Category Archives: Batteries

Utility Scale Energy Storage Batteries limited by both materials and energy

Posted on January 13, 2015 by

Stanford study quantifies energetic costs of grid-scale energy storage over time; current batteries the worst performers; the need to improve cycle life by 3-10x 10 March 2013. GreenCarCongress.com A plot of ESOI for 7 potential grid-scale energy storage technologies. Credit: … Continue reading →

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What is the life span of a vehicle Lithium-ion Battery?

Posted on January 1, 2015 by

How long a lithium-ion battery will last depends on many factors Lithium-ion battery life is defined in studies as beyond its useful life when its capacity falls by 20 percent or more. Lithium-ion batteries start to degrade as soon as … Continue reading →

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EPA LCA study lithium-ion battery environmental impact, energy used, recycling issues

Posted on January 1, 2015 by

The future of both electric vehicles and utility-scale energy storage are depending on lithium-ion batteries because of their high energy-density (which is not important for energy storage, and there aren’t enough lithium reserves for even 4 hours of global electricity … Continue reading →

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Roger Andrews: California public utilities vote no on energy storage

Posted on November 6, 2014 by

[My comment: Without energy storage, wind, solar, and other electricity generating alternative resources can’t continue to be added to the electric grid, because they make the grid too unstable and prone to blackouts (which can damage the electric grid). To … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electric Grid, Electric Grid, Electricity | 9 Comments

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Posted on August 29, 2014 by

Who Killed the Electric Car?  by Alice Friedemann August 29, 2014  www.energyskeptic.com The battery did it.  Batteries are far too expensive for the average consumer, $600-1700 per kwh (Service). And they aren’t likely to get better any time soon. “The … Continue reading →

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Revolutionary understanding of phsics needed to improve batteries – don’t hold your breath

Posted on August 19, 2014 by

What this Department of Energy document shows is that we can’t make the necessary REVOLUTIONARY breakthroughs to electrify cars until we understand the physics of batteries, and points out that “battery technology has not changed substantially in nearly 200 years.” … Continue reading →

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American Physical Society: has the Battery Bubble Burst?

Posted on July 15, 2014 by

Aug/Sep 2012. Has the Battery Bubble Burst? Fred Schlachter. American Physical Society. APS News Vol 21, number 8. Phys.org Three years ago at a symposium on lithium-air batteries at IBM Almaden there was great optimism. The symposium “Scalable Energy Storage: … Continue reading →

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Electric Grid Energy Storage

Posted on April 30, 2014 by

Storing electricity Electricity can’t be stored. It has to be converted to something else.   Nearly all of the electric grid storage (95%) comes from pumping water up to a reservoir so the water can fall again and generate electricity. But … Continue reading →

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Batteries are made of rare, declining, and imported minerals

Posted on September 10, 2013 by

Batteries use many rare, declining, single-source country, and expensive metals.  They consume more energy over their life cycle, from extraction to discharging stored energy, than they deliver.  Batteries are an energy sink with negative EROI, which makes wind, solar, and … Continue reading →

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Renewable Energy can’t supply more than 30% of electricity without revolutionary battery breakthrough

Posted on April 13, 2013 by

Wind and solar are too intermittent to comprise much of electric grid power now, according to Steven Chu, former US energy secretary.  In 2010, Chu said, “Without technological breakthroughs in efficient, large-scale energy storage, it will be difficult to rely … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries | 1 Comment