The reason why the lithium battery has not been eliminated

According to foreign media reports, since the birth in 1970, the success of lithium batteries has entered everyone's life, but technology has progressed so fast,  there is no new energy storage technology to replace this position. It can not help people think. What in the world is causing difficulties among researchers?

Earlier this year, the Department of energy's agency for advanced research projects(ARPA)-E Williams, who led the headlines overnight,

Battery technology hasn't broken yet.

But a breakthrough was broken, but when to use it is unknown. In the past, ARPA-E has supported more than 75 research projects related to energy storage. They have achieved some satisfactory results, but there has been no breakthrough in the production of small, low-cost, energy storage devices.

While many start-ups are close to producing a small set of integrated energy storage devices with high economic, security and energy density, they also cut costs to $100 per kilowatt-hour. However, if the price of the energy storage device is controlled at this level, it will inevitably cause galvanizing corrosion effects(galvanizing effect, galvanizing corrosion effect refers to the same degree of local corrosion at different metal contact points due to the difference in corrosion potentials).

Why hasn't lithium power been phased out for decades?

The only renewable energy that can solve this problem is that they can make electric cars lighter and cheaper, but there is a groove point that can overcome it, that is, renewable energy only when the sun is shining or strong winds are stable.

Unfortunately, the commercialization of this new battery speed lags far behind the human shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Even with the audacity of Mr Musk, it has to be admitted that the current electric-car makers have made little progress in their efforts to improve lithium-ion batteries.

Break your mind to break through.

In fact, many researchers believe that the rapid development of energy storage devices must break through existing barriers through new chemical processes and physical appearances. Only in this way can we get rid of the original architecture and break the laws of consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and net-level storage systems of lithium ion batteries in the past decade.

In May, the Department of energy(DOE) hosted a seminar called "beyond lithium batteries", the ninth year of its existence, where researchers gather each year to discuss the technical challenges of developing new energy storage devices.

The company's founder, Solid Energy Systems Hu Qichao, created a new type of lithium battery that greatly increases the energy density of the battery and greatly exceeds existing products.

Hu Qichao also told the seminar about the development of new lithium batteries. He believes that in more than a decade of research and development, the main obstacle encountered is how to transform a concept for products. This is difficult for the battery, because once you improve one aspect of performance, it will affect the other side of performance.

Serious shortage of research and development funds

In addition, energy storage research also faces many problems: current battery technology, foam batteries, liquids, and chemical batteries all have their own loyal fans. As a result, no one knows exactly what kind of batteries will eventually become winners and winners, which causes research funding to spread.

According to data from the energy storage sector over the past eight years, luxury research from research institutions has absorbed more than $4 billion in investment, but investments rooted in start-up companies have received an average of $40 million. By contrast, Tesla, a super factory, has earned $5 billion, a gap that may not close in the short term.

Del West, a professor of materials science at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "building a complete small production line can cost $500 million, and you need to optimize all the details. In addition, if you want to get the car manufacturer's favor, even if it takes a few years to test the battery system. "There's been a $5 million investment company this year, and it's impossible to do that," he said. "The page contains the contents of the machine translation.

Even if manufacturers can eventually bring new technologies to market, they will still face problems such as expanding production and finding buyers. Leyden Energy and the A123 system were the best examples before, and despite the availability of new technologies, they failed because of insufficient funding and did not have to exceed expectations. " Two other startups, Seeo and Sakti3, also became unlucky, starting new battery production before they bought it cheaply.

Now, the world's three biggest companies, Samsung, LG and Panasonic, have also adjusted their strategies, becoming more conservative and inclined to improve existing technologies rather than revolutionizing batteries. Battery startups are also reluctant to mention that since the birth of lithium-ion batteries, even if they can't keep pace with the elderly, they will never stop evolving and start a new era and how to talk about it.

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