A Chinese Startup May Have Cracked Solid-State Batteries (engadget.com)

hackingbear writes: According to Chinese media, Qing Tao Energy Development Co, a startup out of the technical Tsinghua University, has deployed a solid-state battery production line in Kunshan, East China. Reports claim the line has a capacity of 100MWh per year -- which is planned to increase to 700MWh by 2020 -- and that the company has achieved an energy density of more than 400Wh/kg, compared to new generation lithium-ion batteries that boast a capacity of around 250-300Wh/kg. Details beyond this are sparse. The headline news here, if accurate, would be that the company has managed to put solid-state batteries into high volume production, but it's not clear how Qing Tao Energy Development has achieved this, nor what price points are involved. Furthermore, while a capacity of 100MWh is not to be sneezed at, it still only equates to fewer than 2,000 long-range EVs per year. Nonetheless, the news demonstrates that progress is happening in the solid-state battery arena. We might not feasibly yet be at high volume production, but we're on our way.

Comments

easy how they do this

[iggymanz]

like with the quantum radar claim, it's B.S. to lure investors

Re:easy how they do this

[Rei]

It's not BS, but it is hype. The founder and CEO is this guy, who just recently published this paper on their tech. The cells reportedly lost 25% of their capacity in just 50 cycles. They also reported a "high" ionic conductivity of 3.15e-3 S cm-1, which is an order of magnitude less than traditional liquid electrolytes. They conducted their discharge tests at a mere 0,1C.

Re:easy how they do this

[Rei]

This would not be useful for electric cars, although mainly due to the cycle life issues (and presumably cost issues, but we can't know that yet). This would be most interested for various "specialty" applications - applications where power is drained only slowly (thus rendering the ionic conductivity issue moot as well as the cycle life issue). Perhaps remote sensors or the like. I'd think they'd also be quite desirable in military drones designed to circle over a given location for as long as possible. For applications like that, you don't need a huge number of cycles out of the batteries, and cell cost is not a limiting factor, but what you need above all is energy density.

For the mass market, though, it's more of an issue of how the tech (particularly cycle life and cost) evolves. Hopefully investors in this company realize that they're betting on where this tech might go rather than where it is as things stand.

Call me when I can test it myself.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen enough regular batteries from China, that claimed way higher energy densities than they really had. Let alone after a few usages. (Usually, batteries are supposed get better after being broken in, before getting worse.)

I also want to make sure they don't start to bulge and catch fire or something after a few months.

Then we can talk.

Questions

[unknown_user_name]

The article notes that information is sparse. Hopefully more will be released soon. The production rates and energy density are both significant. Cost, including the environmental manufacturing and disposal costs, the number of recharges, and safety requirements are all necessary considerations in bringing a battery to market.