You can go and buy sodium batteries already. They're not competitive with Lithium ion batteries in many mobile applications, but very much competitive for everything where price is more important than size or weight.

Lithium has decades of research and industrial scaling behind it, it's hard to break into that. But especially sodium is on a pretty good path to replace it in large scale storage applications.

[–] fart_pickle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sodium-ion batteries have been in development since 1970s and the lithium-ion batteries have been in development since 1960s. Not much of a difference.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 40 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's not just the amount of time. The portable electronics market and the electric car market both settled on lithium batteries, which created a huge demand for that particular technology. Over the past 2 decades there has been a massive incentive to develop smaller, denser lithium batteries.

There may be interest in developing other battery technologies, but nothing like the amount of money and effort being spent on lithium batteries.

[–] turmacar@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And before that there were several decades of massive incentive to develop smaller more powerful ICE engines.

Lithium probably has some room to grow, but it also has a lot of problems like volatility and materials sourcing. EV manufacturers have been searching for ways to make better/cheaper/denser batteries, not better/cheaper/denser lithium batteries. They've been actively searching for alternatives.

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[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 51 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I've been reading about battery breakthroughs for decades. And I remember when the latest in battery tech was alkaline, then Ni-Cd, then Li-Ion, and now LiPo. All of those have ended up in consumer products.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Also, the battery pack for a cell phone 30 years ago was about the same volume and weight of an entire smartphone, with a capacity of about 500 mAh. They are also far cheaper if you account for inflation.

Batteries have improved incapacity by about a factor of 10 and the cost per watt-hour has reduced by about 99% in the last 30 year. All without a single advancement in the technology, apparently.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I wouldn't call it a single advancement but hundreds. The materials might be largely the same but manufacturing is huge. When you roll up some metal to make a battery then increasing the number of layers is a huge challange when they're already tiny.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

All without a single advancement in the technology, apparently.

What do you mean by that?

I would say there have been a great many advancements in technology. I mean, that's what all these improvements are, right?

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

It was sarcasm, which seems to be harder to convey in text than any number of battery advancements.

[–] Spur4383@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You skipped Ni-MH there, that was major for not having the memory problems of Ni-Cd. We still use those in AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.

[–] FreeLikeGNU@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ni-MH production for EVs was effectively shutdown by Texaco and later Chevron through patent acquisitions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Holy shit. I had no idea.

Chevron is pretty fucking evil for a lot of reasons, but we’ll add this one to the pile, I guess.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 2 points 2 months ago

totally TIL worthy

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Ni-MH ~~is~~ was also in a lot of hybrid cars.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Are they still making NiMH hybrid packs?

Lithium is far superior

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago

I don't know in general. I was recently shopping for a UX 250h and I know they only just switched to lithium for the 2025 model with the nx name change.

Toyota switched the camry hybrid from NiMH to lithium for the 2020 model year.

In my head I meant hybrid cars on the road, not necessarily in new production.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

A little pedantic note, LiPo is still a type of Li-Ion (maybe I got that right)

and the bigger recent breakthrough was LFP (Lithium iron phosphate / LiFePO4)

And probably safe to call Sodium-Ion and solid state the next big phases of development

[–] ammonium@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

LFP is actually a relatively old battery technology, it's only now that the patent is expired that it's starting to breakthrough (outside of China, they somehow got a license if I understand it correctly).

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[–] nobleshift@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

LifePo4 batteries aren't Star Trek levels of advancement, but they sure have changed my life and those of a lot of people I know.

But I do get your drift. It seems like everyday there's some new breakthrough, and all we see of it is unnecessary AI.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The same thing happened with a lot of awesome things you're using right now. But I understand your impatience.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It takes around a decade to scale up a process. You’d be shocked at how long it takes to discover something, get investment, file patents, acquire licenses, construct facilities, manufacture the product, and sell to customers. And that’s what it takes to get to just the starting line of being in business.

[–] cymbal_king@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

QuantumScape is currently building the mass production line for a solid state battery and has been sending prototypes out to their auto manufacturer clients for testing.

This Undecided with Matt Ferrell video has a good breakdown.

Disclosure: I own 100 shares of QS

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[–] Vertelleus@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 months ago

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This seems like a pretty big deal, right?

[–] P1r4nha@feddit.de 33 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Indeed, the fact that they filed a patent is also an indicator that this is not purely an experiment, but a tangible way forward. Let's hope this can scale up quickly.

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago

it's not just another article about a new revolutionary discovery because that's the only way to have funds?

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 months ago

Eh, the patent office hasn't had standards for practically for like a century, just that you describe a novel method

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

There's a pile of battery patents that are all game-changing but when a company decides to make a dedicated factory that's when you know shit is going down.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yup. Studies on sodium batteries has been going on for years. If they finally achieve good enough state this is big since lithium is limited and expensive while sodium is everywhere. However sodium batteries will never be effective as lithium batteries because of the atom size. Lithium is much smaller than sodium.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Well we are in dire need of grid size storage so this is excellent then.

[–] BehindTheBarrier@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

True, but this is solid state so it may be higher density than current Lithium based batteries. But it might not beat a hypothetical lithium solid state battery. On the other hand, sodium batteries today beat out lithium in many other ways than capacity, and if those things are true for solid state then as long as there is a big enough jump in capacity due to the solid state transition then I think sodium is going to be the go-to for most uses in the future.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Don't actually know about density differences but I'm quite positive that sodium batteries will be used in many sectors because it will be much cheaper. Probably not on cars, maybe not on phones as well. It will be enough for all other small appliances I think.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Wait... did they do all three?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

“Global action requires working together to access critically important materials,” Meng said.

So... nope.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Huh ?

What information are you trying to convey by quoting that sentence from the article?

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[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

But the materials are more easily accessible for sodium. It's just supposed to have less capacity by volume.

Edit: that portion of the article you mentioned is talking about lithium ion

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[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

there should be 4th bubble "easy"

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

that's what fast is for.

[–] brlemworld@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Probably not fast. You would have to setup tooling and manufacturing and supply chain. That takes years.

[–] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ah, these are the aluminum dust under pressure solid state batteries. I wonder how much pressure.

[–] turmacar@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It does say "during assembly [...] to form a solid current collector while maintaining a liquid-like contact with the electrolyte".

After it's made it could be not under pressure at all.

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[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They have the pressure of reversing climate change so very high pressure

[–] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

The decarbonization of our power grid will thankfully not be up to a single technology, but a multitude which are all seeing development simultaneously. Solar is reaching for better efficiency and less harmful creation, batteries of all shapes, sizes, and concepts are popping up from everywhere. It feels more like a race now than a slow decline into uninhabitability.

[–] vin@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 2 months ago

Any way to read the paper published without subscribing to nature?

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Shirley Meng's showing off her lemon jacket and big watch drip. Power on.

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