10-20-2016, 01:27 AM
Faraday Future, the Chinese-backed, California-based electric-car maker, remains secretive about its plans to develop a record-breaking battery. The company announced a supply agreement with Korea’s LG Chem earlier this month, saying the collaboration would result in “in the world’s highest energy density for a production automotive battery.” The announcement is typical for Faraday -- lots of hype, but few specifics.
Faraday Future Makes More Big Claims—but Fails to Back Them Up With Any Details | Greentech Media
The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed technology that it claims is capable of increasing the storage capacity of rechargeable batteries by 50%. A spin-off company, LeydenJar Technologies, has been formed to commercialise the invention. The technology replaces the conventional graphite anode (of a lithium-ion cell) with a pure silicon anode, increasing the storage capacity of this component of the lithium-ion battery by a factor of ten and the storage capacity of the whole battery up to 50%. However, the problem with silicon is that it expands when the battery is charged and that component increases in size three-fold, which can make silicon layers brittle and cause the battery material to fall apart. ECN applies the silicon in columns onto copper foil using a plasma-based nanotechnology, thus creating enough space for expansion and allowing the battery to remain stable. The layer ultimately needs to be 10 microns thick for commercial application, which is ten times thinner than a sheet of paper.
Research spin-out claims 50% increase in Li-ion battery storage | Electronics EETimes
But, as first reported by Bloomberg, Fisker is back and working on an electric car under the newly minted Fisker Inc. that will be revealed in 2017. Fisker is currently producing his supercar, the Force 1, though VLF automotive. He is best known as the automotive designer behind iconic cars like the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB9. Fisker has promised his new electric car will have a range exceeding 400 miles — which would be huge, considering the longest range currently belongs to the high-end version of the Model S, which gets 315 miles on a single charge. We took a closer look at the battery tech Fisker is promising to use, which he refers to as "the major leap, the next big step."
Henrik Fisker is using revolutionary battery tech for electric car - Business Insider
As electric cars continue to improve, so do the efficiencies — or the ability to input a unit of energy and to realize more output. In fact, traditional cars running on an internal combustion engine have a 30 percent efficiency. The rest is lost to heat, sound and energy. Just refining a gallon of gasoline takes 7 kilowatts-hours per gallon, says Thor Hinckley, a electric vehicle and renewable energy expert with CLEAResult, a consulting specializing in energy efficiency. But vehicles that run on electricity have an 80 percent efficiency rate, or they convert 80 percent of those Btus to energy, he explains. The efficiencies are greater because of the superiority of the electric motor over that of the internal combustion engine — not because one unit of energy is better than another.
What's Driving The Move To Electric Vehicles?
Moreover, Bloomberg New Energy Finance is predicting that electric cars will be just as cost effective as traditional vehicles by 2022. The firm’s analysis assumes the price per barrel of oil is between $50-$70 a barrel. By 2040, it expects electric vehicles to make up 35 percent of the transportation market. According to the Energy Information Administration, electric vehicles are now 1.6 percent of the overall car market. But that could increase in 2025 to 6 percent. “If we think forward, the discussion moves to the price per mile,” says Hinckley. “The studies I’ve seen show that the price per mile is 30-50 percent less for an electric vehicle. This assumes the cars cost roughly the same amount of money.”
What's Driving The Move To Electric Vehicles?
Siemens believes a recently launched thermal storage concept for wind power could deliver energy at significantly below €0.10 per kilowatt-hour (USD $111 per megawatt-hour). The cost would be for large-scale deployment of what Siemens is calling its "Future Energy Solution" (FES) and would depend on the exact nature of the storage application or applications involved, Till Barmeier, Siemens project manager, told GTM. If achievable, the cost would beat U.S. gas peaker levelized energy costs of between $165 and $218 per megawatt-hour, as calculated by Lazard last year. It would also outdo other forms of storage analyzed by Lazard, including pumped hydro, with a lower limit of $188 per megawatt-hour.
Siemens Tests Breakthrough Thermal Storage System for Wind | Greentech Media