It seems that there is finally a wholesale shift in the energy storage world from lead-acid to the various lithium batteries, including in our tiny corner of the market - energy storage for boats and campers. Now that this shift is fully underway, I am wondering what the next great advance will be? This is of interest to our lot both in terms of energy storage for off grid camping and on a much bigger scale, energy storage for EVs.
Some of the current front runners are:
Solid State Lithium Metal Batteries these use much of the same technology as current lithium batteries, but would enable a full charge in 10-20 minutes (great for EVs) and last 10,000 cycles (great for EVs and FWCs). Seems like these are still a few years out.
Aluminium Ion Batteries also somewhat similar to lithium ion, but using aluminium instead. These can charge even faster, with a full charge in a minute or two as well as having a higher energy density and lifespan than lithium ion. Another benefit is that alumuinium is cheaper and far more abundant than lithium. These would be great for both EVs and FWCs but are still some years out.
Iron Air Batteries These are in interesting concept - the performance of these is actually lower than lithium-ion in many respects, but the ingredients (iron and oxygen) are so cheap, abundant and safe that these could be built on a massive scale for large scale energy storage. These should be in production and use in the next year or two. Not a great solution for EVs or FWCs as they are heavy and bulky but a great solution to storing solar/wind energy at a power grid scale.
What else is out there that we should be looking at? What is the next great idea for the early adopters?
