Will Elon Musk Batteries render electric companies obsolete soon?

[Sonikku]

If it ever became viable enough to become a threat, it would simply be buried. Just look at the music industry. Innovation and technology had a natural flow that wanted to go one way and the industry panicked and used all their pull and connections to work the system and the government to bend everything backwards into their comfort zone. That's how things get done in the real world.

 

[DrPizza]

They won't be terrified, anything that could potentially threaten the oil industry or any big corporate energy company will vanish out of nowhere, like every other revolution that has happen in the last 100's of years. Why do you think Tesla's stuff was shelved and hidden from the public, he was way ahead of his time and they did not want his tech to be known. Same idea with people today who come up with revolutionary stuff. You see them on the news then never hear of them ever again. Who knows what the government does with/to them.

Of course there are lot of phonys out there too. As soon as it says "free energy" it's probably a phony.

A very high density storage/battery tech would revolutionize energy though, because it means you could actually rely 100% on renewable resources to keep the batteries topped up. Power plants would consist of large banks of these high density batteries and solar/wind farms to keep them topped up. Heck the battery banks could be pretty much anywhere on the grid. They would feed off the grid and provide to the grid when needed with all sorts of sources also feeding the grid. Essentially the grid would actually become a large battery.

High enough density batteries would also make it viable to use for heavy vehicles like trains and planes.

The government would quickly shut down such battery though. They'd find an excuse such as saying it's too dangerous or something. Just need to throw "the children" in there.

Tell me, tin foil hats made in Canada... are they made of aluminum? Or do you call it Aluminium? Nonetheless, there are more than one country in the world - you should be aware of at least 2. For your "the government," which government would that be? And, you honestly think that once someone dies, any idea they had would never be thought of by someone else? As knowledge advances, most novel ideas become more and more likely to be thought of, had they not be thought of at the time hey actually were. History is full of discoveries/inventions that were made independently of one another and without knowledge that someone had just done it.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

its always disheartening to see how woefully ignorant the average person is about electric power

 

[Ferzerp]

Design goals for stationary batteries and mobile batteries are not the same. A stationary battery's energy density isn't all that important. Size and weight are secondary. For mobile batteries, it is the most important thing. Sure they are somewhat complementary in research, but it is kind of like saying car inverters will kill the portable generator market!


Of course journalists aren't known for their insightful analyses so.....

 

[Ns1]

Right now everyone on the planet just needs to make enough to buy a luxury car and the environment would be just dandy if all 7 billion people lived like the top 10%.

The automobile didn't replace the buggy overnight.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The automobile didn't replace the buggy overnight.

that's kind of his point: we need drastic change to have hope of slowing if not reversing trends in climate change, and renewable energy tech like solar/wind/batteries isn't the answer

 

[Red Squirrel]

Tell me, tin foil hats made in Canada... are they made of aluminum? Or do you call it Aluminium? Nonetheless, there are more than one country in the world - you should be aware of at least 2. For your "the government," which government would that be? And, you honestly think that once someone dies, any idea they had would never be thought of by someone else? As knowledge advances, most novel ideas become more and more likely to be thought of, had they not be thought of at the time hey actually were. History is full of discoveries/inventions that were made independently of one another and without knowledge that someone had just done it.

"The government" is practically a single entity these days. They are all gangs with a common agenda and often work together for that agenda. There is something going down right now across many countries called the TPP which is an example of how they work together against the people. It's going to be ugly once that passes, and it's all happening behind closed doors. That has more to do with internet freedom than energy though, but just an example.

Any knowledge that is truly a threat to their agenda will not be allowed to be used by the public unless a company can monopolize and control it. Anything that is not that much a threat is allowed. They don't want to be obvious about it. When they do start banning things they also don't make it obvious, they'll use various regulations to make it hard or impossible. For example some HOAs don't allow solar. Some places also tax solar or allow the electric company to still bill people for a service they don't use. It's only going to get worse as alternatives become more viable.

Battery tech is not really at a threating level yet nor are electric cars. Watch "who killed the electric car?" Rather interesting documentary. At the time they were seen as a threat so they were shut down. Now electric cars are making a come back but guess the government is staying quiet about it... for now.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

This sounds a bit paranoid don't you think? What do you think the big oil or power/energy companies are going to do if some tech comes along to make their tech obsolete? Have it squashed and the inventors killed by the big govt.? It would be much safer for them just to buy it up and then charge you a premium for it. They don't want tech to vanish, they just want to own it and charge you for it, and they have the means to do that.

Companies have huge investments in infrastructure and will view any disruption as a potential instability. That intern creates a potential for failure and lower stock prices which means lower compensation for execs.

What I think you'll see is what we've already have. Acquire patents and strangle the use of it and related technologies. How's that gigabit AT&T gigabit connection? You don't have it and lawyers will do everything they can from someone else providing that service. That's happening right now.

IP will be used to delay or kill real innovation whenever possible. The only hope is when the occasional person has enough money and lawyers to fight back and win on occasion.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Arc reactor.

Na, just stick a pipe into the vacuum. Of course if it's worthwhile to extract (assuming it's possible at all) depends on which side of the "vacuum catastrophe" happens to be true. That's an interesting read on its own.

 

[Printer Bandit]

 

[disappoint]

What I think you'll see is what we've already have. Acquire patents and strangle the use of it and related technologies.

What I think you'll see is what I've already posted in the very same quote you quoted:

It would be much safer for them just to buy it up and then charge you a premium for it.

 

[Engineer]

I'll just throw this in here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/austr...r-energy-breakthrough-184749908--finance.html

40% efficiency? Really? That seems high to me. I thought solar was much lower in efficiency...much...much lower.

 

[Greenman]

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/electr...n-musk-revolutionary-batteries-221532843.html

I'm always astonished at how bad "professional" writing has become.

 

[AMCRambler]

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/electr...n-musk-revolutionary-batteries-221532843.html

They're not worried. Try and run a server farm or a manufacturing plant off batteries. It won't happen. Not too mention the number of electric powered devices keeps growing every year and your average home doesn't have enough roof real estate to charge battery banks that will last a week of no sunshine. Solar on its own even with batteries three times better than what we have now just isn't feasible.

Cost wise, natural gas is quickly becoming the fuel for the future. We have huge untapped reserves, it's clean burning they can run some big ass power plants off it that will feed the existing grid. Charging your electric car up with electricity from natural gas generators is pretty damn green. The biggest challenge is expanding the natural gas intrastate pipelines.

Elon Musk seems like a flash in the pan to me. If he does succeed in making more energy dense batteries, he might have the final nail in the internal combustion engine's coffin but home storage, it's just a band aid.

 

[Ns1]

what happens in an accident with one of these bad boys?

 

[Mark R]

40% efficiency? Really? That seems high to me. I thought solar was much lower in efficiency...much...much lower.

Multi-junction cells have been in the high 30s for quite some time, 40% has been demonstrated several times over the last few years.

Note that multi-junction PV cells are super-expensive, and work best at high intensities - around 100W/cm2, or 500x solar intensity. So this type of system is best used on concentrator systems.

Unijunction PV cells (i.e. flat panels) are typically in the 15-17% range.

 

[OverVolt]

Okay so then plants are better at capturing solar energy, got it.

To be fair they've had like, billions of years to evolve.

 

[OverVolt]

Americaaaa fuck yeaaahhh