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More on EEStor/Zenn
August 05, 2008
EEStor Claims Battery Energy Density Breakthrough
Venture capital start-up EEStor claims their battery outperforms lithium-based batteries.
EEStor claims that its system, called an electrical energy storage unit (EESU), will have more than three times the energy density of the top lithium-ion batteries today. The company also says that the solid-state device will be safer and longer lasting, and will have the ability to recharge in less than five minutes. Toronto-based ZENN Motor, an EEStor investor and customer, says that it’s developing an EESU-powered car with a top speed of 80 miles per hour and a 250-mile range. It hopes to launch the vehicle, which the company says will be inexpensive, in the fall of 2009.
But skepticism in the research community is high. At the EESU’s core is a ceramic material consisting of a barium titanate powder that is coated with aluminum oxide and a type of glass material. At a materials-research conference earlier this year in San Francisco, it was asked whether such an energy-storage device was possible. “The response was not very positive,” said one engineering professor who attended the conference.
Click through to read the details on what they claim and why some academics are skeptical. If they succeed and can hit low enough price points then electric cars become quite viable. Plus, wind and solar will become more viable as baseload power sources. We are in a race between the depletion of oil fields and the development of substitute technologies. Battery technologies play a very important part in that race.
By Randall Parker at 2008 August 05 12:06 AM Energy Batteries | TrackBack
And then this from MIT Technology.
Tags: peak oil energy investments
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Simon // Aug 5, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Wow this is so exciting. I absolutely believe that it is possible for a new era to dawn.
One that presents problems the inverse of which we have today. Energy may be so cheap and so clean that growth may be almost unhindered.
Mother nature is truly generous we just need to find the keys to unlock the store.
2 Rich Rosenthal // Aug 6, 2008 at 7:44 am
Energy may be so cheap and so clean that growth may be almost unhindered.
Mother nature is truly generous we just need to find the keys to unlock the store.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
take what you need and leave the rest behind. The thought of “unlimited growth” while attractive in a ledger, is cancer in the real world.
3 etienne // Aug 6, 2008 at 9:52 am
there is no such thing as unlimitted growth on a limited world.
Population growth will, one day, have to stop. How this “stop” will be is the question. An “uber” birth control system where everyone is sterilized at birth ? Or a “starvation” control ? Or simply a civilization collapse then a “re-growth”.
4 paultaut // Aug 6, 2008 at 9:48 pm
How about the growing area around the Polar Caps as global warming increases land availability.
5 jimb // Aug 7, 2008 at 8:26 am
That’s four posts in one month. Congrats Jim, you’re officially a member of the EEStor hype machine.
Wh/L isn’t really a problem with li-ion, and even Wh/kg is at acceptable levels for PHEVs. The real bottleneck is $/kWh.
Here we have a claim by EEStor of 3x li-ion’s Wh/L, which while nice, isn’t really something to care about. The real questions are can they beat li-ion in Wh/kg and $/kWh. The only time I can find that EEStor ever even published hypothetical numbers was in 2004 when they were seeking funding.
6 paultaut // Aug 10, 2008 at 12:50 am
How about ALTI’s battery pack?
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