breaktrough in battery tech by inventor of LiIon battery

[Ilkka Nissilä]

The battery is standardized and will be replaced in 5 minutes or as fast as a refuel of gasoline.

I don't think this is realistic. A half a ton battery in a sedan, shaped like a flat sheet, taking it out would require a quite elaborate system, which I am sure that exists in factories but gas stations are not going to invest in this. And different cars have different shapes and so will be the different batteries. If you lift half-ton batteries around there will no doubt be accidents. The infrastructure required to do this e.g. while six cars are filling up at a station all in five minutes? I don't think so. What about trucks? The batteries will be much larger. Small cars cannot have large batteries because the interior volume would shrink too much.

I understand that hydrogen is inefficient in that sense but in the future probably unlimited clean electricity will be available (nuclear fusion), so in the end it would not matter so much. EVs could be used for city traffic and people who need to travel long distances by car could use fuel cells (in their EVs) at a higher cost.

As of now, because of severely limited charging infrastructure, and lack of incentives to build this infrastructure at every home, the use of EVs will continue to be exotic activity for decades to come, while the majority continue to burn diesel and gasoline and pollute like before.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Well, that depends. Political incentives can change consumer behaviour quite rapidly. In my country, electric cars and hybrids climbed quickly to more than 25% of the sales total. Charging stations are proliferating at fast pace throughout the country. The infrastructure is still not well enough developed outside the bigger cities, but the situation improves by the day so to speak.

On the more relevant (to us) issue of camera batteries, any progress to make batteries last longer and yield better is most welcome.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

I don't think this is realistic. A half a ton battery in a sedan, shaped like a flat sheet, taking it out would require a quite elaborate system, which I am sure that exists in factories but gas stations are not going to invest in this. And different cars have different shapes and so will be the different batteries. If you lift half-ton batteries around there will no doubt be accidents. The infrastructure required to do this e.g. while six cars are filling up at a station all in five minutes? I don't think so. What about trucks? The batteries will be much larger. Small cars cannot have large batteries because the interior volume would shrink too much.

There was a company doing exactly that called Better Place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place
They opened a couple of battery switching stations here in Denmark, but they went bankrupt in 2013. Tesla has also showed it and have a single station doing it, but I believe they've dropped going forward with the technology, they are betting on expanding the super charger network instead. I don't see why there should be a lot of accidents when the switch is done 100% automatically? It's basically like driving your car into a car wash.
Here's Teslas demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE81S26XG8c

I understand that hydrogen is inefficient in that sense but in the future probably unlimited clean electricity will be available (nuclear fusion), so in the end it would not matter so much. EVs could be used for city traffic and people who need to travel long distances by car could use fuel cells (in their EVs) at a higher cost.

I do agree that fuel cells might be an advantage for long distance travel and trucks, and I can see why current oil companies would love for that to happen because that's quite similar to their current business model with tank stations. However, these hydrogen tank stations are quite expensive to build and hydrogen is quite difficult to store as well and if you think lithium isn't safe, what about crashing a car with a hydrogen tank at perhaps 700 bar?

As of now, because of severely limited charging infrastructure, and lack of incentives to build this infrastructure at every home, the use of EVs will continue to be exotic activity for decades to come, while the majority continue to burn diesel and gasoline and pollute like before.

I would bet building out a charging infrastructure is way easier, cheaper and faster to do than a similar hydrogen fuel cell infrastructure. Tesla is expanding their super charger network at a pretty decent pace and the other manufacturers have started building networks as well. Furthermore, there are various other companies that have been building infrastructure for years. The EU is moving too: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/11/electric-car-charging-point-new-home-europe-renault

"Every new or refurbished house in Europe will need to be equipped with an electric vehicle recharging point, under a draft EU directive expected to come into effect by 2019."

Batteries are getting cheaper and cheaper. Tesla and others are betting big on using them for home and utility scale energy storage and they can put up new systems at amazing speed: https://electrek.co/2017/01/23/tesla-mira-loma-powerpack-station-southern-california-edison/
They installed it in 94 days: https://youtu.be/hZzjuX6j2ME

[Jan Anne]

I'm using the 18650's in my flashlights since 2012, these batteries are the cutting edge of li-ion technology as they were used in laptops for ages and can now be found in battery packs of electric cars, electric power tools, etc.

In the early days one had to choose between unsafe high capacity (3400mAh) low output battery (4-6A) often with an IC protection to make it safer or a high output low capacity 2000mAh battery using a safer chemistry (so often used without an IC protection board). Now I use unprotected high capacity batteries using safe chemistry which can output a whopping 20 Amps and they only cost 9 euros versus the 16 euros I payed 4 years ago for the same capacity.

