Indeed. Some types of lithium batteries actually seem to be getting MORE expensive. Look at brand name 18650 cells, for instance. I think there is a supply/demand issue with raw materials, maybe. OTOH the salvage market is starting to look interesting. I love my $85 Sams Club 220ah golf cart batteries, but I might be taking a hard look at a couple of Tesla packs as more become available for cheap enough to compete with what I am using now. As for new prismatic LiFeP04s, I have stopped holding my breath waiting for the price to drop. I honestly don't think the price is ever going to go down all that much. Certainly not by half or more, which is what it would take to put them on an equal economic footing with flooded cell lead acid batteries.
A lot of modern technology has gotten exponentially cheaper. Computers, for instance. However, the raw material bill for say an IBM PS2 is not much less than for a new I8 powered desktop screamer... only the engineering has had to improve to give us a computer that is literally millions of times more capable for 2/3 the price. Battery prices currently are more dependant on raw materials. There is not much you can do to make a battery cheaper through miniaturization or improved assembly technology.
I think maybe the answer will be a completely new battery chemistry using cheaper and more abundant materials, or maybe revisiting an older discarded technology such as Nickel/Iron. Or possibly capacitors, for short term storage situations where there is daily charging from solar panels. I could be wrong, but the more I think about it, the less hope I have that LiFeP04s are going to save the day. Ever.
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (3) |
No comments:
Post a Comment