Startup Promises a Revolutionary Grid Battery—zinc-air battery

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39425/?mod=chfeatured

[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Startup Promises a Revolutionary Grid Battery[/font]
[font size=4]Eos Energy Storage says its zinc-air battery can store energy to meet peak power needs for less.[/font]

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 | By Phil McKenna


[font size=1]Long life: This kilowatt-scale zinc-air battery prototype can be charged and discharged 2,700 times with no physical degradation, its maker claims.[/font]

[font size=3]Battery developer Eos Energy Storage claims to have solved key problems holding back a battery technology that could revolutionize grid energy storage. If the company is right, its zinc-air batteries will be able to store energy for half the cost of additional generation from natural gas—the method currently used to meet peak power demands.

Company officials say that current prototypes demonstrate twice the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. They claim their final product will last for 30 years in grid-scale applications with a cycle life that is orders of magnitude greater than that of lead-acid batteries, making it one of the longest-lasting battery types around. CEO Michael Oster says Eos will soon complete a $10 million round of funding from several investors.

"If they can get what they are claiming, it would be revolutionary," says Steve Minnihan, an analyst with Lux Research, who says the technology shows promise for both grid storage and electric vehicles.

Zinc-air technology has long attracted battery developers because it's safe, it's inexpensive, and it offers high energy densities. Unlike conventional batteries, in which all reactants are packaged within the battery, zinc-air cells draw in oxygen from the air to generate current. Drawing on outside air gives the batteries a higher capacity-to-volume ratio and lowers the material costs. The battery's water-based chemistry also means it isn't prone to catching fire, unlike lithium-ion batteries.

…[/font][/font]

[TheWraith]

1. Sigh. Not this nonsense again.

If I had a paycheck for every "revolutionary" development in batteries, solar cells, or the like, I could retire before I turn 30. These sorts of press releases are easy money for startup companies looking to pimp out an interesting technical idea for money. Sometimes, it even works. But rarely is it as easy or revolutionary as it's portrayed, or we would have "energy revolutions" about 50 times a year.

First off, let's assume for the sake of argument that their battery really works, it really holds what they say it can, and it can really be cycled 2,700 times. That's a LOT of assumptions, right there. But the fact remains that this is still utterly useless if, for instance, said battery costs north of $1 million dollars to make, or if it's prone to sudden malfunction, or is 5% efficient when charging, etcetera.

And that's just assuming it does what they claim, which is hard to swallow--tech companies claim breakthroughs a LOT more often than they actually happen, and claims about suddenly achieving orders of magnitude better performance than everything else on the market sounds dubious. Real refinements are usually evolutionary, not massive leaps.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. So, tell me…

How will you recognize a true breakthrough when it occurs?

[hunter]

3. Yep. If they had the answer they wouldn't need $10 million.

They'd patent the battery, they'd solidly demonstrate the battery works, and then huge manufacturing companies would be fighting for it in bidding wars that would easily surpass $10 million.

This battery is still on the lab bench, something is not right with it, and they think maybe they could make it work with more money...

People have been fussing with zinc air batteries since the days of Thomas Edison.

It's quite reasonable to be deeply skeptical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc-air_battery