Everyday we see in the newsfeed a new formula for the battery of the future. Some time ago there was graphene, today it is sodium, and tomorrow it will be molten salt. But the reality is, that besides those breaking news, rarely these solutions are feasible at scale, and none of them translate their advertised lab results into a real-life achievement. And the ones that do, like the solid-state battery, have a real improvement of 30% and not the 300% as initially published. This is already quite an achievement due to the brick wall the industry faced after the implementation of Li-ion chemistry.
Today solid-state batteries are the new kid on the block, but the industry has already turned its back on it. The new holy grail? Sustainable cheap batteries, with a smaller carbon footprint, are less dependent on rare materials, and that could be easier to produce than the existing solutions. Sodium seems to be the element that everyone is investigating (others could appear). For now, Graphene seems to be a no-no due to its limitation of production at scale.
What is the problem? is that these new batteries could bring savings of 35-38% at their peak production. And they are very far from the 20% yearly price decrease needed to have a sustainable industry. Either way, the car industry welcomes this progress, and the home industry, well, it seems that we will have to wait a bit longer for the next big thing.
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