridges, or [APS]Gnat's cargo containers but also all the attendant business in the design of recharge systems and swap mechanisms for the the recharge stations, maintenance packages; the list goes on.

As to size: about that of a car fuel tank is most appropriate, then stack multiples in a pre assembled power pack for larger vehicles. Design: say a slot in the back of the car, so that the rest of the car provides cushioning at impact and making use of the existing load bearing structure of current cars. I would expect all currently being designed cars to be made with independent drive to each wheel to make convert currention of car designs to electric engines easier, also make as much of the car drive train hot swappable as possible; so that converting existing manufacturing lines was near instantaneous. And if you go look at the sensible car companies, guess what?

The company that does this will probably be one of the Car manufacturers, Toyota, Ford, Nisan, GM, VW, Honda, or perhaps one of the new players like Tata or Kia. Perhaps a partnership of several big players. The company that gains the foothold will be licensing it to all its competitors.

We really are in the race to market for this product and that starting pistol has gone off, and some players are already running:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 3, 2012 by walker

[dremon 1]

i hope they keep their promise - i think electricity is by far a better way of conserving energy than fossile fuels - and less dirty in terms of drilling! where the energy comes from is another question.

__________________

diewelt des dan brown

Edited July 2, 2013 by dremon

[droogs 1]

@Walker

You make some pretty valid points about being first to market. With regard to Big oil , we have to remember that although petroleum and Diesel are big money earners for the oil companies they are infact almost a by product of their main purpose. That is to supply the the basic chemical components for their biggest customers - the chemical companies who produce plastics.

We do after all live in the age of plastic. The oil companies may lose out on fuel sales but would maore then make up for it in the new markets that open up with the increased use of high polymer plastics in vehicle manufacture and chassis design as the car builders try to make the strongest and lightest chassis possible to get the most from the battery technolgies that they use.

I agree that hot swap batteries are the key to successful E-cars. Of course the problem then becomes the production of electricity in a clean way. Perhaps this is where aftrica could benefit by setting up large scale PV capture sites in unpopulated areas and become exporteers of power to Europe. After the initial investment it would then be low cost power generation that is clean and the income culd be used to improve their lot

[[aps]gnat 28]

Transmitting power over long distances (ie HV power lines) is very expensive.

Now ...... if Africa (or Australia ;) ) re-charged high capacity nano batteries (not just for cars) with renewables/clean energy sources (like solar) then shipped them back to the country of origin ....... now theres a new business model !!

[b101_uk 10]

By the way [APS]Gnat electric power works fine for large vehicles, it was piloted as a concept on buses.

buses are ~8 tonnes, that is some way short of the UK 44t GTW larger vehicles, also most buses work in an urban environment thus do a limited mileage each day at relatively low speeds and thus a low power requirement, you also cannot use battery’s on bus routes that work more than 12h per day without incurring the penalty of having more buses to have some on-charge or to take buses off routes to swap them as shift changes would then have to be done at the bus depot rather than drivers riding out to the bus at shift change via other buses on their normal routes.

with urban buses in major towns and city’s given their fixed routes it would be more cost effective and "green" to use trolleybus with swinging pantograph, as then you’re NOT hauling around dead weight in the shape of battery’s meaning the busses are much lighter and cause much less road damage as well as consuming less power to get them moving, also regenerative braking is more effective as its effect enters the entire system of trolleybus’s, it also means you could have some hybrid buses equipped with both conventional diesel propulsion and over-head electric or to have smaller banks of battery’s to just enable getting a few miles between catenary’s sections then being recharged via the catenary’s.

battery’s being the main storage method in larger vehicles is a little stupid given the high power to weight ratio or range of liquid fuels vs. battery weight and range, given a large 44t truck can have 1000L (~830kg) of fuel in their tanks and do in excess of >1700 miles between fuel stops, you would need a few tonnes of battery’s just to get a fraction of that, and that’s disregarding all the other trucks you would need on the road to account for the lost masses of payload of battery’s vs. liquid fuel. ;)

[binkster 0]

I think you will see a switch to natural gas before electricity. My work truck is a normal 3/4 ton truck that runs on Natural Gas and Gasoline. Only problem is that you have to start it with Gasoline and let it warm up because the Natural Gas tank is 3500 PSI and when u go from 3500 to 0 it freezes with a cold engine.

[[aps]gnat 28]

battery’s being the main storage method in larger vehicles is a little stupid given the high power to weight ratio or range of liquid fuels vs. battery weight and range, given a large 44t truck can have 1000L (~830kg) of fuel in their tanks and do in excess of >1700 miles between fuel stops, you would need a few tonnes of battery’s just to get a fraction of that, and that’s disregarding all the other trucks you would need on the road to account for the lost masses of payload of battery’s vs. liquid fuel. ;)

Not that stupid! When diesel becomes $50 a litre, then the trucks will be off the road and trains moving freight will be very popular.

But as binkster said, Nat Gas makes more sense, until batteries (or some new technology) have a higher power/weight ratio.

It will improve, change is constant ..... vehicles carry far less fuel these days than say a similar vehicle 60 years ago. Effeciencies impove.

But youre right about Buses vs Trucks. 8 tonnes is a small load for many trucks.

Thinking about it, big hybrid electric systems (nano battery with Nat Gas engine) seems to make a lot of sense for trucks and the way many typically operate.