So, while the capacity has grown very little over the recent years we do have much cheaper li-ion batteries which can safely output the high currents needed for todays applications.

With the capacity of the safe li-ion technology now on par with the old unsafe li-ion technology the next innovation will be on breaking through the theoretical limits of using lithium as the core compound in todays preferred battery chemistry. Many innovations have made in the labs around the world but so far none of them have been commercialised on a big scale, this is however just a matter of time        

[Frank Fremerey]

As of now, because of severely limited charging infrastructure, and lack of incentives to build this infrastructure at every home, the use of EVs will continue to be exotic activity for decades to come, while the majority continue to burn diesel and gasoline and pollute like before.

Of course there has to be a critical mass of cars to do this. Standardization has so much benefit to the whole industry that I guess we will see it.

Cheap and Safe New Clear Power in the form of big sealed batteries powering a block of houses for 70 years before being replaced will start to roll out in 2040. That matches the critical mass of E Cars quite well. Excess heat of industrial units can then be used in the hot sulphur process to dissolve Water into cheap Hydrogen and Oxygen.

Plug and Play Battery replacement will be like replacing your camera's battery. Elon works on a colony of man on Mars I guess he will be able to make a battery replacement.

Betterplace was simply a few decades too early.

I see a bright future and my book is about this future.

I hope it will be a future with Nikon in it!

PS: do not forget artificial Photosynthesis, making Gasoline from dsunlight in the desert! You can power all the old cars with it.

[Frank Fremerey]

With the capacity of the safe li-ion technology now on par with the old unsafe li-ion technology the next innovation will be on breaking through the theoretical limits of using lithium as the core compound in todays preferred battery chemistry. Many innovations have made in the labs around the world but so far none of them have been commercialised on a big scale, this is however just a matter of time        

For my part the big cards and the battery grips for my cameras solved the milage trouble I had with early Digital cameras.

If we see smaller units like the ones from Sony, Fuji, Panasonic and Olympus milage is still a problem in the battery sense. So for small cameras triple performace is a very good thing.

[David H. Hartman]

Ilkka, I was referring to any type of fuel batteries.  Hydrogen, alcohol or anything will do so long as it works.  Lithium is not safe at all...

Won't any battery with a very large capacity be dangerous? One can short a 9V alkaline battery and it won't explode. It will probably burst, maybe pop and it will certainly ooze. Two spent 9V alkaline batteries can be joined to form a nice hand warmer.

Dave Hartman

[Akira]

Won't any battery with a very large capacity be dangerous? One can short a 9V alkaline battery and it won't explode. It will probably burst, maybe pop and it will certainly ooze. Two spent 9V alkaline batteries can be joined to form a nice hand warmer.

A friend of mine put a bare 9V battery and a bunch of keys together in his pocket, and noticed the battery had become extremely hot.  It may not have exploded, but could cause the fire for sure...

[David H. Hartman]

A friend of mine put a bare 9V battery and a bunch of keys together in his pocket, and noticed the battery had become extremely hot.  It may not have exploded, but could cause the fire for sure...

I've absent mindedly done this. I wonder what would happen if a fully charged Nikon EN-EL3 battery found the right set of keys in one's pocket? You go first.

[Akira]

I've absent mindedly done this. I wonder what would happen if a fully charged Nikon EN-EL3 battery found the right set of keys in one's pocket? You go first.

Luckily and thankfully the designers of Li-ion batteries uses recessed contacts as opposed to the protruding ones of those dry batteries.   

[Anthony]

A friend of mine put a bare 9V battery and a bunch of keys together in his pocket, and noticed the battery had become extremely hot.  It may not have exploded, but could cause the fire for sure...

Once I had an overheating Sony Walkman, four AA batteries.  I was able to pull them out before it became too hot to handle.  They had started to melt.  The Walkman was a write-off.  I am sure that if I had not pulled out the batteries there would have been a fire.  So even these small, everyday batteries can cause a serious problem.

[David H. Hartman]

Long ago I saw a 410v battery for a Honeywell Strobonar potato masher smoldering and popping in the parking lot behind Gayson's Camera in Glendale, CA. I remember the owner running out the back door. So long ago I don't remember if the battery was in our out of the flash unit.

The Nikon EN-EL3 battery pack for the D300s does not have well protected contacts like the similar Nikon EN-EL15 battery pack for the D800. I'm sure the EN-EL3 can be shorted in a pocket with keys.

Dave

[Akira]

Even the dry cells are fairly powerful nowadays.  It is essential to avoid the shortage.