Startup Claims Solid State Battery Breakthrough

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AlphaAtlas

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Colorado startup Solid Power claims to have made a breakthrough in solid state lithium ion battery technology. Unlike a conventional lithium ion battery, which uses a "volatile, flammable, and corrosive liquid electrolyte," solid state batteries use a solid electrolyte. Solid Power claims their batteries will have a "2-3X higher" energy capacity than conventional lithium ion technology, while being safer and cheaper due to manufacturing simplifications and less of a need for expensive safety and cooling equipment. The startup already has funding from major industry players like BWM, Hyundai and Samsung, and claims their factory will be fully operational in 2019.

"We are at the center of the 'electrification of everything' with ASSB technology emerging as the clear leader in 'post lithium-ion' technologies. Solid-state batteries are a game changer for EV, electronics, defense, and medical device markets, and Solid Power's technology is poised to revolutionize the industry with a competitive product paying special attention to safety, performance, and cost."
 
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I will give exactly 0 fucks about these battery advances until they get to the mass production stage. Research is cool and all but if it doesn't make to to the consumer market, it really doesn't matter much.
 
Why do these things always seem to happen away from any capacity to produce? If I heard an existing battery manufacturer had made a break thru and the new product would be available next quarter, cool!

But instead it's always a R&D lab or some start up. I think these claims come when they need more money for hookers and blow.
 
Accursed said:
Why do these things always seem to happen away from any capacity to produce? If I heard an existing battery manufacturer had made a break thru and the new product would be available next quarter, cool!

But instead it's always a R&D lab or some start up. I think these claims come when they need more money for hookers and blow.
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The problem is that these breakthroughs often have new manufacturing techniques which drive up costs. The easiest way to solve this problem is direct government subsidies in the short term to cover those manufacturing costs until economies of scale take over. Wind/Solar subsidies are a good example of this and how it works over the long term.
 
I think it'll happen because of the pressure from the auto manufacturers... well.. at least it'll happen for vehicles anyway. If Solid Power fails, someone else will give it a go (eventually)
 
People are going to throw crazy money at these startups because one day,...one of them will hit it out of the park and be worth billions overnight.

Until then, what the heck is a few million lost here and there?

People/Companies wth money are really odd that way.
 
I have perfected an engine that runs forever on 1 gallon of gas. Please give me trillions so that we can get this to the public. I promise this isn't a scam.
 
Nary a month goes by that does not have battery "breakthrough" article.

If one believed them batteries would be self charging, environmentally friendly and cook you breakfast in bed.
 
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Colorado startup Solid Power claims to have made a breakthrough in solid state lithium ion battery technology. Unlike a conventional lithium ion battery, which uses a "volatile, flammable, and corrosive liquid electrolyte," solid state batteries use a solid electrolyte. Solid Power claims their batteries will have a "2-3X higher" energy capacity than conventional lithium ion technology, while being safer and cheaper due to manufacturing simplifications and less of a need for expensive safety and cooling equipment.
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801jWS4.jpg
 
Even if true we all know phone mfgs will blow it all on 8k screens and other crap that won't make a difference instead of doubling battery life.
 
Developing batteries in the 21st century is like developing rockets and airplanes in the 20th century. It's that big of a deal.

Batteries for everything.

Mobile devices? Sure, room for improvement.
Vehicles? 200-500 mile range is good. 600-1000 mile range is better!
Grid? This will be the biggest room for growth, bar none.

Grid will also be the thing which has the most other stuff waiting for it. All the 'well the sun only shines and wind only blow sometimes' crowd can finally shut up.
 
joobjoob said:
People I trust less than even used car salesmen:

*drug addicts
*street walkers
*cable news
*tech startups
*tech monopolies
*men that pee sitting down
Click to expand...

Men who pee sitting down don’t have the balls to lie to you.
 
At least with these folks, we will have our answer to BS or not in about a year given their fully operational factory target date of 2019.
 
It'll be great if it's real. Also, the 2-3x better capacity than traditional LiOn batteries is more believable than some of the other promises out there.... Graphenano....

Time will tell.
 
“My top advice really for anyone who says they’ve got some breakthrough battery technology is please send us a sample cell, okay. Don’t send us PowerPoint, okay, just send us one cell that works with all appropriate caveats, that would be great. That sorts out the nonsense and the claims that aren’t actually true.” Elon Musk
 
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Accursed said:
Why do these things always seem to happen away from any capacity to produce? If I heard an existing battery manufacturer had made a break thru and the new product would be available next quarter, cool!

