

Better Lithium-Ion batteries are on the way from Berkeley Lab - grannyg00se
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/09/23/better-li-ion-batteries/

======
ChuckMcM
"on the way" as in "we're looking into it" versus "we've spun out a company to
manufacture these."

Basically they are attacking one of the current problems with LIon batteries
which is degredation in the anode over time across recharge cycles causes them
to lose capacity. The current 'best practice' anode is graphite which works
well but limits the charge it can hold. Their polymer in the lab is 10x better
at holding charge. They give some analysis of why its durability should be
good too. If so, and we can get batteries made with this polymer ion they
would have 10x the capacity of current batteries.

That is all great except reduction into something manufacturable and
repeatable is like a 3 year process so 2015 you might see them.

------
tambourine_man
But do we have enough lithium in the world to power all batteries of all cars?

<http://www.google.com/search?q=lithium+availability>

~~~
fletchowns
There was a guest on Fresh Air that was talking about this recently:

 _DAVIES: Now that there's more interest in electric cars, is there a concern
that, you know, the known lithium deposits will be inadequate for our needs in
the future?

Mr. FLETCHER: Not anytime soon. I - these things are hard to forecast 100
years out, of course, because nobody knows what's going to happen. But when I
was at the Annual Lithium Supply and Markets Conference last January, an
analyst got up and basically told all the miners in the audience that there
was going to be such an enormous oversupply in the last half of this decade
that only the strongest were going to survive. There are a lot of people
getting into the lithium mining business right now, but there seems to be more
than enough to go around. And so I haven't seen anybody express concern about
lithium supplies for any foreseeable reasonable number of these cars, you
know, in batteries.

Of course, I'll just point out a misperception. A lot of people speak of
lithium as if its oil. They talk about Bolivia or Chile being the Saudi Arabia
of lithium. But you don't burn lithium. Lithium is a metal used to make a
device that stores energy that's produced by other means. So it can be
recycled. The batteries can be reused. There is plenty to go around for quite
some time._

[http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/136856479/leading-the-
charge-t...](http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/136856479/leading-the-charge-to-
make-better-electric-cars)

------
StavrosK
Did the article say how much better these are than the current generation? A
quick skim didn't show anything.

~~~
ars
It said it stores 10 times as much lithium. I don't know how that would
translate into energy storage.

But even if the only improvement is longer lifespan that would still be huge.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh, definitely. I'm not asking for anything more, really, just the thought of
my mobile lasting maybe 10 days is very exciting.

~~~
ars
Just watch them use 10 times as much energy and put you right back where you
started.

------
jdale27
Berkeley.

------
BadassFractal
What about disposal?

~~~
ars
What about it?

