This idea. advanced by John Frazer in Forbes, is not as absurd as it may first seem. After all, oil is a store of energy we release by burning it. However, it has unpleasant side effects because it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Batteries also store energy, but they release it by using chemistry instead. Therefore, batteries may be ready to become ‘oil fields’, but not to replace them entirely yet.
Batteries May Be Ready but Technology is Lagging
Batteries are beginning to rinse carbon out of transportation. Vast amounts of dollars are pouring into research, development, and manufacture. However, batteries still have severe drawbacks because of recharging time, and storage capacity. Batteries may be ready but their applications are therefore still limited.
The battery industry is bristling with new ideas. Here, some are working with hydro-electric cells, while there, others are experimenting with solid electrolyte. In a third place someone is manufacturing batteries from graphene, and so on and so on. But we are not there yet. We need EV batteries charging in the time it takes to fill an auto gasoline tank. And with the same driving range between top ups.
From 2017 and Onward Into the Future
But the Big Event Will Be Grid Scale Batteries
For batteries to really knock oil off its perch, they need to team with renewables and light up our cities with grid storage. Then we can turn the coal-fired power stations off, and extinguish the last natural gas turbine. However, we need to be extremely confident before we do so. Batteries may be ready for smaller applications, but we don’t have a silver bullet yet
That’s because we still need to find the perfect balance between power, safety, temperature-endurance, lifespan, cost, and energy. These still tend to pull in opposite directions. Improve one, and another one deteriorates in return. Despite that, scientists still live and work in hope, while second-besting with lithium-ion technology.
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Preview Image: Still Pumping Oil in West Texas
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