But instead it's always a R&D lab or some start up. I think these claims come when they need more money for hookers and blow.
Click to expand...

These PR blurbs never live up to the hype, it's marketing to attract buyers/investors/talent in a very crowded field.

Batteries have actually been slowly improving over the years from the accumulation of RnD.
 
NeoNemesis said:
It'll be great if it's real. Also, the 2-3x better capacity than traditional LiOn batteries is more believable than some of the other promises out there.... Graphenano....

Time will tell.
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If they said 20%..then fine. That is a HUGE step in all reality. But 2-3x is like saying we have found the key to understanding women.
 
Trepidati0n said:
If they said 20%..then fine. That is a HUGE step in all reality. But 2-3x is like saying we have found the key to understanding women.
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Compared to some of the claims being made by people surrounding graphene batteries, it's not that bad.
 
Trepidati0n said:
If they said 20%..then fine. That is a HUGE step in all reality. But 2-3x is like saying we have found the key to understanding women.
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Did they say what this "2-3x capacity" is per? Is it joules per gram? joules per milliliter? joule per mole of lithium? joules per $$$?
Just shows how incompetent much tech journalism is when they leave off an important qualifiers like "capacity per X."
 
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Trepidati0n said:
If they said 20%..then fine. That is a HUGE step in all reality. But 2-3x is like saying we have found the key to understanding women.
Click to expand...
I dunno, they say 2-3x more capacity, in what way? Energy density by mass? Energy density by volume? Not too hard to believe one of those could be true if you change one of the major volume/weight components to a different phase state (or use a different component).

Just remember the difference between lead-acid and LiIon batteries... is about a 4-5x energy difference increase.

That said, yeah... lets sit back and see an actual battery in the wild before making the bold claims, but I can understand why they do it, it's not the video game industry where you make empty promises and then can't delivery after everyone paid their money, here they need to get money in order to delivery on their empty promises! :D
 
[In an Irish accent] "I'll believe ya when me sh$t turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet."
 
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This solid state battery sounds like we'll actually see production since they claim to be building the plant and are getting investment from a wide number of companies to build out the production plant with a set date.

Whether it will pan out in the next decade of course remains to be seen. If they could get the safety / durability workable within reasonable cost it will probably sell in at least some markets.
 
Any bets as to which big oil company will buy them out and bury this tech for the foreseeable future?
 
We better lock this thread before a war starts over Urinary-Altitude-Calibration-Identity-Politics.
 
Solid state you say. They just need to make batteries that can be smashed in and chunks taken out, while the remaining chunks still work without leaks or fire. That would be solid-state.
 
Tweak42 said:
This solid state battery sounds like we'll actually see production since they claim to be building the plant and are getting investment from a wide number of companies to build out the production plant with a set date.

Whether it will pan out in the next decade of course remains to be seen. If they could get the safety / durability workable within reasonable cost it will probably sell in at least some markets.
Click to expand...

I agree, this one seems more promising.

Someone I know asked me a few days ago about another solid-state battery company. Apparently they're talking to them and were told the products would launch soon but were 6months behind. I showed him my note from 2016 where they had said the same thing. "Yeah, they're more like 18 months behind."

Vaporware is commonplace with this tech. Given the backers of the one in the article, it may be more promising as those are the companies I'd expect to back something like this.

greenman said:
Solid state you say. They just need to make batteries that can be smashed in and chunks taken out, while the remaining chunks still work without leaks or fire. That would be solid-state.
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They have that. I can't remember if it was this particular company or another, but there's a startup playing with replacing the medium in the cell with a special plastic. It allows the battery to pierced, cut, sliced, and diced. It still works .. although at reduced capacity.
 
I've seen so many news stories about battery technology breakthroughs and so few new actual battery technologies on the market that at this point I mostly take these news stories with a truckload of salt.
 
joobjoob said:
People I trust less than even used car salesmen:

*drug addicts
*street walkers
*cable news
*tech startups
*tech monopolies
*men that pee sitting down
Click to expand...
Ill take the drug addict over the start up. Ive actually seen some of those that are mostly honest. Depends if they function well enough to support the habit.
 
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