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Group Demonstrates 3,000 Km Electric Car Battery
Jabrwock (985861) writes 'One of the biggest limitations on lithium battery-powered electric cars has been their range. Last year Israeli-based Phinergy introduced an "aluminum-air" battery. Today, partnering with Alcoa Canada, they announced a demo of the battery, which is charged up at Alcoa's aluminum smelter in Quebec. The plant uses hydro-electric power to charge up the battery, which would then need a tap-water refill every few months, and a swap (ideally at a local dealership) every 3,000km, since it cannot be recharged as simply as Lithium. The battery is meant to boost the range of standard electric cars, which would still use the Lithium batteries for short-range trips. The battery would add about 100 kg to an existing Tesla car's battery weight.'
That may all be true, but it doesn't mean this technology is the right answer. If there are other approaches that cost less and are appropriately functional, then they will be adapted for the purpose. A simple gas generator or other batteries on a trailer, for instance. Without a proper comparison, we just don't know.
Cost and efficiency matter when evaluating solutions to given problems, even if it is marginal to the overall cost, and, yes, they are often a trade off with functionality.
I have this idea or dream of turning excess renewable power that a utility won't take or won't pay for, such as wind or solar, into aluminum, instead of dumping it to heat coil, nut Da Man is careful to cock block me every move I make, including tearing down my house and harassing me with grass cutting fees, it's like I'm some sort of experiment to see how can you raise a family on minimum wage and not be bankrupt, and the answer is that you can't, you can take care of yourself on minimum wage as long as you can find roommates you can trust (good luck with that) as housing is by far the biggest cost item on the list, but you can't take care of, say, 5 people, unless you're hispanic living in a basement rented at 200 bux per month and 20 people secretly living there. Then minimum wage is luxuriously high. Housing cost is everything, and now they are introducing this new way to get anally raped, mandatory insurance like health insurance, at first 10% income, then 20%, then, eventually, like 90% of your income, because how much is your health worth to you? Everything, infinite! It's like charging you for air, and asking how much is air worth to you? Everything, infinite! But I'm gettin it for free these days, till Da Man can figure out a way to make me pay for it, so I drive by this place called Air Products, showcasing air as private property, and they want me to go back to a job where I get gassed with research chemical warfare gases, and the obvious answer to it is "Scuba Steve", i.e. get a scuba diving gear, with a gas cylinder, and pay for the air you breathe. I have yet to pay for the air I breathe, but soon, soon, Da Man is working hard at it. I used to have windows open 24/7/365 til tenants moved out downstairs and landlord shut the heat off downstairs to cause a pipe freeze/burst, so I had to shut the windows and turn the heat on, and still had a pipeburst because you have to heat from below, heat rises, it doesn't go down, but I gotta keep my ass covered, so now I don't get fresh air at home like I used to, against the anesthetic gases that knock you right out when you type on Slashdot. Right now I happen to have a job with doors swung wide open and not much odor stuff that'd require a gas mask, but I get google search results/ads showing me CPAP, pressurized air supply for allergic people sleeping, and uber is constantly hiring, paying good money, just so I pay, once and for all, for the fucking air I breathe. It's soooo important to Da Man to accomplish this one thing, because of that sillybilly linuxbios post I made a long time ago on slashdot. Oh, and by the way, for the record, the opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect the opinions of whoever happens to be my employer at the time. And sometimes they are not my own opinions either, I just practice some good ol sarcasm. Or not. That's the fun part about sarcasm, you never know if it is.